Look
here."
"I see!" cried Willie; "there is a long bit of something else, not
thread, upon it. What is it? It looks like a hair, only thicker, and it
is so sharp at the point!"
"Can't you guess?"
"No; I can't."
"Then I will tell you. It is a bristle out of a hog's back. I don't know
what a shoemaker would do without them. Look, here's a little bunch of
them."
"That's a very clever use to put them to," said Willie.
"Do you go and pluck them out of the pigs?"
"No; we buy them at the shop. We want a good many, for they wear out.
They get too soft, and though they don't break right off, they double up
in places, so that they won't go through."
"How do you fasten them to the thread?"
"Look here," said Hector.
He took several strands of thread together, and drew them through and
through a piece of cobbler's wax, then took a bristle and put it in
at the end cunningly, in a way Willie couldn't quite follow; and then
rolled and rolled threads and all over and over between his hand and his
leather apron, till it seemed like a single dark-coloured cord.
"There, you see, is my needle and thread all in one."
"And what is the good of rubbing it so much with the cobbler's wax?"
"There are several good reasons for doing that.
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