Page:TheBoxcarChildren1924.djvu/74

 "I have a little tape measure in my workbag," ventured his sister Violet. Henry flashed a smile at her. "Is there anything you haven't got in your workbag?" he asked her.

The children measured the wet stick carefully. The water was just ten inches deep in the deepest part. Henry explained his plan of engineering to his sisters. "We will have to haul some big logs across this narrow part and stuff them from this end with stones and underbrush. It ought to be three feet deep before we get through." "O Henry!" protested Jess. "Benny would get drowned." "Drowned!" echoed Henry, "How tall do you think he is, anyhow?"

They measured the little boy and found him to be forty-two inches tall. That settled it; the pool was designed to be three feet in depth.

Luckily the largest logs were not far away; but as it was, it was a matter of great labor for the builders to drag them to the scene of operations. "Let's get all the logs up here first," suggested