They saw the lumber men float logs down into the pond at one side of the dam and near the flume through which the water dropped to turn the turbine wheel. Into these logs a big iron hook was driven. The hook was fast to a chain, and the chain was wound around a drum, or big roller.
When a man threw over a lever that started the machinery, the drum turned, the chain was wound up and the log was pulled from the water up on land and ready to be put on the moving carriage which fed it into the teeth of the saw.
“Could we ride on the logs?” cried Flossie, as she saw them pulled, or “snaked,” as it is called, out of the pond and up on shore.
“Yes! Yes!” chimed in Freddie.
“Oh, no,” his mother answered. “You might roll off, and if the log turned over, and got on your legs, it would break them. It wouldn’t be safe—see there!”
One of the lumbermen had jumped on top of a log that was being pulled along by the chain. For a time he kept his balance, and was given a ride. But as Mrs. Bobbsey cried out, the log struck a stone and turned over, and if the lumberman had not jumped he would have been thrown.
He leaped to one side with a laugh, and ran into the mill.
“That’s what might have happened to you, only you might not have gotten off so easily,” said Mrs. Bobbsey.
“I’d like to ride,” sighed Flossie.
“So would I!” added Freddie.