"Am I? What are my ribs?" "These bones." And the foreman stooped and ran his finger quickly down David's ribs, and David shrieked with laughter. "Tickles," said David. "Show me my ribs again." "It isn't good for little boys to be tickled too much," said the foreman. "Now we'll go over to the sand-pile for a while. I don't want to take you into the house until they get the frame all up and some floors down. It isn't safe." So they turned around and went to the sand-pile, and the foreman stayed there a little while and played in the sand. Then he had to go away; and the mortar man had gone away, and nobody was there but David and his cat. And David thought that he would help the mortar man, so he filled his cart with sand and dragged it over to the mortar box and shoveled it in. Then he took up the handle of his cart, and he called his cat, and he walked along to his house, dragging his cart. And his shovel rattled in the bottom of it, and his cat ran on before him. But he had forgotten his hoe. It was in the pile of sand. And that's all of this story. V THE WATER-MEN STORY Once upon a time there was a little boy and he was almost five years old. And there weren't any other children near for him to play with, so he used to play happily all by himself. He had his cat and his cart and his shovel and his hoe, and he always wore his overalls when he was playing. And his name was David. They were building a house in a field near David's house; and, one morning, he heard a curious sound, and he wondered what they were doing, and he asked his mother. "Mother," he said, "what are they doing? What are they? It sounds as if they were pickaxing the dirt." His mother laughed. "Well," she answered, "perhaps they are. I don't know what they are doing. I think you'll have to go and see." "Think I'll have to go and see," David repeated; "but I'll have my breakfast first." So he had his breakfast first, and he hurried a little because he wanted to know what the noise was. And when he was through his breakfast he took off his napkin and slipped down from his chair and went around to kiss his mother. His father had gone off to town in the early train. "Good-bye," said David. "Good-bye, dear," said his mother. "Be very careful." He nodded. "Yes, I will." He was going out, but he stopped. "I don't hear it now, mother. I don't hear the noise. Do you suppose they've stopped doing it?" "If you go right along over there, I think you'll find out about it." So the little boy went out, and he picked up his shovel, but he couldn't find his hoe. And he put his shovel into his cart, and took up the handle of the cart, and his cat came running, and he went toward the new house, dragging his cart behind him with his shovel rattling in the bottom of it. His cat ran on ahead. Long before he got as far as the house, he saw some men's heads bob up in the middle of the road; heads without any bodies to them.