waste in lending out hammers and anvil."

"Look!" said Teddy, taking off his ruby girdle and holding it out to
them. "You shall have this if you will let me try."

The dwarfs' eyes glittered, and they took the girdle and all crowded
around to look and handle it, for they had never seen such fine rubies
before, not even down in the middle of the earth; and at last they told
Teddy that they would lend him their hammers awhile in exchange for the
ruby girdle. "Though what can you do with them?" they said, "for look at
your hands; they are white and smooth, and not hairy and strong like
ours."

"Never you mind," said Teddy, "for sometimes white, smooth hands can do
the work that others can't," and he took one of their hammers in his
hand as he spoke.

"What will you have to work with?" they asked.

"Oh, anything at all," said Teddy, "if it is no more than an old nail,
so that it is something to begin with."

The dwarfs laughed, and picking up an old nail that was on the floor
they laid it upon the anvil.

Then Teddy raised the hammer, and the ruby of the ring he wore throbbed
and burned until his hand was hot, and his arm was so strong that the
hammer was like a feather in his grasp.

As he beat and turned the nail he sang, and it seemed to him that the