Rolf had seen, and indeed made, watering troughs, pig troughs, sap troughs, hen troughs, etc., all his life, and he now set to work with the axe and a block of basswood to hew out a trough for a wash bowl.

With adequate tools he might have made a good one; but, working with an axe and a stiff arm, the result was a very heavy, crude affair.

It would indeed hold water, but it was almost impossible to dip it into the water hole, so that a dipper was needed.
When Quonab saw the plan and the result, he said: "In my father's lodge we had only birch bark.

See; I shall make a bowl." He took from the storehouse a big roll of birch bark, gathered in warm weather (it can scarcely be done in cold), for use in repairing the canoe.

Selecting a good part he cut out a square, two feet each way, and put it in the big pot which was full of boiling water.