Page:Salem - a tale of the seventeenth century (IA taleseventeenth00derbrich).pdf/142

 "Te-hee! te-hee! Winny, ole gal, hammer an' saw—hammer an' saw—te-hee! tehee!"

"Lord sake, yes! Yer'd want hammer an' saw—ob course yer wud; but if yer had dem, kin yer do it?"

"Te-hee! te-hee! Winny, yes—yes, I kin, I kin. I'll make hen-coop fas' enuff."

"Werry well, den; I'll fin' yer all dem tings. Take off yer jacket, ole man, an' 'rouse dat are ole barr'l ob soap ober dis way, an' put it here. Do yer see, nigger?—put it here."

Certainly the old man's strength had not diminished with his size. He moved the barrel with the greatest apparent ease, and placed it according to orders, and then shoveled away the ashes from the proposed site of the new partition; and by the time these two jobs were completed, Winny had mustered the necessary boards, nails, hammer, and saw. It was amusing to Alice to see the professional earnestness of the old man, as he bent the saw in his withered hands to test its temper, and tried its teeth upon his own broad thumb; and, there being no fault