ride has got down an atlas and is trying to figure out how you
got that cribbing to the lake. I told him you put the barge on rollers and
towed it up to Ledyard with a traction engine.

The letter from Sloan was to the effect that twelve cars were at that
moment on the yard siding, loading with cribbing, and that all of it,
something more than eighteen hundred thousand feet, would probably be in
Chicago within a week. A note was scribbled on the margin in Sloan's
handwriting. "Those fool farmers are still coming in expecting a job. One
is out in the yard now. Came clear from Victory. I've had to send out a
man to take down the posters."

"That's just like a farmer," Bannon said to Miss Vogel. "Time don't count
with him. Tomorrow morning or two weeks from next Tuesday--he can't see
the difference. I suppose if one of those posters on an inconspicuous tree
happens to be overlooked that some old fellow'll come driving in next
Fourth of July."

He buttoned his coat as though going out, but stood looking at her
thoughtfully awhile. "All the same," he said, "I'd like to be that way
myself; never do anything till tomorrow. I'm going to turn farmer some
day. Once I get this job done, I'd like to see the man who can hurry me.
I'll say to MacBride: 'I'm willing to work on nice, quiet, easy little
jobs that never have to be finished. I'll want to sit at the desk and
whittle most of the time. But if you ever try to put me on a rush job I'll
quit and buy a small farm.' I could make the laziest farmer in twelve
states. Well, I've got to go out on the job."

An elevator is simply a big grain warehouse, and of course the bins where
the grain is kept occupy most of the building. But for handling the grain
more than bin room is necessary. Beneath the bins is what is called the
working story, where is the machinery for unloading cars and for lifting
the grain. The cupola, which Bannon was about to frame, is a five-story
building perched atop the bins. It contains the appliances for weighing
the grain and distributing it.

When Bannon climbed out on top of the bins, he found the carpenters
partially flooring over the area, preparatory to putting in place the
framework of the cupola. Below them in the bins, like bees in a honeycomb,
laborers were taking down the scaffolding which had served in building
their walls. At the south side of the building a group of laborers, under
one of the foremen, was rigging what is known as a boom hoist,