Rollo laid down the measuring-board on the snow, and then both of them, with the shovels, cut down the snow perpendicularly along the edges, so as to have all the snow-blocks of precisely the same length, breadth, and thickness. These they laid in courses, on the top of the foundation.
It took just three blocks to form a side, excepting the side where the door was, which they left three feet wide.
After working more than two hours, and laying two courses, they shoveled out all the broken snow that remained inside, and then sat down on the sled to eat their luncheon and rest.
"How do you like the looks of it, Rollo?" said Oliver.
"Well," said Rollo; "only I don't see how we can make a roof."
"Jonas will help us do that," said Oliver, "if we do the rest of the work well."
The boys, however, were now pretty tired. They had worked very hard. They pulled off their caps, and with their handkerchiefs wiped the perspiration from their foreheads.
"Don't let us work any longer now," said Nathan, rubbing his hands, and knocking one foot against the other. "I think we have done enough for one day; and my feet are so cold!"
"We've done enough!" said Oliver. "I think Rollo and I have had the principal doing to do. You and Franco have been looking on."
"'What you've to do
Get done to-day,
And do not for to-morrow stay;
There's always danger in delay'—