"A hammer and nails would hardly make a sled by themselves."
"Why, no. I wish I had a saw, too."
"I thought Santa Claus brought you all these tools last Christmas?"
suggested his father.
"He did; but I lost them," said Tommy.
"Did you ever hunt for them?"
"Some. I have hunted for the hammer."
"Well, suppose you hunt again. Look everywhere. If you find any I
might lend you the others. You might look in my lumber room." Tommy
ran off and soon returned with a hammer and some nails which he had
found, and a few minutes later his father brought a saw and a hatchet,
and they selected a good box, which Tommy could drag out, and put it
in the back hall.
"Now," said Tommy, "what shall we do next?"
"That is for you to say," said his father. "Johnny does not ask that
question. He thinks for himself."
"Well, we must knock this box to pieces," said Tommy.
"I think so, too," assented his father. "Very carefully, so as not to
split the boards."
"Yes, very carefully," said Tommy, and he began to hammer. The nails,
however, were in very tight and there was a strip of iron along each
of the edges, through which they were driven, so it was hard work; but
when Tommy really tried and could not get the boards off, his father
helped him, and soon the strips were off and the boards quickly
followed.
"Now what shall we do?" asked his father.
"Why, we must make the sled."
"Yes--but how?"
"Why, we must have runners and then the top to sit on. That's all."
"Very well. Go ahead," said his father. So Tommy picked up two boards
and looked at them. But they were square at the ends.
"We must make the runners," he said sadly.
"That's so," said his father.
"Will you saw them for me?" asked Tommy.
"Yes, if you will show me where to saw." Tommy pondered.
"Wait," he said, and he ran off, and in a moment came back with a
picture of a sled in a magazine. "Now make it this way," he said,
showing his father how he should saw the edges.
He was surprised to see how well his father could do this, and his
admiration for him increased as he found that he could handle the
tools quite as well as Peake, the farmer; and soon the sled began to
look like a real sled with runners, sawed true, and with cross-pieces
for the feet to rest on, and even with a strip of iron, taken from the
edges of the boxes, carefully nailed on the bottom of the runners.