Agnes Taylor Ketchum

The Saw-Mill

D O you remember what you heard about the grist mill, to which Guy and Freddy like so much to go? There is another mill to which they go sometimes with their father. This mill is not on the brook, but down on the river where there is a waterfall. This is a saw-mill, where boards are made. What a great pile of boards they have inside of the mill! Do you know where they get the logs to make into boards? Men go into the woods with axes and cut down the big trees; then they float them down the river to the mill. Do you see those logs lying in the water in front of the mill? When the logs come to the mill, then the mill men tie strong ropes around them, and drag them up these planks you see running down into the water. Inside of the saw-mill there is a great saw, which spins around very swiftly and cuts the logs up into boards. Guy and Freddy like to stay in here, for it is not hot and dusty as in the other mill. They like to lie in the cool saw-dust, and hear the hum of the saw and smell the fresh scent of the saw boards.