cents an hour, at the commercial rate
of electricity. Say 60 cents a day--eighteen dollars a month. That
isn't a very big electric light bill for some people I know in
town--and they consider themselves lucky to have the privilege of
buying electricity at that rate. Your wheel is running all winter to
prevent ice from forming and smashing it. It might just as well be
spinning the dynamo.

"If you think it worth while," continued Perkins,--"this $18 worth of
light you have on tap night and morning, or any hour of the day,--we
will say the account is settled. That is, of course, if you will give
me the use of half the electricity that your idle wheel is grinding
out with my second-hand dynamo. We have about eight electrical
horsepower on our wires, without overloading the machine. Next spring
I am going to stock up this place; and I think about the first thing I
do, when my dairy is running, will be to put in a milking machine and
let electricity do the milking for me. It will also fill my silo,
grind my mowing-machine knives, saw my wood, and keep water running in
my barn. You will probably want to do the same.

"But what it does for us men in the barn and barn-yard, isn't to be
compared to what it does for the women in the house. When my wife
wants a hot oven she presses a button. When she wants to put the
'fire' out, she presses another. That's all there is to it. No heat,
no smoke, no ashes. The same with ironing--and washing. No oil lamps
to fill, no wicks to trim, no chimneys to wash, no kerosene to kick
over and start a fire."

"You say the current you have put in my house would cost me about $18
a month, in town."

"Yes, about that. Making electricity from coal costs money."

"What does it cost here?"

"Practically nothing. Your river, that has been running to waste ever
since your grandfather gave up making chairs, does the work. There is
nothing about a dynamo to wear out, except the bearings, and these can
be replaced once every five or ten years for a trifle. The machine
needs to be oiled and cared for--fill the oil cups about once in three
days. Your water wheel needs the same attention. That's all there is
to it. You can figure the cost of your current yourself--just about
the cost of the lubricating oil you use--and the cost of the time you
give it--about the same time you give to any piece of good machinery,
from a sulky plow to a cream separator."

This is a true story. This electric plant, wher