, and pay the bills, as well as cook and wash and sew, take care of
the children, and keep a brave heart till I come back again."

The mother was willing to do all this and more, too, for the dear home;
and Brother Tom asked eagerly: "What can I do?--what can I do?" for he
wanted to begin work right then, without waiting a moment.

"I have found you a place in the carpenter's shop where I work,"
answered the father. "And you will work for him, and all the while be
learning to saw and hammer and plane, so that you will be ready in the
Spring to help build the home."

Now, this pleased Tom so much that he threw his cap in the air and
hurrahed, which made the baby laugh; but little Polly did not laugh,
because she was afraid that she was too small to help. But after a
while the father said: "I shall be away in the great forest cutting down
the trees; Mother will be washing and sewing and baking; Tom will be at
work in the carpenter's shop; and who will take care of the baby?"

"I will, I will!" cried Polly, running to kiss the baby. "And the baby
can be good and sweet!"

So it was all arranged that they would have their dear little home,
which would belong to every one, because each one would help; and the
father made haste to prepare for the Winter. He stored away the firewood
and put up the stoves; and when the wood-choppers went to the great
forest, he was ready to go with them.

Out in the forest the trees were waiting. Nobody knew how many years
they had waited there, growing every year stronger and more beautiful
for the work they had to do. Every one of them had grown from a baby
tree to a giant; and when the choppers came, there stood the giant
trees, so bare and still in the wintry weather that the sound of the
axes rang from one end of the woods to the other. From sunrise to sunset
the men worked steadily; and although it was lonely in the woods when
the snow lay white on the ground and the cold wind blew, the father kept
his heart cheery. At night, when the men sat about the fire in their
great log-house, he would tell them about the mother and children who
were working with him for a home.

Nobody's ax was sharper than his or felled so many trees, and nobody was
gladder when Spring-time came and the logs were hauled down to the
river.

The river had been waiting too, through all the Winter, under its shield
of ice, but now that Spring had come, and the snows were melting, and
all the little mountain st