[Illustration:  Fig. 261.  Bottom of Bucket.]

[Illustration:  Fig. 262.  The Canvas Bucket.]

But to return to the current wheel; the day after it was completed, when I went over to Lumberville for the mail, I was met by old Jim Halliday, who wanted to know what sort of a rig we had out on the river.  I told him, and after a dint of much persuasion, induced him to take a ride back in the scow with me.  He had never visited our camp and hadn’t realized how handy we were with the tools, because, with the exception of the current wheel, all our work had been done on the opposite side of the island.  We made him a guest of honor, showing him over the whole place.  The bridges struck him as remarkably clever, but what pleased him most was our current wheel.

“I swan,” he said.  “Ef that ain’t jest the thing I have been awantin’ for the past twenty year.  What’ll ye sell me the hull plant fer, boys?”

Mr. Halliday’s Water Wheel.

We thought he was fooling at first, but when he had assured us that he was in earnest, Bill told him that we needed our own plant, but we could build him a similar and even better current wheel for any amount he thought it was worth to him.  The figure settled on was six dollars (a dollar apiece) for our work, Mr. Halliday paying for the material.  It was not a large sum, but it seemed a lot to us, and considering the scarcity of money in that region it was pretty generous pay.  We built Mr. Halliday’s current wheel just like our own, except that the paddles were much broader, and instead of using cans for the buckets Mr. Halliday supplied us with small dinner pails.  The method of fastening on the pails is shown in Fig. 263.  A stick was nailed across the end of each spoke and the bail of the pail was held by a screw eye threaded into this stick.  The pails would hang straight, holding all the water without spilling a drop until the receiving trough was reached.  This trough was fastened high enough to strike the bottom of the pails as they went by, tipping them over and emptying them of their contents.  From the trough the water ran directly into a large cider barrel and from here was carried through a pipe to Mr. Halliday’s barn.  A stopcock was here provided so that he could turn the water on or off as he desired.  The use of pails was a great improvement on tin can buckets.  Fully three times as much water was poured into the receiving trough, because not a drop was spilled out on the way up.

[Illustration:  Fig. 263.  Mr. Halliday’s Water Wheel.]

CHAPTER XXII.

THE LOG CABIN.

Immediately after fitting out Jim Halliday with his water wheel we set to work on our log cabin.  As a model we had a photograph of a log hut which Uncle Ed had sent us.  As the cabin was designed particularly for use in winter time, we decided that it should be located where it would be sheltered from the northern winds and would be exposed to the sun.  The ideal spot seemed to be on the southern shore of Kite Island, which was backed by a thick grove of trees but gave an unobstructed view in front for a distance of about four miles down-stream.