Peter is fond of tools. He loves to saw and hammer, and to drive nails.
Oh, what a noise he makes! He has a room all to himself in the upper
part of the house, and here he spends most of his time on rainy days
when he is out of school.
It is handy to have such a boy as Peter around, for if a hinge gets
loose, or a piece of board is wanted, there is no need of sending for a
carpenter; Peter will attend to it just as well as the best.
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Nellie, Dotty, and Susy, bring him their dolls to mend, and sometimes he
has so much work of this sort to do that his work-shop looks like a
dolls’ hospital. He has a sign upon the wall—“Dolls mended”—and he tries
his best to do his work well, and to keep his tools bright.
Poor little Dotty was almost broken-hearted when Laura Matilda fell and
broke her arm; but Jessie said “Peter can mend it;” and Dotty took it to
Peter herself for she would not trust the dear doll out of her arms. She
has to sit patiently and wait her turn, just as sick people do in the
hospital, and is comforted by seeing other dolls worse off than poor
Laura Matilda. What if she had broken her neck? or smashed her head? O
that is too dreadful to think of.
Peter has an order for a bench, and after he has sawed the board the
right length, he will have to use the plane and make it nice and smooth,
and all this takes time. Dotty thinks he is very slow; but there are
some things that cannot be done fast, and “what is worth doing at all is
worth doing well.” Have patience, little Dotty!
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