ranco! Franco--o! Franco--o! Where _is_ Franco?" said Rollo; "we can't
go without him."

"He won't mind you," said Oliver, as he came running back.

"You call him, then," said Rollo.

Oliver whistled the dog call, and in a moment, Franco came running from
the poultry yard with a bone in his mouth, which he had been gnawing for
a breakfast. At that moment, Nathan came running out of the door, with a
luncheon in his hand for them all. The farmer's wife had put up in a
paper an apple turn-over and a nut-cake for each of the boys, as they
were going on so important an expedition.

Very soon, every thing was ready, and they started for the scene of
operations, eager for their work, Oliver and Rollo drawing the sled, and
Nathan and Franco following on behind.

When they arrived near the pond, Oliver pointed to a little mound, not
far from the edge of the water, which overlooked the principal
skating-ground of the village boys in winter.

"There, Rollo," said Oliver, "there's the place for a fort. Many a
pleasant time we have had there, in a clear winter night, watching the
skaters all the way up to the head of the pond. The fires look
splendidly."

"It is a good place for a lookout," said Rollo; "but then I wouldn't
build it here. Let us go down nearer the pond."

"No," said Oliver; "if we go down near the pond, as likely as not, the
first skating night, some of the boys will tear our fort all to pieces."

"What if they do?" said Rollo.

"I want it to last all winter," said Oliver.

Rollo yielded to Oliver's wishes, and they began together to unbind
their load of boards and tools.

"Come, Nathan," said Oliver, "we want you to help us now."

Rollo and Nathan measured with the reel and line, while Oliver planted a
stake firmly in the snow at the four corners of the square.

According to Jonas's advice, the evening before, they had agreed to make
their fortification twelve feet square, and the walls about one foot
thick.

Rollo and Nathan held the cord, stretched from corner to corner, just
along the surface of the snow, while Oliver, with the shovel, cut the
snow square down to the ground, more than a foot and a half deep.

In this way they went round the whole enclosure, outside. They then went
inside, and, by a similar process, cut away the snow so as to leave an
unbroken line of snow wall about ten feet square and one foot wide.

"There," said Oliver, "there are the sills, as Jonas called them. It is
wha