Can avail themselves of the opportunity, to get their horses
shod, or to get new tires to their wheels, when they are broken."
"Tires?" repeated Marco. "What are tires?"
"They are the iron rims around wheels. Every wheel must have an iron
band about it, very tight, to strengthen it and to hold it firmly
together. Without a tire, a wheel would very soon come to pieces, in
rattling over a stony road.
"Besides," continued Forester, "there is a great deal of other iron
work, which the farmers must have done. 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.
