IO 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



THE BUILDING OF THE BARN 



The hoarse drone of the saw grows lower and lower, until the 

 end of each board drops, splintered at the corner, on to 

 the floor. 



At the end of the barn we.see the masons at work near the top of 

 the narrowing wall, on a scaffold raised inside the 

 building. 



They stand in relief against the sky, like a frieze. 



A cart, laden with rough stone, is backed up beneath them, and 

 the teamster, standing on the load, lifts a stone with 

 difficulty, and hands it up to two of the masons. 



A workman brings mortar and cement by the hodful up an 

 inclined plane. 



There are two other masons engaged in laying stone: 



One is a good-looking youngster just free from his apprentice- 

 ship, and evidently proud of his craft; 



His cap is jauntily tipped over his curly hair, and he has stuck 

 a geranium in the buttonhole of his waistcoat; 



He looks as if he were thinking of the village girls, but not 

 enough to interfere with his work, and he taps his trowel 

 against the stone, harder and more frequently than is 

 necessary, as he slashes the mortar into the crevices. 



The master mason is setting a large stone at the corner, aligning 

 it with the cord stretched along the wall above it, with 

 blows from the handle of his tool; while he bends over 

 and looks down the precipice outside, and then scrapes 

 off the oozy, bulging line of mortar and deposits it on top 

 of the stone, the back of his head nearly touching the 

 eaves. 



We must go outside to watch the slaters on the roof. 



There are three of them up there, with their tools playing their 

 own kind of music on the thin slate. 



The little grey-bearded Scotchman moves up and down, sitting 

 and kneeling, from gutter to ridge, like a kobold. 



