"Sure, right here in my coverall pocket. Why?"
"I suggest this would be a good place for the center of the town's north side...."
"Yes, here by the riverbank would...."
"I'll go east and you go west a half mile each, then we'll set our corner stakes."
"Then we'll both walk south a mile and set those, and have the four corners done. Sometimes, Owl, I have to give you credit for having brains."
"Wish I could say the same about you." Jak reached out and gave his brother a friendly shove. "Get going, Stupe. And when we start south, be sure you keep your line straight."
"Look who's yelping. Mine'll be as plumb as yours—probably more so, because I'm a better plumber than you are."
Jon started his pacing, while Jak went in the opposite direction after a pretended "grrr" at Jon's horrible pun.
When they returned to the ship, as the sun was going down, they felt they had made a good beginning. But as they went into the control room to talk alone, away from their mother's hearing—lest they worry her—they were not too cheerful.
"You know anything about surveying?" Jak slumped into a seat.