Rollo went on, down the green lane, till he came to the turn-stile, and
then went through into the field. He then followed a winding path until
he came to the edge of the trees, and there stopped to listen.
He heard the brook gurgling along over the stones, and that was all at
first; but presently he began to hear the strokes of an axe. He called
out as loud as he could,
“Jonas! Jonas!”
But Jonas did not hear.
Then he walked along the edge of the woods till he came nearer the
place where he heard the axe. He found here a little opening among the
trees and bushes, so that he could look in. He saw the brook, and over
beyond it, on the opposite bank, was Jonas, cutting down a small tree.
So Rollo walked on until he came to the brook, and then asked Jonas how
he should get over. The brook was pretty wide and deep.
Jonas said, if he would wait a few minutes, he would build him a
bridge.
“_You_ cannot build a bridge,” said Rollo.
“Wait a little and see.”
So Rollo sat down on a mossy bank, and Jonas, having cut down the small
tree, began to work on a larger one that stood near the bank.
After he had cut a little while, Rollo asked him why he did not begin
the bridge.
“I am beginning it,” said he.
Rollo laughed at this, but in a minute Jonas called to him to stand
back, away from the bank; and then, after a few strokes more, the top
of the tree began to bend slowly over, and then it fell faster and
faster, until it came down with a great crash, directly across the
brook.
“There!” said Jonas, “there is your bridge.”
Rollo looked at it with astonishment and pleasure.
“Now,” said Jonas, “I will come and help you over.”
“No,” said Rollo, “I can come over myself. I can take hold of the
branches for a railing.”
So Rollo began to climb along the stem of the tree, holding on
carefully by the branches. When he reached the middle of the stream, he
stopped to look down into the water.
“This is a capital bridge of yours, Jonas,” said he. “How beautiful the
water looks down here! O, I see a little fish! He is swimming along by
a great rock. Now he is standing perfectly still. O, Jonas, come and
see him.”
“No,” said Jonas, “I must mind my work.”
After a little time, Rollo went carefully on over the bridge, and sat
down on the bank of the brook. But he did not have with him the parcel
his mother gave him. He had left it on the other side.
After he had watched the fishes, and thrown pebble-stones into the
brook some time, he began to be tired, and he asked Jonas what he had
better do.
“I think you had better build a wigwam.”
“A wigwam? What is a wigwam?” said Rollo.
“It is a little house made of bushes such as the Indians live in.”
“O, I could not make a house,” said Rollo.
“I think you could if I should tell you how, and help you a little.”
“But you say _you_ must mind your work.”
“Yes,—I can mind my work and tell you at the same time.”
Rollo thought he should like to build a wigwam very much. Jonas told
him the first thing to be done was to find a good place, where the
ground was level. Rollo looked at a good many places, but at last chose
a smooth spot under a great oak tree, which Jonas said he was not going
to cut down. It was near a beautiful turn in the brook, where the water
was very deep.
Jonas told him that the first thing was to make a little stake, and
drive it down in the middle of his wigwam-ground. Then Rollo
recollected that he had left his hatchet over on the other side of the
brook, together with the parcel his mother gave him; and he was going
over to get them, when Jonas told him he would trim up the bridge a
little, and then he could go over more easily.
So Jonas went upon the bridge, and began to cut away the branches that
were in the way, leaving enough on each side to take hold of, and to
keep Rollo from falling in. Rollo could then go back and forth easily.
He held on with one hand, and carried his hatchet in the other. Then he
went over again, and brought his parcel, and laid it down near the
great oak tree.
Then he made a little stake, and drove it down in the middle of the
wigwam-ground. Then he asked Jonas what he must do next.
“That is the centre of your wigwam; now you must strike a circle around
it.”
“What?” said Rollo.
“Don’t you know how to strike a circle?” said Jonas.
Rollo said he did not, and then Jonas told him to do exactly as he
should say, and that would show him.
“First,” said Jonas, “have you got a string?”
Rollo felt in his pockets in vain, but he recollected his little
parcel, which was tied with a piece of twine, and held it up to ask
Jonas if that would do. Jonas said it would, and told him to take it
off carefully, and tie one end of it to his centre stake.
And Rollo did so.
“Now,” said Jonas, “make another little sharp stake for the marker, and
tie the other end of the twine to that, near the sharp end.”
Rollo worked busily for some time, and then called out,
“Jonas, it is done.”
All this time, Jonas was at work in the bushes, at a little distance.
He now came to Rollo’s wigwam-ground, and took hold of the marker, and
held it off as far from the middle stake as it would go, and then began
to make a mark on the ground all around the middle stake. Now, as the
marker was tied to the middle stake by the string, the mark was equally
distant from the middle stake in every part, and that made it exactly
round. Then Jonas laid down the marker, and pulled out the middle
stake; and they looked down and saw that there was a round mark on the
ground, about as large as a cart-wheel.
Then Jonas took the crowbar, and made deep holes all around, in this
circle, so far apart that Rollo could just step from one to the other.
But Rollo could not understand how he could make a house so.
“I will tell you,” said Jonas. “You must now go and get some large
branches of trees, and trim off the twigs from the lower end, and stick
them down in these, holes. I will show you how.”
So Jonas took a large bough, and trimmed the large end, and sharpened
it a little, and then he fixed it down in one of these holes, in such a
manner that the top of it bent over towards the middle of the circle;
then he went back to his work, leaving Rollo to go on with the wigwam.