"The house is not for me, it is for Him. His Royal thoughts require many a stair, Many a tower, many an outlook fair, Of which I have no thought, and need no care. Where I am most perplexed, it may be there Thou makest a secret chamber holy--dim, Where Thou wilt come to help my deepest prayer." GEORGE MACDONALD. "Toil, workman, toil; thy gracious Lord Will give thee soon a full reward; Then toil, obedient to His word, Until He come. Sing, pilgrim, sing; Christ's mighty Hand Will bring thee safe to that bright land; Then sing--it is thy Lord's command-- Until He come." ANON. CHAPTER XV THE BUILDERS RELATING HOW THE SUPPLIES WERE USED IN an incredibly short space of time our compound was overrun by a gang of one hundred men from the province of Honan. The land in Southern Shansi has been too fertile and yielded too rich a crop of opium to leave us good workmen; when therefore we want work quickly and well done, we inquire for a Honan or Shantung man. Our helpers searched the countryside for likely trees, which were felled and in a few days made their reappearance as pillars and beams. Old buildings were bought, demolished, and sorted into usable and unusable material, so that as the walls went up the empty spaces about the city increased in number. Before dawn each morning we were aroused by the beating of a loud gong which called the men to work. This work they might not leave until the last streak of daylight had faded, except for the brief space allowed for breakfast and dinner, when huge cauldrons of a sticky mass of boiled millet was ladled out in generous portions. Millet is the cheapest grain food procurable, and the Shansi man cannot thrive upon it; to the Honan man it is the staff of life, and in consequence their rate of wage is lower. A race of giants they were, handsome, magnificently built, and well skilled in the use of their simple tools. In the use of the adze they were particularly proficient, and able to plane a section of wood to within a hairbreadth of thickness by the use of this alone. They liked to use it for the most delicate work, so certain are they of their accurate manipulation, and on one occasion when I supplied a bandage to bind a wound on the finger of a workman who had met with a slight accident, as I turned to take up my scissors, the head carpenter, without a trace of humour on his face, stepped forward with a four-foot long adze, and offered to sever the calico. Heavy work requiring the combined strength of several men, such as the beating in of foundations, or the lifting of a great beam, was accompanied by the sound of the weirdest rhythmic chant, sustained for hours if needs be.