other. He,
however, said nothing about it, but soon went to his own work again.

He took the piece of wood which he had selected to make his cross-bars
of, and began to consider how many cross-bars he could make from it.

"What is that piece of wood for?" asked Phonny.

"It is for the cross-bars of my ladder," said Stuyvesant.

"The cross-bars of a ladder ought to be round," said Phonny. "They
always make them round. In fact they call them _rounds_."

"Yes," said Stuyvesant, "I know they do, but I can't make rounds very
well. And besides if I could, I could not make the holes in the
side-pieces to put them into. So I am going to make them square, and
nail them right on."

"Hoh!" said Phonny, "that is no way to make a ladder. You can bore
the holes easily enough. Here. I'll show you how. I've got an auger."

So saying, Phonny jumped down from the bench and went and climbed up
upon the chopping-block to get down an auger. Phonny had two augers,
and they both hung over the block. He took down one and began very
eagerly to bore a hole into the side of the chopping-block. He bored
in a little way, and then, in attempting to draw the auger out, to
clear the hole of chips, the handle came off, leaving the auger itself
fast in the hole.

"Ah! this auger is broken," said Phonny, "I forgot that. I could bore
a hole if the auger was not broken."

"Never mind," said Stuyvesant, "I don't think I could make a ladder
very well in that way, and don't like to undertake any thing that I
can't accomplish. So I will make it my way."

Stuyvesant went out to the hen-house, and measured the height of the
loft. He found it to be seven feet. He concluded to have his ladder
eight feet long, and to have six cross-bars, one foot apart, the upper
and lower cross-bars to be one foot from the ends of the ladder. The
cross-bars themselves being about two inches wide each, the breadth of
the whole six would be just one foot. This Stuyvesant calculated would
make just the eight feet.

Stuyvesant then went back to the shop. He found that the pieces which
he had chosen for the sides of the ladder were just about eight feet
long.

Phonny came to him while he was measuring, to see what he was going to
do.

"How wide are you going to have your ladder?" said he.

"I don't know," said Stuyvesant. "I am going to have it as wide as I
can."

So saying, Stuyvesant took down the piece which he had intended for
the cross-bars.

"I am going to