It was the start of another day; Bobby was up and dressed while Billy was still sound asleep in bed.

“Get up,” Bobby shouted to Billy, “Its time we got our chores started.” Billy rolled over and got up. “I’ll make some breakfast,” Bobby said, as Billy got dressed.  

The boys ate breakfast, then made their beds and cleaned up the house. They had outside chores that had to be done before the day got too hot. Bobby started weeding the garden and Billy started cutting the grass.  About an hour or so later Billy was just finishing raking the grass when Bobby started putting away the gardening tools.

“I’m glad we’re done,” Billy said, “It’s starting to get hot out.”  

Even through there were big shade trees in the Woodland, in the summer there were days when it got very hot. “Let’s get our bathing suits and go swimming in Lazy Creek,” Bobby told Billy.

“That’s a good idea,” replied Billy, “we can pack a lunch and spend the day there.”

The boys got on their bathing suits and packed a lunch and headed down the path to Lazy Creek.  When they got there they found that most of the creek had dried up, and there was only a small trickle of water running down the hillside. Bobby and Billy stood there staring at what once was their favorite swimming spot.

“I wonder what happened?” Billy asked.

“It’s dried up boys,” Billy and Bobby did not notice Professor Fir sitting under a big shade tree reading a book.

“It’s dried up,” Billy asked, “How it could dry up?”

“Well,” said the Professor “we have had a long dry spell up on the mountains, and most of the water has dried up.” The Professor explained that the rain on the hills and mountains would run down into the valleys forming creeks, streams and brooks, but without rain there was no water.

Bobby looked at the Professor and asked, “Why has it been so hot and dry?”

“There could be a number of reasons,” explained the Professor, “it could be climate change that’s causing this hot spell.”

“What’s climate change?” asked Billy.

“Many people have many different ideas about the climate,” The Professor replied, “some say its natural cycles that the earth goes through and others say its man made, caused by all the pollution we have put into the air.”

“What can we do to fix it?” Billy asked.  

“Well,” The Professor replied, “they’re not sure what causes it, but what ever is causing it, it won’t hurt if we try to clean-up the air.”

Just then Amanda walked up to the boys and The Professor. “We take good care of the Woodland don’t we?” Billy asked the Professor. 

“Yes we do” The Professor replied, “We don’t take more than we need from nature.”

“And we always try to put back, like planting new trees” Bobby added.

“Excuse me,” Amanda said, interrupting the boys and The Professors conversation “but what are we going to do about Lazy Creek, there’s not enough water in it to go swimming.”

“Well” The Professor said scratching his head, “We could build our own swimming pool.”

“Our own swimming pool sounds like a great idea,” Billy replied.

“Where will we build it?” Amanda asked.

“Well we have to put is somewhere everyone can use it,” The Professor replied.

“How about at the bottom of the hill, that’s in the middle of the Woodland,” Billy said.

The Professor thought about it for a second or so and told them that the hollow is about the best place in the whole Woodland to build it.

“When can we get started?” Amanda asked.

“Well let’s tell our Woodland friends what we’re planning and we’ll get started right now,” replied The Professor.

Billy, Bobby and Amanda went off to tell their Woodland friends while Professor Fir got started drawing the plans for the swimming pool.  The boys and Amanda first went to see Brownie and Marvin the Monster and told them what they were planning on doing. Brownie and Marvin said they would be glad to help and that they would meet them in the hollow in a little while.  Next Amanda and the boys went to see Randy and Raymond the beavers, and loving water Randy and Raymond said they would be very glad to help. Soon the word got around and in no time the Hollow was full of friends all willing to help. Alex the eagle was there along with Digger the ground hog and his family.  

The Professor called everyone to gather around as he explained how they were going to build the pool. Digger and his family would start digging the hole for the pool while Randy and Raymond would start cutting wood for the deck and diving board.  Brownie and Marvin went to get stones to edge the pool and make the walk ways.

Soon there was a large hole in the Hollow that Digger and his family had dug, Digger went over to Professor Fir and asked him if the hole was big enough? The Professor Went over to the huge hole and told Digger that it was perfect, it was just what he wanted. 

Billy asked the professor “what do we do next?”

“Now we have to line the pool with a big piece of plastic so that the water doesn’t leak out.”

The Professor turned to Billy and Bobby and asked them if they thought that their farther might have a large piece of plastic? Bobby told him he would call his father to see if he had any. Soon Bobby was back with good news that his father did have a very big piece of plastic.  It was going to be very heavy so Brownie and Marvin went to the farm to get it. When they got there Mr.Hoggs had already pulled it out of the barn.  Brownie asked Mr.Hoggs where he got such a big piece of plastic and he replied that they use the plastic to cover the hay in the winter to keep it dry.  

Brownie thanked Mr.Hoggs and they left carrying the large piece of plastic back to the hollow. When they got there everyone was waiting. Digger had just finished shaping the pool and packing down the dirt for the pool bottom.  The Professor asked everyone to gather around the edge of the pool, because it was time to stretch out the plastic to line the pool.

Everyone grabbed an edge and they stretched out the plastic until it covered the entire pool.  Brownie and Marvin placed the stones they had gathered around the edge of the pool to hold the plastic in place. Randy and Raymond cut the wood for the deck so Bobby, Billy and Amanda could nail it in place.

Soon the pool was finished and the deck and walkways were all in place.  Everyone gathered around looking at the pool they had built.  

“You all did a great job,” the Professor told them.

“Excuse me,” Billy said, “but there’s something missing.”

Bobby turned to Billy with a frown on his face and asked “so what’s missing?”  

“Water” Billy replied “there’s no water in the pool.” Everyone laughed; Billy was right there was no water in the pool.  

“What are we going to do about water?” Amanda asked, “There’s hardly any water in Lazy Creek.”  

Everyone looked disappointed at Amanda’s observation that there was no water in Lazy Creek.  

Smiling The Professor laughed, “Do you all think I’d have you work so hard on the pool if I didn’t have a way to fill it?”

”How are we going to fill it?” Amanda asked with a puzzled look on her face.  

“Well,” the Professor replied, “Do you remember when we went exploring in the cave?”

“Yes,” Amanda replied. 

 “Do you remember the water fall and pond in the cave?”

“Yeah,” Billy said very excited, “There is plenty of water in the cave, but how are we going to get from the cave to the pool?”

Smiling the Professor told everyone that he spoke to Mr. Parkerson at the ranger station and Mr. Parkerson told him the he had some very long fire hoses that they could borrow to fill the pool.

Everyone went off to the ranger station to get the hoses and in no time the hoses stretched all the way from the pool in the cave all the way down the hill to the swimming pool.  Soon the water was flowing and the pool began to fill, by the end of the day the pool was full.  

The water was crystal clear but much too cold to swim in.  The Professor told everyone that the summer’s going to be long and hot and that they could wait a day for the water to warm up before they go swimming. Everyone agreed the water was much to cold coming right out of the spring in the mountain. The sun was now setting and everyone said good-bye and went home. Billy and Bobby said good night to Professor Fir.

“Good night boys,” he said “see you tomorrow.”  

It was getting dark quickly so the boys walked Amanda to her front door to make sure she got home safe, and then headed up the trail to their cabin.  Once they got home they cleaned up and had dinner.  After dinner they cleaned up the dishes and sat down in the living room to relax and very tired from a hard day working on the pool they fell off to sleep.