Wood Splitting Workshop

Ya, I read "Tom Sawyer". I loved the part in chapter two where Tom Sawyer gets several boys in the town to whitewash the fence by making them think that it's just not work at all.

“Why, ain’t that work?” Tom resumed his whitewashing, and answered carelessly: “Well, maybe it is, and maybe it ain’t. All I know, is, it suits Tom Sawyer.” “Oh come, now, you don’t mean to let on that you like it?” The brush continued to move. “Like it? Well, I don’t see why I oughtn’t to like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?”

So when Michael and Patrick said that they wanted a quick lesson in wood splitting, well I was pleased as punch to oblige.

"Well boys", I says through the stalk of grass in my teeth, "there's a big ol' pile of wood that needs splittin' right over yonder. Why don't y'all grab that wheelbarrow and fetch a load of them rounds. Y'all are gonna need a heap o' practice for this l'il workshop".

After a few minutes waxing poetic on the finer point of using a splitting maul, I handed the tool over to the fresh protoges.

WHACK!!!

"Well Patrick... That was pretty good but just because you split it in one hit doesn't mean that you've mastered the art. You'd better try another one."

WHACK!!

"Nicely done, Pat. Bend your legs more... Try again. Here's a second maul for you to practice with, Michael."

WHACK!! WHACK!!

"Well done boys... Now you guys keep it up. I can see that in another hour or so you'll be ready to do it unsupervised"

"He had had a nice, good, idle time all the while – plenty of company – and the fence had three coats of whitewash on it! If he hadn’t run out of whitewash he would have bankrupted every boy in the village... ...The boy mused awhile over the substantial change which had taken place in his worldly circumstances, and then wended toward headquarters to report."