"Captain's forgetting Sundays." said I.

"That's true," said he. "Well, that makes it over the average. Had any
trouble at all with the tools? Is the saw all right?"

"Quite all right."

"And nobody hurt?"

"No."

Pause.

"You ought by rights to provide your own food," he said, "but if you would
rather have it the other way, we can square it when we come to settle up."


"We'll be glad to have it as Captain thinks best."

"Yes," agreed Falkenberg as well.

The Captain took a turn up through the wood and came back again.

"Couldn't have better weather," he said. "No snow to shovel away."

"No, there's no snow--that's true; but a little more frost'd do no harm."

"Why? Cooler to work in d'you mean?"

"That, too, perhaps; yes. But the saw cuts easier when timber's frozen."