splittin' an'
haulin'--t'other lot havin' a reg'lar raisin' bee. They'll have the
walls o' both them housen up by night, or my name ain't Latimer."

"I don't think Sir George would have the men working that way to-day if
it were not necessary," said Helen, seriously; but she remembered a note
in her diary, written in the days of their long march.

"It's necessary, sure enough, or they wouldn't have a shingle laid
before the flood comes. But the funny part of it is that the boys should
put on their best lick to-day. I reckon that speech of the Colonel's did
the bizness. If I'd been one of them, I'd ha' done my best, too."

For some time Latimer stood beside the little stove without further
comment, and Helen resumed her writing.

"Say, Mrs. Manning!" he exclaimed at last.yet."

"What about doors and windows?"

"They will cut holes in the sides to-day, and put them in afterwards."

"What a ninny I am not to think of it! How hard the men work!"

"Yes; this house, too, has to be up to-night, and made ready for
shingles as well."

"Oh, if the rain would only keep off!"

"Yes, that would be grand. In the meantime we are all doing our best."

Some men were splitting pine logs into slabs and hewing them down for
roof planks, and already they were being laid on the rafters of Helen's
house. Others were preparing shingles, chinking walls and cutting
apertures. Doorways, jamways, chimneys, were all being made. Every one
was busy.

By the next afternoon much had been accomplished. Each man's coat was
off--work was unabated--no rain had fallen--but heavy clouds covered the
sky--and Bateese's