nd always in such a way
that the middle of a slab came directly above the ends of the ones
beneath.

In the early afternoon, as they worked steadily, the clouds began to
mass darker across the gray sky; and the air, warm throughout the
morning, became chill. A rain-storm seemed on the way, and the big
brothers hurried so as to get the house covered before a shower came to
wash the walls. Two were left to lay the sods, and the other set about
sawing scantlings into lengths for the framework of the hip-roof, while
their mother came out and bound straw into flat bunches for the thatch.

Up in the river meadows, the little girl, secure in her seat on the
pinto, rode to and fro along the southern edge of the herd, in front of
the lowered foreheads and tossing horns of the cattle. Behind her came
the blind black colt, switching his tail and whinnying fretfully; but,
despite his pleading, the little girl, eager to win the reward she had
been promised, never paused in her sentry duty. The pinto fretted, too,
for she also was hungry. But the little girl held the short bridle-reins
tight and did not let the mare get her nose to the ground lest they slip
over her head and out of reach.

The dogs were stretched lazily on some soft badger mounds not far away.
The St. Bernard was not with them, for the big brothers were afraid that
Napoleon, the white bull, would gore him, and had chained him up at
home; and the collie was watching the sheep around the sloughs to the
south. So only the wolf-dogs, with Luffree at their head, helped the
little girl turn an animal back when it broke from the rest and started
toward the grain.

The little girl rode faithfully before the herd, not even stopping to
join the dogs in their chase after a kit-fox that was boldly passing
among the cattle. And when the hunt was over and the cows went down the
runway to the river, she followed in their train, with the pinto still
tugging hard at the reins. But at the bank she forgot how tired her arms
were, for the pack had returned and were amusing themselves by barking
and biting at the snakes that were lying along the strip of sand, and by
pursuing them as they scattered to the water or to the shelter of the
willows at its edge. When the herd had drunk their fill, she slowly rode
eastward, watching them carefully as they spread out across the meadow.

It was then that the clouds came up and the air turned cool. And it was
then that, accidentally, and in o