Building the Waggon. 115 
are continuously swearing at the horse that works it, 
to make him go round the faster. 
After an old cart or waggon has done its work 
and is broken up, the wooden axletree, which is very 
solid, is frequently used for the top bar of a stile. It 
answers very well, and, being of seasoned wood that 
has received a good many coats of red paint, will last 
along time. The life of a waggon is not unlike that 
of a ship. On the cradle it is the pride of the crafts- 
man who builds it, and who is careful to reproduce 
the exact ‘lines’ which he learned from his master-as 
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 waggon-builder, in like 
manner, has a whole yardfull 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 waggon 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 
12 
