Page:Leaves of Grass (1860).djvu/137

Rh The echoes resounding through the vacant building; The huge store-house carried up in the city, well
 * under way,

The six framing-men, two in the middle and two at
 * each end, carefully bearing on their shoulders a
 * heavy stick for a cross-beam,

The crowded line of masons with trowels in their
 * right hands, rapidly laying the long side-wall,
 * two hundred feet from front to rear,

The flexible rise and fall of backs, the continual click
 * of the trowels striking the bricks,

The bricks, one after another, each laid so workmanlike
 * in its place, and set with a knock of the
 * trowel-handle,

The piles of materials, the mortar on the mortarboards,
 * and the steady replenishing by the hod-men;

Spar-makers in the spar-yard, the swarming row of
 * well-grown apprentices,

The swing of their axes on the square-hewed log,
 * shaping it toward the shape of a mast,

The brisk short crackle of the steel driven slantingly
 * into the pine,

The butter-colored chips flying off in great flakes and
 * slivers,

The limber motion of brawny young arms and hips
 * in easy costumes;

The constructor of wharves, bridges, piers, bulk-heads,
 * floats, stays against the sea;

The city fireman—the fire that suddenly bursts forth
 * in the close-packed square,

The arriving engines, the hoarse shouts, the nimble
 * stepping and daring,