After a good deal of effort we moulded about twenty-five thousand bricks, and put them into a
kiln to be burned.
In it the poet invokes Athena to protect certain potters and their craft, if they will, according to promise, give him a reward for his song; if they prove false, malignant gnomes are invoked to wreck the
kiln and hurt the potters.
It was another half-hour before I drew near to the
kiln. The lime was burning with a sluggish stifling smell, but the fires were made up and left, and no workmen were visible.
Young lady, if my master don't fall out with me, I'll look down by the
kiln by and by, where the boy will be most like, and again in the morning!" She hurried off, and presenfty we passed her hushing and singing to her child at her own door and looking anxiously along the road for her drunken husband.
In one corner various heaps of clay had been piled up, destined for tiles and pantiles, and a stack of brushwood and logs (fuel for the
kiln no doubt) lay in another part of the enclosure.
“And purchase the cargo of one of those ships that they say are going to China,” cried Elizabeth; “turn your pot ash-kettles into teacups, the scows on the lake into saucers, bake your cake in yonder lime-
kiln, and invite the county to a tea-party.
The refinement of cruelty rather; for now I had neither meat nor drink; my throat was a
kiln; my tongue a flame; and another day at hand.
On the forenoon of the second day, coming to the top of a hill, I saw all the country fall away before me down to the sea; and in the midst of this descent, on a long ridge, the city of Edinburgh smoking like a
kiln. There was a flag upon the castle, and ships moving or lying anchored in the firth; both of which, for as far away as they were, I could distinguish clearly; and both brought my country heart into my mouth.
'If you change your mind at any time,' returned Eugene, 'come to me at my works, and you'll always find an opening in the lime-
kiln.'
The fog was lighter here, and he could see the strange, bottle-shaped
kilns with their orange, fanlike tongues of fire.
The water would then have deposited mud, containing fragments of pottery from the
kilns, more abundant at some spots than at others, and shells from the sea.
An' I take the whole outfit an' start Wednesday of next week haulin' lumber for the buildin's, an' bricks for the
kilns, an' all the rest.