“I’ll go over and take a look at the store,” announced Mr. Martin. “There’s wood already cut for the fire,” he said.
“We’ll attend to things,” said Mrs. Martin. “Just bring in the food from the auto and we’ll soon have a meal ready.”
Mr. Martin and Ted brought in the baskets of victuals that had been brought along, and then the Curlytop boy and his father, with Trouble trailing after them, went toward the building that soon was to be made into a store for the lumbermen to trade at. Janet remained in the bungalow to help her mother and Lucy.
Mr. Martin had a key to the store building and, opening it, he and the boys went inside. All there was to be seen now were empty shelves and counters.
“But this will be a busy place in a few days,” said Mr. Martin. “If those men were here now I could put them to opening the boxes and barrels. Maybe they’ll come after dinner.”
He went outside to count how many boxes and barrels there were piled up around the steps of the store, and while he was doing this Ted and Trouble roamed about the clearing in the woods where the different buildings were put up. Some were for the men to sleep in, another was a kitchen, where food would be prepared, and at the sight of one large building, with a smoke stack sticking through the roof, Ted cried:
“Oh, is that the sawmill?”
“That’s the sawmill,” his father answered. “But you must never go in there unless I am with you. It’s dangerous.”
“Couldn’t we go with mother?” Ted wanted to know.
“Well, yes, with your mother. But there is a very big saw in there to cut up the logs, and it would not only cut off your finger, if you got too close, but it would do worse. So keep away!”