He had never visited our camp and hadn't realized how handy
we were with the tools, because, with the exception of the current wheel,
all our work had been done on the opposite side of the island. We made him
a guest of honor, showing him over the whole place. The bridges struck him
as remarkably clever, but what pleased him most was our current wheel.
"I swan," he said. "Ef that ain't jest the thing I have been awantin' for
the past twenty year. What'll ye sell me the hull plant fer, boys?"
Mr. Halliday's Water Wheel.
We thought he was fooling at first, but when he had assured us that he was
in earnest, Bill told him that we needed our own plant, but we could build
him a similar and even better current wheel for any amount he thought it
was worth to him. The figure settled on was six dollars (a dollar apiece)
for our work, Mr. Halliday paying for the material. It was not a large
sum, but it seemed a lot to us, and considering the scarcity of money in
that region it was pretty generous pay. We built Mr. Halliday's current
wheel just like our own, except that the paddles were much broader, and
instead of using cans for the buckets Mr. Halliday supplied us with small
dinner pails. The method of fastening on the pails is shown in Fig.
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