queer way to do it," said one of the voices above. I wont warrant either of those posts to stand long, "Look at that big pole!" after the water begins to tear its way under." "There's two more!" said the other voice. "They're setting some sort of trap to catch alewives. Come along! it 's awful late!" The voices went off with the sound of hurrying footsteps, and died away in the distance. The brothers breathed again. CHAPTER XXIX. REBUILDING THE DAM. THEY hastened to the mill, and floated the mud "They are Dempford Argonauts footing it sill in place while there was yet water enough in home," said Rush. "Good fellows!" said Mart, resuming his work. "They help us best by lending their lumber and getting out of our way. Now, give us a board." The current was growing stronger and stronger all the while, and by the time the third board of the fast-draining channel. It was a foot deep when they began; it was not much more than ankle-deep by the time they had got ready to make the trench for it. On the arrival of the younger boys, Mart and Lute and Rupert began at once, with pick and the second set was in place, the water poured over it in a cascade. A fourth shut it off; and then the sledge-hammer was used again to drive each set of boards firmly together and settle them still deeper into the level river bed. The water under the bridge fell away rapidly, the boat dropping with it, and the brothers had the satisfaction of seeing their extemporized gate emerge before them like a dark wall. As the pressure of water held the boards in place, the two outside posts were now set inside, in a row with the first, as assistant supports; and Mart, getting upon the bridge, drove one after another with all his might into the bed of the channel. "Now, boys!" he said, jumping down from the abutment, "we must make the most of our time! HALLOO!'" spade and hoe, to dig out the gravel beside the old spilings; while Rush, with Rodman's assistance, carried out a plan suggested by Lute for getting rid of more of the water. It was a modification of Lute's first idea of a temporary dam. The mill-sluice was opened, and the water that came down from above drained into it by means of a diagonal line of boards set up edgewise and supported by short stakes. A hachet and a hoe, in lively hands, made a quick job of it; and some of the same boards served which were afterward to be used in the dam. "We sha'n't care much for the water, you know, after the mud-sill is laid," said Rush; "then those boards can come up." Meanwhile, the simple device was found exceed ingly useful. For though the water came down for a time in a constantly dwindling stream, it began at length to increase in volume, showing a considerable escape at the bridge. The drain turned it easily into the sluice, however; so that in throwing out the loosened gravel the spade and hoes kept the trench also tolerably free from water. The moon shone brightly. It was not very hard digging, and in an unexpectedly short time the new bed was made ready for the mud-sill. This was then pried into it, one side being set close against the spilings, and secured in its position by stakes driven close against the other side. Each stake was then firmly nailed to the sill. "This is j-j-jolly," said Lute. "Now if we can only get the spilings nailed before there's a d-d-deluge!" To do that the boys had first to dig out some of the gravel on the upper side of the spilings. These they found in quite as good condition as they had expected, and the sill being laid below the line of broken tops, only two or three had to be patched. Never did young fellows work with greater energy and speed. As they were now engaged on the shady side of the row of spilings, Rod held the lantern; and the digging done, Rupe handed nails for the older ones to drive. A strange sight they must have been in their rubber boots, splashed clothes, and brigandish hats, there in the glimmering river-bed, by moonlight and lantern light, if only Dempford and Tammoset had been awake to see! all around them the two towns lay fast asleep, while the secret night work went on. But The rapid hammering made merry music to the boys' ears; for they now felt that the most difficult part of their task would soon be over. Rush kept the water scooped out of the new trench in advance of the nailers, and filled in the gravel after them. The sill, which had originally rested on the river bottom, was now sunk to a level with its surface, only the notched ends of the line of spilings being left sticking out, "like the back fin of a b-b-buried sea-serpent," Lute said. More than once in the meantime Rush had to spring to his line of boards, which an ever-increasing flow of water threatened to wash away. He, however, managed to keep them in place until the sill and spilings were safe, and the mud and gravel packed against them. Then the boards were to be nailed to the stakes. And though that part of the work might have been done in the water, it could be done much faster out of it; and no time was lost in running on the first tier. There had been originally two tiers of foot-wide planks above the sill. But now the sill had been sunk, and in order to make the dam as high as before, three tiers would be necessary. For the first, the boys used some narrower stuff they had, running it clear across the flash-board opening. The best of the old planks served for the second. Finally, for the upper tier, the boards were taken from the diagonal drain. And it was time. A rush of water was sweeping them away. "There must be a big wash-out under the Argonauts' gate!" Rush said. "Do you suppose there's any chance of the abutments being undermined, or that the bridge will be in danger?" "Let 'em be undermined!" exclaimed Lute, "and let the b-b-bridge be in danger! What's that to us?" "Good enough for Tammoset and Dempford, for tearing our dam away!" said Rupe. "Besides," said Mart, with a nail in one corner of his mouth, "after the bridge is gone, the little Commodore's yacht can pass with the mast up. No serious fears for the bridge were entertained, however; and it was hoped that the gate would hold until the flood-tide came to carry the borrowed lumber back up into the lake. As soon as the spilings were nailed, the two younger boys had got a basket and a garden rake, and gone to catching fish. The rake served to snatch them out of the shallows in which they were still flopping, and the basket was before long filled with fine alewives, measuring nearly a foot in length. As they were taken on their way up into the lake to spawn, they were in excellent condition. Eels, too, might have been secured, if the boys had known how to hold the slippery creatures or to keep them in the basket after they were caught. One thing of interest they fished out of a puddle; it was neither an eel nor an alewife, but a small sledge-hammer which had been missing from the back shop ever since the night when the blades of the mill-wheel were broken. This discovery confirmed their belief that it had been stolen for the occasion, and afterward flung into the river. Birds were now singing, and the brothers had the growing daylight to finish their work by. The platform and fish-way were repaired. The dam had no apron," as Lute declared it ought to have, and should have some day, to prevent the water that poured over from washing out the river-bed below, Dushee's way having been to fill with stones and gravel any holes thus formed. 66 It was sunrise by the time the last plank was sawed, and the end of the dam against the Dempford shore stanched with stakes and earth. Then the tide came up, meeting the water that came down, and forcing it back. The boys put away their tools and stood on the platform, splashed and muddied, but picturesque and triumphant, regarding their completed work. "Now let 'em come on with their writs to prohibit us from doing what is already done!" exclaimed Rush. "Writ or no writ," replied Mart, wiping his bespattered face, "it's something to say the dam was back again by daylight the morning after the two towns had their big jubilee tearing it away.” "Besides," said Lute, "it will let 'em know the T-T-Tinkham brothers are no t-t-triflers. Now hurry in, boys, with your fish, and tell Mother we and the dam are right-side up with c-c-care." The widow had been up nearly all night, keeping her chair or her lounge, and sleeping little, while anxiously awaiting the result of her sons' extraordinary undertaking. Great, therefore, was her joy when the younger ones came in, announcing its success, and lugging their basket of fish. Letty had gone to bed, but she, too, was now awake, and had to get up and rejoice with her mother over the good news. Then the three older boys appeared, begrimed and streaked from head to foot, from old slouched hats to rubber boots; haggard but hilarious, hardly knowing they were tired, but knowing very well they were hungry, and eager for congratulations and gingerbread. The pride and happiness of the little household did not, it is to be presumed, prove extensively epidemic in the two towns when it was discovered, and told swiftly from mouth to mouth, that the dam, after being destroyed with such pomp and circumstance, had been replaced as if by magic in a single night. What the Argonauts thought of it after their late jubilation does not appear. Some glimmer of light is perhaps thrown upon the subject by an article from the local newspaper, which I find pasted in Mart's interesting scrap-book. Much the larger part of it was evidently written and set up in the silent hours of that same moonlit night when the Tinkham brothers were busy with their magic. A glowing description is given of the magnificent uprising of the sister-towns, and the inspiring spectacle of their united people gathering in majesty and might, and putting an end to a grievance which had been too long endured. Only brief allusion is made to the appearance of the crippled mother on the bank -"a somewhat painful incident, which marred the otherwise perfect satisfaction which must have filled every patriotic heart on this glorious occasion." Then follows this postscript: "Since the above was put in type, we have learned with very great surprise that the dam has been rebuilt! Unable to credit so astonishing a rumor, we dispatched our reporter to the spot early the next forenoon, not doubting that those who started it were deceived by some illusion. He found it only too true! The dam had been entirely reconstructed within twelve hours of the time when at least two hundred people looked on and saw it, as was supposed, finally and forever destroyed! How the feat was accomplished is a complete mystery. There is evidence that the water was stopped at the bridge. Persons were heard at work under it late that night-'spearing eels,' they said. Some lumber belonging to the Argonauts was found adrift in the lake the next morning, bearing such marks of rough usage that there is no doubt it had played an important part in this strange drama. It is believed that it was placed across the channel, between the abutments, by means of posts, one of which still remained in position against the upper railing of the bridge at ten o'clock the next morning. The rest of the temporary gate, if there was one, had been carried up into the lake at flood-tide. The posts-the ends of which were found battered, like the edges of some of the boards had also been borrowed of the Argonauts. To make the members of our honored boat-club contribute in this way to the rebuilding of the dam was a piece of impudence which may be termed simply colossal. "Our reporter states that many Tammoset and Dempford people visited the locality in the morning, to assure themselves, by the testimony of their own eyes, that the dam was indeed there. Comments were various. If the young mill-owners worked all night in replacing it, it would seem as if they must have required rest the day after; but at ebb-tide the mill was going, and they were busy at work as if nothing unusual had happened. The general impression seems to be that, whatever else may be said of them, they are smart.” (To be continued.) 66 MAGGIE DARNLEY'S EXPERIMENTS. BY JANE EGGLESTON ZIMMERMAN. "THERE!" said little Margaret Darnley in despair, as she stood, broom in hand, at the north door. The dust, and bits of paper, and string, and clippings of cloth which she had been collecting from all over the room with her broom, kept drifting back persistently when she tried to sweep them out at the door. And worse than all were the feathers from the pillow of Myra's doll, which were scattered in every direction. Myra did sew dreadfully, and a pillow was the last thing she ever ought to have made. And everybody knows what hard things to sweep up feathers are. Margaret leaned against the wall, tired out. 66 'Why don't you try the other door, Maggie ?" asked her brother Jack, who sat by the window. "That is just the queer part of it," said Margaret. "I tried the other door first, and it is just as bad there. The wind can't blow in exactly opposite directions at once, can it?" 66 Maggie?" said Jack, with a wise look. "That 's Jack, with a very grave and scientific look, ex- it? How many times?" "Why, four times, Father," said Margaret. "Just as quick as lightning-almost," she added, seeing her father raise his eyebrows. "I swept the dust from one door to the other just as quick as I could, but by the time I got there, the wind got May be it shifted while you were sweeping the there too, and blew the dirt back every time.” dirt across the room,” said Jack. "Well, that would be funny," said Margaret; "but I'll try it again. It will be a sort of nixperiment, I guess." "A sort of what?" asked Jack. "A nixperiment," said Margaret. "I listened to your flosophy-teacher the other day, and Mr. Baird said that everything in science had to besomething by nixperiments." "Verified by experiments," said Jack, laughing. "Yes, that's so, and now we'll see if there's any philosophy about this dirt." "Suppose we try the experiment again," said Mr. Darnley. "Oh, I've swept all the dirt out now," said Margaret, "for after we had tried and tried, it finally went out quietly." "Well, here are a few feathers which gave you the slip, little Pearlie," said her father. "We can try the experiment with them. Put in some more wood and make the room pretty hot." "What for, Father?" asked Jack, who was not very fond of carrying wood. "It is necessary to our experiment," said his So Margaret swept the dirt carefully across the father. room again, while Jack looked on. "There!" exclaimed Margaret, "look at that!" Jack did look, and had to confess that it was too much for his philosophy. "Stop," said he, "I'll see which way the wind is really blowing." Margaret shut the door and sat down to wait. poor little arms were quite tired by this time, for Margaret was only ten years old, and was but just learning to sweep. The "It's the stillest day we've had this season," cried Jack, bursting in. "The weather-cock turns tail to the south, so whatever wind there is comes from the north. Let's try the south door again." To the surprise of both Jack and Margaret, the dirt, which had been so perverse and contrary, went out this time without making much trouble. "That's it the wind shifted, don't you see, Jack put in the wood. This was mysterious and interesting. 66 "Now, Maggie,” said her father, when the room was uncomfortably warm, get your broom and sweep out these feathers." "Which door, Father?" asked Margaret. "It makes no difference," said her father "either door will do." "Better let me look at the weather-vane again," said Jack. "It is not necessary," said his father, smiling. Margaret tried again, but the feathers all blew back, some entirely across the room. "There they are, Maggie, close to the south door," said Mr. Darnley. "I'll shut this door, and you may sweep them out at that one." But Margaret had no, better success than before. |