Chapter 119
Two MaidensHAVE you ever seen a maiden? I mean what our pavers call a
maiden, a thing with which they ram down the paving-stones in the
roads. A maiden of this kind is made altogether of wood, broad
below, and girt round with iron rings. At the top she is narrow,
and has a stick passed across through her waist, and this stick
forms the arms of the maiden.
In the shed stood two Maidens of this kind. They had their
place among shovels, hand-carts, wheelbarrows, and measuring-tapes;
and to all this company the news had come that the Maidens were no
longer to be called "maidens," but "hand-rammers," which word was
the newest and the only correct designation among the pavers for
the thing we all know from the old times by the name of "the
maiden."
Now, there are among
