Washington smiled. “What do you do if you want to get to the other side of the mountain?”
“Climb over it or go around?”
“And that is what the surveyor must do—measure over it, or measure around it. Where the land is very uneven the best of surveyors sometimes have to make a guess at allowances—but that is rare. Of course in such a wild territory as this to split hairs would be impossible, yet I try to be as accurate as circumstances permit.”
“Yes, I would want to be accurate, if I was a surveyor,” answered Dave.
As they pushed along the Shenandoah, Washington pointed out several parcels of land which he had surveyed in days gone by. “It will not be many years before this land will all be settled,” he said. “Towns will spring up where there are now nothing but forests.”
Christopher Denton’s cabin was reached in the course of an hour, and here Dave was provided with an extra coat and a good horse. Washington wished to survey a tract of land six miles up the stream, and they took with them all the camping outfit, for they did not expect to return to Denton’s for several days or a week.
“How is it, can you prepare a meal?” asked the surveyor. “I did not think to ask before.”
“I’ve prepared many a one for my uncle and my cousins,” answered Dave. “I don’t know how my cooking will suit you.”
“I doubt if you can do worse than my other assistant,” laughed Washington. “He burnt more than half of what was placed over the fire.”
“I can do better than that I am sure.”