“It do look simple, Norma, I’ll tell the worl’, but it can’t be so simple as it looks, or I could do it!” declared Sam.
Mrs. James joined them by this time, and wanted to know what was wrong. Why did Sam seem so troubled so early in the day?
The problem was explained but Norma admitted that they found no solution for it. Mrs. James told Sam to get up on the ladder again and show her how he had sawed.
Sam demonstrated his recent method of sawing, and Mrs. James began laughing. Norma frowned at her uncalled-for mirth, and Sam climbed from the ladder and stood gazing at her for an explanation.
“Don’t you see what you have done to cause the saw to run uphill at the back of the post?”
“No, I don’t! I tried hard to cut in the groove.”
“Well, first place, you stood below the line you had to cut through. You had to lift your arm above your shoulder, and that in itself would tend to draw the saw downward in front, because your arm works back and forth and does not keep its same position of height. It generally falls downward as the arm works backward—watch me, and you will see.” Then Mrs. James sawed slowly and showed both Sam and Norma how easy and unconsciously the tendency was to have the arm drop from its level as it worked backward.
“Another thing is, your saw cut in the groove at the front where you faced it, but the tough chestnut wood turned the thin edge of the saw upward because of the slight downward tendency of your arm, as you drew the elbow back and forth. That was enough to start the saw glancing upward, and when you reached the center of the pole, you found you were fully an inch out of the way.
“Then you started to saw on this side of the post, but you made the same mistake as before. Had you stood upon the top rung of the ladder, or used a higher ladder so you could saw the knob of the pole from a stand even with your waist line, you would have found it much easier to cut.”
“Well, now it’s all crooked, what can we do?” asked Norma.