DIGGING A WELL
The two scouts crept along the edge of the coppice, eye and ear on the
alert. They were hoping to surprise a rabbit in a play-hole, but
though they saw plenty of rabbits scuttling to shelter, every hole
proved the mouth of a burrow, and that was too much for them to
attempt. They worked clean round the coppice, saw dozens of rabbits,
but were never within a mile of catching one; at last they came back to
their camp.
'It strikes me, Chippy, we shall have to divide the scraps we've got
left, tighten our belts, and strike out for the next baker's shop.'
'Looks like it,' murmured the Raven. 'I'm jolly thirsty too.'
'So am I,' said Dick; 'let's see if we can find a pool of clear water
in the swampy patch yonder.'
They went down to the little marsh, but though there was plenty of
water, it all appeared thick and uninviting. Being scouts, the boys
were very careful of what water they drank, and they looked
suspiciously on the marsh pools.
'No drink nayther,' said the Raven; 'we'd better get a start on us for
a country wheer there's things to be got.'
'Wait a bit, Chippy,' replied his comrade. 'I think I know a dodge to
get round this, if we only had a spade to dig with. It's a trick my
Uncle Jim put me up to. He often used it when he was travelling in
Africa.'
Dick explained what was to be done, and the Raven nodded.
'If that's all there is to it,' remarked the latter, 'I'll soon find
the spades.'
He returned to the camp, seized the tomahawk, and began to cut at one
of the pieces chopped off the rails. In five minutes of deft hewing
Chippy turned the broad, flat piece of timber into a rude wooden
shovel. Dick seized it with a cry of admiration.
'Why, this will do first-rate, old chap,' he asid. 'The ground is
pretty sure to be soft.'
'Go ahead, then,' said the Raven. 'I'll jine ye wi' another just now.'
Dick went down to the swamp, and chose a grassy spot about twenty feat
from the largest pool. Here with his knife he cut away a patch of turf
about a couple of feet across; then he went to work with his wooden
spade on the soft earth below. In a short time Chippy joined him, and
the two scouts had soon scraped a hole some thirty inches deep. From
the sides of the hole water began to trickle in freely, and a muddy
pool formed in the hollow. Dick now took the billy, and carefully
baled the dirty water out. A fresh pool gathered, not so dirty as the
first, but still far from clean. This, too, was baled out, and a third
gathering also. Then the water came in clear and cool and sweet, and
the scouts were able to drink freely.
Chippy was warm in his praise of this excellent dodge, when suddenly he
stopped, caught up the wooden spade, and, with a single grunt of
'Brekfus ahoy!' was gone.
His eye, ever on the alert, had marked a small figure scuttling along
in the undergrowth of the coppice, and he was in hot pursuit. In two
minutes he was back with a fat hedgehog.
'Ye've tasted this afore,' he said. 'How about another try?'
'Good for you, Chippy!' cried Dick; 'it was first-rate. Will you cook
it the same way?'
'There ain't none better,' replied the Raven, and set to work at once
to prepare and cook the prey of his spade. In the end the scouts made
an excellent breakfast. They enjoyed hedgehog done to a turn--or,
rather, to a moment, as there was no turning in the matter--the remains
of Mrs. Hardy's sandwiches, and a billy of water drawn from their own
well. The well and the breakfast took some time, and their start was
much later than they had intended that it should be. But, on the other
hand, there were the blankets to dry, and between the sun and the fire
the latter were quite dry enough to pack away in the haversacks when
the scouts were ready to move.
Dick's foot had become quite easy during the night's rest, but after a
couple of miles the cut began to let him know that it was there. By
the time they had covered four miles it was very painful, and he was
limping a little. Then they struck a canal on the side opposite to the
towpath, and they sat down beside it on a grassy bank and cooled off a
little before they stripped for a good swim in the clear water.
When Dick took off his shoe and stocking, the Raven whistled and looked
uneasy. The flesh all round the cut looked red and angry, and the heel
was sore to the touch.
'Isn't it a nuisance,' groaned Dick, 'for a jolly awkward cut like that
to come in and make the going bad for me? But I'll stick it out,
Chippy. It's the last day, and I'll hobble through somehow and finish
the tramp.'
'We'll pass a little town 'bout a mile again, accordin' to the map,'
said the Raven, 'an' there we'll get some vaseline.'
'Good plan,' said Dick; 'that's splendid stuff for a cut.'
They had their dip, dressed, and pushed forward. At the little town
they called at a chemist's and bought a penny box of vaseline. As soon
as they reached quiet parts again, Dick took off his shoe and stocking,
and rubbed the wound well with the healing ointment, then covered the
bandage with a good layer, and tied it over the cut, and rested for
half an hour. This greatly eased the pain and discomfort, and they
trudged on strongly for a couple of hours.
Suddenly the scouts raised a cheer. Above a grove of limes a short
distance ahead, a church steeple sprang into sight.
'Half-way!' cried Dick. 'We've done half the journey, Chippy. Here's
Little Eston steeple.'
The Raven nodded. 'We'll halt t'other side,' he said.
In the village they bought a small loaf and a quarter of a pound of
cheese, and those were put into Chippy's haversack. At a cottage
beyond the hamlet they lent a hand to a woman who was drawing water
from her well, and filled their billy with drinking-water at the same
time. They made another three hundred yards, then settled on a shady
bank under a tall hawthorn-hedge for their midday halt.
'How's yer foot, Dick?' queried the Raven anxiously.
'A bit stiff,' replied Dick; 'but that vaseline has done it a lot of
good. I'll peg it out all right yet, Chippy, my son. Now for bread
and cheese. It will taste jolly good after our tramp, I know.'
It did taste very good, and the scouts made a hearty meal, and then lay
for a couple of hours at ease under the pleasant hawthorns, now filled
with may-blossom.