18 HOME AND GARDEN 



How I enjoyed seeing the whole operation of the 

 building from its very beginning ! I could watch 

 any clever workman for hours. Even the shovelling 

 and shaping of ground is pleasant to see, but when 

 it comes to a craftsman of long experience using 

 the tool that seems to have become a part of him- 

 self, the attraction is so great that I can hardly tear 

 myself away. What a treat it was to see the fore- 

 man building a bit of wall ! He was the head man 

 on the job, a bricklayer by trade, but apparently the 

 master of all tools. How good it was to see him at 

 work, to observe the absolute precision, the perfect 

 command of the tool and material ; to see the ease of 

 it, the smiling face, the rapid, almost dancing move- 

 ments, the exuberant though wholly unaffected mani- 

 festation of ready activity ; the little graceful orna- 

 ments of action in half-unconscious flourishes of the 

 trowel, delicate fiorituri of consummate dexterity, 

 and all looking so pleasantly easy that the movements 

 seemed less like those of a man plying his trade than 

 such as one sees in a strong young creature frisking 

 for very pleasure of glad life. 



I was living in a tiny cottage on the same ground, 

 only eighty yards away from the work. How well I got 

 to know all the sounds ! The chop and rush of the 

 trowel taking up its load of mortar from the board, 

 the dull slither as the moist mass was laid as a bed for 

 the next brick in the course ; the ringing music of the 

 soft-tempered blade cutting a well-burnt brick, the 



