Varner's Mill in "By the People" (Location)

This mill is the site of "the annual Varner's Mill picnic," a social event at which local politicians announce their candidacies (88). The mill is built next to a "mill pond," which provides water power to drive the machinery (137), though in this story, its proximity to what Ratliff calls "a dog thicket" is much more important. Ratliff describes the thicket as "a clump of gum and hickory and ash and pin oak switches on the bank jest above the mill pond" (137); it serves the dogs in the area as a place to relieve themselves, and provides Ratliff with the power to drive Clarence Snopes out of politics.