with
his shovel and his hoe in the bottom of it. And he stooped down and
took hold of the handle of his cart, and he trudged to the new house,
dragging his cart.

The mortar man had gone some time before, and there wasn't any
sand-pile, but the foreman saw him coming.

"Hello, Davie," he called.

"Hello," David called back.

"You're just in time to go into the house with me," the foreman said.

So David dropped the handle of his cart and the foreman took hold of
his hand, and they went up the steps and into the house.

The partition walls between the rooms weren't all done, and David
could see right through them in some places into the next room.

And the foreman and David went through the place that would be the
front hall when it was done, with the front stairs going up out of it;
and some carpenters were working there now and there was a great mess.

"What are the carpenters doing?" David asked.

"They're nailing on laths, Davie," the foreman answered. "Laths, you
see, are the little thin sticks that go on the up-and-down sticks of
the walls, and the plaster goes on them and squeezes between them.
Then, when it hardens, the part that is between the laths holds the
rest of the plaster up and against the wall."

David nodded, but they were in the back hall now, with the back stairs
going up out of it, and he forgot the carpenters and the laths.

Under the back stairs were some stairs that went down to the cellar,
and the foreman started down.

"Be careful of the steps, Davie," said the foreman. "They have to have
these rough boards on them now, while the workmen are here, so that
the real steps won't get all dirty and worn. When the men are almost
through, about the last thing they do is to lay floors and put nice
boards on the stairs."

David couldn't see very well, but he could feel that the boards of the
stairs were uneven and rough, and some of them were small; but he was
careful, and he went slowly, and at last he was on the cellar floor.

Far off in the very end of the cellar he saw a lantern lighted, and a
flickering light which moved about, high up.

Then, as he got used to the darkness, he saw the legs of two men; and
they had great wrenches and were doing something to long pipes, and
they had a candle which they held close up to the pipes, so that they
could see.

And the pipes went along close to the beams overhead, so that the men
were all the time bumping their heads and knocking their