Chapter 8 8.person who pretends to eat

There is a small road in front of the Anthony's house, and a little bit up is the workshop of the carpenter Eli Davis.Ellie was the best carpenter in Somerset, and the farmers and rich families in all the villages for miles around liked to have him work.No matter what he did, it was first class, whether it was putting new beams on the roof of an old church, or making a new gate for a field fence.You could tell Ellie made any fence gate anywhere, they were solid, handsome oak fence gates, and the posts and gates looked as if he It seems that I can't put it down for these woods, and in fact it is.The carpentry work in the mill, all the carpentry work in Anthony's father's house was done by him, and his workshop was also the first and most familiar place for Anthony outside his own home.He was a little old enough to go out on his own, and he waddled up the path to the workshop where Eli Davis was rolling up his sleeves planing wood.His arms were lumpy, his hands were thick, with short, square fingers, but the shavings he got out were as thin as gauze.Planed oak planks were as smooth as the surface of a mill pond.And like the sun-speckled surface of an unwrinkled pond, its beautifully level surface was wavy with wavy lines and satiny dots.If you look closely at the surface of the board, the piles of points and lines seem to float under your nose, just like you look at the points and lines in the water.These dots and lines are always there, but you can't be sure if they are the same dots and lines, if there is a change, and it happens so quickly that you can't even see that one dot disappears and another comes.How can something be so stable and still and at the same time always be floating?

Elie Davis saw Anthony wandering on the road, and he turned his head to greet him, his hands still busy with work, and he didn't stop. "Come here and have a look inside," he said.The little boy was so eager to do this, he ran in hastily, and the thick layer of sawdust accumulated on the ground rustled.Then he watched the plane whizzing across the board, and the gleaming grain of the oak unfolded before him, like wings and little fish, or rather wings and little fish What was signified to him in the air and water.The oak seemed to be moving, swimming in the water, flying in the air.While Eli stopped, Anthony touched the lines.

"Are they moving?" he asked. "Well," said the carpenter, "these places did move while the old tree was alive." "Can a tree move, Mr. Davis?" "Anything that grows moves, Master Anthony. You see, the lines show its age. A tree puts on a new ring every year, and when it's cut in half, you can tell by its rings." It's out of its age." Anthony touched his small body. "I have six growth rings," he said. "You must be a very small sapling," Ellie said, digging again. "How many rounds do you have, Mr. Davis?"

"Nearly fifty, maybe a little more. I can't tell myself." "If you cut it in half, you'll be right," Anthony reminded him. Eli laughed again. "That's up to me, Master Anthony. It's up to Heaven to count my rings when I cut them in half." "So you're dead?" Anthony asked. "We're all mortal, my dear, and trees and everything else." "So is it dead now?" Anthony put his hand on the board. "It ain't got no leaves anymore. I remember ever since it grew on the old homestead over there. Shall I show you how to use a plane?"

Anthony's heart nearly jumped with joy.Ellie gave him the smallest plane, took Anthony's tiny hand in his thick, warm hand, and showed him how to move the plane across the board.The plane skimmed the water like a grouse as Ellie took his hand.But when he tried to plan it, at first it gnawed firmly at the board, but after a while it became much easier to plan.Ellie said he would make a great little carpenter.He also showed Anthony chisels, saws, pliers, and other small tools, and told him to try them all. Anthony went away to drink tea for a long time, and Baba finally found him, putting on a majestic look.

"So here you are!" she reproached. "I've had a hard time finding you, you rascal! I thought you fell into the sink." "I can push a plane, Baba! I can chisel! Mr. Davis is going to teach me how to make a box!" cried Anthony. "Let's see!" Baba complained. "Well, Baba, you needn't be in such a panic," said Elie Davis. "Let the boy come here whenever he wants. He won't do any harm here, but he'll get some good." "It's no wonder that there is no harm. There are sharp weapons everywhere. I have to make it clear to his father first."

But his father, like Ellie, thought that Anthony might get some kind of advantage in a carpenter's workshop, especially in Mr. Davis's. "I know of no better carpenter, nor better man," said he, "and when he was jingling poor, he could eat sloppily, but never work sloppily. .” "Why can he be sloppy about what he eats?" Anthony asked. "He has a lot of kids and very little money," said Anthony's dad. "He's got lots and lots of kids now," Anthony said, "and Berti." Berti, the youngest child of Eli Davis, was one of Anthony's best friends.

"That was twenty years ago before he had Berti," said Anthony's dad. All the workmen brought out bread cheese or bread ham, but Ellie untied his handkerchief and brought out rusk and a small piece of cheese. When he ate the rusk, he pretended to eat cheese too. By then, the cheese was getting bigger and bigger. hard, harder and harder, but never less. In those days, he couldn't afford cheese, and he ate only a little rusk. In his house, if there was anything good to eat, it was for the children, Or for Mrs. Davies. Ellie just pretended to eat that lunch with his mate, and his morsel of cheese ate for months until it was as hard as a log."

The next day, Anthony went to Ellie's workshop to make his box together. Lala came to Anthony's mother with an anxious look on her face. "What's the matter, Lara?" "It's about the cheese, ma'am, a whole fresh cheddar is missing." "It's missing—how could it be?" said Anthony's mother. "You mean it's broken?" "No, ma'am, forever. It was in the pantry this morning, and it's not there now." "Is there anything else missing from the pantry, Lara?" "Nothing else was lost. The window was not open, and no one ever went through that door."

"It's so weird," said Anthony's mother, "that he doesn't run off on his own." "Where would it be? No matter how delicious the cheese is, it won't grow legs!" said Lara. "Would you like to come and see, ma'am?" Anthony's mother went to see the cheese that was no longer there.While she and Lara searched the pantry, Anthony and Ellie Davis were munching on bread and cheddar in the workshop, and it turned out that it was lunch time.After lunch, Eli took Anthony down the trail with the big cheese that the boy had worked so hard to get up the hill.As they walked, they talked about the box Anthony had just made.Ellie said, "Most of all, Master Anthony, you've got to get the sides of the box right at the start, and if you don't get the sides right, everything else will wobble. Carpentry is And so, so is life."

When they got to the house, Eli begged to see Anthony's father, and walked into the study with Anthony in one hand and the cheese in the other. "What's the matter, Ellie?" Anthony's dad said. "I hope you will forgive me, sir!" said Ellie, putting the cheese on the table. "I hope you will let your boy come to the workshop often, and let him learn some skills. I can make him a Excellent carpenter. But if he brings lunch, perhaps his mother had better keep the kids a little tighter, as I've told him. He's going to keep the cheese for me, sir, but I see There is a little misunderstanding here." Anthony's dad moved from Eli's face to Anthony's face and from Anthony's face to the cheese.Anthony looked anxious, as if he wanted to say something. "No, Ellie!" said Anthony's father. "I don't think there's any misunderstanding here. If you take this cheese home and give it to Mrs. Davis, both Anthony and I will be happy." "Geez, this will keep her catering for months, thank you for the kindness!" Ellie Davis said. "I want to thank you, Ellie, for teaching Anthony how to use those tools." "I'd love to teach him, he'll make a good carpenter." Ellie picked up the cheese again and turned to go, but at the door he stopped and said, "I don't know if I should cut it , but this little guy is eager to have a real working man's lunch with me, and I don't know how to say no to him." "You're right, Ellie." The carpenter left.Anthony unknowingly crawled on Dad's lap. "Well, my dear boy?" "Papa, he wasn't pretending, he really ate the cheese. I watched him eat it." "Wouldn't that be nice!" said Anthony's dad. Anthony had finished the box with Ellie's help, out of bits and pieces of wood from the oak that grew on the old homestead.The oak tree died after being struck by lightning sixteen years ago.When he finished it that day, he hurried home and showed it to his mother.He turned it upside down as he ran.He discovered grains and light spots on different faces, which made him fall in love with oak.The treasures of the old dead tree are on this box, as they are on the girders of Eliti's church.It's hard to imagine that the wood is dead, even though the tree itself is no longer in the ground.The old homestead was the only way for Anthony to go home. He suddenly wanted to go in and see where the tree used to grow. His box was made of the wood from the tree.Ellie said that after it was struck by lightning, they sawed it off close to the ground, and the huge stump was still there.Anthony peered in through a gap in the fence. It took him several rounds to search the hummous field before he found the stump.It was sunken in the ground, and the top of the stump was blackened and covered with moss.Anthony used to kneel in front of the stump and scrape off some of the moss to see how old the tree was, but it was hard to count the rings because of age and weather. "That's up to God to count the numbers," said a voice above him, and it was Ellie speaking. Anthony raised his head, and saw a tall, thick oak tree towering beside him. It kept growing and growing, until its branches touched the blue sky. "Is that you, Mr. Davis?" he asked. "Oh, it's me, Master Anthony." "Then you are the oak tree?" "It does seem so, doesn't it?" "Then you are dead, Mr. Davis, or are you not dead? Didn't the lightning cut you in half?" "I remember it being truncated. But I'm still here." "If you're really dead, what are you doing here?" Anthony asked. "I'm supporting the roof of the church, Master Anthony." Anthony raised his head to look at the sky, and when he looked carefully, the whole sky became the roof of the cathedral, and from the place where the altar should be at the east end, a lightning strike struck Eli Dale Wes split in two.The oak, however, did not fall, but divided into beams and tall, beautiful columns, with moving points and waves of light moving within them.Those pillars of golden wood are erected all over the old house, and they rise up, higher and higher, higher than what you can see, enclosing the whole land and the whole world.The girders of their thick branches spread out in all directions, supporting the sky-like roof from end to end.All the twigs and twigs were overflowing with points and waves of light, moving up and down the wood, and seemed to sing as they moved. "You say the tree is dead, Mr. Davis?" "I think it's dead, Master Anthony." "This tree will never die," sang many bell-like voices in the pillars. "But you say it won't grow leaves again, Mr. Davies?" "I don't think it will grow any longer, Master Anthony." "This tree should keep its leaves forever," sang the voices again. "Which pillar are you in, and which one are you, Mr. Davis?" "My God, if only I knew that, Master Anthony." "He was a pillar, and all pillars. He should have been split, but he should not have fallen. In his death he should have upheld the glory of God, because in his life his foundation was so solid Reliable," sang the voices. "What are those foundations in your life, Mr. Davis?" "I don't know what foundation I have, Master Anthony." While Elie Davis was saying this, another bolt of lightning struck from the east, and Anthony felt the thousands of pillars snapped at their foundations like birds from their cages. Released, they all shot straight into the sky and disappeared.But as they flew up, they still sang.Anthony found himself staring again at the blackened stump of the old homestead.But it was not a piece of wood, but a piece of cheese, a piece of cheese that had become as hard as oak.