When they left, Ethan said, “He’s not the kind of man I thought would be living way out here. He’s still just a boy with bookish ways and doesn’t look strong enough to cut down a tree. I doubt that he’ll make a go of it.”

Epsey noticed that he hadn’t mentioned Mavis, but didn’t comment on this. She replied, “Well, I think they’ll be good neighbors. In any case, we need to help them all we can. I’ve got some things we can do without, and I’ll get them ready to carry over when the time comes.”

Ethan gave up his hunting for the next few days, ran his trapline as quickly as possible, and spent almost all of his time at his shaving horse and forge. Then, without waiting for a call from Kindred, he and Epsey loaded two new chairs, a small table, a churn, and a set of fireplace fixtures on their wagon and rode over to join their neighbors. They were surprised at how much work had been done and how precisely the rock foundation had been laid and the logs cut and notched. Even the ceiling joists and rafters were ready for assembly. Kindred was splitting three-foot-long pine shingles with a froe when they arrived, while Mavis was whittling locust pegs for fixing the joists to the top wall plate and tying the door and window frames to the wall logs.

Ethan said, “I don’t see how you did this much in advance. I would have had to measure and cut the logs one by one as I put them up.”

Kindred, pleased and somewhat embarrassed, replied, “Well, Mavis just made a careful drawing of what we learned at your house, and it was not hard to figure out what we would need. In fact, she cut all the dovetails, mostly with a saw and adze, while I dragged the logs up to the house site with the oxen.”

Each day after that, Ethan rode his horse over to the Morris place and worked with them to erect the small house. It was finished within two weeks.

•  •  •