William John Hopkins

“ David was watching them, and he heard their noises, and he couldn't help laughing to see their tails jerk.
And then the men were there, and they saw David laughing.
"Hello," said one of the men. "What's so funny?"
"I was laughing at the squirrels," David said; "they make their tails go."
"Yes," said the man, "I hear them, and I see some of them. How they do scold! But we wouldn't hurt them."
He put his cans down, and he leaned his pole against a tree, and he stood the ladder against the tree. ”

“ I think I had better go over to the new house."
"To see whether the men are doing their work right?" she asked.
"You see, I have to help the mortar man," he explained. "Good-bye."
"Good-bye, dear," she said. Then she kissed him. "Be very careful."
"Yes, I will."
Then he went out, and he got his cart, and he put his shovel and his hoe in it, and he called his cat; but no cat came. And he called her again, but she didn't come then.
So he took up the handle of his cart, and he walked over to the new house, dragging his cart behind him, with his shovel and his hoe rattling in the bottom of it. ”

“ He had his cat and his cart and his shovel and his hoe, and he always wore his overalls when he was playing. And his name was David.
They were building a house in a field near David's house; and, one morning, he heard a curious sound, and he wondered what they were doing, and he asked his mother.
"Mother," he said, "what are they doing? What are they? It sounds as if they were pickaxing the dirt." ”

“ And the foreman looked again, and there was David's mother, standing by her gate and waiting for David.
And she had on her go-to-town clothes, too.
"Hello, Davie," the foreman called. "You're all dressed up, aren't you? You'd better go and get into your overalls, quick, and then come back." ”

“ Coal men never do fasten the cellar windows unless there is somebody right there to remind them of it. And, in a few minutes, David saw a man come out of the house and lock the door, and walk up the road and turn the corner.
The next day, David watched the new house for a long time, but nothing happened, and he couldn't see that there was anybody there, so he wandered into the thin woods behind his house.
His cat started with him, but two crows came and flew at the cat, and she was frightened and ran home as fast as she could go, with her bushy tail sticking straight out behind her. ”

“ The hole that they were digging was not much bigger around than the end of the pole which would go into it.
The hole kept getting deeper, so that a common shovel wouldn't have got up any dirt at all; but the man with the mustard-spoon shovel just gave it a little twist, and lifted it out with dirt in it.
Pretty soon they had the hole dug deep enough.
It was so deep that, if a man could have stood on the bottom of it, he could have just seen out, if he stood on his tiptoes.
But only a slim man could have got into the hole. A fat man would have stuck fast as soon as his legs were in. ”

“ And there were gray squirrels which raced along the branches of the trees, and jumped from one branch to another, and poked about on the ground and opened the chestnut-burs which had just fallen from the trees, and ate the chestnuts, or scampered over the roof just above David's head, and made a great racket. ”

“ And the foreman and David went through the place that would be the front hall when it was done, with the front stairs going up out of it; and some carpenters were working there now and there was a great mess.
"What are the carpenters doing?" David asked.
"They're nailing on laths, Davie," the foreman answered. "Laths, you see, are the little thin sticks that go on the up-and-down sticks of the walls, and the plaster goes on them and squeezes between them. Then, when it hardens, the part that is between the laths holds the rest of the plaster up and against the wall." ”

“ Dick chose the cart to sit in, and David sat in the armchair, and they watched the 170men, who were beginning to carry in the things.
They had taken some more things out of one of the vans, and they had come to the heavy things.
One man was in the van, unpacking the things and pushing them to the back, where the other men could reach them.
And a man would take as much as he could carry under his arms, and march into the house with it; and another man would come and get his load, and he would march in with it. ”

“ The foreman said that that room would be the bathroom. No plaster was on the walls yet, but the laths were all on. And there wasn't any bathtub yet, nor any basin; only some pipes sticking up out of the floor. ”

“ So Davie held his breath and one of the shingle men came and held him by the arms when the foreman had set him down upon the boards.
Then the foreman stepped upon the staging and put his arm around David again.
"There!" said the foreman. "You've climbed your first ladder. Now we'll see about the shingling."
There was a whole bundle of shingles on 66–68the staging, and another bundle that had been opened, and the shingle men had thrown a good many of these shingles up on the roof, so that they would be handy. ”

“ Oh, the graders are sort of rough gardeners. They spread the dirt around where it is wanted, and they make it the right height all along the foundation, and smooth it off, and they make the walks up to the front door and the back door, and they spread gravel on the walks. ”

“ Everywhere else will be a floor, except where the chimneys come through. Do you understand?"
The little boy nodded. He thought that he understood, although it was not very easy to understand.
41And while he was trying to understand better, there came a voice behind him.
"Hello! I wondered where you were."
And he looked around and there was his friend the foreman, and the cat had gone to meet him and was coming back beside him, and she was looking up into the foreman's face, and her bushy tail was sticking straight up into the air. ”

“ I've got my shovel and my cart."
"I'm afraid," said the man, "that it wouldn't do. You see that great scoop?"
4He pointed to a big iron scoop that was in the cart.
The little boy looked and nodded.
"Is that a scoop? What is it for?"
"The horses drag it, and a man takes hold of those two handles like plough-handles, and it scoops the dirt right up."
The little boy nodded again.
"You can watch us if you want to," the man said then. "But you must be careful not to get in the way of the horses."
"And can my kitty watch too?"
The man laughed and said his kitty could watch if she wanted to. ”

“ David's mother had the maid throw out crusts of bread and tie lumps of fat on the trees all winter, because when the snow is on the ground it is sometimes hard for the birds to find things enough to eat. ”

“ And the foreman stooped and ran his finger quickly down David's ribs, and David shrieked with laughter.
"Tickles," said David. "Show me my ribs again."
"It isn't good for little boys to be tickled too much," said the foreman. "Now we'll go 45over to the sand-pile for a while. I don't want to take you into the house until they get the frame all up and some floors down. ”

“ You see that one edge of a clapboard is thin and the other edge is thick."
He pulled one of the clapboards from a bundle and showed David.
"The thick edges go over the thin edges, very much like shingles, and they keep the rain and the wind out. You know about shingles?"
David nodded doubtfully.
"I don't know whether I do or not."
"Well," the foreman said, "you ought to know about them. Those two men have just begun to shingle the piazza roof. If you can 62wait a few minutes, I'll take you up there. You aren't very busy this morning, are you?" ”

“ David nodded. He was thinking about those pipes.
"Will the men keep on putting those pipes together until they come to the house?" he asked. "And how will they get the pipe into the house? They'll have to put it through a window."
"No," the foreman answered, "they won't have to put it through a window. They'll lay the pipes straight past the house, and they'll plug up the end until there are some more houses built on this road.
56"Then they'll fit a little pipe into the side of the big pipe and run it through a hole in the cellar wall. ”

“ He pointed to his legs, and David saw 109that a long iron thing was strapped to each leg, and the iron thing had a sharp point which stuck down about as far as the soles of his shoes.
"Those are climbers, or spurs. We can walk right up any tree that isn't too large around, and you see that those points are bent in a little so that they will stick into the trunk of the tree on each side. You watch."
So the man poured some of the stuff from the big can into the little can, and he hung the little can from his belt, and he stuck the stubby paint brush in his belt. ”

“ David called.
There was such a noise, with the carpenters all hammering, that the foreman didn't hear him.
"Hello!" called David again, louder.
Still the foreman didn't hear.
"Hello!" David shouted as loud as he could shout. "Hello, Jonathan!"
The foreman heard, that time, and he looked around and laughed.
"Ho, Davie!" he said in a big round voice. "Just wait a minute and I'll be down there."
So David waited a minute, then two, then five minutes, and the foreman came. Then David asked his question.
50"What are the men doing in the road?"
"They're digging a trench. ”

“ A man had a pile of clapboards beside him, and he took one up and he lifted the edge of the one above, and he tucked the thin edge of the clapboard that he held in his hand under the edge that he had lifted ”