Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/45

Rh are broken off. A skillful workman may make a thousand in a day.

So much for the &quot;Americana.&quot; Dr. Jacob Bigelow in his &quot;Technology&quot; says, &quot;Gunflints are formed by a skillful workman, who breaks them out with a hammer, a roller, and steel chisel, with small, repeated strokes.&quot;

Your ornithological commission shall be executed. When are you coming home?

Your affectionate brother,

1em

—Your box of relics came safe to hand, but was speedily deposited on the carpet, I assure you. What could it be? Some declared it must be Taunton herrings: &quot;Just nose it, sir!&quot; So down we went onto our knees, and commenced smelling in good earnest,—now horizontally from this corner to that, now perpendicularly from the carpet up, now diagonally,—and finally with a sweeping movement describing the circumference. But it availed not. Taunton herring would not be smelled. So we e'en proceeded to open it vi et chisel. What an array of nails! Four nails make a quarter, four quarters a yard,—i' faith, this isn't cloth measure! Blaze away, old boy!