Down by the spring he now dug a hole and worked water and clay together into mortar, then with a trowel cut out of a shingle, and mortar carried in an old bucket, he built a wall within the stakes, using sticks laid along the outside and stones set in mud till the front was closed up, except a small hole for a window and a large hole for a door.

Now he set about finishing the inside.  He gathered moss in the woods and stuffed all the chinks in the upper parts, and those next the ground he filled with stones and earth.  Thus the shanty was finished; but it lacked a door.

The opening was four feet high and two feet wide, so in the woodshed at home he cut three boards, each eight inches wide and four feet high, but he left at each end of one a long point.  Doing this at home gave him the advantage of a saw.  Then with these and two shorter boards, each two feet long and six inches wide, he sneaked out to Glenyan, and there, with some nails and a stone for a hammer, he fastened them together into a door.  In the ground log he pecked a hole big enough to receive one of the points and made a corresponding hole in the under side of the top log.  Then, prying up the eave log, he put the door in place, let the eave log down again, and the door was hung.  A string to it made an outside fastening when it was twisted around a projecting snag in the wall, and a peg thrust into a hole within made an inside fastener.  Some logs, with fir boughs and dried grass, formed a bunk within.  This left only the window, and for lack of better cover he fastened over it a piece of muslin brought from home.  But finding its dull white a jarring note, he gathered a quart of butternuts, and watching his chance at home, he boiled the cotton in water with the nuts and so reduced it to a satisfactory yellowish brown.

His final task was to remove all appearance of disturbance and to fully hide the shanty in brush and trailing vines.  Thus, after weeks of labour, his woodland home was finished.  It was only five feet high inside, six feet long and six feet wide—­dirty and uncomfortable—­but what a happiness it was to have it.

Here for the first time in his life he began to realize something of the pleasure of single-handed achievement in the line of a great ambition.

VIII

Beginnings of Woodlore

During this time Yan had so concentrated all his powers on the shanty that he had scarcely noticed the birds and wild things.  Such was his temperament—­one idea only, and that with all his strength.

His heart was more and more in his kingdom now he longed to come and live here.  But he only dared to dream that some day he might be allowed to pass a night in the shanty.  This was where he would lead his ideal life—­the life of an Indian with all that is bad and cruel left out.  Here he would show men how to live without cutting down all the trees, spoiling all the streams, and killing every living thing.  He would learn how to get the fullest pleasure out of the woods himself and then teach others how to do the same.  Though the birds and Fourfoots fascinated him, he would not have hesitated to shoot one had he been able, but to see a tree cut down always caused him great distress.  Possibly he realized that the bird might be quickly replaced, but the tree, never.