The Chesterfield advertiser. [volume] (Chesterfield C.H., S.C.) 1884-1978, 1922-02-16
CHAPTER VII.
The laborino Punn.
nued from last week)

pretty nearly az good as ever, and INV
TWO Good Samaritans reluctantly con-
sehted to my going back to work,
1eanie renewing the b8ndage on my
broken head. and laying many injunc-
lions upon Daddy Hiram to send me
right back to the cabin IL 1 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 Al. 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, don't think knew
what real love was. But 1t was
mighty pleasant to live in the same
house with her, and to eat her deli
ci0us cooking; to be with her every
day, and to have those undisturbed
evening half-hOurs with her i'm front
of the fire. IL had had to get out
or IL there had been another man
but l won't anticipate.
In due time and after we had COM
Dletely orerhauled the rusted anC
gummed-up machinery, Daddy and |
happened upon n day when we were
ready to put fire under the boilers and
we did it. If | should live to he
hundred years Old, / shall never forget
the tense, suppressed excitement that
gripprd 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, bur we held off until It
mad climbed to tie regular working
pressure of one hundred and twenty.
Then ! started the pumps: two big
centrifugal Suctions, mounted on
platform I'm the shaft mouth and so
arranged that they could be lowered
10 follow the water level down-if it
should go down; pumps that each
threw stream six inches In diameter.
After the pumps were started an,,
the indicators showed. or seemed to
show, that they were working up to
fun capacity, rigged up measuring
gauge; II bit Of wood for float, with
string tied to it, and the string pass
Ing over pulley in the shafthouse
rOOfbeaming with weight on the end
OF it. If the water level should go down
the float would sink with 1t. pulling
the weight up. 4 smooth board, with
feet. inches and fractions penciled on
II. was stood up beside the weight to
answer for n measuring scale.
AT the end of the hour the float
hadn't moved a hairs breadth; not a
hundredth part Of an inch, so far as we
could see.
81 don't believe the pumps are work
ing !" exploded. "Surely they'd make
some little difference in the level un-
less that shafts got all the under
ground water In the world to back 1t
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"
"Sh0w me-" directed.
We found the discharge from the
pumps little way below the end Of
the path; a ten-inch pipe which had
been laid underground from the shaft
house. presumably to keep II from
freezing I'm winter. The end OF the
pipe stuck out over the stream and II
ten-inch Jet Of water. The pumps were
working all right; there was no doubt
about that. dug mp enough OF my
college math to figure that two six
inch streams would Just about fiji a
ten-inch pipe, anil here ii was, running
full and pouring like another torrent
Into the gulch. SO back we went to
the mine buildings to pile more wood
Into the furnaces and to resume our
watching Of the Indicator and its pen
cil-marked scale.
Noon caught up with us after a
whlle-with nothing doing save that
we were rapidly diminishing our wood
pile. For solid week we chopped
down trees and split them up, Daddy
andJ, and kept the fires roaring under
the boilers and kept those monster
humps whirring and grinding away mt
the shaft mouth--night and dag. mind
You; watch op and watch on And,
right straight through II all, that little
Indicator weight / had riggcd up stood
stock Sill never moved the width OF
one of the pencil marks had drawn
on Its gauge board.
~ '''H was
yielding something to the still more
stubborn fact. II all this pumping
hadn't even started the flood toward
Its diminution, truly all the waters un.
der the earth must he backing the un.
failing well Of that drowned shaft.
Toward the last think we kept
ION more from forcd of habit than any
thing else, but at the end of the week
Il gave In and consented to let the
fires die down, though II was like pull
Ing teeth to do II. Something, indeed.
= brought ont Of the overtime work,
dIshT p' .'ting as II hal been I'm the
major sense; was muscled up az
hard MS keg Of nails; as strong as
a mule, and the fierce toll on wood.
chopping and boiler-firing had given
me an appetite for real work thar fair.
Iy made me ache when though OF