s were to be taken
through its telescope.

There was a one-hundred-foot steel chain, having links each one foot
long, with which to measure distances. With it went ten slender steel
pins, each eighteen inches long, to the tops of which bits of red
flannel were tied, so that they could be readily seen. The head chainman
carried all of these to start with, and stuck one into the ground at the
end of each hundred feet. The rear chainman gathered them up as he came
to them, and thus, by counting the number of pins in his hand, he always
knew just what distance had been measured.

The man having charge of or "running" the transit was called the
transit-man; the one running the level was called the leveller; while
the other members of the party were designated as rodman, front and back
flagmen, or "flags," chainmen, and axemen. There were generally two of
these last named, and their duty was to clear away timber, brush, or
other obstructions on the line, and to make and drive stakes wherever
they were needed.

As the several members of the party were preparing for their respective
duties, Mr. Brackett put Glen through a sort of an examination, to
discover for what particular task he was best fitted.

"I don't suppose, Matherson," he began, "that you care to run the
transit to-day?"

"No," laughed Glen, "I think not to-day."

"Nor the level?"

"No, sir. I'd rather not try it."

"Well, I guess you'd better not. You might get it out of adjustment. Can
you read a rod!"

No, Glen could not read a rod.

He proved equally ignorant of the duties of flagman, chainman, and
axeman, which Mr. Brackett said was very fortunate, as all these
positions were already so capably filled in his party that he should
really hate to discharge anybody to make room for the new arrival.
"But," he added, "I have a most important place left, that I believe you
will fill capitally. Can you reproduce the letters of the alphabet and
the Arabic numerals on a bit of white pine with a piece of red chalk?"

Somewhat bewildered by this banter, Glen answered rather doubtfully that
he believed he could.

"Good! Then you shall stay with the wagon to-day, and mark stakes with
this bit of 'kiel'" (red chalk).

So Glen's first day's duty as a civil-engineer was to mark stakes with
figures to denote the distance measured, or with various letters, such
as P. T. (point of tangent), P. C. (point of curve), etc., for the
transit party, and B. M. (bench ma