Ted glanced down at his mud-spattered boots and clothing. "Maybe I do.
Is this deep enough?"
"Let's have the shovel."
Ted stood aside while Al took the implement. An old hand at this sort of
thing, he probed expertly into corners that Ted had missed and lifted
out shovelfuls of mud without splashing his clothes at all. Ten minutes
later he leaned on the shovel and inspected the spring, which in its
present stage of construction was a muddy pool, four feet square by a
little more than three deep, with the overflow still going down its
natural channel.
"That'll do," Al decided. "Now for the plumbin'."
He caught up a length of pipe, walked to the apple trees, inserted his
pipe in a crotch and bent it into an 'L.' He bent it again, so that one
end formed a gooseneck, and carried his pipe into the cabin. Al
maneuvered one end through an already drilled hole in the floor, hung
the gooseneck over the sink and used a metal clamp to fasten his pipe to
the wall.
Ted marveled. His father had measured nothing, but the bent pipe fitted
perfectly and the straight half of the 'L' lay flat on the ground
beneath the cabin.
Ted asked,
"What now?"
"Let's eat."
"Most sensible idea I've heard all day."
They ate the sandwiches and drank the coffee they'd brought along while
Tammie, sitting hopefully near, expertly caught and gobbled the crusts
they tossed him. Then the two went back to work.
Taking a bit of soap from his pocket, Al soaped the threads on another
length of pipe; filling the threads, the soap would prevent leaks. The
two "plumbers" then fitted this section into the pipe that protruded
beneath the cabin and continued with additional lengths until they were
within five feet of the spring.
Al cut that five-foot length off with a hack saw. He plugged the cut end
with a piece of wood, started at a point about a foot below the top of
the knoll and used the flat of his ax to drive the plugged section of
pipe through so that it emerged a foot below the surface of the spring.
He screwed the short length into the already laid pipe and straightened.
"Now we're diggin' where there's taters!" he said cheerfully.
Catching up the shovel, he closed the spring's outlet with dirt and mud.
Then he rolled up his right sleeve, reached into the water and pulled
the wooden plug out. A second time he straightened, grinning. "If it
don't work, it's a sign we did it wrong. Let's go see."
They re-entered the cabin and stood expectantly near the sink. For a
moment nothing happened. Then a series of choking gurgles and a rush of
air came through the gooseneck. This was followed by a muddy trickle
that subsided to a few drops. Then there was a violent surge of water
that leveled off to a steady flow. Al and Ted looked triumphantly at
each other.
"It works!" Al said.
"Running water yet!" Ted exulted, "Even if it is muddy!"
"It'll clear itself in a few hours."
"Don't you think we should have a faucet on this gooseneck?"
Al shook his head. "Not in cold weather. It don't freeze 'cause it runs
fast. Come spring, we may tie a faucet onto it."
"What do we do now?"
"Go home. It's quittin' time."
Ted was surprised to find that long evening shadows were slanting across
the valleys. They had worked hard, and perhaps that had made the day
seem so short. Only when they climbed back into the pickup for the ride
home did he realize that he was very tired. He tickled Tammie's silken
ears.
"Tomorrow's another day," he murmured.
"Yep," Al agreed somberly, "and another day brings more work. Reckon
I'll take after that coyote. He's got to be caught. You want to saw
wood?"
"Sure thing."
* * * * *
Early the next morning, Al let Ted and Tammie off at the camp and turned
back, with traps and rifle, to get on the trail of the marauding coyote.
While the collie renewed his acquaintance with the chipmunks, Ted laid a
chunk of wood in the sawbuck and sawed off a twelve-inch length. He
sawed another ... and worked until noon. After lunch, he started
splitting the wood he had sawed. It was the right way to do things. If
hunters cut their own wood, they might injure valuable trees.
Evening shadows were long again when Al came to pick him up. "Get your
coyote?" Ted greeted his father.
"No, but I will. I found where he's runnin' and I put traps in the right
places. See you got a sizable pile of wood."
"I haven't been loafing."
"Not much anyhow."