t _I_ call a good foundation."

After this, Oliver asked Rollo to bring in the measuring-board inside of
the fort.

Oliver and Rollo remembered what Jonas had told them about "commanding
and obeying," and agreed to take turns in being "director."

It was Oliver's turn for the first hour, and Rollo was to obey him.
Nathan was to assist them both, when he was wanted.

Oliver, therefore, took the command, and directed where and how to cut
out the snow, in the manner which Jonas had described.

They proceeded with the measuring-board, to mark off, and cut out by it,
solid blocks of snow about four feet long, one foot wide, and one thick.

Rollo laid down the measuring-board on the snow, and then both of them,
with the shovels, cut down the snow perpendicularly along the edges, so
as to have all the snow-blocks of precisely the same length, breadth,
and thickness. These they laid in courses, on the top of the foundation.

It took just three blocks to form a side, excepting the side where the
door was, which they left three feet wide.

After working more than two hours, and laying two courses, they shoveled
out all the broken snow that remained inside, and then sat down on the
sled to eat their luncheon and rest.

"How do you like the looks of it, Rollo?" said Oliver.

"_Well_," said Rollo; "only I don't see how we can make a roof."

"Jonas will help us do that," said Oliver, "if we do the rest of the
work well."

The boys, however, were now pretty tired. They had worked very hard.
They pulled off their caps, and with their handkerchiefs wiped the
perspiration from their foreheads.

"Don't let us work any longer now," said Nathan, rubbing his hands, and
knocking one foot against the other. "I think we have done enough for
one day; and my feet are _so_ cold!"

"_We've_ done enough!" said Oliver. "I think Rollo and I have had the
principal _doing_ to do. You and Franco have been looking on."

"'What you've to do
Get done to-day,
And do not for to-morrow stay;
There's always danger in delay'"--

said Rollo. "I think we had better finish it now. Come, Nathan, jump
about here on the sled, and you will soon be warm."

So they went briskly at work again, Rollo taking the command. They found
it very hard, after the second course, to get the snow-blocks up on the
snowy wall. Often they would slip away out of their hands, just as they
were lodging them safely on the top, and fall over on one side of t