The Conly family consisted of Emily, Edward, and Walter the schoolmaster, who was then boarding at the Edibeans.
After James and Maria came in, the first greetings were over, and the usual remarks in regard to the weather and the school had been made, and something said about a spelling school that was to come off in the near future. James merely listening, the conversation began to lag. Bertie grew desperate, and as was his wont resolved to make or mar, began to tell Mr. Conly about James hitting the owl, and about the accuracy with which he could throw stones, and then turned to James and asked,—
“James, how did you learn to throw stones almost as true as folks fire bullets?”
“I learned by throwing road metal when working on the roads. In England they keep a good many parish poor at work breaking stones for the roads; every man has a pile of stones before him, a hammer and a ring, he breaks a stone till it is small enough to go through the ring and then throws it on the pile.”
“What does he put it through a ring for?”
“Because the rings are all of a size, and that makes the stones all of a size, then they haul these stones and spread ‘em very thick on the roads, and spread coarse gravel on them, and roll the whole down with a great iron roller that it takes four and sometimes six horses to haul, and roll it down so hard that a wheel won’t dent it.”
“It must make a nice road,” said Mr. Conly.
“Yes, sir, one horse would haul as much on that kind of a road as two, yes, as three, on the roads we have here. I was set at work on the roads, and we didn’t work half the time and used to practise throwing stones. There was one fellow, Tom Lockland, could beat me,—and but one,—I knew how to break a stone to make it go true.”
“Where did you learn to drive horses? They say when you first came here you knew how to drive horses,” said Ned Conly, who perceived what Bert would be after.
“The governor at the workhouse used to hire me out to drive the teams to haul these stones. I drove one horse first, and then two, and then four, and sometimes six to draw the great roller.”