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Bert's Water Mill · The Bobbsey Twins at Cloverbank

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  Chapter fourteen of The Bobbsey Twins at Cloverbank. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, ought to
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  volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Read by Helen K. The Bobbsey
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  Twins at Cloverbank by Laura Lee Hope Bert's Watermill. Nan Bobbsey was sure of
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  one thing, and this was that she was going to hold with all her
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  might to that rope attached to the hay fork. To let go now that
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  the fork was out of the barn and over the open yard would mean a
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  bad fall. So the girl clenched her fingers around the rope and set her
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  teeth. It was a little scary, she said afterwards, to look down
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  to the earth, though as a matter of fact it was not more than
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  twenty feet below her. But that is quite a fall to take. However,
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  NaN's danger was soon over. The horse backed so that the laden fork
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  and the girl came back over the wagon load of hay, and then Zeke
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  cried, you can let go, now, you're all right. Nan could
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  see this for herself. She saw that her feet dangled a little way above
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  the big pile of hay on the wagon. She opened her fingers and dropped
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  into the mass of sweet smelling grass with a sigh of relief. She's all
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  right, not hurt a bit, reported Zeke, who began climbing up to
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  Nan as soon as he saw that she was safe. What made you catch
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  hold of the fork in the barn, he asked? Oh, I don't
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  know, answered the little girl, who was almost crying. I shouldn't have
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  done it, I know, but I saw that the hay wasn't going to
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  drop, and I'd seen you pull the short rope, so I thought I
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  could do it. But it didn't work, and before I could let go,
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  I found myself carried out of the barn. The hay folk prongs got
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  jammed, explained the man in charge of unloading the wagon. First time I've
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  known that to happen. Bert, who had been out in a workshop which
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  mister Watson had in one of the barns, saw from NaN's face that something
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  had happened when he noticed her walking out of the barnyard, and when he
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  learned what it was, he exclaimed, jimminy, it's a good thing you
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  held fast, Nan. Yes, I knew I must do that. She
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  said, But what's that, Bert, she asked for she saw that her
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  brother had been making something, as he called it. It's going to be
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  a water mill. I ever get it finished, he replied. You mean
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  a mill to turn by water, asked Nan. Yes, it's a sort
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  of water wheel, explained Bert. But maybe I can make it so it
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  will turn a fan or something like that. I'll put the wheels with paddles
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  on down into the brook where there's a little waterfall, he went on.
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  And then I can have a belt of cord that goes round a pulley wheel
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  on the paddles, and up at the house I can make a fan with
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  another pulley on it, and when the water turns the paddle and pulley,
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  it will also turn the fan and we'll get a breeze on a hot day.
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  Oh that'll be fine, cried Nan. It will if it works,
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  replied Bert. More practically, I made one last year and it didn't work
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  anyhow. This one is going to be better. I'm going to try the
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  paddle wheels now I've got that much done. Want to come and see it
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  work, yes, answered Nan eagerly. I do hope it works, Bert,
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  So do I he said. The brook ran down at the lower end
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  of the kitchen garden of Clover Bank. Along the bank of this stream,
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  the Bobbsey twins loved to play. The water was not deep enough except in
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  a few places to make it venturesome play, and the children have been told
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  to keep away from these spots. But we will have to go to one
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  of the deep spots now to make this paddle wheel work and try my water
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  mill. Bert said. The only place where the water tumbles over the rocks
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  enough to turn the paddle is where it's deep. But we'll be careful,
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  Yes, we'll be careful, agreed Nan. A mother won't mind our going
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  there if it's to try your mill, for she likes to be cool,
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  and maybe she will light your fan, maybe, he assented. But I
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  haven't got the fan part done yet, just the water mill paddle part.
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  As Bert and Nan made their way to a little waterfall in the brook,
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  they heard the shouts of Flossie and Freddy, who had gone some time before
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  to sail toy boats. They're having a good time, remarked Nan. Sounds
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  so, agreed her brother. But just then there was a shrill scream from
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  Flossee and Freddy's voice could be heard shouting, Oh, there he goes,
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  now he's in. Bert and Nan looked at each other with alarm. They
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  heard a splashing of water. One of them has fallen in, gasped Nan.
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  Guided by the shouts of the smaller twins, the older ones soon reached
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  the place where Freddy and Flosse had been playing. As they neared the spot,
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  they heard laughter mingled with the shouts. I don't believe he either one
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  of them fell in, said Bert, as he slowed up a bit to
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  wait for his sister. It sounded so, she said, and we heard
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  them say so. Wondering what had happened cause the splashing, the two hurried
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  on and pushed their way through the bushes that fringed the edge of the brook.
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  Bert and Nan saw their brother and sister standing on the shore, but
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  there was something in the water that excited them, for they were running up
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  and down poking long sticks into the brook. What's the matter? Called Nan?
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  Did anybody fall in? Bert wanted to know. Just an old big
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  bullfrog, was Freddy's unexpected answer. Oh he was such a big fat frog,
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  added Flossie. Did you hear the splash he made? I should say,
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  we did, replied Nan. We thought maybe it was one of you.
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  No, Freddy said, but I allus fell in trying to stop the
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  frog from getting away. Did you catch him? What happened? Aspert?
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  We almost caught him, replied Freddie. We were sailing our boats and FLOSSI
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  saw the frog. He was up on the bank asleep in the sun.
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  And Freddy said for us to get between him and the water and drive him
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  farther up on the bank, and then maybe we could catch him, added
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  Flossie. So we tried to creep up so he wouldn't hear us. But
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  he has good ears, I guess, for he woke up and began to
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  hop toward the water. Frogs always do that, explained Freddy, as if
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  he knew all about such creatures. We tried to chase him back with sticks,
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  but he just kept on jumping this way and that way, trying to
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  get into the brook again. And then and then Freddy had to stop and
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  laugh at the memory of what had happened. So Flossy finish the story by
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  saying, the big frog hopped close to Freddy, and Freddy thought he could
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  grab him, and he stooped over Freddy did, and the frog hopped right
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  between his legs, I mean between Freddy's legs, and splashed into the brook.
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  That's how he got away, yeah, said Freddy, still laughing.
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  That's how he got away. And I fell over because I made such a
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  quick grab for him. But I didn't hurt myself, he added. And
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  I didn't get much, Moddy, only a little. I should say it
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  was more than a little, laughed Nan. But I guess it won't matter
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  on your old clothes. No, it won't matter any decided Freddy. After
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  the frog got in, went Tom floss. We tried to poke him out
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  with long sticks, but he won't poke at all. I should think he
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  wouldn't, chuckled Bert. He's glad to get away from you two. I
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  guess he's deep down in the mud now laughing at you. Well, I
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  almost had him, was what Freddy said. Then he saw the pieces of
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  wood Bert had and asked, what's that? A water wheel? Sort of?
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  Bert admitted, I'm going to try and make a water mill to run
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  a wooden fan. I'm going down to the waterfall to try it. Oh
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  may we come, begged Flossie. You may, if you will promise to
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  sit down on the bank and not come near the edge, for it's deep
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  there, insisted Bert. We'll sit down all the while, won't we,
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  Flossy asked her small brother, and she nodded her head vigorously in answer.
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  Well, I guess it will be all right to take them, decided Nan.
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  A little later, the four Bobbsey twins were at the place where the
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  brooks splashed noisily over a ledge of rocks, falling a distance of about two
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  feet. It made a fine place to set up a water wheel, and
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  Bert was soon fastening his in place so the falling stream would turn the paddles
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  these worked. He intended connecting them by means of a string belt and pulleys
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  to a fan set up some distance away, but he had yet to build
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  the fan. Bert drove into the earth bank on one side of the little
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  waterfall some pieces of wood to which he had intended fastening his water mill paddle.
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  He had finished this and was about to set up the wooden wheel when
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  Flossi gave a startled cry. Though he knew he had left his little sister
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  sitting safely on the bank some distance away from the water, Bert felt that
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  she might have gone too near the edge and might be sliding in. Look
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  out, he cried, dropping the wheel and turning around. Before he knew
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  it, he set one foot on a slippery place on the bank. The
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  next instant, Bert felt himself sliding down toward the deep pool below the falls.
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  Here I go, he shouted wildly. Bert could swim still, he
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  did not want to fall in if he could help it, and he clutched
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  desperately at the grassy bank. End of Chapter fourteen.