"If it will— Well, let me hear what it is," said Riley, changing his purpose while speaking.
"Raft the stones down," said Hamp.
"Now look a-here, Hamp See," said old Riley, "I've stood up fer you, an' said you wa'n't no dunce when everybody else said you was; but this here looks as ef they was right an' I was wrong. How in natur' kin I raft stone down a creek that ain't got more'n six inches o' water in it, a-bubblin' around among the stones of the bottom?"
"Well, you see," said Hamp, "I've levelled up from here to the quarry, and there's only two feet fall, or a little less, and the banks are nowhere less than five feet high; and so, as there's a good deal more water running down in a day than anybody would think, it's my notion to build a temporary dam just below the bridge—you've enough timber and plank here to do it with two hours' work of your men—building it, say, six feet high, there where the banks are closest together. Before noon to-morrow the water will rise to the top of the dam, and run over. When it does, you'll have six feet of water here, and four feet at the quarry, and your men can push rafts down as fast as they can load them."
"How do you know there's only two foot fall?" asked old Riley, eagerly.
"I've levelled it," said Hamp.
"That is, you figgered it out with them sticks?"
"Yes."
"Are you sure you've got the right answer?" asked the old man, wild with eagerness.