“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 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 else,” Harry said. That made them all laugh.