d been watching the men all the time, but he was careful not
to get near, because he had seen how the big pole bounced around when
it was unloaded.

His cat was not so careful, and she was almost hit by one of the spike
poles when the man threw it down, and she scampered home as fast as
she could go.

But David didn't pay any attention to her, and the men were too busy
to notice.

When the dirt was pounded hard around the pole, the men took up their
things, and walked along to the place where they had unloaded the
other pole; and David walked along, too, dragging his cart.

He would have liked to take some of the things in his cart, but they
were all too big, for he asked one of the men.

And the man looked at his cart, and he looked at David, and he laughed
and shook his head.

"But you be very careful not to get too near," he said. "If the pole
should get away from us, there's no knowing what it would do."

"Yes," said David. "I was careful."

"So you were," the man said. "You do the same way while we set this
pole."

So the men set the other pole, and David stood a long way off.

He stood so far off that he couldn't see very well, and when the men
had the pole straight up in the air, he wandered over to the wagon and
tried to see if anything else was in it.

The backboard was up and he couldn't see inside at all, but he saw the
wheels that the poles had come on, and he thought he would try to shin
up on them and look in.

So he put his arms around the axle and tried to get one leg over; but
as soon as he took his foot off the ground, the wheels began to go. He
put his foot down again and made the wheels go faster, hanging on to
the axle with his arms and paddling on the ground with his feet, for
the ground sloped a little.

And when the wheels had rolled gently down to the lowest part of the
road, they stopped and David couldn't make them go any more, even when
he pushed as hard as he could.

But the men had got through setting the pole, and they were going over
to the wagon when David rolled down the road and couldn't get back.

And they all went where he was, and one of them pushed on the axle,
and David pushed, and the wheels rolled back again to the wagon.

[Illustration: THE WHEELS BEGAN TO GO]

And the men let down the backboard, and they put in all their things:
all their poles and the bars and the shovel.

Then they took out a big coil of something that looked like rubber
tubing which