hannel was fifty feet wide, we
built a pontoon bridge. We were fortunate in securing six good cider
barrels at low cost, also a quantity of "slabs" from one of the sawmills
of Lumberville. "Slab" is the lumberman's name for the outside piece of
a log which is sawn off in squaring up the sides. We made a raft of
these materials and floated them down the river to Lake Placid. The
bridge was made by anchoring the barrels in the channel about eight feet
apart, and laying on them the floor beams, which supported a flooring of
slabs. The floor beams were narrow planks 1 inch by 4 inches, taken from
the bridge wreck, and they were placed on edge to prevent sagging. Of
course we had no anchors for securing the barrels, but used instead
large stones weighing about 100 pounds each, around which the anchor
lines were fastened. We found it rather difficult to sink these
improvised anchors at just the right places, for we were working at the
very mouth of the mill-race, and were in constant danger of having our
scow sucked down into the swirling channel. Once we were actually drawn
into the mill-race and tore madly down the rushing stream. By Bill's
careful steering we managed to avoid striking the shore, and just as we
were off the Tiger's Tail Reddy succeeded in swinging a rope around an
overhanging limb and bringing us to a sudden stop. A moment later we
might have been dashed against the rocks in the rapids below and our
boat smashed. Shooting rapids in a scow is a very different matter from
riding through them on a plank.

THE KING ROD TRUSS.

Our bridge building operations were not entirely confined to the island.
Two of them were built on the Schreiner grounds at Lamington. Reddy
Schreiner's home was situated a little distance above the town where
Cedar Brook came tumbling down a gorge in the hills and spread out into
the Schreiners' ice pond. Thence it pursued its course very quietly
through the low and somewhat swampy ground in the Schreiners' back yard.
Over this brook Reddy was very anxious to build a bridge. Accordingly,
before returning to school in the fall Bill made out a careful set of
plans for the structure, and after we had gone the rest of the society,
under Reddy's guidance, erected the bridge.

[Illustration: Fig. 100. The King Rod Bridge.]

The structure was a cross between a suspension bridge and a spar bridge.
The banks of the stream were so low that, instead of resting the floor
of the bridge on top o