CHAPTER II
THE GREAT LUMBER FIRE

The river went down as rapidly as it had come up, but left upon the clap-boards of the Diamond Jo warehouse a line of mud in token of its visit. People in the low-lying portions of the city hastened to move back into their accustomed quarters, now soaked by the flood. Many a cellar was pumped out. And at the levee Commodore Jones flock of skiffs was once more tethered in its usual place before the little boat-house.

Much to Ned s disgust the eleven loads of wood arrived promptly at the Miller premises eleven great loads of wet slabs, making a mountain higher than the alley fence, and filling all the space between the wood-shed and the next back-yard!

These slabs were to be loosely laid, one upon another, in long, parallel piles, so that the air could circulate freely between them. When the wood had dried, it was to be split, and put in the shed, for use.

It seemed to Ned an endless task, to dispose of such a mass, stick by stick. However, he had accomplished it in previous summers, and although each June it loomed into sight afresh, yet somehow by pegging away he managed to struggle through it.

Having for several days dolefully eyed the mountain, on the morning of the Saturday succeeding the Bob rescue he began, with a groan, the base of his first pile. But he knew that groaning was of no use; he was expected to devote this Saturday morning, and the next Saturday morning, and two hours a day during the coming long vacation, to the work until it was finished.

Bob, having industriously trotted hither and thither through the yard, and having gazed right and left along the street, in search for amusement, came and sat on his haunches near Ned, and with a puzzled, wondering expression, surveyed his movements.

A week had effected quite a change in Bob s appearance. The warm welcome which he had received at the Miller home, and the food and petting which he was being accorded, already had slicked his coat, and covered his ribs. That confid