“Make some new wheels, and take some of the men and begin hauling the hides. We must have them down there by the time the ship comes.”
Docas told Oshda to make the wheels, so Oshda went back to his house and got an axe. He lived in an adobe house now. It had two rooms below and a garret above, and a garden fenced in behind where he kept chickens.
“Where are you going and what are you going to do?” asked Pantu, his little brother.
“I am going to cut down an oak tree to make some new wheels for the cart. Do you want to come along?”
Of course Pantu wanted to come along, and he was soon skipping by Oshda’s side. Oshda took such long steps that Pantu had to run part of the time to keep up with him.
They had to walk quite a distance from the Mission before they found a tree that they liked. It was about two feet through.
Oshda began chopping at the tree, while Pantu played about among the trees near by. Pantu played that he was a woodpecker and pecked away at the trunks of the trees. After he had pecked awhile, he stooped down, picked up an acorn, and stuck it into a little crack in the back of the oak tree. He pressed it in hard, so that it had to stick. So he ran from tree to tree.
After a while Oshda had chopped his tree almost through. At last the tree began to tremble and crack. He stepped back to see which way it was going.
As he did so he saw Pantu make a sudden dart across where the tree was going to fall. Pantu was not looking where he was going.
“Look out, Pantu!” Oshda called.