A Carpenter's Workshop. 171 



lizard,' which is a much coarser-looking and larger 

 creature, and is not an inhabitant of this locality : at 

 all events it is rare enough to have escaped me here, 

 though I have often observed it in districts where the 

 soil is light and sandy and where there is a good deal 

 of heath-land. The land-lizards will stroll indoors if 

 the door be left open. These lesser but more elegant 

 lizards appear to prefer a damp spot cool and moist, 

 but not positively wet. 



A large shed built against the side of the adjacent 

 stable is used as a carpenter's workshop much car- 

 penter's work is done on a farm and here is a bench 

 with a vice and variety of tools. When sawing, the 

 wood operated on often ' ties ' the saw, as it is called 

 that is, pinches it which makes it hard to work ; 

 a thin wedge of wood is then inserted to open a way, 

 and the blade of the saw rubbed with a little grease, 

 which the metal, heated by the friction, melts into 

 oil. This eases the work a little grease, too, will 

 make a gimlet bore quicker. Country carpenters 

 keep this grease in a horn a cow's horn stopped at 

 the larger end with a piece of wood and at the other 

 by its own natural growth. Now the mice (which 

 are everywhere on farm premises) are so outrageously 

 fond of grease that' they will spend any length of 

 time gnaw-gnaw-gnawing till they do get at it. Right 

 through the solid stopper of wood they eat their way, 

 and even through the horn ; so that the carpenter is 

 puzzled to know how to preserve it out of their reach. 

 It is of no use putting it on a shelf, because they 

 either rush up the wall or drop from above. At last, 

 however, he has hit upon a dodge. 



He has suspended the horn high above the ground 



