So they went into the garden and started to build the house. First Charlie’s Daddy dug a trench, the size that the house was to be; this was to be the foundation so that the house should not blow over in a wind-storm. Charlie helped dig the trench also. It was very hard work digging the trench--it was such hard work that both Charlie and his Daddy were puffing and blowing before they had finished digging. But at last the trench was finished, and while they were both standing still to admire it Charlie’s Auntie came and called them in to supper.
So they both had to go in and change their clothes and eat their supper and, by the time that supper was over, it was too dark to work at the house any longer. Charlie did not like this at all, he said, “I do not want to stop for a single minute until the house is built.”
But his Daddy said, “Cheer up, Charlie, to-morrow is a legal holiday, and I shall be home all day. So I shall be able to help you build your house until it is finished.” Then Charlie was satisfied and he went to sleep the minute he got into bed--and all night long he dreamed about the beautiful house he was going to build.
The next morning both Charlie and his Daddy got up early; they got up at six o’clock! They each had a glass of milk and a cookie, then they went into the garden and began to work.
First they started piling bricks into the trench, one on top of two others, _ex-act-ly_ the way Charlie had seen the builders doing it; and his Daddy showed him how to put the mortar on each brick with a flat trowel that he had found in the woodshed and that looked _ex-act-ly_ like the one the builders used. It is very important to put the mortar on right, as that is what makes the bricks stick together.
Before breakfast Charlie and his Daddy had _ac-tu-al-ly_ finished the foundation! Charlie was very glad that he had his Daddy to help him--why, if it had not been for his Daddy I don’t think that Charlie would have thought of building _any_ foundation for his house, and then it would have blown down!
Well, you may be sure that the moment they had finished breakfast, and when Charlie’s Daddy had smoked just one cigarette, they both of them were hard at work on the house again.