A. Russell Bond

“ As we rounded a sharp bend in the river, we noticed a camp fire a few hundred feet further up, around which five or six men were lounging, and there, just below them, was our scow. What were four boys to do against six grown men? We were each armed with a club, and could have made a pretty good fight if necessary, but after a whispered consultation we decided it would be best to wait until dark, when we could creep up quietly and steal away unnoticed with our boat. ”

“ Monday morning, bright and early, found us on the smooth, slippery surface of the canal. “Us” here includes, in addition to Bill and myself, my two younger brothers, Jack and Fred, and also Dutchy Van Syckel and Reddy Schreiner, neighbors of ours. It was the custom at the first of December every year to drain out most of the water in the canal, in order to prevent possible injury to the canal banks from the pressure of the ice. ”

“ Only one thing of importance occurred between our Christmas holidays and Eastertide: this was Bill’s invention of the tricycle sailboat or land yacht. We had returned to school with sailing on the brain. Our skate sail served us well enough while there was any ice, but as spring came on we wished we had our canoe with us, or even the old scow to sail on the lakes near the school. ”

“ There is one more piece of work done by our society which yet remains to be described, and that is the cantilever bridge. This we all voted to be the greatest of our achievements on the island. To be sure, it was Uncle Ed’s design, but I think we justly deserve credit for the masterful way in which it was erected. In our search for types of bridges before building the king post bridge, we came across a simple cantilever bridge that didn’t look very difficult to construct. ”

“ Once we were actually drawn into the mill-race and tore madly down the rushing stream. By Bill’s careful steering we managed to avoid striking the shore, and just as we were off the Tiger’s Tail Reddy succeeded in swinging a rope around an overhanging limb and bringing us to a sudden stop. A moment later we might have been dashed against the rocks in the rapids below and our boat smashed. Shooting rapids in a scow is a very different matter from riding through them on a plank. ”

“ Fig. 145. A Joke on Dutchy.
“Say, we’ll lick the life out of you, the same as we did them other kids,” shouted Reddy.
This was too much for Dutchy. He ran for all he was worth, yelling for Jack to come quick.
We had a merry laugh over the situation when suddenly the tables were turned. Something whizzed past Bill’s ear; I was stung on the arm with a heavy nail; a 142 large stone hit the scow; Reddy had his hat knocked off, and Fred upset his canoe trying to duck out of reach of the invisible missiles before we could make our assailants understand that we were friends and not the tramps. ”

“ After Bill had come around and was himself again Uncle Ed gave us a thorough drill in methods of restoring the drowned. He laid down on the grass and made us practise on him the various directions which he gave us.
How to Work Over a Patient Alone.
“If you boys hadn’t been so excited,” he said, “I would have made you rub Bill’s body and limbs while we were pumping the air into him, but I knew you would get in the 93 way, and be more of a bother than a help. You must learn to be calm in any accident; excitement doesn’t pay. ”

“ In our summer outing Jack had done most of his cooking on a kerosene stove, and he soon found that it was a very different matter to cook over an unsheltered fire. The heat was constantly carried hither and thither by the gusts of wind, so that he could scarcely warm up his saucepans. We had to content ourselves with cold victuals for the first meal, but before the next meal time came around 196 we had learned a little more about fire building. Two large logs were placed about 10 inches apart, and the space between them was filled in with pieces of bark and small twigs and sticks. ”

“ Our first work on reaching the island was to erect a water wheel, or “noria,” as it was called in the book, in front of the camp. It had been a great nuisance to keep our filter barrel full. Every few days we would have to form a bucket brigade, passing pails of water up the line until the barrel was filled. Now Bill proposed to do away with all this bother and let the river do the work for us. ”

“ Fig. 191. Scow with Runners nailed on.
The only thing we could do was to wait until the wind or current carried us to the ice or land. In the meantime Dutchy, who had suddenly sobered down when we took our water plunge, explained how he had rigged up the scow to travel both on ice and on water. He called the rig a sled boat, but the name by which such a rig is now known is a “scooter.” It was Dutchy’s idea primarily, but Reddy had engineered the work. Along the bottom of the 186 scow two strips of hickory had been nailed to serve as runners. ”

“ We decided that the jib-sail could be used without a boom, as we had done with the scow. The mast was braced by stays attached to the ends of the runners and bowsprit. This spread of canvas was far greater than that originally provided for sailing the canoe, but the heavy runners on each side helped to keep the boat on even keel, and then to further balance the sail a board was nailed across the aft end of the boat. This overhung the runners about 18 inches each side, and in a strong wind we could sit out on the windward end of this board, thus preventing the scooter from heeling over too far. ”

“ Fig. 99. The Pontoon Bridge. “Slab” is the lumberman’s name for the outside piece of a log which is sawn off in squaring up the sides. We made a raft of these materials and floated them down the river to Lake Placid. The bridge was made by anchoring the barrels in the channel about eight feet apart, and laying on them the floor beams, which supported a flooring of slabs. The floor beams were narrow planks 1 inch by 4 inches, taken from 102 the bridge wreck, and they were placed on edge to prevent sagging. ”

“ The Scientific American should have a place in every Dwelling, Shop, Office, School, or Library. Workmen, Foremen, Engineers, Superintendents, Directors, Presidents, Officials, Merchants, Farmers, Teachers, Lawyers, Physicians, Clergymen–people in every walk and profession in life–will derive satisfaction and benefit from a regular reading of the Scientific American. ”

“ A smooth bean pole of about the right weight served for the mast, and another stick with a crotch at one end served as the boom or cross-spar. The spars were cut to proper length, and the sail was then tied on, as illustrated, with the crotch of the cross-spar fitted against and tied to the center of the mast. A light rope, long enough to provide plenty 23 of slack, was tied to the ends of the mast to assist in guiding the sail when in use. In the meantime I had procured another sheet from one of our neighbors, and Bill helped me make a sail for myself. ”

“ A Meeting of the Society.
189“Why not mount the sailing canoe on runners, instead of the scow? You would have a very light rig then, and it would sail like a streak.”
“Mr. President,” said Reddy, “your plan sounds first-rate, but how are you going to fasten runners onto the canoe?”
“I’ve thought all that out,” replied Bill. “If we can only get hold of a pair of sleigh runners it won’t take long to rig up the sled boat.”
Dutchy, who had looked rather crestfallen at a suggestion of an improvement on his pet invention, now suddenly brightened up. ”

“ Dutchy, whose father was a member of a geographical society, suggested that we form a society for the exploration of Willow Clump Island. By general acclamation Bill was chosen president of the society, Dutchy was made vice-president, Reddy was elected treasurer, and they made me secretary. It was Dutchy who proposed the name “The Society for the Scientific Investigation, Exploration and Exploitation of Willow Clump Island.” It was decided to make an expedition of exploration as soon as we could make skate sails for the whole society. ”

“ We set up the towers on land and mounted the wheel between them with the axle resting in the crotch of the short tower and in a deep notch cut in the cross boards of the larger one. The cans on the wheel faced the larger tower, but the hub at the center and a block nailed to the larger tower spaced the wheel far enough out so that the cans did not strike the tower as they revolved. ”

“ However, there is another side of camp life, particularly in a boys’ camp, which has been very little dealt with, namely, the exercise of one’s ingenuity in creating out of the limited resources at hand such devices and articles as will add to one’s personal comfort and welfare. ”

“ Calling my interpreter I found out from him that it was a klepalo for calling the people to church. The people there are too poor to afford a bell, and so in place of that they use a beam of oak hung from a rope tied about the center, and this beam
The Klepalo. is struck with a hammer, first on one side, and then the other. Sometimes an iron klepalo is used as well, and then they strike first the beam and then the iron bar, so as to vary the 72 monotony of the call. ”

“ It was easy enough to move the filter barrels, but when it came to moving the water wheel we could find no suitable place for it anywhere near the log cabin. The water of Lake Placid was too quiet, while the mill-race and the rapids on the other side of Kite Island ran so swiftly that we were afraid the water wheel would be swept away with its course. The matter was carefully considered at a special meeting of the society. It occurred to Bill that we might build a windmill in place of the water wheel, and use it to pump water from a well which could be dug near the hut. ”

“ To anchor the track we drove short posts into the ground so that their upper ends lay flush with the surface. A post was provided under each joint and one under the center of each rail, and then the slab ties were nailed securely to these posts. In imitation of a full-sized railway, we made it a point to “break joints” on our track; that is, to make the end of one rail come in line with the center of the 290 opposite rail, as shown in Fig. 302. Our track was continued across the pontoon bridge and ran around the west shore of Kite Island. ”

“ Fig. 199. Winter Expedition to the Goblins’ Platform.
A Poor Shelter.
The climb was without mishap and we reached our tree house, only to find it so badly racked by storm and weather that it was clearly out of the question to attempt to spend the night there. The wind howled around the house and whistled through dozens of cracks and chinks that had opened in the walls. All that we could do, therefore, was to turn back to the island and make the best of our straw 200 hut again. On the way, however, we stopped at Lumberville for some straw to be used for bedding. ”

“ As soon as the B and C frames were set up on one side of the tower, another pair of B and C frames was set up on the other side of the same tower. A cantilever bridge must always be built out on both sides of the tower at the same time, otherwise it will be overbalanced on one side and topple over. After the B and C frames were in place we took two D frames, with oppositely cut ends, and rested their tie sticks on the top of the tower, just under the ends of the C frames. ”

“ A nut 287 was screwed against this washer just tightly enough to keep the wheel snugly in place, and yet let it turn freely on its axle. Then to keep this nut from shaking loose a second nut was screwed on against it. While one fellow held the first nut from turning, another screwed the second nut against it as tightly as he could. The second nut is technically known as a “jam nut,” or “lock nut.” The car was completed by laying a couple of boards across from one scantling to the other to serve as seats. ”

“ Fig. 85. The Diving Tree.
Lake Placid was a favorite swimming place for us. We used to plunge in from the branches of a tree which overhung the water a little ways above the lagoon and made a natural springboard. We could all swim like ducks, except Dutchy, who couldn’t do anything but paddle. However, Uncle Ed was an expert, and he took Dutchy in hand and soon made a pretty good swimmer out of him. ”

“ When fastening the timbers together we cut notches in each stick, as shown in Fig. 317. The depth of each notch was just one-quarter the diameter of the stick; that is, the notch was 3/4 of an inch deep in a 3-inch stick and 1 inch deep in a 4-inch stick. Care was taken not to exceed this depth, for fear of weakening the sticks. In the case of frame D, the sticks were not notched or mortised together. It will be noticed that the measurements are given to the inner edges of the sticks in some cases, and to the outer edges in others. ”

“ We didn’t plan to have a fire in the house, but set the stovepipe in place to provide the necessary ventilation. As the pipe had an elbow in it, there was no danger of rain or dirt falling through it. The upper end of the stovepipe was concealed among some rocks at the top of the knoll.
A suitable flooring was now laid in the passageway, and the sides were boarded up to a height of 2 feet from the 177 floor at the entrance to a height of 3 feet 6 inches at the inner end. A roof of slabs was nailed on, and then we were ready to cover our slab house with dirt. ”