Next he contrived a way, with a piece of string, for keeping the door shut, and as that would not hold it close enough, hung a shawl over it to keep the draught out--all which proceeding Willie watched.

As soon as he had finished, and the nurse had closed the door behind them, Mr Macmichael set out to take the lock to the smithy, and allowed Willie to go with him.

By the time they reached it, the snow was an inch deep on their shoulders, on Willie's cap, and on his father's hat.

How red the glow of the smith's fire looked! It was a great black cavern with a red heart to it in the midst of whiteness.
The smith was a great powerful man, with bare arms, and blackened face.
When they entered, he and two other men were making the axle of a wheel.
They had a great lump of red-hot iron on the anvil, and were knocking a big hole through it--not boring it, but knocking it through with a big punch.

One of the men, with a pair of tongs-like pincers, held the punch steady in the hole, while the other two struck the head of it with alternate blows of mighty hammers called sledges, each of which it took the strength of two brawny arms to heave high above the head with a great round swing over the shoulder, that it might come down with right good force, and drive the punch through the glowing iron, which was, I should judge, four inches thick.