There were two kinds of white paint, one kind for the outside of the house and another for the inside.
And there were all the kinds of brushes that the painters would need, and there were great bundles of cloth, which the painters would spread over the floors, so that the nice clean floors shouldn't get all spattered with paint; and there were some odds and ends besides.
And the painters came, and they took the things all off the wagon.
Of course, the carpenters had some ladders that would reach, but those were the carpenters' ladders, not the painters'; and the carpenters had some boards, but those were the carpenters' boards, not the painters'.
That is why the painters had brought boards and ladders.
David had gone on the train with his father and his mother, that morning, but the painters didn't know about him, so they kept right on with their work.
The foreman was there, and he was sorry that David wasn't there to see what the painters were doing, but he knew that David would see them before they were through with their work.
The wagon was unloaded, and some of the painters went inside the house, to paint the parts that had to be painted in there; and some of the painters got ready to paint the outside of the house.
And they took thick pieces of board, and bored a hole in the middle, and they nailed those pieces of board on the roof, near the edge.
And they put the great enormous hooks up there, with the pointed ends in the holes in the boards, and the other ends hanging over the edge of the roof, over the gutter and the eaves.