THE CART RIDE.
A week after this, Caleb had his whip to mend. He had broken off the
lash, by whipping in sticks and little pieces of drift-wood to the mole.
David and Dwight worked a little every day upon the mole, and had
carried it out pretty far into the stream, and had almost finished the
lower branches of the Y. So, one morning, after the boys had gone to
school, and Caleb had had his reading lesson, he sat down upon the steps
of the door, behind the house, and began to tie on his lash with a piece
of twine which Mary Anna had given him.
Behind the house where Caleb's grandmother lived, there was a lane which
led to the pasture. At the head of the lane, where you entered it from
the yard, were a pair of bars. While Caleb was mending his whip, he
accidentally looked up, and noticed that the bars were down.
"There, Mr. Raymond," said Caleb, talking to himself, as he went on
winding his twine round and round the whip-handle; "for once in your
life, you have been careless. You have left your bars down. Now we shall
have the cattle all let out, unless I go and stop the mischief."
Caleb thought he would go and put the bars up again, as soon as he had
tied the ends of his twine; but before he got quite ready, he heard a
noise, as of something coming in the lane. He could not see down the
lane far, from the place where he sat, for the barn was in the way. But
he wondered what could be coming, and he looked towards the bars, and
sat waiting for it to appear.
In a moment, the head and horns of a great ox came into view, and,
immediately after, the body of the ox himself, walking slowly along
towards the bars.
"There now," said Caleb, "there comes Lion, and he'll get away." So he
jumped up, and ran towards the ox a few steps, brandishing his whip, and
shouting out to drive him back. Old Lion, however, seemed to pay no
attention, but came steadily forward, stepping carefully over the ends
of the bars, and then, advancing a little way into the yard, began
quietly to feed upon the grass. Before Caleb got over his surprise at
the entire indifference which old Lion seemed to feel towards him and
his whip, he heard the bars rattling again, and looking there, he saw
Star, Lion's mate, following on.
"O dear me," said Caleb, "what shall I do? All our oxen are getting
away. I'll run and call Raymond."
So he began to shout out "RAYMOND," as loud as he could call; and
immediately afterwards, he heard Raymond's voice answering just down
the lane and, looking that way, he saw him coming over the bars himself,
as if he had been following the oxen along up the lane.
"Raymond, Raymond," he cried out, "come quiet; all your oxen are getting
away."
"O, no," said Raymond, quietly, as he was putting up the bars after the
oxen, "they cannot get away--I have fastened the outer gate."
Then Caleb looked around and observed that the outer gate was fastened,
so that they could not get out of the yard.
"O, very well," said he. "I did not know you were driving them up;" and
so he quietly returned to his seat, and went on playing with his whip.
Raymond, in the mean time, proceeded to yoke up the cattle.
"Raymond," said Caleb, at length, "where are you going with the cattle?"
"Out into the woods," said Raymond.
"What are you going to do in the woods?" said Caleb.
"I am going to make a piece of fence."
"May I go with you?"
"I don't think you can help me much about the fence," said Raymond.
"I can pull bushes along," said Caleb.
Raymond made no reply, but began to drive the oxen towards a cart that
was standing in a corner of the yard, and, after a few minutes, Caleb
renewed his request.
"Raymond, I wish you would let me go with you."
"Well--it is just as your grandmother says," replied Raymond.
So Caleb ran to ask his grandmother; and she came to the window, and
enquired of Raymond how long he expected to be gone. He said it would
take him more than half a day to make the piece of fence, and he was
going to take his dinner with him. This was an objection to Caleb's
going; but yet his grandmother concluded on the whole to consent. So
they put up some bread and butter, and some apples, with Raymond's
dinner, for Caleb. These things were all put in paper parcels, and the
parcels put into a bag, which was thrown into the bottom of the cart.
Then Caleb wanted to take his hatchet.
His grandmother thought it would not be safe.
"I'll be _very_ careful," said he: "and if I don't have my hatchet, how
can I help to make the fence?"
Raymond smiled, and Madam Rachel seemed at a loss to know what to say.
"It won't do,--will it Raymond?" said she.
"He might cut himself," said Raymond.
"But there is a small key-hole saw in the barn, that I filed up the
other day. Perhaps he might have that, to saw the bushes down with."
"Can you saw, Caleb?" said his grandmother.
"Not very well," said Caleb, looking somewhat disappointed; "the saw
sticks so."
"I can set it pretty rank," said Raymond, speaking to Madam Rachel at
the window, "and then, I think, he can make it run smooth."
Madam Rachel did not understand what Raymond meant by _setting it rank_,
and so she said,
"How will that help it, Raymond?"
"Why, then it will cut a wide kerf," said Raymond, "and so the back will
follow in easily."
She did not understand from this much better than she did before; but,
as _she_ had great confidence in Raymond, she concluded to let him
manage in his own way. She accordingly told him that he might fix the
saw, and take Caleb with him.
So Raymond went out into the barn, and took down the saw from a nail.
The teeth looked bright and sharp.
"Why, Raymond, how sharp it looks. And the teeth are of different shape
from what they were before."
"Yes," said Raymond, "I have made a cutting saw of it."
"A cutting saw?" said Caleb. "Can you _cut_ with a saw? I thought they
always _sawed_ with a saw."
"I mean, cut across the grain," said Raymond, smiling. "When a saw is
filed so as to saw _along_ the board, then it is called a _splitting_
saw; but when it is to saw _across_ the board, then I call it a
_cutting_ saw."
Caleb looked carefully at the teeth, so as to see how the teeth of a
cutting saw were shaped. And while he looked on, he observed that
Raymond had a little instrument in his hand, and he took hold of the
first tooth of the saw with it, and bent it over a little to one side,
and then he took hold of the next one, and bent it over to the other
side; and so he went on, bending them alternately to the right and left,
until he passed along from one end of the saw to the other.
"There," said he, "that is set pretty rank."
"What do you mean by that?" said Caleb, as he followed Raymond out of
the barn.
"Why, the teeth are set off, a good way, each side, and it will cut a
good wide kerf; and so your saw will run easy."
By this time they had reached the cart. Raymond took hold of Caleb under
the arms, and jumped him up into the cart behind, and then handed him
his saw. Then he put in an axe and an iron bar for himself, and one or
two spare chains; and then he went to open the great gate. Just at this
moment, Mary Anna appeared at the window, and said,
"Caleb, are you going into the woods?"
"Yes," said Caleb.
"Then, if you see any good, smooth birch bark, won't you bring me home
some!"
"I will," said Caleb; and then Raymond opened the gate, and started the
oxen on. Caleb stood up in front, holding on by a stake, and wondering
all the while what Raymond could mean by a _kerf_.
One would think that he might have known by the connection in which
Raymond used it,--for he said that he had bent the teeth out so as to
make the saw cut a good wide _kerf_, and so he might have supposed that
the kerf was the cut in the wood which a saw makes in going in. The
reason why boys find it so difficult to saw, is because the teeth do not
generally spread very much, and so the kerf is narrow. Still, the back
of the saw would run in it well enough, without sticking, if they were
to saw perfectly straight. But they generally make the saw twist or wind
a little, and then the back of the saw rubs upon one side or the other;
and sticks. Now, Raymond's plan was to make the teeth set off, each
side, so far as to make the kerf very wide, and then he thought that
Caleb would be able to make it go, especially as the saw was very
narrow.
Raymond got into the cart, and took his seat upon a board which passed
across from side to side, and they rode along.
They reached, at length, a place where there was a small cart path
leading off from the main road into the woods. Raymond turned off into
this path; but it was so narrow that both he and Caleb had sometimes to
lean away to one side or the other to avoid the bushes. At length he
stopped and unfastened the oxen from the tongue. When all was right he
started the oxen on before him, Caleb trotting on behind with his saw in
his hand.
Presently they struck off from the cart path directly into the woods,
and in a few minutes came to the place where the fence was to be made.