Any of the four pair of stones could be set
in action by the raising or lowering of rough heads of cogs ; but this was not enough. A shaft was prolonged and the water was made to actuate a device which looks inordinately clumsy but worked like a charm for hoisting sacks. Among the sacks were bags of various sorts left by gleaners, many of them old women who could not write. But each would make some sort of mark on some sort of paper and leave it on top of the sack. To each was returned the grist (or flour) from her own collection of grain and the miller did the work for the sake of the " offal " (a word now totally banned by the company of millers as tending to lower its repute). Later, when the trouble of such distinctions proved excessive, the miller would give each 72 per cent. of the weight of the grain, though the fiction was kept up that the tale of flour represented the particular contribution.
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