8

7.

high as the bridge across the creek - it lacked about twenty feet.

"At this very bridge is where me and Miss Mary Smith saw
what it seemed then was going to be a terrible accident. John
Johnson had a young lady in the buggy with him and the fine, spirited
horse he was driving got frightened just as they started across the
bridge, and that fool horse didn't do a thing but back right off that
bridge. The trees and bushes under the level of the bridge caught
the buggy and no doubt saved their lives. The horse was badly in-
jured, but the belle and beau were just bruised and shaken, not really
hurt.

"That old mill was on one side of the creek and the gin on
the other. I ran that gin from daylight 'til dark, and we cut out
all the cotton raised in an area of twenty miles. The mill ground
corn for an even larger territory. Corn was brought there from as
far as 30 miles away in 'most every direction. I have known customers
to have to spend two days and nights waiting their turn to get the
grinding done. It was either do that or make two trips. Sometimes
they ground all night. The miller always called me 'Meshach and
Abednego.' I guess he thought I'd been through the fire.

"That old millpond was 2 miles long, 125 yards wide, and from
10 to 20 feet deep in some places. We had a picnic out there and I
was out with a young lady in a boat on that old millpond. It was
the very first time I had ever rowed a boat. There were so many
ducks attracted there by the refuse from the gristmill that I carried
my rifle along. it was just a little twenty-two. I saw several green-

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