Linking Loops

I found a shallow porcelain dish filled with colorful coated paperclips resting beside an open notebook. Instead of letting them sit in a jumble, I picked up a mint-green clip and brought a pale yellow one close beside it. Slipping the slender wire curve of the first into the folded loop of the second took steady, patient nudging, but with a quiet click, they joined together. One by one, I hooked four more links into the line. The flexible chain wiggled across the leather desk blotter like a tiny fence, holding firm each time I tugged the ends.