because his mother had taken him
with her down to the Square to do an errand, and when he came back he
had to change his clothes and put on his overalls. His mother wouldn't
let him wear his overalls down to the Square.

And when he had his overalls on, he hurried and got his cart and his
shovel and his hoe, and he called his cat, and she came running, with
her bushy tail sticking straight up in the air.

And he hurried to the new house, dragging his cart; and his shovel and
his hoe rattled in the bottom of it.

The mortar man saw him.

"Hello," he said.

"Hello," said the little boy. "Did you wonder where I was?"

"I did that," said the mortar man.

"Well, I had to go on an errand with my mother," the little boy said,
"but I hurried and came as soon as I could, and here I am. Do you want
some sand?"

[Illustration: THE MORTAR MAN]

But the mortar man didn't want any more sand then. He filled his hod
with mortar, and he stooped down and took the hod of mortar on his
shoulder, and he went trotting to the ladder, and he went down the
ladder.

Then the little boy couldn't see him, because the cellar walls were
done and the carpenters had come, and they had put on the great square
beams that lie on top of the cellar walls, and they had put in the
beams that go across from one side to the other and hold up the floors.

But there were some men in the cellar, for the little boy could hear
them laughing and talking.

And the mortar man had told him that they were the bricklayers who
were building the chimneys and two of the masons who were smearing
mortar over all the cracks of the wall, so that the water wouldn't
leak through from the ground into the cellar.

The little boy wished that he could see those men, but he was afraid
that it wouldn't be being careful to go down that ladder, and he
didn't think he could do it, anyway, for the steps were too far apart.

So he looked about and he saw the man who had held the handles of the
scoop, and who had held him that other day, while he looked down into
the cellar and saw the masons building the wall. He was called the
foreman.

The foreman was glad to see the little boy, and beckoned to him.

And the little boy went, and the foreman took hold of his hand, and
they went together right up on the floor beams; but the foreman
carried him when they got up there, because there weren't any boards
on the beams yet, and the little boy might have fallen through between