some time before whether he could not make her a rocking horse as perhaps my readers will recollect and they may also recollect that he replied that he might possibly make the but he did not think that he could make any horse it finally occurred to john that he might set a box upon a pair of and call it john at s work in a rocking boat and this was the plan that he finally carried into execution he resorted to quite an ingenious contrivance for drawing the curve to which the were to be cut he first chose a board of about a foot in width to make the of and off two firom it each four feet long he laid down one of these boards upon the floor and then going off to a distance of three or four feet exactly opposite to the middle of it he drove a small nail into the floor as the floor was a rough one such as is generally used in sheds and out buildings this did no damage he then took a long and making a in one end of it he slipped the over the nail and then going with the other end to the board he drew it tight to the farther edge of the board here he wound the around the pencil thus the kept the pencil always at the same distance from the nail and by moving the point of the pencil to the right and left along the board he described the arc of a circle upon it fi om the nail as a centre he then this board in his vice and a with the he cut away the wood on the lower edge of it to this mark and so gave to the edge of the board the form of a when this board was finished he used it as a pattern to make the other by and so he had a pair of he then nailed two narrow boards across from one of these to the other on the r edge of them and another broader one in the middle setting the broad one up so as to brace the apart as it were and hold them stiff in their proper position this made what might be called a rocking � and though of course there was no convenient place to sit upon it could not wait to have the top made and put on but seemed to have a great desire to get upon the frame and rock himself upon it to and fro notwithstanding the extremely uncomfortable position he must have been in in due time however john made a sort box with pretty high ends and low sides for convenience of getting in and two seats on the inside one at each end john s work in summer this he fastened upon the rocking frame so as to make what he called a rocking boat and used to get into this boat and rock themselves a great deal they thought it was the best thing that john ever made the box of this rocking boat was made to extend over the on each side nearly eight inches this was a plan which suggested in order that the rocks being thus well under the box and out of the way the children could not get their toes under them when standing near john was so careful about his work and his tools that he very seldom met with any accident in any of his operations one accident nevertheless during the building of the rocking boat which however very fortunately led to no serious consequences it seems that after he had drawn his circular arc upon the board by means of the nail in the floor and the he forgot to draw out the nail after he had done using it and in running about there afterward tripped over it and tumbled down he was somewhat hurt and quite a more frightened and he made at first a loud john however soon in him and then drew out the nail besides these john made several other things in the course of this summer but there is not room to describe them a l here u john oat b wore in summer chapter ship although it is generally a fine thing when working with carpenter s tools to take a great deal of pains and do everything ia the most perfect manner so that what you make shall have a real and lasting value still sometimes when you are at only some temporary purpose a great deal of pleasure may be afforded by m of work very hastily and slightly done an illustration of this occurred one day in the case of a fleet of vessels which john made for and which he and sent to sea on long voyages from which they never returned toward the end of the summer � i believe it was in the very last week of august � john and were sitting one day together upon a seat in the garden when they heard a sound as of distant thunder they looked toward the west and then they saw a range of rounded ship building masses of rising up into the sky these clouds were of the kind the boys call thunder heads they were of a dark color in general though the upper of them were here and there of a silvery brightness which was by the rays of the sun reflected from them below they passed into a uniform expanse of cloud which was very dark indeed and which extended all along the western horizon it was from this lower expanse of gathering blackness that the sound of thunder appeared to come there said i hear it again yes said john we are going to have a thunder shower and i am glad of it � what for asked because then we 