land, which was much larger, but the boys' father had given them this
largely to try their mettle. He felt so certain they could not do it
that he said they might have all they needed from a pile of drain pipe
he intended to use himself on a piece of wet land the next fall. "I
shall have all my drain pipe left to me," he said to the boys' mother
one night. She smiled, for the boys had talked matters over a bit with
her.

Myron's strawberry bed was all made, Jack's garden-filling work done,
George's ploughing and planting finished, before the boys could lay the
drain.

"It's no use," said Albert, "I'm ready to give up."

"Now Savage, there's to be no quitting. I'd be ashamed of you, at least
we can surprise father."

"All right, Jay, I'm with you."

Finally the day came when The Chief and the boys started work. A drain
pipe should be laid ordinarily anywhere from twenty inches to three feet
deep. One may dig or plough to make the trench. It is wise to dig as
narrow a trench as possible and so lift as little soil as possible.
Then, too, the bed of the drain should slope gradually from the upper
or highest point to the lowest. The drop in level should be about four
inches per hundred feet. So the boys had to consider just this. This is
the way they "sighted" to get the drop in level. They drove a stake into
the ground at some twenty feet from the place where the drain was to
begin. Previously a cord had been stretched from one end of the centre
of the field to the other end. Since the centre of the field seemed to