places, for we were working at the very mouth of the mill-race, and were in constant danger of having our scow sucked down into the swirling channel.  Once we were actually drawn into the mill-race and tore madly down the rushing stream.  By Bill’s careful steering we managed to avoid striking the shore, and just as we were off the Tiger’s Tail Reddy succeeded in swinging a rope around an overhanging limb and bringing us to a sudden stop.  A moment later we might have been dashed against the rocks in the rapids below and our boat smashed.  Shooting rapids in a scow is a very different matter from riding through them on a plank.

The King Rod Truss.

[Illustration:  Fig. 100.  The King Rod Bridge.]

Our bridge building operations were not entirely confined to the island.  Two of them were built on the Schreiner grounds at Lamington.  Reddy Schreiner’s home was situated a little distance above the town where Cedar Brook came tumbling down a gorge in the hills and spread out into the Schreiners’ ice pond.  Thence it pursued its course very quietly through the low and somewhat swampy ground in the Schreiners’ back yard.  Over this brook Reddy was very anxious to build a bridge.  Accordingly, before returning to school in the fall Bill made out a careful set of plans for the structure, and after we had gone the rest of the society, under Reddy’s guidance, erected the bridge.

The structure was a cross between a suspension bridge and a spar bridge.  The banks of the stream were so low that, instead of resting the floor of the bridge on top of the inclined frames, as we had done over the mill race, it was suspended from the spars by means of wires.  The crossing ends of the spars were nailed together and their lower ends were firmly planted about four feet apart in the banks of the brook.  A stick nailed to the apex of each pair of spars served temporarily to brace them apart.  The center cross beam of the bridge was now suspended from the spars by means of heavy galvanized iron wire (No. 14, I should say).  The beam was hung high enough to allow for stretch of the wire, making the roadway incline upward from both sides to the center.  Aside from carrying the floor of the bridge, this beam was used to brace the inclined spars when the temporary crosspiece was removed.  The ends of the beam projected about thirty inches beyond the bridge at each side, and they supported braces which extended diagonally upward to the crossing ends of the spars.  When this was done the temporary crosspiece above referred to was removed.  As the span between the center cross beam and the banks was a little too long to provide a steady floor, a couple of intermediate cross beams were suspended from the inclined spars.  The floor beams were then laid in place and covered with a flooring of slabs.

Stiffening the Bridge.

[Illustration:  The King Rod Bridge.]

[Illustration:  The Bridge over Cedar Brook Gorge.]