"You'll soon see, and then to-morrow you will say, 'How can Mrs. Sherwood sleep on feathers when these kind of beds are so cheap and convenient!'"
"Oh, I know! It's for bedding!" cried Elena.
"I bet you've read some of White's books, haven't you?" said Zan, whose brothers were in love with White's wood stories.
"Better not talk so much and work more—darkness will catch up before our beds are made," warned the Guide, cutting without a pause.
Finally, every one was laden with branches, and soon the plateau was reached and Miss Miller sought for a place where the ground was comparatively level. Here she threw the greens.
"Now watch me weave a spring bed," said she, sitting down a sort her branches, long, medium and short pieces.
She laid a row of long pieces of spruce with the tender soft green tips directly away from her. This she made about four feet wide, with the hard ends of the wood facing her. Upon this, lapping about two feet, she laid another row—then another, until the bed was about six feet long. She then placed the next layer on top but turned the ends the opposite way, managing to run the hard wood in and under the first layer. The second layer was laid of shorter branches. The third layer was laid of still shorter ones, without much hard wood to cover. What there was was run under the soft ends of the second layer so that not a bid of wood could be seen or felt. Done, she stood up and admired the bed.
"One of you girls throw yourself down—test it!"
Two or three followed the suggestion at once and each one sighed with blissful anticipation of the night's rest.
"Isn't it soft!" cried Elena.