“We can throw a sort of suspension bridge across the stream,” said the Old Soldier, who was quite an engineer. “It will take us about a day and a half to do the work, but we will save time, for it would take fully two or three days to march to a place where we could cross without a bridge.”
The war council thought the Old Soldier’s idea a good one and the General ordered the men to start work at once. Pulleys and ropes were brought out of the army wagons and some big logs for supports were cut from a bush near by. Several cattails, which grew near the stream, were sawed up into logs for the floor of the bridge. The bird airplane carried the workmen and ropes to the other side of the stream, where work was soon started on a bridge fifty-two Teenie Weenie feet long.
Chapter Eight
A BADLY FRIGHTENED ARMY
It took a lot of hard work to build the big bridge. Every single Teenie Weenie worked with might and main. Even the mice who pulled the wagons and cannon, helped the work along by dragging the heavy logs up to the place where the bridge was being built.
The little army was a full day and a half building the bridge and when the task was finished the wagons were loaded, the mice hitched to them, and led by the General, the army marched safely across the bridge.
A big squirrel who lived in a tree near by was hired to watch the bridge.
“We may want to get across this stream in a hurry,” the General told the squirrel. “If the wild men should push us back to this stream, and the bridge is destroyed, we certainly will be in a pretty pickle.”
“I’ll guard it with my life,” answered the squirrel, who had been promised ten sunflower seeds and four hickory nuts for his work.