THE STAFF OF LIFE 5 



"What cruel masters they must have had!" ex- 

 claimed Emile. 



"Yes, the slaves were harnessed to the bar like 

 beasts of burden ; and when, weakened with fatigue, 

 they did not go fast enough, a rawhide was applied 

 to their bare shoulders. These unfortunate millers 

 were poor wretches taken in war and afterward sold 

 in the market with the same indifference with which 

 a drover sells his cattle. Such, then, were the hard- 

 ships that led the way to the modern mill which to- 

 day, with a few turns of its water-wheel, and to the 

 cheerful accompaniment of its tick-tack, can make 

 flour enough for a whole family. 



"But let us leave the mill and turn our attention 

 to the following interesting experiment. Take a 

 handful of flour and with a little water make it into 

 dough. This done, knead the dough with your fin- 

 gers over a large plate while an assistant moistens 

 it continually with water from a pitcher. Keep the 

 dough well in hand and continue kneading it, flat- 

 tening it out and gathering it together again, turn- 

 ing it over and over under the fine stream of water 

 poured from above. 



"Examine carefully the water that passes over 

 the dough and washes it. It falls into the plate as 

 white as milk, showing that it carries with it some- 

 thing from the flour. This something will finally 

 settle at the bottom of the liquid, and we shall find it 

 to be a substance not unlike the starch used for 

 starching linen. In fact, it is starch, or fecula, as 

 the chemists call it — neither more nor less. The 



