Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1922-03-16
The Girl, A Horse and A Dog
By FRANCIS LYNDE.
BY FRANCIS LYNDE,

70 Dfaln myself In the old boller / was
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-
tons Upon Daddy Hiram to send me
right back to the cabin if l didn't be-
have; ~"behaving,' in her use of the
word. meaning that / was to take il
easy on the job.
That sounded mighty good to me,
the way she said it. Most men, I fancy,
are only Overgrown children in the
sense that they like to be fused over
by their wOmankind. Don't mistake
me. please; 1 wasn't in love with her
then. Candidly. I don't think I knew
what a real love a But it was
mighty pleasant to live in the same
house with her. and to eat her deli
day. and to have those undisturbed
evening half-hours with her in front
Of the fire. If I had had to get out;
or if there had been another mar . :.
but I won't anticipate.
In due time n after VIC had COM
pletely overhauled the rusted and
surlmed-up machinery, Daddy and I
happened upon a day when we were
ready to put fire under the boilers and
we did it. If / should live. to- be a
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 a
platform in the shaft mouth and so
arranged that they could be lowered
to follow the water level down-if it
threw a stream six inches in diameter.
After the pumps were started and
the indicators showed, or seemed to
show, that they were working up to
full capacity, l rugged up a measuring
gauge; a bit of wood for a float, with
a string tied to it, and the string pass
ing oversa pulley in the shafthouse
roof-beaming with a weight on the
end Of it. If the water level should
go down, the float would sink with it.
pulling the weight up. A smooth board
ed on it, was stood up beside the
weight to answer for a measuring
scale.
At the enc Of the hour the float
hadn't moved a hairs breadth; not u
hundredth part of an inch, SO far as
we could see.
II don't. believe the pumps are
working!" I exploded. Surely they'd
make some little difference in the lev
ell unless that shafts got all the I'M
~derground water in the world back OF
it up. Those indicators must be out
Of whack in some way. Where does
the discharge water empty itself?"
Daddy knew this, too.
"Over in the left-hand gulch-into
the creek" ,es j
Show me-" 1 directed.
We found the discharge from the
pumps a little way below the end OF
the path; a ten-inch pipe which had
been laid underground from the shaft
house. presumably to keep it from
freezing in winter. The end of the
was projecting pretty nearly a solid
teninch jet Of water. The pumps were
working all right; there was no doubt
about that. l dug up enough of my
college math to figure that two six
inch streams would just fill a ten
inch pipe, and here it was, running
full and pouring like another torrent
into the gulch. So back we went to
the mine buildings to pile more wood
1IIO sLHe 1uFIldEtS 6uu 10 resume OUT
watching of the indicator and its pen
cil-marked scale.
Noon caught up with us after O
while-with nothing doing save that
we we're rapidly diminishing our
woodpile. For a solid week we chop
ped down trees and split them up,
Daddy and I. and kept the fires roar
! ing under the boilers and kept those
monster pumps whirring and grinding
away at the shaft .mouth-night and
| day, mind you; watch on and watch
off. And, right straight through 1t all
that little indicator weight I had
rigged up stood stock still: never
moved the width Of one of the pencil
marks I had drawn on its gauge board,
BY this time my s~tubbornnesB was
yielding something to the still more
stubborn fact II all this pumping
hadn't even started the flood toward
it, diminution, truly all the waters un-
der the earth must be backing the
unfailing well Of that drowned shaft.
Toward the last I think wo kept
on more from, force Of. habit than any
thing else, but 1T the end of the week
gave In and consented to let the
fires die down. though 1t was like
pulling teeth TO do it. Something, In
deed.iI brought out Of the overtime
work. disappointing ~ 1t had been IN
the major sense; I was muscled up "A
hard ~ a kag Of naah; a. 4stzone =
q mule, and the hreoe toll OF wood