Eliot George. Adam Bede

Webster’s Thesaurus Edition for PSAT, SAT, GRE, LSAT, GMAT, and AP English Test Preparation.The Workshop
With a single drop of ink for a mirror, the Egyptian sorcerer undertakes to
reveal to any chance comer far-reaching visions of the past. This is what I
undertake to do for you, reader. With this drop of ink at the end of my pen, I
will show you the roomy workshop of Mr. Jonathan Burge, carpenter and
builder, in the village of Hayslope, as it appeared on the eighteenth of June, in
the year of our Lord 1799.
The afternoon sun was warm on the five workmen there, busy upon doors
and window-frames and wainscoting. A scent of pine-wood from a tentlike pile
of planks outside the open door mingled itself with the scent of the elder-bushes
which were spreading their summer snow close to the open window opposite;
the slanting sunbeams shone through the transparent shavings that flew before
the steady plane, and lit up the fine grain of the oak panelling which stood
propped against the wall. On a heap of those soft shavings a rough, grey
shepherd dog had made himself a pleasant bed, and was lying with his nose
between his fore-paws, occasionally wrinkling his brows to cast a glance at the
tallest of the five workmen, who was carving a shield in the centre of a wooden
mantelpiece. It was to this workman that the strong barytone belonged which
was heard above the sound of plane and hammer singing —