Farmers Can, Generally, Do
Most Of The Wood Work Which They Want Themselves.
They can make their
rakes, and drags, and cart-bodies, and sleds, and tool handles; but
when they want iron work, they must go to the blacksmith's. They can
make a harrow-frame, but the blacksmith must make the teeth."
"Now I should think," said Marco, "that it would be easier to make the
teeth than the frame."
"Perhaps it is as easy, if one has the forge and tools," replied
Forester; "but the tools and fixtures, necessary for blacksmith's
work, are much more expensive than those required for ordinary wood
work. There must be a forge built on purpose, and an anvil, supported
on a solid foundation, and various tools. All these are necessary for
shoeing a single horse, and when they are all procured, they will
answer for all the horses of the neighborhood. Thus it happens, that
though farmers do a great deal of their wood work themselves, at their
own farms, in cold and stormy weather, they generally have their iron
work done at a blacksmith's at some central place, where it is easy
and convenient for all of them to go."
The above conversation took place between Marco and Forester, as they
were walking along together through the village, toward the part of
the town where the mills were situated. Just at this moment, Marco
happened to cast his eyes across the street a short distance before
them, and he saw a fire on the ground in a little yard. He asked
Forester what that fire could be. As soon as Forester saw the fire, he
exclaimed,
"Ah! they are putting a tire upon a wheel; that's quite fortunate;
we'll go across and see them."
So they left the path under the trees where they had been walking, and
went obliquely across the street toward the fire. Marco saw that
there was a large blacksmith's shop there. It was a very neat-looking
building, painted red. There was a large door in the front, and a very
low window, with a shutter hanging over it, by the side of the door.
In an open yard, by the side of the shop, was the fire. The fire was
in the form of a ring. There were several men standing about it; one
of them, whom Marco supposed was the blacksmith, by his leather apron,
was putting on small sticks of wood and chips, here and there, around
the ring. Marco saw that there was a large iron hoop, as he called it,
on the fire. It was not really a hoop, it was a _tire_. It was
made of a much larger and thicker bar of iron, than those which are
used for hoops. It was a tire belonging to a wheel. The wheel was
lying upon the ground near, ready to receive the tire. It was the hind
wheel of a wagon. The wagon itself was standing in front of the shop,
with one end of the hind axletree supported by a block.
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