It does workmen good to hear a genuine, hearty laugh from their master. Even the stone-masons, who were straining every nerve to lift a large stone into its place, looked up with a smile, as Mr. Curtis' "ha! ha! ha!" echoed from the hill.
The gentleman walked along the edge of the bank leading Winnie, while Bertie, more cautious, kept at a respectful distance from the precipice. They came at last to the bulkhead where the road had been made to the cellar, and the gentleman, after a glance at Winnie's thin slippers laced so nicely over the ankles, lifted the child again and walked down where the masons were at work.
"May I go too, papa?" asked Bertie.
"Certainly. Come, and I'll ask the workmen to show you how to make a stone wall."
"And will you please tell me what a bulkhead is?"
"Do you remember the door where Mr. Taylor rolled down a barrel of ice into his cellar this morning?"
"Yes, sir. I didn't know there was any door there. Winnie and I used to sit on those boards and eat our lunch."
"Well, that is called a bulkhead. I don't know why that name should be used, for the real meaning of the word is a partition in a ship which makes separate apartments. Perhaps it is so called, because articles of considerable bulk are put down through it, and stored in the cellar. When the stonelayer comes to that part of the cellar, you will see how he builds up a place each side of that road; and then the carpenter will make doors to fit down upon it. When we want to put coal or wood, or anything heavy into the house, instead of carrying them through the carpeted halls and down the nice stairs, we only have to open the trap-doors and carry them down the steps, or put on a plank board and roll them down, as farmer Taylor does."
Bertie now was standing near the stone-masons and watched closely every movement. One man was preparing a place for a large stone, while the other was chipping off the front edge with a sharp instrument called a cold chisel.