"Yes," said Stuyvesant, "I know they do, but I can't make rounds very well. And besides if I could, I could not make the holes in the side-pieces to put them into. So I am going to make them square, and nail them right on." "Hoh!" said Phonny, "that is no way to make a ladder. You can bore the holes easily enough. Here. I'll show you how. I've got an auger." So saying, Phonny jumped down from the bench and went and climbed up upon the chopping-block to get down an auger. Phonny had two augers, and they both hung over the block. He took down one and began very eagerly to bore a hole into the side of the chopping-block. He bored in a little way, and then, in attempting to draw the auger out, to clear the hole of chips, the handle came off, leaving the auger itself fast in the hole. "Ah! this auger is broken," said Phonny, "I forgot that. I could bore a hole if the auger was not broken." "Never mind," said Stuyvesant, "I don't think I could make a ladder very well in that way, and don't like to undertake any thing that I can't accomplish. So I will make it my way." Stuyvesant went out to the hen-house, and measured the height of the loft. He found it to be seven feet. He concluded to have his ladder eight feet long, and to have six cross-bars, one foot apart, the upper and lower cross-bars to be one foot from the ends of the ladder. The cross-bars themselves being about two inches wide each, the breadth of the whole six would be just one foot. This Stuyvesant calculated would make just the eight feet. Stuyvesant then went back to the shop. He found that the pieces which he had chosen for the sides of the ladder were just about eight feet long. Phonny came to him while he was measuring, to see what he was going to do. "How wide are you going to have your ladder?" said he. "I don't know," said Stuyvesant. "I am going to have it as wide as I can." So saying, Stuyvesant took down the piece which he had intended for the cross-bars. "I am going to divide this into six equal parts," said he, "because I must have six bars." So Stuyvesant began to measure. The piece of wood, he found, was eight feet long,--the same as the side pieces of the ladder. "And now, how are you going to divide it?" said Phonny. "Why, eight feet," said Stuyvesant, "make ninety-six inches. I must divide that by six." So he took a pencil from his pocket and wrote down the figures 96 upon a board; he divided the number by 6. "It will go 16 times," said he. "I can have 16 inches for each cross bar." Stuyvesant then measured off sixteen inches, and made a mark, then he measured off sixteen inches more, and made another mark. In the same manner, he proceeded until he had divided the whole piece into portions of sixteen inches each. He then took a saw and sawed the piece off at every place where he had marked. "There," said he, "there are my cross-bars!" "What good cross-bars," said Phonny. "That was an excellent way to make them." CHAPTER VIII. A DISCOVERY.