BUILDING THE CHURCH
AFTER they had made many bricks, Father Joseph came to Massea and Docas and said, “We can begin to build the church now.”
Alachu had been playing with some of the broken bricks. That night she said to Docas, “I think you can’t build a very big church.”
“Why not?” asked Docas.
The day before, Massea and two men had gone to the hills to fell the treesThe day before, Massea and two men had gone to the hills to fell the trees.
The day before, Massea and two men had gone to the hills to fell the trees.
The day before, Massea and two men had gone to the hills to fell the trees.
“It will tumble down,” said Alachu. “I builtup a brick wall that was not any higher than I am, and it fell over while I went to get some more bricks.”
“Oh, but we are going to make ours thick. Father Joseph told father to-day that we should make the walls three feet thick. Besides, we shall fasten the bricks together with mortar.”
“What’s mortar?” asked Alachu.
“Sticky stuff to keep the bricks together,” answered Docas.
Next morning they began to build the Mission church. Day after day they worked. Massea and some of the men spread the mortar and laid the bricks, while Docas and other men and boys made more bricks.
It took so many, many bricks!
When the side walls and the end walls were made, Father Joseph told Massea to bring two of the square timbers, and set them up exactly in the center of each of the end walls. It was hard work getting them in place. Docas had to pull with all his might.
When they were putting up the timbers, Docas saw that Father Joseph had had some of the Indians make a large notch in the upper end of each. He wanted to ask what the notch was for, but he had asked so many questions since he came to live at the Mission that he thought he would wait and see.
As soon as the two posts were up, Father Joseph had the Indians lay a long tree from one to the other in order to make the ridgepole. The ridgepole lay snugly in the notch on top, so that it could not roll off. But even with the notch, Father Joseph said the ridgepole would not be steady enough. So he gave Docas some strings made of rawhide, and told him to climb up the posts.
“What for?” asked Docas.
“To tie the ridgepole fast to the posts,” answered Father Joseph.
Docas had climbed many a tree when making storehouses for acorns, so that it was easy for him to climb the posts. He sat on top of the ridgepole after he had finished tying the posts together. Alachu was watching him from below. He waved his hand to her, and she waved hers back.
“I do hope Docas won’t fall,” said Alachu to Heema. Docas knew that Alachu was a little frightened, so he thought, “I’ll show her what a big boy like me can do.” He slipped out on the pole and swung himself around on it until he was hanging by his knees. Then he pulled himself up again on top of the pole.
Alachu called out, “Do be careful, Docas!”
“I’m all right. Don’t be scared,” he called back. Then he stood up carefully and started towalk along the top of the ridgepole; but the pole was round and slippery, and he slipped. He would have fallen to the ground, but he caught hold of the ridgepole with one hand. He drew himself up again. Then he crawled back to the nearest post, slid down, and climbed off the wall to the ground.
Meanwhile, some of the Indians had been making curved tiles for the roof. The tiles were made of the same adobe mud as the bricks, but were baked in fires instead of being dried by the sun.
Alachu looked up at the ridgepole, then she looked at the tiles.
“They’ll not reach from the ridgepole to the wall. They will fall through,” said she.
“Not when we get ready to put them on,” said Docas.
Massea had brought down from the mountains a great many smaller trees. The Indians pulled the bark from these, and laid them in rows from the ridgepole to the outer wall. Across these Massea and Docas wove a network of twigs just as they did when they made the storehouse. They tied all these trees tightly to the ridgepole so that nothing could slip.
“There,” said Docas to Alachu, “do you think the tiles will fall through now when we lay them on top of that?”
So, after much work, the big church was built. The floor was covered with large, square bricks, the pictures were hung, the candles were put up. The images of the saints were placed around the walls. Near the front was a beautiful banner on which was a picture of the Mother of Jesus.
Docas was happy, for he was no longer afraid that their lovely things would get spoiled by the rain.