Read "Uncle Ben" by Oliver Optic online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
When Flora and Nellie arrived at the well, there was no water in the bucket. It was drawn with a long pole, called a "sweep," supported on a crotched post. The bucket was attached to a small pole, fastened to the end of the long one, which went down into the well.
As the bucket went down, one end of the long pole came down with it, while the other end went up-just as the beam does in a pair of scales. It was hard work to draw water with a sweep, and the little girls found that the strength of both of them was not enough to move it.