The Three Penny Wrench, parts 3260 - 3263

3260. There was nothing to do but to sit down on the floor together and start putting the thing together.  They were the cheap screws that always catch and bind when they start them and the screw and the nut turn around together  so it can’t get tight.  You try to hold the nut with your fingers but it just goes around anyway and digs into your fingers. 

3261. Mrs. Sweet knew absolutely nothing about nuts and bolts. It was as if attaching nuts and screws to each other was a complete mystery to her but, as I said before, she was very childishly excitable, and she listened to me with strict attention as I  explained to her what to do.

3262. We had to each hold one of the supports with one hand.  Then I  would slip the screw through the slot, and she would catch it with the bolt on the other side.  We had to keep trying it over and over because you know how it is with those things, you think it is started, but it jams, and you have to back it out again.

 3263. I don’t think I  have ever seen a person so intensely interested in nuts and bolts as Mrs. Sweet. All I  could see was the top of her head, because she was looking down at her fingers, but when the frame started to pull together she looked up with a look on her face like a person who finds twenty dollars in the street, and has to look at it three times to believe it.