ed to this, and there was another silence.

"Would you like to walk around and see things closer to?" Bannon asked,
turning to Miss Vogel.

"I wouldn't mind. It's rather cold, sitting still."

He led the way along one side of the structure, guiding her carefully in
places where the flooring was not yet secure.

"I'm glad you came up," he said. "A good many people think there's nothing
in this kind of work but just sawing wood and making money for somebody up
in Minneapolis. But it isn't that way. It's pretty, and sometimes it's
exciting; and things happen every little while that are interesting enough
to tell to anybody, if people only knew it. I'll have you come up a little
later, when we get the house built and the machinery coming in. That's
when we'll have things really moving. There'll be some fun putting up the
belt gallery, too. That'll be over here on the other side."

He turned to lead the way across the floor to the north side of the
building. They had stopped a little way from the boom hoist, and she was
standing motionless, watching as the boom swung out and the rope rattled
to the ground. There was the purring of the engine far below, the
straining of the rope, and the creaking of the blocks as the heavy load
came slowly up. Gangs of men were waiting to take the timbers the moment
they reached the floor. The foreman of the hoist gang was leaning out over
the edge, looking down and shouting orders.

Hilda turned with a little start and saw that Bannon was waiting for her.
Following him, she picked her way between piles of planks and timber, and
between groups of laborers and carpenters, to the other side. Now they
could look down at the four tracks of the C. & S. C, the unfinished
spouting house on the wharf, and the river.

"Here's where the belt gallery will go," he said, pointing downward:
"right over the tracks to the spouting house. They carry the grain on
endless belts, you know."

"Doesn't it ever fall off?"

"Not a kernel. It's pretty to watch. When she gets to running we'll come
up some day and look at it."

They walked slowly back toward the well. Before they reached it Peterson
and Max joined them. Peterson had rolled down his sleeves and put on his
coat.

"You ain't going down now, are you?" he said. "We'll be starting in pretty
soon on some of the heavy framing. This is just putting in girders."

He was speaking directly to Miss Vogel, but he made an effort to include
Bannon in the