“I did,” said he. “What shall I do?”
“Then please nail these poles to the end of the canoe. They’re about six feet high, aren’t they?”
“Yes. Do you want them sticking straight up into the air?”
“Straight up, please,” she said.
“Billy’s flying around in the town like a hen with its head cut off,” said Tom as he proceeded to do what his sister asked, “trying to buy something he won’t tell about. And I found Louise and Helen up at Camp Karonya, winding tinsel into balls like fury. Strikes me you ought to share that five you won’t get with the whole crowd of us.”
“So I will when I get it,” said Winona serenely. “Now will you please brace those end-poles thoroughly, and nail cross-pieces on them about a foot from the top?”
“It’s easy to tell people how to do things,” said Tom; but he was clever at carpentering, and had it done in a very short time.
Then Winona took the copper wire she had bought, and strung it from end to end of the cross-pieces, till the effect was something like that of a half-done cat’s cradle. Then she stood off and looked at her work, walking round and round it, as a kitten looks at a mirror.
“That wire ought to bear about twenty pounds, don’t you think?” she asked.
“I don’t see why not,” said Tom, sitting down on the grass to watch her.