Tim looked it over with interest. “Hanged if I know,” he began, then suddenly his face lighted up. “Why, Mac, this must be a pan to hang on the grate. This hook goes over the top grate bar, and you can heat water in it. Just the thing we need!”
“That’s just exactly what it is,” Mac nodded. “I’ll get some snow, and we can melt it down and then try our luck on that pump.”
They filled the grate pan with snow and then took it in and hooked it on the top bar of the grate. There was now no doubt in their minds that the utensil was meant for its present use.
“While that is melting and heating, let’s get the lamps in here,” Tim suggested, and they brought the oil lamps in from the bedrooms. There was very little oil left in them, and the boys had only a scanty supply in their lanterns.
“We’ll have plenty when Barry and Kent get here,” Mac remarked, looking out at the storm. But the scene that met his eye was not a reassuring one. If anything, the storm was increasing.
“That snow has melted down and will soon be hot water,” Tim said, after a glance into the grate pan. “Guess we’d better get another pan of snow and keep melting it, because that pump will have to be primed more than once.”
This was done, and as the water became hot the boys kept adding snow. At last the pan was filled with boiling water, and they poured it into the tea kettle, and after refilling the grate pan with snow they set off for the back porch to try their luck with the pump. Tim carefully poured the boiling fluid down the neck of the rusty iron pump shaft. Steam arose as the hot water came in contact with the ice.
“If we do get this thing going, we’ll have to prime it every morning,” Mac predicted, standing first on one foot and then on the other and moving about to keep warm.
“Yes, no doubt of that. Gosh, it is getting colder. Good thing this porch shelters us from some of the wind.”
They poured pan after pan of boiling water down the pump shaft without attaining the end they were seeking, and were about to give it up as a bad job, when Mac felt the pump handle move with a sucking sound. He pressed harder.