e was placed as a stringer, another forty-foot
timber. To this framework was spiked, on the inside, a close sheathing
of plank. Heavy timber braces, the outer ends of which were let into
mud-sills set in trenches dug thirty feet outside the dam, were sunk
into the stringer, and the work of filling in with earth on the inside
was begun. In two weeks the work was finished; the whole dam had been
raised and strengthened, the floodgates were closed, and the pond began
slowly to fill up.

In the mean time the saw-mill machinery had been bought, the frame for
the saw-mill had been cut and raised, and Mr. March, having finished
the repairs on the house, was busy setting up the machinery and putting
it in order.

By the middle of February, or six weeks after the Elmers had landed in
Wakulla, their influence had become very decidedly felt in the
community. With their building, fencing, ploughing, and clearing, they
had given employment to most of the working population of the place,
and had put more money into circulation than had been seen there at any
one time for years. Their house was now as neat and pretty as any in
the county. The ten-acre field in front was ploughed, fenced, and
planted, half in corn and half--no, not with orange-trees, but half was
set out with young cabbage-plants; a homely crop, but one which Mr.
Elmer had been advised would bring in good returns. The ferry was
running regularly and was already much used by travellers from
considerable distances on both sides of the river. The mill was
finished and ready for business, and the millpond, instead of a mud
flat, was a pretty sheet of water, fringed with palms and other
beautiful trees. Above all, Mr. Elmer's health had so improved that he
said he felt like a young man again, and able to do any amount of
outdoor work.

One Sunday morning after all this had been accomplished, Mr. Elmer
announced to the Sunday-school that on the following Wednesday a grand
picnic would be given in a pine grove midway between the Elmer Mill and
the big sulphur spring, that the ferry would be run free all that day,
and that all were cordially invited to come and enjoy themselves. He
also said that the Elmer Mill would be opened for business on that day,
and would grind, free of charge, one bushel of corn for every family in
Wakulla who should bring it with them.

This announcement created such a buzz of excitement that it was well it
had not been made until after the exerc