what
was said to him, though it was noticeable that he was very dull when
it concerned tasks he did not like. With Dan to guide him he was able
to help shock the corn and pile the pumpkins in golden heaps between
the rows. He could feed the cattle and milk the cow and draw water for
them from the well. While the Goodman and the two boys worked in the
fields gathering the crops, Nancy and her mother dried everything that
could be dried and preserved everything that could be preserved, until
there was a wonderful store of good things for the winter.

One day when all the rafters were festooned with strings of
crook-necked squashes, onions, and seed corn braided in long ropes by
the husks, the Goodman appeared in the doorway with another load of
seed corn and looked in vain for a place to put it.

"There is no place," said the Goodwife. "The Lord hath blessed us so
abundantly there is not room to receive it. As it is, I can hardly do
my work without stepping on something. If it is not anything else, it
is sure to be either Zeb or Nimrod. Truly I can no longer clean and
sand my floor properly for the things that are standing about."

The Goodman sat down on the settle and looked long and earnestly at
the crowded room, whistling softly to himself. Then he rose and went
to the village, and as a result the neighbors gathered the very next
week to help build the new house. They came early in the morning,
the men with axes and saws on their shoulders and the women carrying
cooking-utensils. Then while the men worked in the forest felling
trees, cutting and hauling timbers, and putting them in place, the
women helped the Goodwife make whole battalions of brown loaves and
regiments of pies, beside any number of other good things to eat.
Nancy, Dan, and Zeb ran errands and caught fish and dug clams and
gathered nuts to supply materials for them, and were promptly on hand
when meal time came.

There were so many helpers that in a wonderfully short time the
frame-work was up, the roof boards were on, and a great fireplace had
been built into the chimney in the new part of the house. Also a door
had been cut through to connect the new part with the old cabin, which
was now to be used for storage and as a stable for Penny and Eliza,
and a sleeping-space for Zeb. When all this was done and the roof on,
the neighbors returned to their own tasks, leaving the Pepperells to
lay the floors, cover the outside with boards, and do whatever