MARK TWAIN: ROUGHING IT

"Going from mining to milling" is a new metaphor for me. I found this one, while reading ROUGHING IT by Mark Twain, wherein he writes: "We never found any ore that would yield more than fifty dollars a ton; and as the mills charged fifty dollars a ton for 'working' ore and extracting the silver, our pocket money melted steadily and none returned to take its place.... "At last , when flour reached a dollar a pound , and money could not be borrowed on the best security at less than 'eight cents per month ' ( I being without the security, too), I abandoned mining and went to milling. That is to say, I went to work as a common laborer in a quartz mill, at ten dollars a week and board." P.712, MARK TWAIN (1984)