"
"It's right enough for one man, but not for a crowd, I'm afraid. Was the
water-wheel freed last night, do you know?"
"It was loosed last night, but it's froz again," said a bystander.
"It's not freezing now," said the school-master, "and you may see how
much larger that weak place where the stream is has got since yesterday.
However," he added, good-humouredly, "I suppose you think you know your
own mill-dam and its ways better than I can?"
"Well," said the heavy man, still with his back to us, "I reckon we've
slid on this dam a many winters afore _you_ come. No offence, I hope?"
"By no means," said the school-master; "but if you old hands do begin
to feel doubtful as the afternoon goes on, call off those lads at the
other end in good time. And if you could warn them not to go in rushes
together--but perhaps they would not listen to you," he added with a
spice of malice.
"I don't suppose they would, sir," said John Binder, candidly. "They're
very venturesome, is lads."
"I reckon they'll suit themselves," said the heavy man, and he jumped on
to the ice, and went off, still with his back to us.
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