Young people built the house at that time, using natural soil and stone as building materials, digging the foundation deep into the hillside, so that both sides of the first floor and the second floor were facing the ground level in different directions
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Then, the line breaks into a zigzag and uneven stone, butting with the gap
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This article is authorized by the translator sun Baocheng.
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I went out with Al for several years, and he never mentioned my wall
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Under the house is a simple warehouse, also chiseled into the hillside
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Perhaps, they see something we almost forget: when no one is watching, what you do will show your true self
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Soon al came in and stood quietly for a moment
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Looking from front to back along the side wall, the layers of stones are neat from beginning to end
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There is a beam on the wall, so the roof won’t fall down when I work
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Only when I got to the upper beam, I took a look at the remaining stones and saw that there were two big stones left
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It took me an hour to get all the stones out
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The house has been on the ridge of Pelham since the 18th century, when the area of Massachusetts was still on the border
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Needless to say, the newly built part behind me is obviously uneven, and the two side walls are closely combined
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They covered the house with parapets, built vertical chimneys with strips of bricks, and built a magnificent building with beehive ovens and fireplaces
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Turn around the corner and the sign line, at the same horizontal line around to the back, and back to the position of my softwall
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He nodded, squinted, and finally said, “that’s good
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In the eyes of a teenager, that house is really magnificent
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When no one is watching, what you do will show your true self
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“See how the back wall slopes to the right? It’s the roots at the back that hold the wall He explained that my task is to take down the stones in the middle, cut down the arched roots and soil, and build the wall again
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He pushed the door open and walked slowly into the shadow
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When I am old enough to build a house, I think of these people when I encounter pressure and irregularity in my life
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“Do you see that back wall?” Asked Al, who owned the farm
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That’s interesting, I thought
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It’s not that I don’t work hard, it’s just that something’s wrong
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Perhaps only intuitively, they know that there is discoverable order in this chaotic world
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At noon, I shovel the earth flat on the ground, and I am sure that when I put the stone on the base, it will be flat and smooth
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In the end, maybe what they leave us is not a pile of antiques, but a belief: even if it is not in the obvious place, function should never affect form, and the foundation ultimately determines the superstructure
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“You can see what I’ve rebuilt.” I said uneasily
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I stood back and looked at my craft
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“You just have to do your best.” He said with a knowing smile
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For them, the meaning of design is neither luxury nor burden
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I think they built houses for a long time – for their descendants, for the country that just came into being, for the future that they thought about
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Three sides of the warehouse are stone based walls, and the front side is a plank with a pointed roof
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Even though I never went back to see it, I decided that the house was still standing
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The house will last for a while To leave, he grinned at me: “you do your best.” That was 30 years ago
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In order to keep warm, the builders planted an oak tree on the hillside, which is now an ancient tree with deep roots
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After lunch, I tightened a rope in two corners and started the reconstruction work – turning each stone, finding the most suitable side, moving it to the right position, placing it next to the rope, and plugging the gap with small stones
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It seems that he is half the age of the house
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I got a crowbar and a pickaxe and started working
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Then I saw something unusual
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Like their stone walls, perhaps they see themselves as a bulwark against chaos
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I didn’t know much about building stone walls (he always hired me to weed and help in the garden), but I didn’t take it seriously
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That morning I came for the root
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