“It would be breaking. The heat would crack it; and I don’t know how we could fay it to the wood to make it tight.”
“Then make it of a piece of wood that has been soaking in salt water. It will be some way from the fire. We can keep watch of it, and wet it with a mop.”
“I don’t believe but we shall have to.”
“Why don’t you ask your brother Ben, or Uncle Isaac?”
“Let us make the frame to hang it on. Perhaps we shall think of something.”
Before they had finished the frame, John exclaimed, “I’ve got it, Hen! Just the thing! I’ve seen an old blunderbuss barrel, without any stock to it, kicking round Uncle Isaac’s shop. It will make nose and tewel, both in one. I know he’ll give it to me. ‘The lame and the lazy are always provided for.’”
“What is a blunderbuss?”
“A short gun, bell-muzzled, and with an everlasting great bore, made to fire a whole handful of slugs and balls. They don’t use them now.”
“Go ask Uncle Isaac. Then take the boat, and go after it. As you come along, stop into Peter Brock’s shop, ask him to put it into his vice, and start the breech-pin for me.”
When they had obtained the old gun barrel, they completed their bellows, made a forge and forge-trough. They had no chimney—the gas went out through a hole in the roof.