IN THE BEGINNING 



had to spend his time watching it while it was 

 working, . for if he left it alone it was sure to 

 run too fast or too slow, or do something that 

 it ought not to do. As time passed, I became 

 afraid to use the water of the lake for drinking 

 purposes, the population on the shores having 

 greatly increased. I had bought a farm of three 

 hundred acres on the south shore, and I de- 

 termined to bring my water from there by 

 gravity. I dug a well on the hillside about 

 150 feet above the surface of the lake and pro- 

 posed to run a pipe from it to the island. All 

 my friends told me it could not be done, except 

 Bridgewater, who said it could be done easily. 

 He was an engineer with an international rep- 

 utation, and his opinion comforted me greatly. 

 Unfortunately he failed to tell me how it 

 was to be done so easily, and later when I 

 got well into the job I wished I had thought 

 to ask ; but we did it ourselves with no tools 

 at all except a spade, a crowbar, a wrench, 

 an axe, and fifty oil-barrels. The distance 

 across the water was just half a mile, for we 

 had measured it on the ice the winter before 

 we laid the pipe. The bottom was very favor- 

 able, with no steep declivities, running down 



21 



