"
In the morning the boys were at work at two wheelbarrows, for which
Mr. Hardy had brought out wheels and ironwork; and Mr. Hardy and
the men went down to the stream, and began to strip off the turf
and to dig out a strip of land twenty-five feet wide along the line
where the dam was to come. The earth was then wetted and puddled.
When the barrows were completed they were brought into work; and in
ten days a dam was raised eight feet high, three feet wide at the
top, and twenty-five feet wide at the bottom. In the middle a space
of two feet wide was left, through which the little stream at
present ran. Two posts, with grooves in them, were driven in, one
upon either side of this; and thus the work was left for a few
days, for the sun to bake its surface, while the men were cutting a
trench for the water to run down to the ground to be irrigated.
A small sluice was put at the entrance to this, to regulate the
quantity of water to be allowed to flow, and all was now in
readiness to complete the final operation of closing up the dam. A
quantity of earth was first collected and puddled, and piled on the
top of the dam and on the slopes by its side, so as to be in
readiness, and Mrs. Hardy and the girls came down to watch the
operation.
First a number of boards two feet long, and cut to fit the grooves,
were slipped down into them, forming a solid wall, and then upon
the upper side of these the puddled earth was thrown down into the
water, Terence standing below in the stream and pounding down the
earth with a rammer.
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