Still Jim

place. They call this work. I have seen time return t

of the E

full-fledged engineer. He was that creature of unmatched vanity, a young man with his first job. And Jim's first job was with his government. The Reclamation Service was, to Jim's min

far Northwest. There were not many months of work left on the dam or the canals. But Jim wa

th of the map really surprised him. But after the train had crossed the Mississippi valley, it began to traverse vast rolling plains, covered from horizon to horizon with wheat. At endless intervals were set tiny dwell

ch the flying train snailed for hours, until Jim, watching eagerly, saw the sand give way to

even greater than the trestles of Jim's boyhood dreams; twisted about peaks that gave unexpected, fleeting views of other p

ss. Puffing on the single-gauge track was a "dinky" engine, coupled to a flat car. Wooden benches were fastened along one e

p to the dam

s stuff loaded," re

h you," said Jim. "I'v

b engineer. All right, sonny. Loa

nd suit case up on the flat car. Then he lent

ound curves and across viaducts, the grade rising steadily until just as Jim had made up his mind that his moments were numbered, they reached the first steep g

e fireman. "We'll send your s

ed faintly down to him. His pulse quickened and he started up the road which wound for a quarter of a mile through

Then, nearer, he saw solitary peaks, etched black against the heavens, and grou

e depths. And, standing so, struggling to resist the sense of the region's terrifying bigness, he saw that all the valleys and ca

around. It was the point where the war of waters must be keenest, where the stand of the wilder

gray stone, so huge, so naked of conscious adornment that the hills might well have disbeli

lips. This, then, was the labor to which he

d the shouts of foremen. Back to the right, among the trees, was a long military line of tents. Above the noise of construction the boy caught the silent brooding of the forest and, poured round all, the liqui

for Mr. Freet, the Project Engineer. He was directed to a tent with a sheet iron roof. Jim stopped bashfu

ft tie. He was thin and tall and had a shock of bright red hair. When he turned, Jim saw

aid Jim, "my n

"Why, Mr. Manning, we didn't look for you until tomorrow,

advice, Mr. Manning. You are a tenderfoot and fresh from college. You occupy the position of cub engineer here, so you will be fair bait for hazing. Don't take it too seriously. About your work? I shall put you into the hands of the chief draughtsman for a time. I want you to thoroughly familiarize yourself with that end of th

that moment Arthur Freet was t

he said. "

r to supper, Manning. Too much advice on a

meekly after

aged man, bald headed and clean shaven, with mild blue eyes. Jim put him down in his own mind

esign of the great dam from the sluice gates and the drainage holes to the complete vertical section. He had no patience with mistakes and Jim took his

ngineers had a good court in the woods and after Tuck found that Jim liked the game, he took the boy over to

he novelty of his environment, the romance of the great gray dam, built with such frightful risk and difficulty, absorbed Jim for the first week or so. He

n the library hearth rug where he and Uncle Denny had spent so many, many hours. There was the crack in the brown teapot that his mother would not discard because she had poured Big Jim's tea from it. There was Uncle Denny's rich Irish voice, "Ah, Still Jim, me boy!" And there

de him feel helpless and alone. By day he hid his unhappiness, he thought. He worked doggedly and did not guess that Charlie Tuck understood that ma

eet and try to pretend that the noise and the light and the figures belonged to 23rd street. Jim was sitting so in the door of his tent one night after nearly a month in cam

lows are having a rough house over in th

ike it, somehow

ed New York while you lived th

answe

to give you some responsibility. Were y

said

ountry wants a dam. It wants it bad but the Service doesn't see how to get in there. There is a big valley that has been part

out the only feasible place for damming it is somewhere in a beastly canyon that no man has ever gone throu

eclamation Service was created. I made the preliminary surveys for this project and for the Whitson. I tell you, Manning, that's the greatest work in the world-getting out into the wilderness and finding the right spot for civiliz

Freet,"

t a privilege to work with them. Say, Manning, if some way they could find the right level in that cany

e send a man to explore

done, just because no man has come through that crevice alive, is no reason one won'

gasp

ke the fellow you are going to be with. Then I think you would learn more on a trip like that than in a year of the sort of work Freet plans for you. And last, because I

is life. And Adventure called to him

re good to ask me, Mr. Tuc

thing, Manning. It will be a dangerous undertaking. We may not come through alive. You must get used to the idea, thou

and ignorance, Jim answere

mission and insisted that he write home about it before finally committing himself. Jim's letter home, however, would have moved a far more stolid spirit than Uncle Denny,

sible. Two folding canvas boats, two air mattresses, life preservers, waterproof bags, first aid appliances, brandy, sweet oil, surveying implements, food in as compact form as possible

ere was no road, scarcely even a trail up to the canyon. The green of the ranches was encircled by a greasewood-covered plain that, toward t

t the walls of the rift were weathered and broken into fissures and points of seeming impassable roughness. So deep and so craggy were these walls that the river

over the mighty, bristling walls. Lowering each other and the packs by ropes, sliding, rolling, jumping, crawling, it was night before they reached the river's edge, wh

desert and how narrow and oppressive were the canyon walls. He was glad that the strenuous da

must be at a point where construction work was possible. The river was incredibly rough and treacherous. From the first they packed everything in waterproof bags. The canvas ca

cold but they were obliged to work so hard that they scarcely felt the chill until they made camp at night. Jim discovered that a transit could be used in a

s, for the blank walls appeared here almost to meet above the deep well of water. There was a little driftwood on the ledge and they had a fire. The following two

men fought like mad to tow them to a rock ledge, the only visible landing place the crevice had to offer. But long before this haven was reached the mattresses were torn to shreds and Jim and Charlie were glad to reach the ledge with their surveying instruments and

our city. Well, it's as goo

nd beginning to peel off his wet clothes. "I guess if we wring

You can stand up to make your toilet," he sai

at shivering, Jim said, "If we fail to locate the dam

lost. "Jupiter looks as big as a dinner plate down here. Sometimes wh

ss was an unspeakable comfort to the two in the crevice. He spoke slowly but w

d on the job, that I'm doing the thing I've always been intended to do.

so long and then I break loose. I suppose someone has got to do these jobs and there is always someon

m. "I'd like

hearing a 'co-ed yell'-it's the only poem I k

ye removed! They say to t

cks reproved. They are not

to their summits, then is t

ay overcome it, pleasan

God will rouse them a little

ity allows them to leave the

lighted ways, so in the dar

days that their brethren's d

eave the wood to make a

with blood some Son of

arth to Heaven, not as

y given, to their own kin

for a man of your type. People don't realize what their comforts cost. I hope that when I die it will be on a Son of Martha job

divine fire of young sacrifice, the subtle sense of devotion that has made men

ses," said Jim. "We've got to ke

he night

spot of surpassing grandeur. A rock slide had sent a great heap of stone into the river. Close beside this they set the transit. Forward the river swept smoothly round a curve. Back, the two looked on a magnificent ser

other reading and again looked at each other. Then they packed the transit into its rubbe

Mountain and a hundred times more dif

exclaimed Jim. "The Makon dam. It

Eternal as the hills!" said Charlie. "W

wo hundred feet width of concrete wall right where we are lying. Doesn't it make you fee

a chance to lay out the road down here. They will have to blas

it, won't you,

d night's sleep. We ought to be out in three days.

e yells on a football field. He stood solemnly on his head on the top of rock pinnacles. He crowned himself and Jim with wreaths made of water cress that he found on a tiny s

whirlpool, he insisted on giving Jim a lecture on the gent

ed at Jim. "You will admit that I look like one!

ock with one hand and

proboscis,"

"This is no blooming ten-cent show! Keep bo

od! I've got cramp!" he screame

ke a ravening beast and he lost his hold. Jim swam furiously after him. The