Tales From the Glades of Ballymore (10 page)

“I promise,” said Rachel as she placed her paws on his head again..  “But promise me that you’ll think about meeting the others.”

“I promise, also.  Thank you, Rachel, my friend,” said Sam with some emotion in his voice.

“Goodbye, it was nice to meet you too,” said Rachel.

As Sam watched her leave, Rachel hopped back towards her cottage.  She couldn’t believe that she had met and talked to the “Pond Creature”.  Now, they were even friends!  

Sam was both happy and scared about what had happened.  He hid in the woods the rest of the day.  Towards dark he slipped back into the pond unnoticed.

While the rabbits were involved with their annual flower basket effort, Bartholomew was beginning his own ambitious project, the HMS Ballymore.  Before the boat could be built, it had to be designed.  His ship book contained some detailed drawings of an Irish Hooker, which were a great help.  He decided that some features of the original boat were unnecessary for Ballymore.  For example there was no need for sleeping quarters or a kitchen below the deck.  The boat was not going to be a hotel or floating restaurant.  Instead, the space could be used for cargo or storage as needed.  By eliminating these and other unneeded features, it would be much easier to build.

He spent an evening copying and modifying sketches of the boat from the book.  It would be designed to be sailed by a crew of two.  When there was no wind, it would be small enough to tow.

The following morning, he sent messages to Morris and Burton asking if they could come to a meeting at 7 bongs that evening to discuss the design.  As I have mentioned, Morris and Burton were the most experienced woodworkers in Ballymore.  They arrived just after dinner.  After considering Bartholomew’s initial designs, they had a number of suggestions.  The three animals worked together that night and made good progress.  It still took four more meetings before the design was finished and ready to build.

First, a suitable construction location was needed.  Ideally, the boat should be built on land and then launched into the pond, but that would not be easy to do.  The animals had no way, they could think of, to move the completed boat over land and into the pond.  It simply would be too heavy.

Bartholomew suggested that the boat be built above the water and then lowered into the pond.  If they could find a very narrow cove, they could build a dock across it.  Then, they could build the boat on the dock.  When completed, it would be slid off of the dock into the pond.  Would it work?  We will see.

Just such a small cove was located on the north side of the pond not far from Morris Muskrat’s cottage.  It was only eight feet wide and about twenty feet long.

The next step was to obtain the wood for the dock and boat.  Bartholomew calculated that they needed wood from seven medium sized trees, four for the boat and three for the dock.  No living trees were to be cut.  Bartholomew asked Stoddard Swan to fly around the pond and see if he could find any dead trees near the shoreline.  His search was successful.  Within a day he found a number good possibilities.  Some of them were white oaks.  White oak was the best wood for boat building.  Bartholomew found that important fact in his ship book.

Morris and Burton visited the trees Stoddard had found and selected the best seven white oaks.  Over the next week, the beavers cut down the trees.  Bartholomew measured and marked them.  With the help of the ducks, logs were cut and towed to the cove.

Meanwhile, Bartholomew and the squirrels built a simple hoist system over the cove.  A stout rope with a sliding hook was suspended between two trees.  Using pulleys and a handle, the hook could be raised and lowered.  Now, they were able to move logs and parts of the boat around.

With the hoist in place and the wood delivered, they could construct the dock.  Morris and the beavers brought their saws and other tools to the cove.  They sawed thirty boards for the dock.  Those pieces were attached to two side rails on either side of the cove.  It took only three days to complete the dock, and it was just six inches above the water as planned.

Morris stood on the new dock, looked out over the pond and thought about the boat:  A few days ago there was nothing here, and now I’m standing on a dock.  In a few weeks there’ll be a boat sitting in the water.  One of us could never do this alone.  Working together, however, is there any limit to what we can do, he wondered.

Over the next few weeks, the parts for the hull and deck were cut and assembled on the dock.  Bartholomew did the measuring.  He marked and checked each piece to ensure it was correct.  Then, he checked again.  The main sections included the hull frame, the hull cladding, the rudder, and the deck.  The white oak trees were being transformed into a boat.

When the hull sections were complete, the many joints needed to be sealed against water.  Morris made a glue from pine sap, sawdust, and a secret ingredient.  The glue was forced into every joint from the inside of the boat until it oozed to the outside.  After it dried, the surfaces were sanded smooth.  Hopefully, they now had a nice water-tight vessel.

Next they painted the boat inside and out in accordance with the colors shown in the book.  The hull was made a shiny black.  The deck and mast were a light shade of mahogany.  Using gold paint, Bartholomew lettered its name on the stern — HMS Ballymore.  Even though it wasn’t finished, the boat was already impressive and beautiful.

The animals were very happy with what they had accomplished so far.  However, much remained to be done before the boat’s presentation on Midsummer’s Eve.

CHAPTER THREE

Mrs. Porcupine's Garden

Mrs. Petunia Porcupine has lived in Ballymore for ten years.  She arrived with her husband, Peter, when they heard that Ballymore needed a bakery.  Both she and Peter were excellent bakers, and the residents happily welcomed them.  Unfortunately, Peter passed away five years ago, which left Petunia alone.  She was not alone for long, though, as the residents provided much support and friendship.  With the help of the squirrels and others, she kept the bakery open, which was good for everyone.

Mrs. Porcupine’s garden and orchard were the largest in Ballymore.  She supplied the residents’ needs in these regards, also.

Petunia’s cottage sat on the northwest corner of the pond.  As with most of the homes, the beavers built it with stones from the creek just to the southeast of Ballymore.  How the stones were moved to the building site is a story for another time. 

The cottage had a parlor, bedroom, guest room, and large kitchen.  The parlor was used frequently as she had many visitors.  She needed a large kitchen in which to bake all of the pies, breads, and cookies.  As mentioned above, her bakery products were well loved.  She rarely had anything left at the end of the day.  Her specialty was lemon meringue pie.  Unfortunately, she could not offer it as often as she would have liked because lemons were not always available.  She had fruit trees in her orchard but not a lemon among them.  The lemons must be located by the swans and flown into Ballymore.  It was not clear how or where the swans obtained them.  Actually, it was not clear how or where the swans obtained anything for the residents.

Petunia was a very neat housekeeper and had the cleanest cottage in Ballymore.  Every morning after breakfast she swept and washed the floor, cleaned the kitchen, and polished her shoes, which she rarely wore.  All of that took her only about an hour.

This morning, when Petunia walked into her kitchen, she was shocked to see two parallel trails of ants winding from her cupboard to under the back door.  One trail was incoming and one outgoing.  The outgoing ants were transferring her sesame seeds to who knows where.  Her resulting scream was probably heard on the other side of the pond.  In any event, she quickly shooed the ants out the door with her broom.  This was only a temporary solution as everyone knows that ants don’t give up easily.

Mrs. Porcupine was a kind soul and knew that the ants needed food like everyone else, so she had to think of a better answer than the broom.  A compromise was needed.  She decided to place a small amount of sesame seeds on the back porch that evening.  The seeds would be covered by an overturned dish so that only the ants could reach them.

Having dealt with that unexpected matter, she could finally have breakfast and do her cleaning.  Afterwards, she decided to take a short rest prior to beginning the daily tending of the garden.  She also needed to rest because she had not yet settled down from the ant invasion.

It was a beautiful late May morning.  Petunia strolled to a small field behind her cottage.  Tufts of grass blanketed the uneven turf.  Dandelions poked their bright yellow heads everywhere above the slender green blades.  The delicate, white petals of daisies with small, yellow centers were generously scattered throughout.  Ever so slightly, the flowers stirred in the gentle breeze.  Sunlight, out of a cloudless, blue sky, glistened off dew drops and illuminated the scene into a living painting.

This serenity was exactly what she needed, and Petunia sat on her favorite rock for several minutes until her peace was interrupted by someone approaching.

She turned to see Finnilly (Finn) Frog coming through the field.  He was dressed in his usual pullover jeans.  Finn lived on the other side of the pond.  He was a “Tom Sawyer” kind of frog, if you know what I mean.  He loved adventures and thought there might be one brewing when he heard what sounded like a scream come from across the pond.  He came to investigate or just be nosy, whichever you prefer.

“Hi, Mrs. Porcupine,” Finn said.  “A little while ago, I thought I heard a scream from over this way.  I came over to see if everything was all right.  Did you hear anything?”

“Hello, Finn,” said Petunia.  “No.  I mean yes.”

She corrected herself as she remembered her initial reaction to the ants.  Then, she told Finn about the ant encounter and her planned peace offering.  That interested Finn greatly, and it sounded like a good adventure with which to get involved.  Petunia knew Finn well and knew exactly what he was thinking.  His involvement would not be good for the situation that required some delicacy.

Changing the subject, Petunia asked, “Would you help me bring some water from the pond to the garden, please?”

That was not the kind of adventure for which Finn had been looking but, being a helpful frog, he willingly obliged.

The trip from the pond to the garden was about a hundred and fifty feet and slightly uphill.  Petunia always used two small pails and a cart to transport the water.  The pails were emptied into a trough next to the kitchen.  From there the water would be distributed as needed.  The amount of water required varied depending upon how much it had rained and how much baking had to be done.  Today, she needed ten trips worth of water.

Usually, Sofie or Seely Squirrel helped her cart water, but neither were there yet.  The two squirrels have been helping Petunia since Peter passed.  They mostly handled distribution of the bake goods but also worked in the kitchen and garden.

As Finn helped haul the water, he was trying to figure out an easier way to bring water to the garden.  A scheme popped into his head.

“Mrs. Porcupine, I have an idea about the water,” Finn said with great enthusiasm.

“What is that?” she asked.  She was glad he was thinking about water and not ants.

“We could dig a ditch from the pond to the garden, and the water would flow automatically to where you want it.  It would save a lot of carting.”