The work, for a rapidly growing youngster was terribly severe. According to the rules of the Guild, he was not spared any hardship by journeymen, who were much older and kept themselves to themselves. 
The job was particularly strenuous, having to get up at all hours of the night and the winter, when the mill was kept going day and night.
The most difficult and dangerous thing, according to my father, was to remove the ice from the mill wheels in winter. At one time he was about to do this from inside the water wheel drum when the wheel suddenly started to move. In order to escape an almost certain death, all he could do was to creep towards the middle of the wheel, which was moving faster and faster. At the same time
he was dipped in the water at every turn and had to swing himself up again and again, until the mill hands, who were sure he was dead, stopped the works. As my father was pulled out, soaking wet and his teeth chattering with the cold, the few minutes seemed to him like many hours.
