These young men—­they were all young, and very go-ahead—­abandoned the main building that day to the undirected labours of the workmen they were supposed to control, and turned to on the shanty as soon as they realized what it was to be used for with a joyous energy that delighted the twins.  They swept and they garnished.  They cleaned the dust off the windows and the rust off the stove.  They fetched out the parcels with the curtains and cushions in them from the barn where all parcels and packages had been put till the house was ready, and extracted various other comforts from the piled up packing-cases,—­a rug or two, an easy chair for Mrs. Bilton, a looking-glass.  They screwed in hooks behind the doors for clothes to be hung on, and they tied the canary to a neighbouring eucalyptus tree where it could be seen and hardly heard.  The chief plumber found buckets and filled them with water, and the electrical expert rigged up a series of lanterns inside the shanty, even illuminating its tortuous staircase.  There was much badinage, but as it was all in American, a language of which the twins were not yet able to apprehend the full flavour, they responded only with pleasant smiles.  But their smiles were so pleasant and the family dimple so engaging that the hours flew, and the young men were sorry indeed when Mr. Twist came back.

He came back laden, among other things, with food for the twins, whom he had left in his hurry high and dry at the cottage with nothing at all to eat; and he found them looking particularly comfortable and well-nourished, having eaten, as they explained when they refused his sandwiches and fruit, the chief plumber’s dinner.

They were sitting on the stump of an oak tree when he arrived, resting from their labours, and the grass at their feet was dotted with the four experts.  It was the twins now who were talking, and the experts who were smiling.  Mr. Twist wondered uneasily what they were saying.  It wouldn’t have added to his comfort if he had heard, for they were giving the experts an account of their attempt to go and live with the Sacks, and interweaving with it some general reflections of a philosophical nature suggested by the Sack menage.  The experts were keenly interested, and everybody looked very happy, and Mr. Twist was annoyed; for clearly if the experts were sitting there on the grass they weren’t directing the workmen placed under their orders.  Mr. Twist perceived a drawback to the twins living on the spot while the place was being finished; another drawback.  He had perceived several already, but not this one.  Well, Mrs. Bilton would soon be there.  He now counted the hours to Mrs. Bilton.  He positively longed for her.

When they saw him coming, the experts moved away.  “Here’s the boss,” they said, nodding and winking at the twins as they got up quickly and departed.  Winking was not within the traditions of the Twinkler family, but no doubt, they thought, it was the custom of the country to wink, and they wondered whether they ought to have winked back.  The young men were certainly deserving of every friendliness in return for all they had done.  They decided they would ask Mrs. Bilton, and then they could wink at them if necessary the first thing to-morrow morning.