The Mena star., 1898-03-09


 discussed methods of getting the wood to market. If we could only run that boat back and forth to Norwell village, we could easily prepare stovewood and sell if al large enough profit to pay our tuition and other expenses. It was then that Burnside conceived the idea of a windmill erected amid ships of the old wood-boat and con nected with q cross shaft and two pad- dle-wheels. The windmill could be made to work equally we'll whichever way the wind blew, he argued; and the paddle-wheels would drive the boat up or down the lake, as we pleased 1t could be steered just like a steamboat, he thought, and whenever the wind blew we could navigate the craft to or from the village.
 Neither Herman nor 1 fully under stood the scheme, or quite trusted it; but it was plausible. as Burnside stated it, and we hoped it would prove success ful.
 Burnside himself was quite carried away with the idea; and for two or three weeks he worked as only an ambi- tious young inventor can work He erected tripod frame on the boat, made a windmill l2 feet in diameter, and connected it by means Of crank rod with shaft and two rude paddle wheels.
 Herman and I, meantime, made bargain with Squire Frost for wood on the stump. and while Burnside was at work on his invention. cut and sawed i three cords of stove wood. ready for transportation.
 Neither of us had said much to the neighbors concerning the windmill boat; but Burnside had been obliged 10 beg or borrow so many things needed in its construction that nearly every one in that part of the town knew about il: and when at length we loaded the boat and took advantage of stiff westerly wind to make our first trip, numbers of boys and several men came to witness the novel experiment.
 Now it appears that it is principle in mechanics that satisfactory power for an engine cannot be obtained from the wind. if the basis on which the wind engine rests can fall off before the actuating force.
 The case of Burnside's windmill boat illustrated the principle. The whole craft dropped away before the gusts of wind. the vanes turned only sluggishly; and although the shaft and paddle wheels revolved slowly, the impulse was not sufficient to drive the boat forward.
 Time after time we poled the craft back into the channel and brought it into position for the wind to act upon it. but always with the same result-to the unspeakabie amusement of the on lockers.
 Burnside seemed unable 10 realize that the boat was a complete failure. He begged us to go on trying to make the machine operate. until we lost pa tience and called him an idiot. Then bis face became the picture of despair. and when finally we got ashore from the un- wieldy craft. he disappeared from sight in the bushes; and later. when we shouted to him. he was not to be found. We supposed he had gone home. but 1 learned on the next day that he had not been there. For five days no one saw him. His parents were greatly alarmed. | Some thought that he had drowned him. self. and a search was promptly organ | ized
 On the sixth day he was found in l hay barn in a meadow. two miles from l the lake. He would never say how he had passed the time So far as could be learned. he had eaten nothing in all that time except berries and chol1e-cherries. 1 Herman and I would have nothing to say to him. We thought he had behaved | in very foolish hammer. | Herman was the exact opposite of Burnside in temperament. He was practical sort of boy. not quick as a stu dent. but what he learned once was his sure possession forever. Strong com mon sense was his dominant trait of character. Some sharp stimulus was usually required to rouse him and set him to thinking.
 The failure of the windmill boat and the ridicue that followed it appeared to furnish the needed stimulus. Our homes were on farms less than half mile apart. and it happened that during the following week we were obliged to assist in threshing the crop of grain
 My father owned a threshing machine which was moved from one barn to an- other. If was small machine. operated 1 by horse, and one evening hat week. as we were measuring the oats threshed