text: Once settled in their house, they began cutting wood once more and stacking it up at the bank of the river.
  
  "By the time springtime comes," Paulie said, "we'll have enough wood to sell to all the riverboats that come."
  
  "That's the idea, Paulie. You know we've only had that one riverboat man from the Sapphire argue about the price of our wood, which tells me most riverboats make so much money they don't care what wood costs, so we'll stick with our price of $7.50 a cord. I'm told that's pretty high, but we only give them the best hardwood. And I don't have to tell you how hard we work for it."
  
  "No you don't," Paulie said, "I'm thinkin' at that price we could make four or five thousand dollars next year. We got a late start this year."
  
  They continued to cut wood steadily every day and stopped an hour before dark. They cleaned up, had supper and Grit read by lamplight. Paulie either read or did some math problems from the books Grit had bought. Sometimes Grit would read a short story for Paulie that they both enjoyed.
  
  Over the past few months, Grit hadn't had much time to read about Phileas Fogg and his trip around the world, and now he was eager to do so.
  
  Fogg and Passepartout, his faithful servant, started their epic journey by taking the Orient Express train which departed from London. They traveled across France and the Alps to reach Venice. They moved on to Brindisi on the coast of Italy where they caught a steamer that brought them across the Mediterranean sea to Suez in Egypt.
  
  Grit was deeply engrossed in the tale when he yawned and realized his eyes were drooping. He looked over and saw that Paulie was already asleep on the settee. He smiled at the boy, heaved himself up off the buffalo hide rug on the floor and woke Paulie.
  
  "Time to hit the hay, Paulie."
  
  "Huh? Oh yeah, I guess I fell asleep." He mumbled, "It's all those math problems you make me do."
  
  "Gotta get ready for college."
  
  "But I ain't decided if I wanna go."
  
  "Your decision. I already told you that, but just in case you're going, we need to write a letter of application to the college." Grit had assured Paulie it was his decision, but he thought that deep down Paulie wanted to go. It would certainly put more work on Grit because Paulie had turned into quite a woodcutter. He wasn't as strong as Grit, but he could hold his own with any other woodcutter Grit had seen, and he was getting better and stronger by the day. And with enough food during the winter, he'd grow even stronger.