with apoplexy!"

Jerome did not know when the doctor followed Noyes hurriedly out to
the road where his team was waiting, and Squire Eben Merritt went at
a run after them, shouting back, "Don't let that boy stay in that
mill too long; see to it, some of you."

There came a great barn-roof down-stream, followed by a tossing wake
of hay and straw. The crowd on shore groaned. It broke when it passed
the falls, and so the danger to the bridge below was averted, but a
heavy beam slewed sidewise as it passed the mill, and struck it. The
mill quivered in every beam, and the floor canted like the deck of a
vessel. Martin Cheeseman rushed in and caught Jerome roughly by the
arm. "For God's sake, what ye up to?" he shouted above the roar of
the water, "Come along with ye. She's goin'!"

The old man had a rope tied to his middle; Jerome followed him,
unresistingly, and they crossed, almost waist-deep and in danger of
being swept from their foothold by the current. Cheeseman kept tight
hold of Jerome's arm. "Bear up," he said, in a hoarse whisper, as
they struggled out of the water; "life's more'n a mill."

"It's more than a mill that's going down," replied Jerome, in a dull
monotone which Cheeseman did not hear. There were plenty of
out-stretched hands to help them to the shore; the men pressed around
with rude sympathy.

"It's darned hard luck," one and another said, with the defiant
emphasis of an oath.

Then they turned from Jerome and riveted their attention upon the
mill, which swayed visibly. Jerome stood apart, his back turned,
looking away into the depths of the dripping woods. Cheeseman came up
and clapped his shoulder hard. "Don't ye want to see it go?" he
cried. "It's a sight. Might as well get all ye can out of it."

Jerome shook his head.

"Ye'd better. I tell ye, it's a sight. I've seen three go in my
lifetime, an' one of 'em was my own. Lord, I looked on with the rest!
Might as well get all the fun you can out of your own funeral. Hullo!
There--there goes the dam, an'--there goes the mill!"

There was a wild chorus of shouts and groans. Jerome's mill went
reeling down-stream, but he did not see it. He had heard the new
spouting roar of water and the crash, and knew what it meant, but
look he would not.

"Ye missed it," said Cheeseman.

Some of the men came up and wrung his hand hurriedly, then were off
with the crowd to see the Main Street bridge go. Jerome sat down
weakly on a pile of sodden logs, wh