Why, my dear abbe, how you throw the helve after the hatchet!
The pick sunk to its helve in the earth, now softened by the spring rain.
I fling but the helve after the hatchet that has sunk into the silent stream.
The feel of the blow was good as the keen blade sank to the helve.
So I used the helve of an entrenching-tool and the stalks of the willow undergrowth.
Helve, helv, n. the handle of an axe or hatchet: the handle of a forehammer.
The handle broke short off at the point where the helve meets the steel.
The hang of an axe is the way the handle or helve is fitted to the head.
With the fall of the blow, and the shock of it running up the helve through arms and shoulders, they were completely awake.
But their throwing the helve after the hatchet, and giving up the malt-duty because they had lost the other, was droll enough.
