You have seen the men at work mending the roads, and you know how
sometimes they spread little stones all over the road, and then roll
them flat with a steam-roller. But in some places the roads are laid
with stones as large as bricks, and when these have all been placed
together, the men take a large can with a spout, full of hot pitch, and
pour it into the spaces between the stones to fasten them together.
A little boy, named Martin, was watching the men do this one day, and he
said to himself, "I should like a piece of that black stuff; it has
cooled now, and looks like a black piece of dough; I could make all
sorts of shapes with it, and I do not believe it would soil my hands".
So he picked up a length that lay near him, rolled it into a ball, and
put it in his pocket. Some of the tar stuck to his hands, and when he
washed them it did not come off, but it was now school time, and away he
went. When he came out of school, he put his hand in his pocket to get
the tar, and oh, what a sticky mess it was! His pocket was all over tar,
so was his hand, and when he reached home, his mother set to work to get
it off, and it took her a long, long time.
Martin was mistaken in thinking he could play with the pitch and not get
soiled.