Katy, Daniel and the Flood
Illustration © 2023 Susan Fleming
Some hills soak up rainwater like a sponge. Just like a sponge, if there is too much water it trickles out. There is a hill like this behind Matthew’s house. The water that trickles out is called a spring. This becomes a beck and runs under the road in a tunnel passed Katy and Daniel’s garden and on through the wood and into the river.
Katy, Daniel and Matthew are playing by the beck in the wood. They think it will be fun to dam the beck to make a pool so that they can float paper boats that they have made. They push sticks across the bottom of the beck. Then they pile up a lot of stones against the sticks and block up any holes with mud.
This makes a very good dam, and the water rises up the wall of the dam. Soon there is enough water to sail their boats. They have a lot of fun.
Then Katy says, “When the pool is full where does the water go then?”
Daniel explains, “The water will flow over the top of the dam.”
Rather puzzled Katy says, “But the pool has not got any deeper for a long time.”
Daniel and Matthew realise that this is true. They all go back along the beck to see what is happening.
Just then Katy and Daniel’s mother looks out of her window and where there should be a lawn there is …. a large pond, with two ducks swimming on it! Katy, Daniel and Matthew arrive at the garden just as Mummy comes out of the back door.
“We must have an underground leak,” she says.
Daniel and Matthew immediately rush back to break the dam and stop the garden flooding any more. Katy tells her Mummy about their pool and dam. By the time Daniel and Matthew get back to the garden the flood has gone, and the lawn is back again, but looking rather muddy. There are two very disappointed ducks, who quack and fly off.
“There is no harm done,” says Mummy, “but you must think more carefully about what you do in future. Now it is time for tea.”