IV
The artist walked the half-dozen blocks to Mr. Krehbeil's place the next day. He found the old man in the basement shop of his fussy house, hunched over his bench with a powerful light overhead. He was trying to file a saw.
"Mr. Krehbeil!" Halvorsen called over the shriek of metal.
The carpenter turned around and peered with watery eyes. "I can't see like I used to," he said querulously. "I go over the same teeth on this damn saw, I skip teeth, I can't see the light shine off it when I got one set. The glare." He banged down his three-cornered file petulantly. "Well, what can I do for you?"
"I need some crating stock. Anything. I'll trade you a couple of my maple four-by-fours."
The old face became cunning. "And will you set my saw? My saws, I mean. It's nothing to you—an hour's wo
