Cabin B sat across the vale and up the hill from Cabin A. Before the girls could even get out the door, they’d have to go through Miss Sompres, their band teacher. Miss Sompres sat on the steps just outside the cabin door.
“Ma’am, would it be okay if we hiked to Cabin B?”
“Why on earth would you want to do that?”
“Our big sisters are there.”
“I suppose that would be okay, just be back here before dinner.”
Chatters, chirps and croaks of robins, wrens and crows filled the misty air as the girls hiked the trail that linked the two camps. They ambled about and enjoyed a rare sunny Irish day. Meanwhile, Mr. Cahill was back home working in the zinc mines, digging down deep with his fellow co-workers.
Mr. Cahill, however, was not truly mining the zinc. He was a foreman. He ran several of the operations for the mining company.
“Henry,” he said to the lead drill operator, “we’ve got a good vein a little deeper into the blast zone. I want you to start drilling there."
Mr. Cahill indicated the blasting area on a map for Henry. After the blast team checked the site for loose debris, the drilling team had their turn. They took jackhammers to the loose granite so it was easier to transport.
As Henry and the drilling team went to work, Mr. Cahill headed to the next part of the operation. Meanwhile, the dump trucks hauled the gravel to conveyor belts at the other end of the mine. The conveyors moved the rocks to the ground level where Mr. Cahill would soon up with other mine workers.
For Mr. Cahill, it was all work. For Korrit and Chelsea, however, it was all play. The rocky bluff gave way to a wide field covered in clover and rye grass.
“I never thought we’d make it,” said Chelsea.
“We’re notthere yet,” said Korrit.
Indeed, Cabin B sat across the field, just beyond the rambling stone fence, an uphill climb the whole way. The girls hiked as far as the fence and perched themselves upon the wall to rest their weary feet.
“Would you look at that?” said Sallie to Meg, “our sisters are sitting on the fence.”
“What are they doing out there?”
“Let’s go and find out,” suggested Sallie. Meg agreed, so the two headed outside to meet Korrit and Chelsea.
“What brings ya?” said Sallie.
“You do,” said Chelsea.
“We do? I don’t think so.”
“It was boring at our cabin.”
“It’s boring at our cabin, too,” said Meg.
“Then let’s do something,” said Chelsea.
“Let’s go exploring for a pothole,” suggested Meg.
So suggested Meg and so the rest agreed. Potholing was to the people of Ireland what spelunking was to North Americans and caving was to the rest of the world. Meg would lead the girls into the underground tunnels and potholes that would make for an afternoon of adventure. Now, it was underground for the girls and up to the surface for their father. He entered the refinery, where raw stones were ground down and put through chemical processes to separate zinc from the other minerals within the rocks.
“’Ello, Mick, how’s the latest load from the quarry?”
“It looks rich,” said Mick, “but we’ll just have to pulverize it and see what we get.”
Mick worked in the pulverizing plant, where the rock was fed through crushers and grinders until the raw materials became rocks and fine powder. Then, the zinc would be separated using several other metallurgical processes on its way to becoming several types of zinc products.
“Hello!” called Chelsea.
She stood at the top of a small cliff, guarded by her older sisters. The pothole meandered downward, leading to a cavern called a grotto. The grotto was filled with all sorts of rock formations including stalagmites that shot up from the ground and stalactites that hung from the cave’s ceiling.
From sea caves to sinkholes, Ireland was a country filled with caves. The coasts were places where pirates, vikings, and sailors dwelled long ago. Folklore had told of wild creatures who dwelled in the grottoes. For the Cahill girls, however, the cavern was completely empty besides them.
“Hallo!” Chelsea called again. Her voice bounced off the far wall of the cavern.
“Quit it, little bit,” said Meg.
“I’m just checking for an echo.”
“It’s too loud.”
Chelsea remained quiet as everyone climbed down the rocks to the back of the cave.
“It’s getting scary in here,” said Chelsea, “Can we go now?”
“We just got here,” Meg replied.
“It’s getting cold, too,” added Korrit.
“Alright, I guess we’ll head back to the surface. There’s nothing down here anyway.”
There was, however, something back at the zinc mines and Mr. Cahill was at the metallurgical plant, overseeing another part of the zinc manufacturing process.
The powder and gravel went through a chemical bath, where chemicals washed the granite and other minerals. The by-products were sent through special filters to separate them. Then, they were sent to dump trucks that shipped the by-products to other processing plants. Some plants even worked with the zinc by-products, making things people could use in their everyday lives.
Even before the girls reached the opening to the cave, the dinner bell rang.
“We’re going to be late!” exclaimed Korrit.
“Don’t worry,” said Meg, “the Dining Hall is just across the field.”
“It looks like it’s going to rain,” said Korrit.
“Don’t worry,” said Sallie, “you can borrow my puddle-jumpers.”
“What about me?” asked Chelsea.
“Hmmm…we’ll see what we can do.”
The girls passed everyone on their way to Cabin B.
“Where are you headed?” asked Mr. Lowrie, “the Dining Hall is this way.”
“We need to pick up some puddle-jumpers for Korrit and see if we can find something for Chelsea, too.”
“How about I do it one better by driving you to Cabin A?”
“That’d be great, Mr. Lowrie.”
Meg and Sallie went inside and picked out a set of clothes for the storm clouds headed their way. Then, Mr. Lowrie drove the whole gang to Cabin A. Korrit fetched her clothes right away. However, it took chelsea a short bit longer. When she returned, she was only carrying her backpack.
“Where are your things?” asked Mr. Lowrie.
“They’re in here.”
“Let me see,” said Meg. She rummaged through Chelsea’s backpack, taking inventory of everything inside.
“Why do you have your netbook?”
“I want to write a message to daddy.”
“You just saw him early this afternoon…”
“I know…but I miss him.”
It began raining even before Mr. Lowrie’s car arrived at the Dining Hall. Chelsea put on her puddle-jumpers and raincoat while Meg carried chelsea’s backpack to the safety of the Dining Hall.
Mr. Lowrie’s truck, just like Chelsea’s raingear, had protected the girls from the rain. That was due, in part, to the truck’s metallic frame, which had been made of an alloy – metals like aluminum, titanium, and zinc, combined together in one of the many processes that happened at Mr. Cahill’s plant.
So, too, was Chelsea’s notebook. The microchips had circuits that were zinc-plated to make the connections work effectively. Members of the brass section in the band had trumpets, trombones, and English horns. All that brass was another alloy, a combination of copper and zinc.
Mr. Cahill’s plant, however, did not create alloys or zinc-plate computer chips, but his plant still made life easier for the Cahill girls – and the rest of the world, too.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment