[The Gold-Stealers by Edward Dyson]@TWC D-Link bookThe Gold-Stealers CHAPTER I 2/57
Timber of all sorts and shapes came in from fifty sources.
The men of the day shift at the mines worked at the building in the evening; those on the four-o'clock shift put in an hour or two in the morning, and mates off the night shift lent a hand at any time during the day, one man taking up the work where the other left off.
Consequently--and as there was no ruling mind and no general design--the school when finished seemed to lack continuity, so to speak. As an architectural effort it displayed evidence of many excellent intentions, but could not be called a brilliant success as a whole--although one astute Parliamentary candidate did secure an overwhelming majority of votes in Waddy after declaring the schoolhouse to be an ornament to the township.
The public-spirited persons who contributed windows, it was tacitly agreed, were quite justified in putting in those windows according to the dictates of their own fancy, even if the result was somewhat bizarre.
Jock Summers gave a bell hung in a small gilded dome, and this was fixed on the roof right in the centre of the building, mainly for picturesque effect; but as there was no rope attached and no means of reaching the bell--and it never occurred to anybody to rectify the deficiency--Jock's gift remained to the end merely an ornamental adjunct.
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