Chapter 3
Meanwhile Old Whateley continued to buy cattle without
measurably increasing the size of his herd. He also cut timber and
began to repair the unused parts of his house - a spacious,
peak-roofed affair whose rear end was buried entirely in the rocky
hillside, and whose three least-ruined ground-floor rooms had
always been sufficient for himself and his daughter.
There must have been prodigious reserves of strength in the old
man to enable him to accomplish so much hard labour; and though he
still babbled dementedly at times, his carpentry seemed to show the
effects of sound calculation. It had already begun as soon as
Wilbur was born, when one of the many tool sheds had been put
suddenly in order, clapboarded, and fitted with a stout fresh lock.
Now, in restoring the
