[Illustration]

5. Harry and Dora were glad to see this. Each bit of wire looked like a
needle now. It had a head of its own, and an eye, and a point.

6. The next thing was to make the needles hard. Dora and Harry thought
they looked quite hard already, but they did not know.

7. How were they hardened? They were first laid on iron plates and put
into a kind of oven.

'This is the second baking they have had,' said Harry.

They were kept in till they were white-hot.

8. When the needles came out, they were put into cold water! What a
hissing and steaming they made! But they had to lie there till they were
quite cool.

9. Then they were taken out and dried. The man said they were hard
enough now, but something else must be done to them to make them able to
bend well without breaking.

10. They were put on an iron plate over a fire, and gently moved about.
Some of them curled up, and had to be taken off.

11. They were given to a woman, who was sitting on a bench with a little
hammer in her hand and a small steel block in front of her. She laid a
curly needle on the block, and hammered it till it was straight, and
then another, and another.