At Somersby-Taking Things Apart and Putting Them Back Together

[makesthings]

Somersby doesn't have that many good places to hide and most of the boys know them all by their last year.

After a few bribes and Nick using his charm, they convinced the groundskeeper to let them use a shed as long as nothing broke.

Over the few years that Nick and Sam have had access to it, its become a fairly serious workshop which at the moment is full of the sounds of metal as Sam waves something that was once a clock at Nick,

"It won't work if you do it like that."

Comments

[wordofa_sayre]

"Without getting stung again," he confirms.

A beat.

"Making comparisons, of course."

[makesthings]

"Its just paper and you know the stuff from here doesn't work in letters. As I've been telling you for years."

[wordofa_sayre]

Nick just looks at him.

"I know you've been telling me that. That's why I want to compare the two!"

[makesthings]

"The only difference is that mine's handmade not machine made and how are you going to compare them?"

[wordofa_sayre]

"I can tell that much," he informs Sam. "There's an unevenness to the sheets, did you know? It's a clear sign of nonstandard manufacture."

He grins.

"That'd be the first comparison."

[makesthings]

"What would be the second? Of course it is, it takes time to make it."

[wordofa_sayre]

"I'm still working on it, but I intend to measure weight, ink absorbency, all kinds of things," Nick tells him.

[makesthings]

"Then you don't need that many sheets. If you really wanted, I could show you what the letters you've sent me look like except that they're in pieces."

[wordofa_sayre]

Nick looks startled.

"You tore them up?"

[makesthings]

"No, they barely survive the journey. I always have to piece them back together to try and make sense of them."

[wordofa_sayre]

"That doesn't make any sense at all," he mutters. "Just another reason why I need to compare the paper types."

[makesthings]

"Its true though. I'll leave you a sheets if you promise to use them for writing to me."

[wordofa_sayre]

"Done," Nick says, promptly. "Word of a Sayre."

A beat, and a quick grin.

"But first, let's see about that bee."

[makesthings]

"Good and yes the bee."

The rest of the afternoon passes as many have with work done and experiments.