"Just wait a minute, Davie, until I get these checked up."
So David waited a long time, but the wagon was unloaded at last, and the little book put in the foreman's pocket.
"Now, Davie," the foreman said, "what was it that you were asking me?"
"I was asking what are these," said David, putting his hand on a bundle of the shiny boards.
"Those are clapboards, Davie."
The foreman stooped down and pointed to the house.
"You see they have begun to put them on the outside of the walls of the house, but we had to have some more. You see that one edge of a clapboard is thin and the other edge is thick."
He pulled one of the clapboards from a bundle and showed David.
"The thick edges go over the thin edges, very much like shingles, and they keep the rain and the wind out. You know about shingles?"
David nodded doubtfully.