anxious to proceed to a more complete installation in
the interior of Will Tree.

The first thing to do was to clean up their future dwelling-place. It
was at the outset necessary to bring out several bushels of that
vegetable dust which covered the ground and in which they sank almost up
to their knees. Two hours' work hardly sufficed to complete this
troublesome task, but at length the chamber was clear of the pulverulent
bed, which rose in clouds at the slightest movement.

The ground was hard and firm, as if floored with joists, the large roots
of the sequoia ramifying over its surface. It was uneven but solid. Two
corners were selected for the beds and of these several bundles of
herbage, thoroughly dried in the sun, were to form the materials. As for
other furniture, benches, stools, or tables, it was not impossible to
make the most indispensable things, for Godfrey had a capital knife,
with its saw and gimlet. The companions would have to keep inside during
rough weather, and they could eat and work there. Daylight did not fail
them, for it streamed through the opening. Later on, if it became
necessary to close this aperture for greater safety, Godfrey could try
and pierce one or two embrasures in the bark of the sequoia to serve as
windows.

As for discovering to what height the opening ran up into the trunk,
Godfrey could not do so without a light. All that he could do was to
find out with the aid of a pole ten or twelve feet long, held above his
head, that he could not touch the top.

The question, however, was not an urgent one. It would be solved
eventually.

The day passed in these labours, which were not ended at sunset. Godfrey
and Tartlet, tired as they were, found their novel bed-clothes formed of
the dried herbage, of which they had an ample supply, most excellent;
but they had to drive away the poultry who would willingly have roosted
in the interior of Will Tree. Then occurred to Godfrey the idea of
constructing a poultry-house in some other sequoia, as, to keep them out
of the common room, he was building up a hurdle of brushwood.
Fortunately neither the sheep nor the agouties, nor the goats
experienced the like temptation. These animals remained quietly outside,
and had no fancy to get through the insufficient barrier.

The following days were employed in different jobs, in fitting up the
house or bringing in food; eggs and shell-fish were collected, yamph
roots and manzanilla apples were b