The boys were delighted. All this excavating, laying out of earthworks, and planning of gate-way, seemed like real engineering. They were reënforced, after a while, by Patrick and the horses; and then how suddenly they became tired, his shovelfuls were so large in comparison with theirs—his wagon carried away so much more at a load!
Pretty early that evening little Clarence crept into his mother’s lap, and told her a marvellous story of the amount of earth he had wheeled away; but his tired little eyes acted as though some of it had blown between their lids; and soon mamma tucked him away for twelve hours’ sleep.
The hollow in the pasture, I forgot to say, was half an acre in extent, and appeared as though Nature had scooped it out on purpose to make a place for the Davy boys’ fishing-pond. The creek, too, running nearly alongside, was there to supply it with water.
“What shall we ever do with that hill?” said Percy, pointing to a rise of ground on one side the hollow, as he and his brothers were surveying their work; “we never can cart all that away, nor dig up those trees, either.”
“Let’s leave it for an island,” said Frank—“a real island—land with water all round it” (he had just begun studying geography); “and the trees will make a splendid grove, where we can have picnics.”
“The island will afford a harbor for the boat, too,” said Mr. Davy, who had just joined the children. “I suppose you will want a boat on your pond—will you not?”
The boys could scarcely believe their ears. A boat of their own, on their own pond! They had never dreamed of anything half so nice.
“Time to be at work!” said Mr. Davy.
All the forenoon, as I watched them from my window, I saw the embankment growing slowly, but steadily, while the sloping sides of the hollow became steeper and steeper. At night a visible step had been taken towards a fishing-pond.
I cannot tell you about every one of the days during which the Davy boys worked so industriously. At last, however, the excavation was completed, the embankment raised to the desired height. The frame for the gate-way stood firm between its crowding sides. Gates were in progress at the carpenter’s, made of solid plank, a door sliding up and down over an open space near the bottom. This was easily worked by means of a handle at the top.