St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1921-12-17
The laborinu Pumps,

pretty nearly as good as ever, and my
two Good Samaritans reluctantly con-
sented to my going back to work,
jeanne renewing the bandage on my
broken head, and laying many injunc-
lions upon Daddy Hiram to send me
right back to the cabin if | didn't be-
have; "behaving," in her use of the
word, meaning that was to take 1t
easy on the job.
That sounded mighty good to me,
the way she said it. Most men, fan
cy, are only overgroWn children IN the
sense that they like to be fused over
by their womankind. Don't mistake
me, please; / wasn't in love with her
then. Candidly, I don't think knew
what a real love was. But it was
mighty pleasant to live in the same
house with her, and to eat her dell
cious cooking; to be with her every
day, and to have those undlsturbed
evening half-hours with her in front
of the fire. II I had had to get out;
or if there had been another man
but I won't anticipate.
In due time and after we had COM
pletely overhauled the rusted ana
gummed-up machinery, Daddy and l
happened upon a day when we were
ready to put fire under the boilers and
we did it. If I should live to be
hundred years old, I shall never forget
the tense, suppressed excitement that
gripped me as we brought the wood for
the furnaces that bright, hot, July
morning. BY eight o'clock we had
ninety pounds of steam pressure on
the boilers, but we held off until It
had climbed to the regular working
pressure of one hundred and twenty.
Then I started the pumps; two big
centrifugal suctions, mounted on
platform in the shaft mouth and so
arranged that they could be lowered
TO follow the water level down-if it
should go down; pumps that each
| threw a stream six inches in diameter.
| After the pumps were started ana
| the indicators showed, Or seemed TO
show, that they were working up TO
/ full capacity, I rugged up measuring
/ 'N~NA
a string tied to it, and the string pass
ing over a pulley in the shafthouse
/ roofIbeaming with weight on the end
| of it, II the water level should go down,
! the float would sink with it, pulling
the weight up. A smooth board, with
feet, inches and fractions pencned on
it. was stood up beside the weight to
answer for measuring scale.
AT the end of the hour the float
hadn't moved a hairs breadth; not q
hundredth part Of an inch, so far as we
could see.
"I don't believe the pumps are work.
ingr' / exploded. "Surely they'd make
some little difference in the level IN
less that shafts got all the under
ground water in the world to back l,
nm. Those indicators must be out OF
whack in some way. Where does the
discharge water empty itself"
Daddy knew this, too.
"Oyer in the left-hand gulch-1ntt
the creek"
"Show me-" I directed.
We found the discharge from tht
pumps a little way below the end O
the path; ten-inch pipe which hat
been laid underground from the shaft
house, presumably to keep it iron
freezing in winter. The end OF tn
nine stuck out over the stream and |
was projecting pretty nearly a soll'
ten-inch jet of water. The pumps wer
! working all right; there was no doub
r about that. I dug up enough OF m
college math to figure that two SIX
, inch streams would just about I'LL
, ten-inch pipe, and here it was, runnln
t full and pouring like another torren
into the gulch. SO back we went t
: the mine buildings to pile more WOO
into the furnaces and to resume on
, watching of the Indicator and its per
cfI-marked scale.
h Noon caught up with US after
l. while-with nothing doing save tht
e we were rapidly diminishing our Woo
nile. For solid week we choppe
n down trees and split them up, Dadd
9 and 7, and kept the fires roaring undt
the boilers and kept those monst'
! pumps whirring and grinding away
: the shaft mouth-night and day, MIR
- Won. watch on and watch off. An
10 right straight through it all, that LIT
=, Indicator weight had rugged up stot
n stock still; never moved the width
% one Of the pencil marks | had draw
u on its gauge board.
BY this time my stubbornness !"
,r Welding something to the still mo
stubborn fact. If all this pump
hadn't even started the flood iowa
H. its diminntion, truly all the waters U
der the earth must be backing the U
failing well of that drowned shaft.
~ Toward the last I think we Ike
id on more from force Of habit than ar
thing else, but at the end OF the we
Id I gave in and consented TO let t
fires die down, though it was like pt
ing teeth TO do It, Something. indie
nd I brought out Of the overtime Wo
disappointing ~ il had been ID
re mafnr sense. was museIed III
to hard a. d ke- of 1alls u strong