CHAPTER II. THUNDER FROM AFAR.
Perhaps many of our readers would like to know how Mr. Seth Blanchard (who was the only man in the Glen not possessed of fighting qualities) was busying himself all this time.
They doubtless recollect that when, after a desperate effort, the mill was nearly completed, the settlers placed the upper stone on the spindle by fastening a hide rope to wooden pins in the edge of the stone, and then putting a long lever into the bight of the rope.
In a regularly constructed mill, this is done by means of an iron bale or crane, and an iron screw working in the crane, or by a tackle attached to the crane. The stone, being lifted from the spindle in this manner, can be easily swung off by moving the crane, and turned over in the bale in order to pick the under side. They had used up every particle of iron in building the mill, and been reduced to the greatest straits for want of that necessary article.
When, after much labor and contrivance, the stone was safely landed on the spindle, Mr. Seth said,—
"By the time this stone needs picking, I'll make a bale to take it off and put it on without an ounce of iron."
Honeywood, who was a blacksmith, laughed at him, and said it was impossible; to which Mr. Seth replied,—
"A man who has always worked in iron has very little idea of what can be done with wood."
He was now leisurely at work, redeeming that pledge. Having procured from the woods a rock-maple tree of suitable shape, he made a crane of proper size and shape to swing over the stone, hewing the timber to a proud edge, and working it smooth with adze and plane. In that portion of the arm that when the crane was set up would come directly over the centre of the stone, he made a five-inch hole, perfectly smooth and plumb, and cut a screw-thread on the inside of it with a rude machine of his own invention.