CHAPTER XIII 



DECEMBEE 



The woodman at work — Tree-cutting in frosty weather — Preparing 

 sticks and stakes — Winter Jasmine — ^Fems in the wood-walk 

 — Winter colour of evergreen shrubs — Copse-cutting — Hoop- 

 making — Tools used — Sizes of hoops — Men camping out — 

 Thatching with hoop-chips — The old thatcher's bill. 



It is good to ■watch a clever ■woodman and see how 

 much he can do ■with his simple tools, and ho^w easily 

 one man alone can deal -with hea^vy pieces of timber. An 

 oak tnmk, two feet or more thick, and ■weighing perhaps 

 a ton, lies on the ground, the branches being already 

 cut off. He has to cleave it into four, and to remove it 

 to the side of a lane one hundred feet away. His tools 

 are an axe and one iron wedge. The first step is the 

 most difficult — to cut such a nick in the sawn surface 

 of the butt of the trunk as ■will enable the wedge to 

 stick in. He holds the wedge to the cut and hammers 

 it gently with the back of the axe till it just holds, 

 then he tries a moderate blow, and is quite prepared 

 for what is almost sure to happen — the wedge springs 

 out backwards; very likely it springs out for three 

 or four trials, but at last the wedge bites and he 

 can give it the dexterous, rightly-placed blows that 



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