THE BRICKLAYER

I. The Fallen Chimney

All day long the rain came pouring down. By night the wind rose with a shriek¹ and a roar, banging unfastened shutters² and rattling³ windows in their casings.

“Oh, dear, what an awful night!” exclaimed Ruth. “How glad I am that Fluffy⁴ is safe indoors!” and she stroked the little cat lying on a cushion on the sewing machine.

“And how glad I am that Harry⁵ Teelow found that lost puppy to-day,” said Wallace.

“Pretty bad, isn’t it?” Mr. Duwell said, looking up from his paper. “I don’t suppose the bricklayer came to mend the chimney to-day. He couldn’t have worked in such a storm.”

“No, he did not come,” replied Mrs. Duwell with a troubled look. “Do you suppose there is any danger of its tumbling down?”

“Well, I can’t say,” replied Mr. Duwell, shaking his head doubtfully. “I wish I had stopped to see Mr. Bricklayer a week ago when I first discovered how loose the bricks were, instead of waiting until—”

But he did not finish the sentence, for bang! even above the terrific noise of the storm[169] came the sound of falling bricks and broken glass.

The family rushed into the little kitchen, which was built on the end of the house.

What a sight met their eyes!

Water was pouring through a hole in the ceiling where the roof had given way. Rain splashed in great gusty⁷ dashes through the window where the bricks had broken through.

Already there was a little lake on the floor.

Ruth was the first to speak. “If it keeps on,” she said, half laughing and half crying, “it will be quite deep enough for Alice and the mouse and the Dodo to swim in!” She was thinking of Alice in Wonderland, you know.

That made everybody laugh, and all began to work. They placed tubs and pails where they would catch the water, and stuffed old cloths into the broken window panes⁸.

It was fully⁶ an hour before the family were settled down again in the living room.

“Well, children, you can now understand the saying, ‘Never put off till to-morrow what should be done to-day,’” remarked Mr. Duwell.

“It is a lesson none of us will soon forget,” added Mrs. Duwell.

[170]
whole in roof; messon floor; family in shock

[171]
brick layer next to box of photographs
This picture shows a clay pit, a kiln⁹, brickmakers, brick roadway, culvert, chimney, bridge, men laying bricks.

[172]

“Could you and I have mended the broken chimney, father?” asked Wallace.

“Not very well, my boy,” replied Mr. Duwell. “‘Every man to his trade,’ you know. By the way, I hope Mr. Bricklayer will be here before you children start to school in the morning. Run to bed now so that you can be up early to see him begin his work.”
II. The Bricklayer

The next day dawned bright and sunny, with only a merry little breeze to remind one of yesterday’s storm.

The bricklayer did not come before the children started to school in the morning, but just after lunch. They had only time to watch him and his helper climb to the roof.

“I am going to get home from school early,” said Wallace; “maybe they will not be through by that time.”

“I am, too,” Ruth chimed in. “I wonder what bricks are,” she added.

“Bricks? Why, don’t you know?” asked Wallace. “Our manual training teacher told us that bricks are a sort of imitation stone made of moistened clay and sand mixed together, and shaped as we see them. They are baked in an[173] oven-like place, called a kiln, or dried in the sun.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that. I wonder who first thought of making them. They are something like sun-baked mud-pies,” said Ruth.

“Our teacher said that bricks three thousand years old have been found in Egypt, some with writing on them.”

“Oh, I remember that the Bible tells about bricks. Why, Wallace, men must have been bricklayers for thousands of years!”

“It is lucky for us they haven’t forgotten how to make them, for what could we do without a chimney?” said Wallace. “Hello, there is Harry! I want to see him about the ball game;” and away he ran.
III. After School

Wallace brought Harry, and Ruth brought Mildred Maydole home after school to watch the bricklayer work.

“Why, how straight and true the bricks must be!” exclaimed Harry. “A bricklayer has to be very careful, doesn’t he?”

“Indeed he does,” replied Wallace. “Do you know what the mortar¹⁰ is made of?”

“Yes; I think I do. It is lime and sand and—something[174] else,” Harry said. That made them all laugh.

“I think the most wonderful brick work I ever saw,” said Mildred, “was in the arch of a big sewer¹¹. I couldn’t tell why the bricks didn’t all fall down. My father said the mortar held them.”

“Why, if it weren’t for bricklayers, and cement workers, and stone masons, we should be without lots of things!” exclaimed Harry. “Just imagine it, if you can.”

“That’s so,” said Wallace. “Let’s count what we know of that they build for us—sewers, bridge piers,—go on, Mildred.”

“Pavements,” added Mildred.

“Houses and chimneys,” said Ruth.

“Foundations for houses,” said Harry.

“Here comes father!” cried Ruth suddenly; and all the children ran to meet him.

“We’ve been talking about how it would be if there were no bricklayers, or stone masons, or cement workers, father,” said Wallace.

“I’m glad to hear that,” said Mr. Duwell. “I was thinking very much the same thing as I walked home so soon after such a heavy rain without getting my feet wet.

[175]

“I remember what Benjamin Franklin wrote,” he went on, “about the streets of Philadelphia in his day. He said the mud after a storm was so deep that it came above the people’s shoe-tops. It was Benjamin Franklin himself who first talked of paving the streets.”

“I’m glad they aren’t as bad as they were in Benjamin Franklin’s time,” said Mildred.
QUESTIONS

Have you ever watched a bricklayer working?

What was he doing?

Could you have done it?

Where do you suppose he got his bricks?

Have you ever seen bricks being made?

Are bricklayers, cement workers, and stone masons more needed in the city or in the country? Why?
Do you know how our city grew,
Its lofty buildings raising?
Its pavements, parks, and bridges, too—
Whose labors¹² are they praising?
Just the workmen who every day
Did their work in the very best way.

1 shriek   

v./n.尖叫，叫喊

参考例句：

• Suddenly he began to shriek loudly.突然他开始大声尖叫起来。
• People sometimes shriek because of terror,anger,or pain.人们有时会因为恐惧，气愤或疼痛而尖叫。

2 shutters   

百叶窗( shutter的名词复数 )； （照相机的）快门

参考例句：

• The shop-front is fitted with rolling shutters. 那商店的店门装有卷门。
• The shutters thumped the wall in the wind. 在风中百叶窗砰砰地碰在墙上。

3 rattling   

adj. 格格作响的, 活泼的, 很好的 adv. 极其, 很, 非常 动词rattle的现在分词

参考例句：

• This book is a rattling good read. 这是一本非常好的读物。
• At that same instant,a deafening explosion set the windows rattling. 正在这时，一声震耳欲聋的爆炸突然袭来，把窗玻璃震得当当地响。

4 fluffy   

adj.有绒毛的，空洞的

参考例句：

• Newly hatched chicks are like fluffy balls.刚孵出的小鸡像绒毛球。
• The steamed bread is very fluffy.馒头很暄。

5 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

6 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

7 gusty   

adj.起大风的

参考例句：

• Weather forecasts predict more hot weather,gusty winds and lightning strikes.天气预报预测高温、大风和雷电天气将继续。
• Why was Candlestick Park so windy and gusty? 埃德尔斯蒂克公园里为什么会有那么多的强劲阵风？

8 panes   

窗玻璃( pane的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sun caught the panes and flashed back at him. 阳光照到窗玻璃上，又反射到他身上。
• The window-panes are dim with steam. 玻璃窗上蒙上了一层蒸汽。

9 kiln   

n.（砖、石灰等）窑，炉；v.烧窑

参考例句：

• That morning we fired our first kiln of charcoal.那天上午，我们烧了我们的第一窑木炭。
• Bricks are baked in a kiln.砖是在窑里烧成的。

10 mortar   

n.灰浆，灰泥；迫击炮；v.把…用灰浆涂接合

参考例句：

• The mason flushed the joint with mortar.泥工用灰浆把接缝处嵌平。
• The sound of mortar fire seemed to be closing in.迫击炮的吼声似乎正在逼近。

11 sewer   

n.排水沟，下水道

参考例句：

• They are tearing up the street to repair a sewer. 他们正挖开马路修下水道。
• The boy kicked a stone into the sewer. 那个男孩把一石子踢进了下水道。

12 labors   

v.努力争取(for)( labor的第三人称单数 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转

参考例句：

• He was tiresome in contending for the value of his own labors. 他老为他自己劳动的价值而争强斗胜，令人生厌。 来自辞典例句
• Farm labors used to hire themselves out for the summer. 农业劳动者夏季常去当雇工。 来自辞典例句