Sharp County record., 1881-05-05


angry o,,;oa .+o mt IN
such peg for people to hold to! L am
Going to speak to him about it this min
nte. 1t was Franz Holman who built
the dam, and, OF course, he put the peg
in. might have killed myself, and |
shall lust tell him what think about it. "
So. without considering his wet
clothes, nor his little sister and brother,
whom he had so suddenly left on the
bridge, he ran off to the shop of Franz
Holman, on the outskirts of the town.
He found the carpenter outside OF his
shop, hewing some logs.
"Hellon cried Carl, running up.
Didn't you build the dam, down yon-
der?n
The man stopped his work, and
looked with amazement at this earnest
and flushed young fellow, without hat,
and with the water still dripping from
his hair and his clothes.
YES he said. Il built 1.-THE
timber part, l mean. What is the mat
ter with it? You don't mean to say
that is has broken"
"No, it hasn't" replied Carl. "But
this peg has broken, and it came near
killing me- If you built the dam, OF
course you put the peg in, and l think
it's shame to use pegs with knots and
cracks in them, for people to hold on
to-"
People needn't hold on to them, if
they don't want to- replied the car
penter LET me see the peg"
You can look at it in my hands, "
said Carl. 81 don't intend to give it to
YOU. Look at that old crack under the
knotP And people do have to hold on
to it, or else tie something to it. What
else was it put there fOr?'
"Pshqw!'' said Franz. "You are
making a great bother about a little
thing. ANY peg might break with a
great, heavy boy, like you, hanging to
it."
"Not if it was as thick as this and
had no knots in it, said Carl, walking
away, quite as angry as he came, for he
saw that the carpenter cared nothing at
all for his mishap, nor for his own rep
utation in the matter of pegs,
When Lotta and Peter reached home
thev found no Carl, and when they told
their mother what had happened, she
was greatly frightened. Without wait
ING to put anything on her head, and
followed by several neighbOrs who had
been attracted by her cries, she ran to
the dam. On the way, quite number
of people ran out of their houses and
shops TO see what was the matter, and
these all followed the poor mother; so
that when they reached the bank of the
pool there was quite little crowd COL
iected. A new search was Immediately
begun, but it was soon very evident that
Carl was not in the stream. There was
q great deal OF confusion, and advice,
of every imaginable kind, was given by
the by-standers to the men who were
making the search. Some even thought
that the pond, above the dam, ought to
be dragged, as if the boy could possibly
have been in that.
While all this was going on and Lot
ia and Peter were crying, and some OF
| the older men and women we're trying
to comfort the poor, distressed mother,
who was certain that she had lost her
boy, Carl came walking down among
them, with the broken peg still in his
hand. He had been home, and finding
no one there had come to look for the
family, supposing that Peter and Lotta,
at least, might be playing by the dam.
When he saw the crowd, he was almost
as much astonished as the crowd was to
see him. He was still hatless, and wore
his wet clothes, although the air and the
sun had dried them a good deal.
The moment his mother saw him, she
rushed to him and caught him in her
arms, while little Lotta and Peter clung
to his legs. The people gathered
around him and, as soon as he could
get a chance to speak, they eagerly
asked him where he had been, and how
everything had happened. Carl told
them about the broken peg, and how it
had had knot in it, and how he had
been up to see Franz Holman about it,
who didn't care snap of his finger
whether people tumbled off dams and
broke their necks or not. Then he
passed around the peg, SO that every
body could see that he was right in
what he said about it, and that it was
not his own fault that he fell from the
top of the dam.
Some of the good people laughed as
they looked at the peg, while others
said that Franz Holman ought to know
better than to use piece of wood like
that for such purpose; but the most
of them seemed to think the broken
peg was a matter of very little conse-
quence. They were glad the boy was
safe, and there was an end of the mat
! ter.
But it happened that two or three
of the principal men of the town had
been attracted to the stream by the
crowd, and an idea struck the mind of
one of these
If Franz Holman was so careless as
to use wood like this, in a peg which
should have been very strong one, he
may have been equally careless in build
ing the dam itself. And, now that |
come to look, it seems to me that the
water is running through great many
cracks and crevces."
Several persons now examined the
face of the dam, and they thought
| tlo+ L. T..