So he just watched; and he saw another man come, and he had a shovel, and he spread around the dirt in the heap that the cart had just dumped until it was pretty even and smooth. And the horse came, bringing another load, and that was dumped, and the man spread that around with his shovel. David went nearer, and the man saw him. "Are you going to plant some little trees?" David asked. "We're going to sow grass seed here," the man answered, "when this is all covered with loam." Then another load of loam came, and he was busy with his shovel, and David went back to watch the other men plant trees. They were planting more little Christmas trees near that first one, five trees in a kind of a clump, and David watched them dig the holes and put the trees in, and spread the roots about, and put dirt on them, and stamp the dirt down hard, and put the water in. And when the Christmas trees were all planted, they put another kind at the back corner of the house. Then they went to the front corner of the house, and one of them said that there was the place for the lilac bushes. And he got the lilac bushes and cut off a part of the roots while the other men were digging the holes, and they planted the lilac bushes in the holes, but they didn't do it so carefully as they had with the other kinds of trees. And when they had the holes filled up and the water turned off, and the planting of lilac bushes all finished, they stopped and leaned on their shovels and looked around, to see what else they had to do. The loam was all over the yellow dirt, and the last load was just being spread around. So some of the men went to get the grass seed. That grass seed was in green bags. And they took up bags of grass seed and began walking slowly along over the ground, and they took up handfuls of the grass seed and scattered it in the air so that it fell evenly over the ground. And they sowed the seed all among the trees they had just planted, and all over the smooth dirt, and wherever they wanted the grass to grow; but they didn't sow it in the paths. Then two other men came, and they were dragging a great heavy stone roller behind them. It was so heavy that the two men had to walk very slowly, each dragging it by one handle. And they went to and fro over the ground where the grass seed had been sown, and they rolled it down smooth and hard and shiny. Before the roller men had got through, the others had gone and put on their coats and gathered up their tools; and David knew that they were through their work. So he went where he had left his cart, and he looked for the pretend little boy, but he had gone away, and David couldn't find him. And he looked for his cat, and he couldn't see her either. So he took up the handle of his cart, and he walked along to his house, dragging his cart, with his shovel and his hoe and the chestnuts all rattling together in the bottom of it. And that's all. XII THE POLE-MEN STORY