Chapter 187

It wasn't quite a madhouse, but it was close. We discovered the little mammoths weren't nearly as patient while they were all being hitched at once. They didn't actively try to give trouble, but they were young and wanted to play so it took longer to get them settled down. They calmed down a little when Danlo brought Big Mother over to hitch her up to the full sized sleigh.

Once all was ready I had Danlo and Big Mother lead the way with Deimeta and Darta coming next, followed by Failiela and Kackto. Merita then Maia then Ameliea came next with their female babies they hadn't named yet. I saved Roweea and Bosto for last since Bosto was the largest of the little ones.

They made it outside just fine and were heading up the canyon in line and in order for a few yards but when they noticed the audience that was standing around watching them and calling out encouragement things went awry. Deimeta and Darta stayed with the program and Failiela and Kackto were still doing the right thing too.

The others hadn't been handled nearly as much though and when they discovered they were the center of attention they began to cut up a little. Maia's little darling decided she didn't want to stay so far back in line and since there was plenty of room she sped up trying to catch Merita and her little beast of burden. Amelia's pet decided it was an excellent idea and followed suit.

For a minute Bosto was slow to catch on to the fun but when he did his larger size let him overtake them all. His victory was short lived though, because Danlo had happened to look back and notice what was going on.

He stopped Big Mother and when Bosto came into range she gave him a whack with her trunk. Poor Bosto didn't know what he'd done wrong, but he did know Big Mother's blow hurt and forgetting he had a sleigh following him he tried to shy backwards.

His butt found the front of the sleigh and he nearly panicked. Roweea had a hard time getting him to just stop and stand there. It was hard for her to shout commands and laugh so hard at the same time.

All the laughter from the audience wasn't helping either, but I couldn't say anything because I was right with them. Finally the youngsters were brought to hand and Danlo started up again. The drivers paid closer attention this time, hoping to avoid another runaway. Everything worked well for a while too, but when Danlo decided it was time for Big Mother to turn around and lead the way back things went to shit again.

When the little ones, Darta included, heard Danlo tell Big Mother to turn left they all did it at once. Instead of the whole line marching up to the turning point and coming back they all did an about face on Danlo's command. Now the order was completely reversed and Bosto was leading the way back toward the horse cave.

The audience didn't realize this was completely unplanned and unexpected. They hooted and clapped for the maneuver. It did work out better than we could have expected though because everyone stayed with the new line up and went back to the horse cave, more or less in line.

Once all the suspects had made it back to the starting point we re-arranged our lineup. Deimeta took the lead this time and as she led off I had the others fall in according to their increasing size. This made our parade start out with the smallest first and build to the largest. We'd had a small powwow before starting again and when the turning point was reached this time all the drivers whispered the command to turn so that only their mammoth heard it. There was no about face and every one of them went to the spot and turned in order so the procession came back in the same order it left.

"See Daddy, you should have let me lead the way in the first place," Deimeta told me, when she got back.

"I know now, Deimeta, and henceforth Danlo and I will be asking for your input before making up our marching orders."

"I'm not sure it's going to be the best way to do it. The first trip was much more fun than the last one even if it was a mess for a few minutes. Everyone who was watching seemed to like it better too," she said.

"I just can't win with you, Deimeta."

"Of course not. That's what daughters are for, Daddy," she said, and smiled.

The show was over for today, but when I announced the end of the festivities I got plenty of good-natured groaning from the watchers. It made me make an unplanned announcement.

"In honor of our new mammoth drivers and of all their hard work we are going to have a celebration tomorrow night. There will be plenty of food and bruga and during the day tomorrow I'll be demonstrating a new type of cooking."

This news changed the mood considerably and I noticed as the large group broke up it was only into smaller groups which were talking about the festivities tomorrow. I would need to have a talk with Ralph tonight about meat smokers since I'd promised the new type of cooking, but didn't have a single smoker, yet.

I saw Daaggo and some of his men heading back toward the sawmill and I picked up my pace to catch them. I caught up about the time they came to the sawmill's entrance.

"Daaggo, how is the lumber coming?"

"I think we are doing a good job with it now. Everyone who is helping is amazed the boards come out with such usable shapes," he said.

"Good, we will be needing some of it tomorrow and you will need some more men to build a few things with it."

"Do you already have plans for the lumber? We have been thinking about what we could make with it and wondering what to build first," he said.

"I know something we should be able to start building tomorrow. You might have to change the equipment to cut some specific sizes, but it shouldn't be hard to do. I want your first project to be picnic tables."

"What are picnic tables?" he asked.

"They are what we will be eating off of tomorrow at the celebration. I'm sure Ralph will have a sensible set of plans and a list of whatever lumber we will need to cut by the time we get inside."

I should have said I hoped Ralph would have plans by the time we got inside. He was ready though and when I asked him to show them what to do he got right to it. Picnic tables aren't very complicated but there were a couple of things needed for them which hadn't been introduced here yet.

Bolts and nails would make the building much easier. They could be made without them, but I didn't see any point in that and while I watched a little of the presentation Ralph put on I saw he felt the same way.

He first showed a picture of a finished table and then he went over the construction from the beginning to the end. When he came to the bolts he explained them carefully and showed how they were used. He did the same with nails and he gave a very thorough tutorial on using a hammer.

He also showed them something I hadn't thought of, but it would be very helpful, sandpaper. I couldn't think of anything that could ruin a good party quicker than a bunch of splinters in people's asses.

After the show and tell was over he told Daaggo they might as well get started cutting some lumber and he promised to help by adjusting the saws to make sure they got the proper sizes. I left them at it and headed for my office.

"Hello, John. The show with the mammoths this morning was very interesting. Very interesting. We all enjoyed it very much," Ralph said, as soon as I entered.

"I'm glad you did because I'm going to need some more help before the celebration tomorrow. I hope I didn't cause you any trouble with the whole picnic table thing, but it just sort of happened."

"It was no trouble really, even though Frank, Phil, and I had to decide on the details in a rather short time. Still, a picnic table isn't very challenging and I'm sure the design we came up with will do fine.

We left out the details of size for the moment and Frank is currently checking the size of every individual in camp so we can determine the best size for the tables," he said.