And they got a great thick board, and they put one end of the board on top of the bottom stones which they had just put in the trench, and they put the other end of the board on the ground in front of the stone which they had been hammering, and they rolled the stone slowly up the board until it came to the end. And they rolled it off the end upon the bottom stones, and got it into its place with their crowbars. And where it did not fit well enough, they put in thin, flat pieces that they picked up from the ground. The man who knelt on one knee at the edge of the cellar told the little boy about it as the men worked. And, when the men had put in the little flat pieces of stone, one of them looked up and smiled at the little boy and said that they called the thin, flat pieces "chocks." "Not woodchucks," he said, "but just chocks." The little boy smiled and nodded. He had never seen a woodchuck, but there was a picture of one in his animal-book. It wasn't a very good picture. "I guess," he said, "that they are stone-chucks." All the men who heard him laughed. And they went to work again, and the little boy turned to the man who was holding him. "I've got to go now," he said, "and play in that pile of sand." "All right," said the man. "You play there just as long as you want to." So the little boy went over to the man who was hoeing the white stuff. It wasn't so white as it had been and it was thicker, just about like nice mud. And his cat came up from somewhere. The little boy didn't know where she had been, but he didn't pay any attention to her. He just stood and watched the man. "What are you making?" he asked at last. "I'm making mortar," the man said. "They put it in the cracks of the wall, to hold it together." "Oh," said the little boy. "Well, would you like to have me help you?" "You might bring me a load of sand," said the man, "if you want to. I shall have to put in more sand." So the little boy went to his cart, and he threw out his hoe. He wasn't careful where he threw it, and the handle of the hoe hit the cat. And the cat ran home as fast as she could go. But the little boy didn't know it, he was so busy. [Illustration: MAKING MORTAR] And he backed the cart up to the sand-pile, and he took his shovel and shoveled sand into the cart until the man said that was enough. Then he took hold of the handle and pulled. It was heavier than he thought it would be, but he pulled it over to the box of mortar. It was only a few steps. Then the man told him to shovel it in, a little at a time. And the little boy shoveled it in slowly, and he felt very proud, for he was helping to make real mortar. And he kept on shoveling until the man said that was enough. The man hoed the mortar for a few minutes, and then he took up a queer-looking thing that he said was his hod. It was made of two boards that were put together like a V with the point down; and another board was nailed across one end, but the other end was left open.