s when he was playing.

They were building a new house in the field next to David's house, and
the masons were through their work, and the bricklayers were through,
and the water men were through, and the plumbers were through, and the
gas men were through, and the plasterers were through, and the
carpenters were almost through, for they were laying nice clean boards
on the floors, and they had the floors almost done.

David had watched them do it, and had seen how they put one board down
after another, and gave the last board whacks with a hammer, to drive
it close up against the next board, and nailed it through the edge, so
that the nails shouldn't show.

But they always put a piece of a board against the floor board, and
whacked the hammer on that, because they wanted the floor to be all
smooth and shiny and not to show any marks of a hammer.

And now the house had to be painted.

So, one morning, a great big wagon came to the new house.

And on the wagon were ladders, some of them very tall, and they stuck
out far beyond the ends of the wagon; and there were great enormous
hooks, and boards that were all painty; and a great many pots of paint,
some dark green for the blinds, and some a lemon-yellow for the
corners of the house and what the painters call the trimmings.

But most of the paint was white.

There were two kinds of white paint, one kind for the outside of the
house and another for the inside.

And there were all the kinds of brushes that the painters would need,
and there were great bundles of cloth, which the painters would spread
over the floors, so that the nice clean floors shouldn't get all
spattered with paint; and there were some odds and ends besides.

And the painters came, and they took the things all off the wagon.

Of course, the carpenters had some ladders that would reach, but those
were the carpenters' ladders, not the painters'; and the carpenters
had some boards, but those were the carpenters' boards, not the
painters'.

That is why the painters had brought boards and ladders.

David had gone on the train with his father and his mother, that
morning, but the painters didn't know about him, so they kept right on
with their work.

The foreman was there, and he was sorry that David wasn't there to see
what the painters were doing, but he knew that David would see them
before they were through with their work.

The wagon was unloaded, and some of the painters went inside th