112 LUCY AMONG THE MOUNTAINS.

fort; “and, besides, if they should make the dam
higher, they could not keep the water from min-
ning over the top; because, if they should do it,
it would only stop the water in the pond for a
little while ; it would rise higher and higher, and
80, pretty soon, it would run over the top again,
just as it does now.”

The mill was on the farther side of the bridge,
and below it, while the dam was above. Lucy
asked where the flume was. Comfort pointed
out to her a sort of a large box or trough, made
of timbers and planks, which proceeded from the
end of the dam on the other side, and passed un-
der the bridge to the mill.

When they got opposite to the flume, Comfort
stopped the horse a moment to let Lucy look
at it. There was a kind of a grating at one end
of it, towards the mill, and the water was whirling
and boiling, among the sticks and slabs which
were lying before the grating. Lucy saw that
the water was running down through the grating,
in underneath the mill, and she supposed it ran
under the water-wheel, and turned it round.

‘¢ What makes them throw all those sticks and
slabs into the flume?” said Lucy.

“They don’t throw them in,” said Comfort.
“ Those things were brought down by the stream,