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Barbara had gleefully waved them off, glad to be alone for the first time in forever. Having the children underfoot all the time had been wearing on her nerves. They were moving at a snail’s pace to get the cabin done, but what they had done had been done well. She wanted to be moving along faster and that meant gathering more trees. Feathers moved off ahead of her and she tied the pup to a tree in the shade with a water bowl, which did not make Barkley happy. She took her axe and went off into the woods. There were several trees she hoped to take down that day and cutting them into the lengths they needed and trimming unnecessary branches would take quite a while. She felt time was against them.
She’d gotten the first tree down, pulling Feathers out of the way just as it crashed down the ridge, when she heard the distinct sound of a large engine chugging into their cove. Climbing back up on the ridge and rapidly walking across the meadow, she looked down, astonished to see a fishing vessel moving sedately across the cove. Squinting, she could swear she saw the children on the boat. Panicking, she dropped her axe and raced down the path they had made, wondering what had happened to Marion and the boat. Feathers followed, and Barkley barked crazily to be released. She hoped they were okay.
“Hello there,” Thomas called as they pulled up as close as they dared without beaching their boat. His brothers quickly got out their two rowboats to put the children on shore.
“Mom, we got to ride on the fishing boat,” Richard called to her expressively as he and Brian stumbled out of the first rowboat.
One of the O’Flaherty brothers handed Brenda off to her, swinging her into her arms.
“I see that. Where is Marion?” she tried to ask normally, her heart beating hard with concern.
“Oh, she’s coming later. Mr. Flaherty brought our pallets,” Richard told her.
“That’s O’Flaherty,” she corrected him, frowning towards the brother that was about to row back out. She didn’t know which brother he was, but she could see the others offloading the various sized pallets onto the other rowboat.
“Yer sister decided to come out after she finished some business in town. Thomas asked us to bring yer pallets as they were piling up,” he explained before taking a mighty haul on the oars.
“What business was my partner staying for?” she called as he made good time across the water with his strong shoulders.
“She was paintin’,” he called back and then was too far away to shout comfortably.
Painting? Barbara was confused, and the boys were talking a mile a minute with Brenda trying to get in her own part of the story about their trip into town, seeing Grady, and the pallets. Apparently, there were stacks of them, and after watching the men bring them ashore, she started to help them unload the pallets, taking them up above the beach line and under the trees to stack them and haul them up the slope later. There were a tremendous number of them. The boys worked together to take one, and with Brenda’s additional help, they were able to get it stacked on the others. They weren’t too enthused to do that more than once, but they did try.
“I can’t thank you O’Flaherty brothers enough for your help,” Barbara said as the last of the pallets were brought ashore after a very long time.
“Just bein’ neighborly,” one of them responded, giving that odd little tug on his forelock before waving and getting back in the rowboat. The other rowboat was already being put aboard, and in no time, the second rowboat was on board too. Barbara waved them off as they turned to leave their cove, wondering where in the heck Marion was.
“Mom, where is Barkley?” Richard was asking. They could all hear his yips and barks from down on the beach, and Feathers led the way as Barbara carried a pallet up the path. The path would be better if they did it in long steps, maybe boxed in steps, she was thinking of ways to improve it. Maybe with some gravel packed down tightly?
The children were hungry, naturally, so she stopped to wash up and make a quick lunch, using up the last of their bread and hoping Marion had purchased more. She had the children cut off small branches, each using a saw she showed them how to use while keeping them away from their bodies. They thought it fun to help, and she measured the tree, cutting it in lengths for the floor of their cabin and the ceiling of their basement until it had tapered too small to use for that. Using the tackle and with the help of the children—they thought they were helping as she kept an eye on them—they got one length up to the meadow. She attached the wedge apparatus to split the tree in the morning. It was now getting dark, and she wondered where in the world Marion was?