United States or Seychelles ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
But nothing can take from Polperro the loveliness of its position at the mouth of this seaward gorge, the beauty of the hills that surround it, the deep, restful blue of its seas. There are three piers protecting its safe little harbour, but even these are hardly enough in times of tempest, and heavy baulks of wood are let down into grooves, further to break the force of the waves.
There are a few red-brick walls, some frames of wood from which the plaster has been blown, some gardens gone wild, fruit trees unpruned and more or less ragged from fire, and an air of desecration and desertion. In some of the ruins there are signs of use. The lower windows are filled with sandbags, the lower stories are strengthened with girders and baulks.
"I'm jolly enough here, to be sure, because I can't help it somehow; but at home I'm the most miserable devil on the face of the earth. My father baulks me in everything, and makes me turn hypocrite, and take him in, in all sorts of ways which I hate myself for doing; and yet can't help doing, because he forces me to it. Why does he want to make me live in the same slow way that he does himself?
As the last of the timber comes down, the guards by the rapids join them, one after another. "Where'll it be?" "Down below somewhere, must be. If only it's not the Whirlstone again." "Ay, if it's that.... 'Tis no light work to get loose there in the daytime, let alone by night." The Whirlstone Rock it was; the baulks had gathered about it in an inextricable mass.
The axe-head flashed in the air, the echo of the stroke rang from the steep banks. A second blow, and a third and then dead silence for a moment. The men on the shore stood bending forward, straining their eyes to see. The shadow by the rock stood up, grasping his pole, thrust the point lightly into one of the tangled baulks, and pressed with his left hand against the haft.
It is many years since old Jackson made one, but if it is doubted that he was an artist, there is a shop near where he once lived which still displays three of his images, the size of life, reputed to have been conjured from baulks of timber with an ax. I remember Jackson.
The commencement of the journey from the farm of disembarkation lay along what is known as corduroy boards. These are short, rough, wooden planks, nailed crossways on long baulks of timber. This kind of path is a very popular one at the front, and has proved an immense aid in saving the British army from being swallowed up in the mud.
He had spent most of his life in thus waiting and watching the nefarious schemes of unscrupulous men. The heat was overpowering. It was almost an effort to breathe, let alone move about. The men lolled, propped against the baulks of timber supporting the veranda roof, stretched out on benches, or crouching on the raised edge of the wooden flooring.
"How's the epic going?" said I. "I've only done four lines." "Let's have them." "The beetling beetle-crushing baulks of boots Crashed on their thunderous way, while men-at-arms, Who knew no fear, shuddered and crossed themselves, And little children whimpered with a fright Too fierce for tears." "Very good," said I. "Now you shall have mine.
And what'd you say to a house with two rooms in?" "Two rooms? Oh ...! Why, 'twould be just like other folks. Do you think we could?" They did. Isak he went about building, notching his baulks and fitting up his framework; also he managed a hearth and fireplace of picked stones, though this last was troublesome, and Isak himself was not always pleased with his work.
Word Of The Day