“Bright, come under.”
He also observed how readily they obeyed the motion of the goad, and handled the cart just as they were directed.
“I never thought a bullock knew anything, but they seem to know as much as horses,” said James.
“Yes, just as much.”
Having ground their axes—with grandfather in the cart—they started, and when they came to the wood the oxen were unyoked to go where they pleased.
“Won’t they run away?” said James.
“No, they saw the axes in the cart and know what we are going to do; you see they don’t offer to start. The very first tree we fell, if it is hard wood or hemlock, they’ll come to browse the limbs. They love to browse dearly, and all day they won’t go farther than a spring there is near, to drink.”
They now began to cut the trees, and the moment the cattle heard the sound of the axes they came running to the spot.
“What did I tell you?” said Bertie. “They know what the sound of an axe means, just as I know when I come home from school and see mother look into the oven, or reach her hand up on the top shelf, she’s got something good laid away for me.”
A road was first cleared, and then the trees were cut into lengths of sixteen feet, and rolled up in piles on the sides of the road.