I guess you know what capstans are—the things they use in moving houses? In Riverbank they move a lot of houses, because people are always wanting to build other houses where houses already are, and you can't move a house without a capstan. They have them on boats, too, but not quite the same kind. The house-moving kind is like a square box, without sides. In the middle, up and down, is a kind of roller that the rope rolls onto, and the roller has to stick up above the top of the box so there can be a place to stick a pole into to turn the roller. When they move houses they set the capstan in the middle of the street a long way from the house, and carry a rope back and fasten it to the house, and then a horse that is fastened to the pole walks around and around the capstan, stepping over the rope every time he passes it, and winds up the rope, and that pulls the house. Only we didn't have any horse, so we thought maybe we'd use Swatty's cow. But we didn't. We turned the capstan ourselves. All the time we were making the capstan Swatty said the cow would turn it, but when we got it done he said:
“Who ever heard of a cow turning a capstan?”
“I did,” I said. “In the Bible-book there is a picture of a cow turning a capstan.”
“Well, that ain't the same thing,” Swatty said. “That's a Bible-cow, and ours is part Alderney and part Holstein.”
“And this isn't any cow-capstan, anyway,” Bony said. “A cow couldn't work this capstan, because a cow has two toes, and she'd get the rope caught between her toes and fall and kill herself.”
“Whose cow are you saying would fall and kill herself—my cow?” Swatty asked, the way he did when he meant: “Take it back or I'll lick you!” Then he says: “You'd better not say my cow would fall and kill herself. If my cow couldn't step over a rope without getting it between her toes, I'd take her and kill her.”
“Aw, you would not!” I said.
“Yes, I would, too!” Swatty said. “We had a cow once that couldn't step over a rope without getting it between her toes, and my father took her down to the river and killed her. You needn't say we'd have a cow that can't step over a rope—”
“I never said it,” I said.
“Well, if you didn't say it, who did say it, I'd like to know,” Swatty asked. “Bony didn't say it and you'd better not say he said it, because he came over and helped me finish the capstan, and you stayed in school and let us do it.”