34: CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



illustration of this underground mischief. Nothing 

 can look smoother and more even than the bottom, 

 until that uncompromising test of accurate levels, 

 the water, makes its appearance : all on a sudden 

 the whole scene is changed, the eye-accredited level 

 vanishes as if some earthquake had taken place : 

 here there is a gravelly Scour, along which the 

 stream rushes in a thousand little angry-looking 

 ripples ; there it hangs and looks as dull and heavy 

 as if it had given up running at all, as a useless 

 waste of energy ; in another place a few dead 

 leaves or sticks, or a morsel of soil broken from 

 the side, dams back the water for a considerable 

 distance, occasioning a deposit of soil along the 

 whole reach, greater in proportion to the quantity 

 and the muddiness of the water detained. All 

 this shows the paramount importance of perfect 

 evenness in the bed on which the tiles are laid. 

 The worst-laid tile is the measure of the good- 

 ness and permanence of the whole drain, just as 

 the weakest link of a chain is the measure of its 

 strength. 



But this of course was all theory, and theory of 

 course was all nonsense : my practical head-drainer 

 was quite of a different way of thinking, as his 

 modus operandi will exhibit. The morning after 



