With daylight next day they started to work.  Mirren insisted on taking an ax with her and began brushing the trees Archie had felled.  He remonstrated that it was not woman’s work.  Her reply was, she had come to help him and she was going to do so.  ‘Well, then,’ he said, ’we will go to the spot where the house is to be built and work there.’  On the evening arriving on which the preacher visited the schoolhouse, they both set out to attend the service.’  Mirren had a welcome that astonished her, and when they heard her sing her welcome was redoubled.  Archie’s friend insisted on their staying until next day.  It was late that night before Mirren got to bed, for the neighbors crowded to speak with her and hear her sing.  As they walked to their humble home next forenoon, Mirren expressed her amazement at the heartiness with which she had been received, remarking it was her first experience with the Irish.  In reply Archie said we ought to judge people as we find them putting away all prejudices.  His sojourn among them during the winter had made him ashamed of his misconceptions—­you have to come close to people to estimate their worth, and he could say from his soul, ’God bless the Irish:  kinder hearts do not beat in human breasts,’ and told Mirren what they had done for him.

The ox-sled that brought Mirren’s chest also brought a crosscut saw, and they tried it at once in cutting the logs for the new shanty.  Archie’s saying he did not like to see her pulling the saw, brought out the retort that she would not do it for other house than one for father and mother.  That summer was the happiest they had ever known.  Their toil was exhausting but the purpose of it and their mutual company bore them up.  To hear them singing and joking it would be thought felling trees and sawing them into log lengths was a recreation.  Such progress was made that a bee for the raising was set for the end of August, for the season had been early and grain was harvested.  It was a bee that was the talk of the neighborhood for months afterwards.  Young and old came, more with a desire to help the brave lassie who had won their hearts than for Archie’s sake, well-liked as he was.  With her watching them, the young men vied with one another and never did log walls mount faster nor rafters span them than when they had reached their height.  On a green maple branch being stuck in a gable peak to indicate progress, a wild huroo arose that woke the forest echoes.  When the bee broke up all the rough work was done; what was left Archie could do himself with the aid of a carpenter and mason, for a regular fireplace and chimney needed the latter.