Part 84

The water was beginning to flow. Quickly he hurried to the stable, dared the flies, and threw wide the doors at both ends of the edifice. Fortunately he wore the clothespin.

The water was moving ever closer. The chore was indeed a simple one.

He looked up, and frowned.

The sky had darkened, and even now huge raindrops began to fall. The mild creek was rising higher and higher. The dam, built to withstand that creek, was faced with an ever deepening, ever angrier river.

The water reached the top of the dam, flowed now heavily through the channel, washed at the very entrance to the stables.

Suddenly the dam began to move, at first slowly. A crack appeared in the middle. It widened.

Water began to seep through the crack.

Water began to pour through the crack.

The crack was gone!

The dam was gone!

Demo sat down, stared in disbelief.

In moments his hours of work destroyed! The rock, the mud, the good green sod - all gone.

And the stable, fly infested, standing as before.

Even as he looked a swarm of flies rose, moved in his direction.

Quickly he retreated.

This required rethinking! Not so simple a chore as he had thought!

Back to Olympus! I must talk to Zeus! No way!

He arrived at Olympus. Zeus was absent. "He is on a . . .," his gardener smiled, ". . . on a hunting trip." He winked.

Suddenly a loud screech disturbed their ears.

"Oh, dear!" The gardener wrung his hands. "That's Hera! The flowers are growing so poorly. I've spent hours tending them. But they will not grow in this kind of soil. I've told Zeus a thousand times. Olympus is just too pure!"

Hera entered.

"I will not have my flowers drooping, my bushes wilting! I may well have my gardener in that condition if he tends not to my garden!"

The gardener cringed.

"What are you doing here. Did not Zeus send you out on another of his ridiculous chores. Begone, then, for I am not fit company today!" She stomped back to her patio, giving one last angry look at the gardener.

Demo frowned. "Well, I wish I could help. Anyway, I'm not much of a gardener. I know we use fertilizer on our plants. Mostly we use . . . ." He paused. A thought had entered his mind.

"Sir, perhaps this is your lucky day!"

"This boy, eh, the one who sold you the fertilizer for the vinyard and for Hera's garden," Zeus paused, a slight frown on his face. The clouds above Olympus darkened, and a low rumble of thunder sounded in the distance. "This boy wasn't too smart, you say?"

"Oh, no! Smart? Ha!"