Don't you be took in by no new
saw because it's bright, and looks pretty. You want to take a saw
that's been filed, and filed away till it ain't more 'n an inch and
a half deep; and then you want to tune it up, just so,--like a
banjo--not too tight, and not too slack,--and then it'll slip
through a stick o' wood like--lyin'." He selected a saw, and put it
in order for Lemuel. "There!" He picked out another. "Here's
_my_ old stand-by!" He took up a saw-horse, at random, to
indicate that one need not be critical in that, and led through the
open door into the wood-yard, where a score or two of saws were
already shrilling and wheezing through the wood.
It was a wide and lofty shed, with piles of cord-wood and slabs at
either end, and walled on the farther side with kindling, sawed,
split, and piled up with admirable neatness. The place gave out the
sweet smell of the woods from the bark of the logs and from the
fresh section of their grain. A double rank of saw-horses occupied
the middle space, and beside each horse lay a quarter of a cord of
wood, at which the men were toiling in sullen silence for the most
part, only exchanging a grunt or snarl of dissatisfaction with one
another.
"Morning, mates," said Lemuel's friend cheerfully, as he entered the
shed, and put his horse down beside one of the piles. "Thought we'd
look in and see how you was gettin' along.
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