"Yes," said Nathan. "And you won't do so any more, will you, Nathan?" "No," said Nathan, "I won't do so any more." Whether Nathan was really sorry for what he had done, or whether he only said so because Rollo was going to make him a beetle, is very doubtful; though it is not impossible that he was a little sorry. Rollo went down into the shed again with Nathan; and while he was at work making the new beetle and wedge, he let Nathan use his. The first piece of board had been split up; so he laid another one before Nathan, and gave him his beetle and wedges and knife, and then went away out to the barn to get some more wood for wedges, and an auger. When he came back, he found Nathan standing at the shed door, with the little beetle in his hand, waiting for him. As Nathan saw Rollo coming, he called to him, saying, "Come, Rollo, come and help me; the board won't split." "What is the matter with it?" said Rollo. "I don't know," said Nathan, "only it won't split." So Rollo went in to see. He found that Nathan had gone to work wrong. Instead of trying to drive the wedge into the _end_ of the board, so as to split it _along_ the grain, he had made the cleft with the knife in the side of the board, and was attempting to drive it in there, as if he supposed he could split the board _across_ the grain. "Why, Nathan," said Rollo, "that isn't right. You can't split it across." Then he put the wedge into the end, where it ought to be put, and set Nathan to driving it. _Now_ it began to split at once; though Nathan could not see why the board should not split one way as well as the other. Rollo himself did not understand it very well. Nathan asked him why it would not split the other way, and he said that that was _across_ the grain. But when Nathan asked him what he meant by _grain_, he could not tell. He took up the wood and examined it, and observed little lines and ridges, running along in the direction in which it would split; but at the ends of the board, where it had been sawed across the grain, it was rough. He determined to ask Jonas about it, or his father. He then went to work, and made the wedges and a little beetle for Nathan. He made Nathan's beetle smaller than his own, because Nathan was not strong enough to strike hard with such a heavy beetle. He did not get it done in season to use that day; but, the next day, he and Nathan sat down upon the shed floor, and spent an hour in splitting up the boards. They split them all up into good, fine kindling wood. Then they piled the pieces up in a neat pile, and then brought Dorothy out to see them. Dorothy seemed very much pleased, and promised the boys that, the next time she baked pies, she would kindle the fire in the oven with their kindling wood, and then she would bake them each a little apple turnover. * * * * * That evening, just before Rollo went to bed, he asked Jonas if he could tell him why boards would only split _along_ the grain.