THE HOUSE RAISING
The sun was scarcely up in the morning when Eleanor turned out and
aroused the girls.
"We've got to get our own breakfast out of the way in a hurry, girls,"
she said, "When country people say early, they mean early--EARLY! And we
want to have coffee and cakes ready for these good friends of ours when
they do come. A good many of them will come from a long way off and I
think they'll all be glad to have a little something extra before they
start work. It won't hurt us a bit to think so, and act accordingly
anyhow."
So within half an hour the Pratts and the Camp Fire Girls had had their
own breakfasts, the dishes were washed, and great pots of coffee were
boiling on the fires that had been built. And, just as the fragrant
aroma arose on the cool air, the first of the teams that brought the
workers came in sight, with jovial Jud Harkness driving.
"My, but that coffee smells good, Miss Mercer!" he roared. "Say, I'm not
strong for all these city fixin's in the way of food. Plain home cookin'
serves me well enough, but there's one thing where you sure do lay all
over us, and that's in makin' coffee. Give me a mug of that, Mis' Pratt,
an' I'll start work."
And from the way in which the coffee and the cakes, the latter spread
with good maple syrup from trees that grew near Cranford, began to
disappear, it was soon evident that Eleanor had made no mistake, and
that the breakfast that she had had prepared for the workers would by no
means be wasted.
"It does me good to see you men eat this way," she said, laughing.
"That's one thing we don't do properly in the city--eat. We peck at a
lot of things, instead of eating a few plain ones, and a lot of them.
And I'll bet that you men will work all the harder for this extra
breakfast."
"Just you watch and see!" bellowed Jud. "I'm boss here to-day, ma'am,
and I tell you I'm some nigger driver. Ain't I, boys?"
But he accompanied the threat with a jovial wink, and it was easy to see
that these men liked and respected him, and were only too willing to
look up to him as a leader in the work of kindness in which they were
about to engage.
"I don't know why all you boys are so good to me, Jud," said Mrs. Pratt,
brokenly. "I can't begin to find words to thank you, even."
"Don't try, Mis' Pratt," said Jud, looking remarkably fierce, though he
was winking back something that looked suspiciously like a tear. "I
guess we ain't none of us forgot Tom Pratt--as good a friend as men ever
had! Many's the time he's done kind things for all of us! I guess it'd
be pretty poor work if some of his friends couldn't turn out to help his
wife and kids when they're in trouble."
"He knows what you're doing, I'm sure of that," she answered. "And God
will reward you, Jud Harkness!"
Heartily as the men ate, however, they spent little enough time at the
task. Jud Harkness allowed them what he thought was a reasonable time,
and then he arose, stretched his great arms, and roared out his
commands.
"Come on, now, all hands to work!" he bellowed. "We've got to get all
this rubbish cleared out, then we'll have clean decks for building."
And they fell to with a will. In a surprisingly short space of time the
men who had plunged into the ruined foundations of the house had torn
out the remaining beams and rafters, and had flung the heap of rubbish
that filled the cellar on to the level ground. While some of the men did
this, others piled the rubbish on to wagons, and it was carted away and
dumped. The fire, however, had really lightened their task for them.
"That fire was so hot and so fierce," said Eleanor, as she watched them
working, "that there's less rubbish, than if the things had been only
half burned."
"I've seen fires in the city," said Margery, "or, at least, houses after
a fire. And it really looked worse than this, because there'd be a whole
lot of things that had started to burn. Then the firemen came along, to
put out the fire, and, though the things weren't really any good, they
had to be carted away."
"Yes, but this fire made a clean sweep wherever it started at all. Ashes
are easier to handle than sticks and half ruined pieces of furniture. As
long as it had to come, I guess it's a good thing that it was such a hot
blaze."
The work of clearing away, therefore, which had to be done, of course,
before any actual building could be begun, was soon accomplished.
"We're going to build just the way Tom Pratt did," said Jud Harkness. He
was the principal carpenter and builder of Lake Dean, and a master
workman. Many of the camps and cottages on the lake had been built by
him, and he was, therefore, accustomed to such work.
"You mean you're going to put up a square house?" said Eleanor.
"Yes, ma'am, just a square house, with a hall running right through from
the front to the back, and an extension in the rear for a kitchen--just
a shack, that will be. Two floors--two rooms on each side of the hall on
each floor. That'll give them eight rooms to start with, beside the
kitchen."
"That'll be fine, and it will really be the easiest thing to do, too."
"That's what we're figuring, ma'am. You see, it'll be just as it was
when Tom Pratt first built here, except that he only put up one story at
first. Then, as Mis' Pratt gets things going again, she can add to it,
and if she don't get along as fast as she expects, why, we'll lend her a
hand whenever she needs it."
"How on earth could you get all the lumber you need ready so quickly?
That's one thing I couldn't understand. The work is not so difficult to
manage, of course. But the wood--that's what's been puzzling me."
Jud grinned.
"Well, the truth is, ma'am, I expect to have a little argument about
that yet with a city chap that's building a house on the lake. I've got
the job of putting it up for him, and if it hadn't been for this fire
coming along, I'd have started work day before yesterday."
"Oh, and this is the lumber for his house?"
"You guessed it right, ma'am! He'll be wild, I do believe, because
there's no telling when I'll get the next lot of lumber through."
"You say the fire stopped you from going ahead with his house?"
"Yes. You see all of us had to turn out when it got so near to Cranford.
My house is safe, I do believe. I'm mighty scared of fire, ma'am, and
I've always figured on having things fixed so's a fire would have a
pretty hard time reaching my property. But of course I had to jump in
to help my neighbors--wouldn't be much profit about having the only
house left standing in town, would there?"
Eleanor laughed.
"I guess not!" she said. "But what a lucky thing for Mrs. Pratt that you
happened to have just the sort of wood she needed!"
"Oh, well, we'd have managed somehow. Of course, it makes it easier, but
we'd have juggled things around some way, even if this chap's plans
didn't fit her foundations. As it happens, though, they do. Old Tom
Pratt had a mighty well-built house here."
"Well, I'm quite sure that just as good a one is going up in its place."
Jud Harkness watched the work of getting out the last of the rubbish.
Then he went over to the cleared foundations, and in a moment he was
putting up the first of the four corner posts, great beams that looked
stout enough to hold up a far bigger house than the one they were to
support.
All morning the work went on merrily. As Eleanor had predicted, and
Bessie, too, there was plenty for the girls to do. The sun grew hotter
and hotter, and the men were glad of the cooling drinks that were so
liberally provided for them.
"This is fine!" said Jud Harkness, as he quaffed a great drink of
lemonade, well iced. "My, but it's a pleasure to work when it's made so
nice for you! I tell you, having these cool drinks here is worth an
extra hour's work, morning and afternoon. And what's that--just the
nails I want? I'll give you a job as helper, young woman!"
That remark was addressed to Bessie, who flushed with pleasure at the
thought that she was playing a part, however small, in the building of
the house. And, indeed, the girls all did their part, and their help was
royally welcomed by the men.
Quickly the skeleton of the house took form, and by noon, when work was
to be knocked off for an hour, the whole framework was up.
"I simply wouldn't have believed it, if I hadn't seen it with my own
eyes!" said Eleanor. "It's the most wonderful thing I ever saw!"
"Oh, shucks!" said Jud, embarrassed by such, praise. "There's lots of
us--I don't think we've done so awful well. But it does look kind of
nice, don't it?"
"It's going to be a beautiful house," said Mrs. Pratt. "And to think of
what the place looked like yesterday! Well, Jud Harkness, I haven't any
words to tell you what I really think, and that's all there is to it!"
For an hour or more Margery and her helpers had been busy at the big
fire. At Eleanor's suggestion two of the men had stopped work on the
house long enough to put up a rough, long table with benches at the
sides, and now the table was groaning with the fine dinner that Margery
had prepared.
"Good solid food--no fancy fixings!" Eleanor had decreed. "These men
burn up a tremendous lot of energy in work, and we've got to give them
good food to replace it. So we don't want a lot of trumpery things, such
as we like!"
She had enforced a literal obedience, too. There were great joints of
corned beef, red and savory; pots of cabbage, and huge mounds of boiled
potatoes. Pots of mustard were scattered along the table, and each man
had a pitcher of fine, fresh milk, and a loaf of bread, with plenty of
butter. And for dessert there was a luxury--the only fancy part of the
meal.
Eleanor had had a whispered conference with Tom Pratt early in the day,
as the result of which he had hitched up and driven into Cranford, to
return with two huge tubs of ice-cream. He had brought a couple of boxes
of cigars, too, and when the meal was over, and the men were getting out
their pipes, Eleanor had gone around among them.
"Try one of these!" she had urged. "I know they're good--and I know that
when men are working hard they enjoy a first-class smoke."
The cigars made a great hit.
"By Golly! There's nothing she don't think of, that Miss Mercer!" said
Jud Harkness appreciatively, as he lit up, and sent great clouds of blue
smoke in the air. "Boys, if we don't do a tiptop job on that house to
finish it off this afternoon we ought to be hung for a lot of ungrateful
skunks. Eh?"
There was a deep-throated shout of approval for that sentiment, and,
after a few minutes of rest, during which the cigars were enjoyed to the
utmost, Jud rose and once more sounded the call to work.
"I've heard men in the city say that after a heavy meal in the middle of
the day, they couldn't work properly in the afternoon," said Eleanor, as
she watched the men go about their work, each seeming to know his part
exactly. "It doesn't seem to be so with these men, though, does it? I
guess that in the city men who work in offices don't use their bodies
enough--they don't get enough exercise, and they eat as much as if they
did."
"I love cooking for men who enjoy their food the way these do," said
Margery happily. "They don't have to say it's good--they show they think
so by the way they eat. It's fine to think that people really enjoy what
you do. I don't care how hard I work if I think that."
"Well, you certainly had an appreciative lot of eaters to-day, Margery."
As the shadows lengthened and the sun began to go down toward the west
the house rapidly assumed the look it would have when it was finished. A
good deal of the work, of course, was roughly done. There was no
smoothing off of rough edges, but all that could be done later.
And then, as the end of the task drew near, so that the watchers on the
ground could see what the finished house would be like, Mrs. Pratt,
already overwhelmed by delight at the kindness of her neighbors, had a
new surprise that pleased and touched her, if possible, even more than
what had gone before. A new procession of wagons came into sight in the
road, and this time each was driven by a woman.
And what a motley collection of stuff they did bring, to be sure! Beds
and mattresses, bedding, chairs, tables, a big cook stove for the
kitchen, pots and pans, china and glass, knives and forks--everything
that was needed for the house.
"We just made a collection of all the things we could spare, Sarah
Pratt," said sprightly little Mrs. Harkness, a contrast indeed to her
huge husband, who could easily lift her with one hand, so small was she.
"They ain't much on looks, but they're all whole and clean, and you can
use them until you have a chance to stock up again. Now, don't you go
trying to thank us--it's nothing to do!"
"Nothing?" exclaimed Mrs. Pratt. "Sue Harkness, don't you dare say that!
Why, it means that I'll have a real home to-night for my children--we'll
be jest as comfortable as we were before the fire! I don't believe any
woman ever had such good neighbors before!"
Long before dark the house was finished, as far as it was to be finished
that day. And, as soon as the men had done their work, their wives and
the Camp Fire Girls descended on the new house with brooms and pails,
and soon all the shavings and the traces of the work had been banished.
Then all hands set to work arranging the furniture, and by the time
supper was ready the house was completely furnished.
"Well," said Eleanor, standing happily in the parlor, "this certainly
does look homelike!"
There was even an old parlor organ. Pictures were on the wall; a good
rag carpet was on the floor, and, while the furniture was not new, and
had seen plenty of hard service, it was still good enough to use. The
Pratt home had certainly risen like a Phoenix from its ashes. And tired
but happy, all those who had contributed to the good work sat down to a
bountiful supper.