Suddenly they heard the rattle of the wagon, and they all looked up.
And the wagon stopped, and the man who had been driving jumped off, and the horse just stood where he had stopped, and he breathed hard and looked after the man, and he p.r.i.c.ked his ears forward.
Then the foreman told the men to get all that stuff into the wagon, and he waved his hand toward the heaps of rubbish that had been raked up.
So the man held out his hand toward the horse, and he whistled, and the horse came, and he followed the men to the farthest pile of rubbish.
And the men took shovels and shoveled the stuff into the wagon in no time. Then they walked along to the next heap, and the horse came after.
And they shoveled that stuff into the wagon, and they walked along to the next heap, and the horse came after.
And so they did until they had shoveled in the last heap; and the horse walked into the road, dragging the wagon after him, and there he stopped.
The foreman and David had picked up all the little odds and ends of things which would burn, and had put them on the fire.
The fire had been blazing up high, but now it wasn"t blazing so high, and it was almost burned out.
And the two men stood still, leaning on their shovels, and looked all about.
And the foreman stood still, and he looked all about.
And David stood still, leaning on the handle of his cart, and he looked all about, because he saw the others looking; but he didn"t see anything in particular.
The foreman turned to David and sighed.
"Well, Davie," he said, "I guess that"ll be about all."
David nodded and looked over to the fire, which was not much more than a heap of red coals and white ashes.
The foreman saw where he was looking.
"The fire"ll be all right," he said. "It"s about out. Now I"ll take just one more look around."
So the foreman walked all around the house, slowly, and he looked carefully to make sure that he had not forgotten anything.
And he looked at the cellar door and at the places where the heaps of rubbish had been, and all around the foundations of the house, and at the great hole under the front steps where the steps didn"t come down to the ground, and at the fire last of all.
The fire had all burned out to white ashes, and every swirl of the wind made the ashes fly about.
Then the foreman came where David was.
"Now we"re going, Davie," he said. "We"ll come back some day to build another house next to this one. Will you help us then?"
"Yes," said David, "I"ll help you as much as I can. When are you going to build it?"
"Oh, I don"t know," the foreman said, "but I should think it would be before long. Somebody"s going to move into this house in a few days.
We"re much obliged to you for helping us build this."
"You"re welcome," said David.
Then the foreman shook David"s hand.
"Good-bye, Davie," he said. "Don"t forget us."
"Good-bye," said David.
Then the foreman climbed up to the seat of the wagon. The other men were up there already.
And all the men waved their hands, and the horse started.
David stood and watched them until they turned the corner.
Then he picked up his shovel and his hoe and threw them into his cart, and began to walk home, dragging his cart, with his shovel and his hoe rattling in the bottom of it.
And his cat came running, and she ran ahead, with her bushy tail sticking straight up in the air.
And that"s all of this story.
XI
THE SETTING-OUT STORY
Once upon a time there was a little boy, and he was almost five years old, and his name was David. And there weren"t any other children near for him to play with, so he used to play happily all by himself.
He had his cat and his cart and his shovel and his hoe, and he always wore his overalls when he was playing.
One morning he was playing in the thin woods behind his house.
He had his cart and his shovel and his hoe, and he was walking slowly along, kicking the dead leaves and looking up at the leaves on the trees.
Not nearly all the leaves had fallen from the trees yet, but those leaves that were still on the trees had turned to all kinds of pretty colors: red and yellow and a great many pretty browns which looked alive. And some leaves were red and yellow together, and some were still green with red and yellow spots on them, and some leaves had not changed their color at all, but were green all over.
And the squirrels were very busy hunting chestnuts and they didn"t pay much attention to David.
Suddenly there was a great scurrying, and every squirrel went racing up the nearest tree, and David"s cat came running, with her bushy tail sticking straight up in the air, and she ran a little way ahead of David, and she flopped over on her back in a little pile of leaves, and she began playing with the leaves.
David laughed at her. "Funny kitty!" he said.
Then he turned and went on talking, but he wasn"t talking to his cat and he wasn"t talking to himself.
His pretend playmate had come, and it was the boy, this time, and he had brought the cat.
So David and that pretend little boy played together for a long time.
Sometimes they dragged the cart together, and sometimes they stopped and hunted for chestnuts, and they put into the cart the chestnuts that they found.