THE BEAR IN THE MILL.
Marco and Forester found a small steamboat at Bath, going up the river,
and they took passage in it to Hallowell. At Hallowell, they took the
stage, and travelled along the banks of the river, sometimes on one side
and sometimes on the other. They crossed the river by means of bridges,
which were erected in nearly all the principal towns. They passed a
number of waterfalls, where saw-mills had been built for sawing the
logs. Marco was astonished at the number of these mills, the quantity of
logs which lay in the booms, and the vast piles of boards which had
accumulated in some of the sawing villages.
At one of these villages, where he and Forester stopped to spend the
night, they went out in the evening to see the mills. The mills were
lighted by little fires of pitch-pine knots, which made a bright flame
and gave a fine light. These little fires were built upon slabs, which
Marco thought was very dangerous. The slabs, however, though they looked
dry, were really very wet, being thoroughly soaked with water within,
having been sawed from logs which had been for a long time floating in
the river.
The beam, to which the saw was attached in each mill, as it ascended and
descended with the saw, passed across these lights with a rapid motion,
which made the lights appear and disappear, in regular succession, in a
very beautiful manner.
Forester and Marco clambered into one of these mills. They had to make
their way over slabs, boards and heaps of rubbish of various kinds, and
the floor of the mill seemed to be made of boards and planks, laid
loosely and with many open places, in which, when Marco looked down, he
saw dark and frightful abysses, where he could hear the water dashing,
and, now and then, could get a glimpse of the foam.
Of course, both Forester and Marco advanced very carefully. When they
had entered, they found but one man tending the mill. He was seated on a
square block of wood, near the fire, eating some bread and cheese. As
Forester and Marco advanced towards him, he looked up and bade them good
evening.
"Will you allow us to come in and see the mill?" said Forester.
"By all means," said the millman.
The millman here looked around at the log which he was then sawing, and
he observed that it was time for him to attend to it. So he put down his
bread and cheese upon the block, and went towards the saw. Forester and
Marco both turned to see what he was going to do.
The log was lying upon a long frame, which frame seemed to be mounted
upon some sort of trucks, for it advanced slowly, by a steady motion,
against the saw. As the saw was constantly moving up and down with great
force, the log was sawed as it advanced. It had now advanced so far that
the log had been sawed nearly through, from end to end. When it had gone
a little farther, the millman pulled a handle, and stopped the motion of
the carriage and the log, and, in a moment afterwards, the log began to
go back again; the saw, all the time, ascending and descending as
before, but without doing any work. When the log had got back so far
that the saw came out of the cleft which it had made, the man stopped
it, and then, with an iron bar, he shifted the position of the log in
such a manner that when the carriage should be put in motion, the saw
would cut the log in a new place, at a little distance from the
other,--a distance just equal to the thickness of the board which they
wished to make.
Marco watched all these movements with great interest. Forester, who had
often seen them before, went back to the fire, and held his hands out to
it, for, as it was a cold evening, the feeling of the warmth was
pleasant. He could see that Marco remained talking with the millman; but
the noise of the machinery was so great that he could not hear what
they said.
The flashes of light from the fire illuminated Marco's face, however,
and Forester could see that he was much interested in what the millman
was telling him. The millman sat down upon the log, and made gestures as
if he was eating something. Then he took hold of Marco, and put him down
upon the log in his place, and he took a seat himself beyond him--that
is, between Marco and the saw. All this time, the log, riding upon the
great frame, was slowly advancing against the saw, carrying Marco and
the millman along with it. When it had carried them so far that the
millman was getting to be very near the saw, he turned suddenly round,
and made a gesture as if he was going to clasp the saw in his
arms,--laughing as he did it,--and, immediately afterwards, he got up
from the log, and Marco got up, too,--beginning to laugh himself, also,
though his countenance had expressed surprise and anxiety before.
A short time after this, when Marco came back to the place where
Forester was, Forester asked him what the millman had been saying to
him.
"He was telling me a story of a bear," said Marco.
"Of a bear?" said Forester.
"Yes," said Marco, "of a bear in a saw-mill."
"I don't see what a bear had to do in a saw-mill," replied Forester.
"It was a great many years ago, when there were bears in the woods about
here. There was a man sawing in a mill, and he was sitting on the end of
the log that he was sawing, eating his bread and cheese. The bread and
cheese were lying on the log, next to where the man was sitting.
"While the man was sitting there in this manner, eating his bread and
cheese, a bear came walking into the mill,--a great black bear. He came
up to the log, and when he saw that the man was eating bread and cheese,
he thought he should like some too. So he sat down on the log."
"On which side of the man?" asked Forester,--"towards the saw or from
it?"
[Illustration]
"Towards the saw," said Marco. "The man was on the end of the log
farthest from the saw. The bear sat a little beyond him, nearer to the
saw, and the bread and cheese was between them. The bear began to eat
the bread and cheese."
"How?" asked Forester.
"Why, he took it up in his paws, I suppose," said Marco,--"though I
don't know certainly about that. At any rate, he began to eat the bread
and cheese,--sitting with his back towards the saw, and his face towards
the man.
"And all this time, you must understand," said Marco, "that the carriage
was carrying the log, man, bear, and all, towards the saw, and the man
saw that if the bear would only keep still, in his place, until he was
carried to the saw, he would get sawed in two, and so killed. At first,
he thought it would be best for him to get hold of the iron bar, if he
could, and beat the old bear's brains out. But he was afraid that he
should not succeed in doing that, and so he concluded to wait and see
what would happen.
"Now, bears have a way," continued Marco, "whenever they are angry with
anything, of grasping it in their arms and hugging it tight. The man did
not think of this; he only hoped that the saw would saw the bear in two.
The log moved on nearer and nearer, and at last brought the bear along
so far that the next stroke cut right down his back. He immediately
turned around and seized the saw, and hugged it with all his strength,
and it tore him all to pieces."
"Indeed," said Forester. "That is quite a story."
Forester did not seem so much astonished at this account as Marco had
expected, but farther conversation on the subject was prevented by the
occurring of a new object of attention. The millman began to make
arrangements for drawing up more logs from the water of the river, by
means of a long chain passing around a revolving axis, in the manner
which has been already explained.
Marco watched the first log, as it came slowly up, and then he wanted to
go down the inclined plane to the water below. The moon was just rising,
which gave them sufficient light, and so Forester and Marco went down.
Marco wanted to ride up on the next log, but Forester thought that that
would be a very dangerous experiment. There was, however, a boat lying
there, which, Forester said, perhaps they might get into, and take a
little excursion upon the water, by moonlight. Marco thought that he
should like that very well, and so he went up into the mill again, to
ask permission to take the boat. The millman said that they might have
the boat all night, if they wanted it.
Marco accordingly returned down the inclined plane, telling Forester
that they could have the boat. But Forester, who began to find the
evening air too cold and chilly, said that he did not think it was worth
while for them to set out on a voyage at so late an hour. But Marco's
imagination was so much taken with the idea of a voyage in a boat by
moonlight, that he was very urgent to have Forester go. So Forester
consented, and they both got into the boat.
"Which way shall we steer?" asked Marco.
"We must go up the stream," said Forester.
"Why must we?" asked Marco.
"Because there is a dam and a waterfall below us," replied Forester.
There was a dam across the river, at the mill, and the inclined plane,
which led from the floor of the mill down to the shore of the river,
terminated at the edge of the water just above the dam. The water was so
low that it did not fall over the dam near the shore, though Forester
and Marco could hear the roaring of the water, which fell over the dam
nearer the middle of the river.
"We must take care," said Marco, "or we shall get carried over the dam.
I read of an Indian once, who was carried over the falls of Niagara."
"Yes," said Forester; "we must be careful."
Forester turned the head of the boat up the river, keeping near the
shore, so as to avoid all possibility of being carried over the dam. The
boat shot along swiftly through the water.
"The boat goes very well," said Marco.
"Yes," replied Forester; "and yet it is only a log canoe."
"A log canoe," said Marco. "Is this only a log canoe?"
"That is all," replied Forester. "It is made of a log, hollowed out.
They use a great many such boats on this river. They go very easily
with paddles."
Forester and Marco both had paddles. Marco sat about in the middle of
the boat, but Forester sat in the stern, propelling the boat and
steering it at the same time. When they got up a little way above the
dam, they went out farther towards the middle of the river. Forester
soon became warm by the exercise of paddling, and had no disposition to
return. They both found it very romantic and delightful to glide
smoothly over the glassy surface of the water, which was silvered by the
moonbeams.
They soon came to a turn in the river, which carried them away from the
sight of the mills and the dam, and brought them under high banks,
which, in some places, presented rocky cliffs to the view, and, in
others, were covered with forests. This scenery had a peculiarly sombre
and solemn expression, seen thus, under the light of the moon. Marco
gazed at it in silence, and with a feeling of awe.
They went on in this manner for half an hour, until they found
themselves approaching a rocky island, crowned with forests. Marco
wanted to land upon it.
"Very well," said Forester; "I have no objection; but would you not
rather go back?"
"No," said Marco. "I want to explore this island."
"But are you not cold?" asked Forester.
"No," said Marco, "not at all."
"My hands and feet are a little cold," said Forester.
"Then we will go back pretty soon," said Marco, "but first just let us
land a minute upon this island."
So Forester turned the head of the boat towards the shore, and Marco, as
soon as it touched, scrambled out upon the rocks.
"Oh, Forester!" he exclaimed, at once, "here is plenty of drift-wood.
Let us make a fire, and warm your hands and feet."
"Drift-wood?" rejoined Forester. "Will drift-wood make a fire?"
"Why not?" asked Marco.
"I should think it would be too wet," replied Forester.
Marco said no more, but, at that instant, Forester observed a little
flash, and then a faint glimmer of light where Marco was. He had lighted
a match by rubbing it against some drift-wood. He touched it to some dry
bark, and soon had a pleasant little blaze upon the rocks, near the
shore. He piled on pieces of drift-wood, such as branches of trees, old
slabs, &c., which he found lying about there, and he soon had a very
good fire. Forester sat down upon the rocks, and warmed his hands and
feet.
"I wish I had a hatchet here," said Marco, "or an axe."
"Why?" asked Forester.
"Why, we could make a camp, and lie here all night," said Marco.
"O, no," said Forester.
"Yes," said Marco, "for the man said we might have his boat all night."
"No," replied Forester. "We will camp out when we get fairly into the
forests on Dead river."
Accordingly, after a little time, when the fire had burnt down somewhat,
they threw the brands into the river, and then, embarking in their boat,
they returned to the mill.