She could easily have put this question to Tuvvy, but Maisie seldom asked questions. She had a habit of turning things over in her own little mind, and wrapping fancies round them, until she had quite a collection of strange objects in her small world. She would have missed these very much, if they had been exposed to daylight and turned into facts, and in this she was quite different from Dennis; he always wanted to know the reason why, and to have the meaning of things made quite clear to him.
She was not left long, however, to wonder about the big machine, for Tuvvy, giving a sudden wag of his head towards it, said: “The elevator’s my next job, soon as hay harvest’s over. Wants a lick o’ paint.”
“How jolly!” exclaimed Dennis, turning towards it with admiration and envy. “I say, won’t it just take a lot of paint! What a jolly job!”
“I wish you had it then, master,” said Tuvvy grimly. “’Tain’t the sort as pleases me. It don’t give you no credit when it’s done, and the paint splashes you awful. It’s what I call a reg’lar comical sort of a job.”
“I should like it,” said Dennis with deep conviction, still staring at the elevator. “What colour shall you paint it?”
“Gaffer said ’twas to be a sort of a yaller,” said Tuvvy; “but it don’t make much odds. There, master,” he continued, as he finished his planing, “that’s what you want, and I’ll stop to-morrow as I pass, and give a look at the perches.”
Dennis would gladly have stayed much longer to go fully into the painting of the elevator, and other like subjects; but he had been warned not to take up much of Tuvvy’s time, so he unwillingly started home with Maisie, clutching his piece of wood under his arm. Until they reached the village, he was so lost in thought that he did not utter a word, but then, coming to a sudden standstill, he exclaimed: “Why shouldn’t we paint the jackdaws’ house!”
Maisie was struck by the brilliancy of the idea. She stopped too, and gazed at Dennis with admiration.
“It would be splendid,” she said. “Do you think Aunt Katharine would let me help?”
“Why, of course,” said Dennis; “it’s quite a different thing from using tools. Any one can paint!”