“How do you know?” asked Janet.
“’Cause he wasn’t lame,” answered her brother. “I watched him walk along on the log ’fore he picked up my knife and he didn’t limp a bit.”
“Maybe it was Mr. Jenk’s lame, tame crow,” persisted Janet, “but maybe he got well after he flew off to the woods, and maybe he’s here now.”
Ted shook his head in doubt.
“This is too far away for Mr. Jenk’s crow to come,” he said. “And he couldn’t get well. He was lame from a broken leg and Mr. Jenk said Jim would always be lame like he was ’cause one leg was shorter than the other.”
“Oh,” murmured Janet. “Well, anyhow, I’m glad he didn’t take your knife.”
“So’m I,” agreed Teddy.
There were now busy times at Mount Major; at least for Mr. Martin, as he must watch over and tell the two men, Jack and Henry, as they called themselves, about putting the groceries and merchandise away on the shelves. In another day or two the lumbermen would arrive and there would be more busy scenes in the woods where the Curlytops were spending their vacation.
By the time the boxes and barrels of supplies had been unpacked and placed on the shelves, some of the lumbermen arrived. There were men who chopped down the great trees, other men who piled them on skids and wagons and hauled them to the lake or river, where they were sent down long slides, or chutes, then to be floated to the mill.
In parts of the woods too far from the water, the logs were carted to the mill on wagons and piled up outside to wait for the sawmill to cut them into lumber.