OLD HOMESTEAD 



often met in large and small groups, apparently by accident, to 

 exchange news and gossip. No one of the neighbors' boys ever 

 passed, when anything was doing at the mill, without dropping 

 in, and with the men it was about the same. 



When putting in the big breast wheel we had working for us 

 an Englishman by the name of Allen. The wheel had been set 

 and a little water tried on it by letting it run over and across 

 some unfastened planks from the end of the barrel or trunk to 

 the wheel, the regular flume not yet having been built. We 

 boys used to play in this big wheel, turning it as squirrels turn 

 the wheel of a cage. The day of William Barton's funeral all 

 our people were in attendance except us boys and Allen. An- 

 other boy, William Gardner, came along, and John and he got 

 into the big wheel and started turning it. There was no water 

 coming through the trunk, the head-gate at the ditch being shut 

 down. Allen went to the head-gate, intending to hoist it just a 

 little and let on water enough to give the boys a scare and then 

 shut it off. To his horror the gate slipped out of the guides and 

 was partly sucked into the mouth of the trunk. The trunk at 

 once filled with water, which rushed down through it and struck 

 the wheel with a jar that shook the whole mill. The wheel, 

 which they were already moving, immediately started up faster, 

 but not as fast as I expected to see it. John and Gardner were 

 thunderstruck, hardly knowing what had happened, yet realized 

 that their position meant death unless they were immediately 

 released therefrom. 



Gardner said nothing, but John screamed like mad, '-'Shut 

 off that water! Shut off that water! For God's sake, shut off 

 that water!" By sharp running they could keep on their feet in 

 the bottom of the wheel, and thereby keep from being thrown 

 and rolled and tumbled to death. They could not get out between 



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