i. the fallen chimney
all day long the rain came pouring down. by night the wind rose with a shriek and a roar, banging unfastened shutters and rattling windows in their casings.
“oh, dear, what an awful night!” exclaimed ruth. “how glad i am that fluffy is safe indoors!” and she stroked the little cat lying on a cushion on the sewing machine.
“and how glad i am that harry 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 gusty 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 panes.
it was fully 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 kiln, 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 mortar 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 sewer. 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 labors are they praising?
just the workmen who every day
did their work in the very best way.
