Cleveland County herald., 1919-03-06
CHAPTER VI-Continued.

One day in December of that year, had my first trial in the full respon- sibility of mans work. I was allowed to load and harness and hitch up and ! go to the mill without assistance. My i uncle and Purvis, our hired man, were busy with the chopping and we were out of flour and meal. It took a lot of them to keep the axes going. So I filled two sacks with corn and two with wheat and put them into the box wagon, for the ground was bare, and hitehed up my horses and set out.
 I reached the mill safely and be- fore the grain was ground the earth and the sky above were white with snow driving down in a cold, stiff wind out of the northwest. l loaded my grists and covered them with a blanket and hurried away. The snow came so fast that it almost blinded me. There were times when l could scarcely see the road or the horses. The wind came colder and soon it was hard work to hold the reins and keep my hands from freezing.
 Suddenly the wheels began jumping over rocks. The horses were in the ditch. I knew what was the matter, for my eyes had been filling with snow and had had to brush them often. Of course the team had suffered in like manner. Before I could stop I heard the crack of a felly and front wheel dropped to it's hub. I checked the horses and jumped out and went to their heads and cleared their eyes. The snow was up to my knees then.
 How the thought of that broken wheel smote mel It was our only heavy wagon, and we having to pay the mortgage! What would my uncle say? The query brought tears to my eyes.
 I unhitched and led my horses up into the cover of the pines. How grate- full it seemed, for the wind was slack below but bowling in the treetops! l knew that I was four miles from home and knew not how I was to get there. Chilled to the bone, I gathered some pitch pine and soon had q fire going with my flint and finder. I knew that I could mount one of the horses and lead the other and reach home prob ably. But there was the grist. We needed that; I knew that we should have to go hungry without the grist. It would get wet from above and be- low if I tried to carry it on the back of a horse. I warmed myself by the fire and hitched my team near it so as to thaw the frost out of their forelocks and eyebrows. I felt in my coat pock- cts and found a handful of nails everybody carried nails in one pocket in those days-and l remember that my uncle's pockets were a museum of bolts and nuts and screws and wash CTS.
 The idea occurred to me that I would make a kind of sled which was called jumper.
 So I got my ax out of the wagon and soon found q couple of small trees with the right crook for the forward end of runner, and cut them and hewed their bottoms as smoothly as T | tAASN~ near the top of their crooks and fitted stout stick into the notcheS and se- cured it with nails driven by the ax- head. Thus got d hold for my evener. That done, 1 chopped and hewed an arch to cross the middle of the run nerS and hold them apart and used all my nails to secure and brace it. I got the two boards which were fas- tened together and constituted my wagon seat and laid them over the arch and front brace. How to make them fast was my worst problem. l succeeded in splitting a green stick to hold the bolt of the evener just un- der its head while heated it's lower l end in the fire and kept it's head cool with snow. With this I burnt hole in the end of each board and fastened l them to the front brace with withes of mooSewood.
 It was late in the day and there was no time for the slow process of burn 1 ing more holes, so l notched the other ends of the boards and laShed them to the rear brace with a length of my reins. Then I retempered my bolt and brought up the grist and chain and fastened the latter between the boards | ln the middle of the front brace ] hitched my team to the chain and set out again, sitting on the bags.
 i It was pitch dark and the horses 1 wading to their bellies and the snow ,oming faster when we turned into