82 STORIES OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS 



41 Everything. At this moment, above the 

 third bridge, some cows are wading across ; at 

 the mill farm they are washing cans ; they should 

 not wash milk cans in me I carry off too much 

 wastage to be fit for that. By the second 

 bridge, in the deep hole, some little boys are 

 swimming. They will soon have bad cramps, 

 for the chill of the snow has not yet wholly 

 left me. A pair of water-snakes have fallen 

 from a grape-vine quite near where you are 

 sitting, and swim down stream. No ! do not 

 start, for they are harmless, even if they are 

 quarrelsome and wear ugly grizzled coats. 



" Hark ! one thing more is happening ! " said 

 Aspetuck. "They are sawing wood at the up- 

 per mill. How well I remember the day that I 

 learned for the first time what this mill was, 

 and found that I must turn the wheel that rent 

 my old friends, the Hemlocks, into boards. There 

 they lay, barkless, on the bank. This was my 

 first grief ! Good-bye, Tommy-Anne ; I must 

 hurry down -to the grist mill, to grind some 

 corn that is wanted for your cows, and after 

 that I have to sow seed along my banks. 



" Do I sow seed ? Yes, that I do ; the winds, 

 the birds, and I sow more than any other hus- 

 bandmen in Nature's garden. We may not plant 



