They then brought out
another fork-full of hay and pitched it up upon the loft.

"There!" said Stuyvesant, "now when we have got our ladder done, we
will climb up and spread it about."

"Hark!" said Phonny.

"What is that?" said Stuyvesant.

"It sounded like a hen clucking. I wonder if it is possible that there
is a hen up there."

"We will see," said Stuyvesant, "when we get our ladder done."

"Yes," said Phonny, "we must go and finish our ladder; and the
nails--it is time to go and get the nails or they will be all burnt
up."

The boys accordingly went back to the kitchen. They found that Dorothy
had taken the nails away from the fire, and they were now almost cool.
Stuyvesant slid them off from the shovel upon a small board, which he
had brought in for that purpose, and then they went back to the shop.

They found that Wallace had gone. He had finished boring the holes,
and now all that Phonny had to do, was to cut off the wires and put
them in. He had, however, now become so much interested in the
operation of making the ladder, that he concluded to put off finishing
the cage until the ladder was done. Besides, he was in a hurry to see
whether there really was a hen up there on the loft.

So he helped Stuyvesant nail his ladder. Stuyvesant got a small gimlet
to bore holes for the nails. Phonny thought that this was not
necessary. He said they could drive the nails without boring.
Stuyvesant said that there were three objections to this: first, they
might not go straight, secondly, they might split the wood, and
thirdly, they would cause the wood to _break out_, as he called it,
where they came through on the other side.

As soon as he had bored one hole he put a nail into it, and drove it
almost through, but not quite through, as he said it might prove that
he should wish to alter it. He then went to the other end of the same
cross-bar, bored a hole there, and put a nail in, driving it as far as
he had driven the first one. This was the topmost cross-bar of the
ladder, and it was held securely in its place by the two nails.
Stuyvesant then took the bottom cross-bar and secured that in the same
way. Then he put on the other bars one at a time, until his ladder was
complete in form, only the cross-bars were not yet fully nailed. He
and Phonny looked at it carefully, to see if all was right, and
Stuyvesant, taking it up from the floor, placed it against the wall of
the shop.

"Let me climb up on it," sa