Jonas remarked,

"We can't git at the mine till the shelter's done and the waggins are
unpacked. We'll have it up in short order."

As soon as he had finished his coffee and trout and "army bread," Sile
went to take a look at what they were doing, and it made him open his
eyes. The ground they had chosen, near a fine spring of water, was
nearly level. They had marked out the lines of the walls they meant to
build, and then along those lines they had dug a trench about a foot
deep and two feet wide. No cellar was called for as yet, and the
mason-work began at once. There was plenty of broken stone to be had,
and it was rolled or carried with busy eagerness to the men who were
laying the wall. One man at the clay-bank toiled zealously at the
important task of mixing and tempering it, while another came and went
with pailfuls that were used up as fast as he could bring them. The
stones were laid with their smooth faces inward, and there was not a
minute wasted in trimming anything for the sake of appearances. Sile
could hardly believe that so much could have been done is so short a
time, and he was again astonished when the men returned from breakfast.
The wall grew at a tremendous rate. He went from that work to the place
where the choppers were swinging their axes. A tall pine-tree, four feet
in diameter at the base, was down shortly after the men went at it the
previous evening, and now two sturdy fellows were making the chips fly
as if they were chopping for a wager. They were evidently cutting the
huge trunk into lengths of about three feet, and Sile was studying the
matter when Two Arrows touched him on the elbow and pointed at the
choppers.

"Ugh! What for?"

"Wait. Show him by-and-by," said Sile. "Make shingles to cover house."

"Ugh! Big lodge. Heap hard. No fall down. Top?"

"Yes. Make cover. Keep out rain."

"Ugh! Pale-face do a heap. Go away and leave him all," said Two Arrows.

It was the longest sentence he had yet attempted in English, and Sile
looked at him with some surprise, but he should have remembered that Two
Arrows had made a beginning long before that, and was but adding to it.
At all events, he was correct in his conclusion that such a lodge could
not be carried away, as could those for which Long Bear had sent his
braves and squaws through the pass. It was perfectly certain that these
would not loiter anywhere, but would go straight on their errand and
return, and then the village would