More troubled than he cared to admit, Tim joined his twin before the fire in the large grate. “Might as well take off our coats and make ourselves at home, hadn’t we?” he asked.
“I was just thinking about priming that pump on the back porch. I’m tired of snow water.”
“So am I. But I’m afraid that pump is frozen solid.”
“No doubt of it, but some good hot water poured in it ought to break it loose. It is warmer today than it has been most of the time. Want to try it?”
“I guess so. How will we heat water? There is nothing to hang a kettle on.”
Mac examined the fireplace closely. “No, there isn’t. But we could set the kettle right on the coals. Wouldn’t hurt the kettle any.”
“Let’s look in the kitchen and see what we can find there,” Tim proposed. “We could start a fire in the stove and heat our water there.”
“I guess we had better not use up our wood on a kitchen fire,” Mac shook his head. “For tonight we can get along with this grate fire. We don’t know how long this storm will last, so we will have to be careful.”
They traversed the long hall to the kitchen and examined the pots and pans that hung on hooks under the shelves. From the closet beside the cook range Mac brought out a curiously shaped pan. It was flat on one side and had a long handle to it. A hook curved out from the flat side, and there was a hinged cover for it.
“What the dickens kind of a pot is this, Tim? I never saw one like it before.”