Chairs And Tables

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 234, 1 July 1939, Page 7 (Supplement)

Chairs And Tables

DEAR LEAGUERS,

I had not given them much thought till Ray asked me “How are chairs and tables made?” Ray is only eight, and even though his earnest wee-face puckered up in freckly creases as he tried to understand my rather involved tale of large machines making furniture, I knew he. was as pussled as before. And suddenly I had an idea, and the very next day Ray and I visited the carpenter’s shop:

It was tucked away at the back of a little old house with a rambly garden that managed to look cheerful, even in its drab winter green. The little shqd zvas almost hidden in an evergreen creeper, so that its square lines were lost and it looked like, a green igloo. lam sure the door zvas never shut properly, for the vine tzvisted in and out the hinges and under the frame, little curly tendrils of green mixing with the corkscrew shavings zvhere they tumbled out the doorzvay. The carpenter was like an old tree—gnarled and, brown and weatherbeaten. His hands slipped round the wood and up and down as he planed a board to a smooth, veined surface. Ray looked zvith winder at the twisty-legged chairs and tables about the workshop. They stood, inches deep in shavings, their polished surfaces shining through a fine coating of sawdust. He gazed even harder at the chair which took shape under the. old carpenter’s hands—smooth planing, careful ..matching'of zvoods, and deft blows with the hammer—every step Ray watched closely and marvelled at. I was poking, round in the dim, dusty end of the zvorkshop, revelling in the fragrance of half-dried zvoods, timber sap and sawdust, when I found an old polished box and curiously opened it. Inside was a perfect miniature set of chairs and a table —lovqly little things which looked too good for any doll’s house. I told the old man so, and he gave me a zvide smile and agreed.. They were, he said, not intended for a girl’s doll’s house, but more for a small boy who zvanted' to knozv how chairs and tables zvere made, and he passed the box to Ray. I said it was not ordinary furniture, but it zvas not till we were home that Ray discovered each piece came apart; chairs could be dismantled to many parts which fitted perfectly together again. No machine could have made those —the art of an old carpenter was needed. , t ' I don’t like morals pointed out—do you? So I will leave the story there for you to work out yourself. '■ I A, * Cheerio, members dll!