Then all the farmers, when they want to build houses or barns, haul logs to the mill to get them sawed into boards, and they carry their grain to the grist-mill and get it ground.

They pay the owner of the mills for doing this work for them.

And thus, if there are a great many farms in the country around, and no other mills very near, so that the mills are kept all the time at work, the owner gets a great deal of pay, and gradually acquires property.
"Now, as soon as the mills are built, perhaps a blacksmith sets up a shop near them.

If a blacksmith is going to open a shop anywhere in that town, it will be better for him to have it near the mills, because, as the farmers all have to come to the mills at any rate, they can avail themselves of the opportunity, to get their horses shod, or to get new tires to their wheels, when they are broken." "Tires ?" repeated Marco.

"What are tires ?" "They are the iron rims around wheels.