One of Jack’s jobs was to wash the byre. Now it those days – as I may have explained earlier – we had no taps where water came flowing out at will!

Oh no! We had to carry all our water in buckets from the river below!

I helped Jack with washing the byre but he was always insisting that it be done better. One day, Jack says to me,

‘Today we’ll show him. We’ll do it really well!’

He handed me the bucket.

‘Go down and fill that. You do the first ten buckets and I’ll do the next ten!’

Eventually I was coming in with the last of my ten buckets and I met him at the door.

‘Where are ye going with that?’ he enquired.
 

‘If you carry any more water in here, you’ll wash the byre away!’