"It will do for the use we are going to make of it," said Jack; "but it might not be quite convenient for field service; you couldn't carry a pail of water, and a floating shingle with two masts, in your overcoat-pocket, you know. We'll aim at a leg of that grindstone. Go and stick your knife where I tell you, Link."
Jack soon got his level so that it would stand the test, and called the boys to look.
"Here! you stand back, Chokie!" cried Link; while Rufe and Wad, one after the other, got down on the ground and sighted across the level at the knife-blade.
"Now," Jack explained, "I am going to set this pail of water in your kitchen window, by the sink. That will be our starting-point. Then I want one of you boys to go, with a long-handled pitchfork, in the direction of the spring, as far as you can and keep the pail in sight; then set up your fork, and pin a piece of white paper on it just where I tell you. As I raise my hand, you will slide the paper up; and, as I lower my hand, you will slip it down."
Wad and Link both went with the fork, which they set up on the borders of the woodland, back from the road. Then Wad, wrapping a piece of newspaper about the handle, held it there as high as his head, with a good strip of it visible above his hand.
Jack, standing in the kitchen, looked across the sights of his level placed in the open window, and laughed.
"What do you think, Rufe? Is the paper high enough?"
"It ought to be a foot or two higher," was Rufe's judgment.
"I say a foot higher," remarked Lord Betterson, coming up behind.