So David dropped the handle of his cart and the foreman took hold of his hand, and they went up the steps and into the house.
The partition walls between the rooms weren't all done, and David could see right through them in some places into the next room.
And the foreman and David went through the place that would be the front hall when it was done, with the front stairs going up out of it; and some carpenters were working there now and there was a great mess.
"What are the carpenters doing?" David asked.
"They're nailing on laths, Davie," the foreman answered. "Laths, you see, are the little thin sticks that go on the up-and-down sticks of the walls, and the plaster goes on them and squeezes between them. Then, when it hardens, the part that is between the laths holds the rest of the plaster up and against the wall."
David nodded, but they were in the back hall now, with the back stairs going up out of it, and he forgot the carpenters and the laths.
Under the back stairs were some stairs that went down to the cellar, and the foreman started down.
"Be careful of the steps, Davie," said the foreman. "They have to have these rough boards on them now, while the workmen are here, so that the real steps won't get all dirty and worn. When the men are almost through, about the last thing they do is to lay floors and put nice boards on the stairs."
David couldn't see very well, but he could feel that the boards of the stairs were uneven and rough, and some of them were small; but he was careful, and he went slowly, and at last he was on the cellar floor.
Far off in the very end of the cellar he saw a lantern lighted, and a flickering light which moved about, high up.