249

NINETEENTH EVENING.

 

ON METALS.—PANT I,

George and Harry, with their Tutor, one day in
their walk were driven by the rain to take shelter in a
blacksmith’s shed. The shower lasting some time, the
boys, in order to amuse themselves, began to examine
the things around them. The great bellows first
attracted their notice, and they admired the roaring it
made, and the expedition with which it raised the fire
to a heat too intense for them to look at. They were
surprised at the dexterity with which the smith
fashioned a bar of iron into a horse-shoe ; first heating
it, then hammering it well on the anvil, cutting offa
proper length, bending it round, turning up the ends,
and, lastly, punching the nail-holes. They watched
the whole process of fitting it to the horse’s foot, and
fastening 1b on; and it had become fair some ininutes
before they showed a desire to leave the shop and
proceed on their walk.

“7 could never have thought,” said George, beginning
the conversation, “ that such a hard thing as iron could
have been so easily managed.”

“ Nor J, neither,” said Harry.

Tut. It was managed, you saw, by the help of fire.
The fire made it soft and flexible, so that the smitk
could easily hammer it, and cut it, and bend it to the
shape he wanted ; and then dipping it in water, made
it hard again.

G. Are all other metals managed in the same
manner

7. They are all worked by the help of fire in some
way or other, either in melting them, or making them

soft.
G. There are many sorts of metals, are there not ?