ossed
with a hundred intricate designs, rich with silver; un-Amish as a
Christmas tree. Judging from the Sarki's dazzled thanks, the saddle was
just the thing for a Murnan Chief.

As soon as Kazunzumi had delivered his pyrotechnic speech of thanks, and
had directed that Aaron's gifts be placed on a velvet-draped dais at the
end of the room, a roast kid was brought in. Waziri, half drunk with the
elegance of it all, fell to like any other adolescent boy, and was soon
grease to the armpits. Aaron, more careful, referred his actions to the
Sarki's. The bread must be broken, not cut; and it was eaten with the
right hand only, the left lying in the lap as though broken. Belching
seemed to be _de rigueur_ as a tribute to the cuisine, so Aaron belched
his stomach flat.

Business could now be discussed. Aaron, having no pencil, traced with a
greasy finger on the tile floor the outlines of the barn and farmhouse
he envisaged. The Sarki from time to time demanded of young Waziri such
facts as a carpenter's son might be expected to know, and added
lumber-prices in his head as Aaron's bank-barn and two-story farmhouse
took form in his imagination. Finally he told the Amishman what the two
buildings would cost. Better pleased by this figure than he'd expected
to be, Aaron initiated the long-drawn ceremony required to discharge
himself from Kazunzumi's hospitality.

[Illustration]

As the Stoltzfoos wagon jolted out the gate of Datura, bearing the cot
and clothes trunk of Waziri together with the owner of those chattels,
the boys who'd jeered before now stared with respect. The black-hatted
_Turawa_ had been to visit the Sarki; this established him as no safe
man to mock. Waziri gave his late playmates no notice beyond sitting
rather straighter on the wagon seat than was comfortable.

* * * * *

There was light enough left when they got back to the farm for Aaron and
Waziri to pace out the dimensions of the barn and house. The bank-barn
would go up first, of course. No Christian owner of beasts could consent
to being well-housed while his animals steamed and shivered in a
cloth-sided tent. Waziri pounded stakes into the frozen ground to mark
the corners of the barn. Aaron pointed out the drainage-line that would
have to be ditched, and explained how the removed earth would be packed,
with the clay dug for the cellar, into a ramp leading to the barn's
second story in the back. Come next fall, the