122 WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



an apprentice, and which have been handed down these 

 hundred years and more. The builders of the Chinese 

 junks are said never to saw a piece of timber into the 

 shape required, nor to bend it by softening the fibres 

 by hot steam, but always use a beam that has grown 

 crooked naturally. This plan gives great strength, 

 but it must take years to accumulate the necessary 

 curved trees. The wagon-builder, in like manner, has 

 a whole yardful of timber selected for much the same 

 reason because it naturally curves in the way he 

 desires, or is specially fitted for his purpose. 



For, like a ship, the true old-fashioned wagon is full 

 of curves, and there is scarcely a straight piece of 

 wood about it. Nothing is angular or square ; and 

 each piece of timber, too, is carved in some degree, 

 bevelled at the edges, the sharp outline relieved in one 

 way or another, and the whole structure like a ship, 

 seeming buoyant, and floating, as it were, easily on 

 the wheels. Then the painting takes several weeks, 

 and after that the lettering of the name ; and when 

 at last completed, it is placed outside by the road, 

 that every farmer and labourer who goes by may 

 pause and admire. In about twelve months, if the 

 builder be expeditious (for him), the new vessel may 

 reach her port under the open shed at the farm, and 

 then her life of voyages begins. 



Her cargoes are hay and wheat and huge moun- 

 tainous loads of straw, and occasionally hurdles for 

 the shepherd. Nor are her voyages confined to the 

 narrow seas of the fields adjoining home ; now and 



