The water wheel was made of some flat pieces of wood fastened together and set in a frame work. The water, spouting over the dam, fell on the blades of the paddle wheel and turned it. On the axle of the wheel was a small, round pulley, and around this there was a string, or a belt, running to a small mill that the boys had made. It had taken them quite a while to do this.
“Now watch her whizz!” cried Russ to his brothers and sisters, who had gathered on the bank of the brook.
The water wheel was shoved back so the overflow from the dam would strike the paddles. Around they went, turning the pulley, moving the string belt, and also turning the wheel of the “mill.”
“Oh, isn’t that fine!” exclaimed Rose.
“Could I have a ride on it?” Mun Bun wanted to know.
“Hardly!” laughed Russ. “If you sat on it the wheel would break.”
“And you’d get all wet!” added Rose.
The six little Bunkers had much fun that day, and more good times were ahead of them, for that evening when they made ready for bed, tired but happy, their mother said:
“To-morrow we are going on a picnic to the woods.”
“A really, truly picnic?” Vi wanted to know.