n come
back."

David's mother had heard what the foreman said, and she nodded and
smiled to thank him, because she would have to call very loud, indeed,
to make him hear, and she didn't like to.

And David nodded, and he ran back to his mother.

"Mother," he said, "the foreman said to get into my overalls. What did
he mean, mother? Does that mean to put them on?"

"Yes, dear," his mother said, smiling.

So David paid no attention to his cat, who was coming to meet him and
to rub against him, but he hurried to change his clothes and to put on
his overalls.

And when he had his clothes changed and his overalls on, he ran out,
and there was his cat waiting for him.

And he took up the handle of his cart, and he walked off as fast as he
could, dragging his cart, and his shovel and his hoe rattled in the
bottom of it; and his cat ran on ahead, with her bushy tail sticking
up in the air.

I don't know why David took his cart that time, for there wasn't any
mortar man, and there wasn't any sand-pile. He almost always took his
cart.

When David got to the house, there was the foreman standing in almost
the same place, but the painters had lowered the staging some more.

And David didn't say anything, but he dropped the handle of his cart,
and he went to the foreman and reached up for the foreman's hand.

And the foreman's big hand closed over David's little one, and the
foreman smiled, but he didn't say anything, either. He waited for
David to speak.

David watched the painters for some time.

"What color are they painting it?" he asked at last. "It looks like
white on the brushes, but sort of watery when they put it on, just as
my paints look when I put a great deal of water with them. Have they
got a great deal of water with their paint?"

"Not water, Davie," the foreman answered, "but oil. This is the first
coat of paint, you see, put right on the bare wood, and the wood soaks
the oil out of the paint at a great rate. They won't put so much oil
in the second and third coats."

"Oh," said David, "will they paint it three times?"

"Three times for new wood," the foreman said.

[Illustration: PAINTING]

He didn't say any more then, but he watched and so did David while the
painters dipped their brushes and patted them against the sides of
their paint-pots and brushed them quickly back and forth over the new
clapboards.

"Come with me, Davie," the foreman said at last, "and let's see if we
can't scare