Once she so far relaxed her
rules in regard to Jennie's lover as to send for Carl to come to
the house after supper, questioning him closely about the upper
rigging of a new derrick she had seen. Carl's experience as a
sailor was especially valuable in matters of this kind. He could
not only splice a broken "fall," and repair the sheaves and
friction-rollers in a hoisting-block, but whenever the rigging got
tangled aloft he could spring up the derrick like a cat and
unreeve the rope in an instant. She also wrote to Babcock, asking
him to stop at her house some morning on his way to the Quarantine
Landing, where he was building a retaining-wall; and when he
arrived, she took him out to the shed where she kept her heavy
derricks. That more experienced contractor at once became deeply
interested, and made a series of sketches for her, on the back of
an envelope, of an improved pintle and revolving-cap which he
claimed would greatly improve the working of her derricks. These
sketches she took to the village blacksmith next day, and by that
night had an estimate of their cost. She was also seen one
morning, when the new trolley company got rid of its old stock, at
a sale of car-horses, watching the prices closely, and examining
the condition of the animals sold. She asked the superintendent
to drop her a postal when the next sale occurred.
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