'Soft soap, my lad,' said the workman, 'and oil, and emery-powder.'
3. He rolled them all up in the canvas, tied string round the bundle,
and put it between the rollers of a thing that looked like a mangle.
4. Dora and Harry opened their eyes wide. 'Think of needles being
mangled! This will be something to tell mother!'
5. When the bundle was unrolled, they were afraid that the needles would
be broken. But they were all right, and they were taken out and washed
in warm soap-suds.
6. 'Now they must be clean!' said Dora.
'Not yet,' said the man; 'they have to be rolled up again with more
paste, and put between those rollers again, and again, and again. It
takes eight days to clean the best needles.
7. 'And it takes six days to clean the second-best,' said the man.
'Then even the second-best won't be done till Friday!' said Harry.
8. 'But we can go and see some needles that have been cleaned,' said his
uncle. 'Let us go up-stairs again.'
9. And they went up into a room where many girls were sitting at a long
table with heaps of bright needles before them. They were putting them
in order, side by side, heads all one way, points another.
Dora was sure that she could not pick them out so quickly.
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