The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1891-10-01

In noticin' the store he sets by her.
Browne Perriman, in Yankee Blade.
AN ADVENTURE.
Terrible Experience of Two Boys
in a Hurricane.
Large rivers, the sides of which for a
score of miles back are covered with
spruce and pine forests, come rolling
here and there into what are known as
the Great Lakes of North America
In winter scores of thousands of men
are busy in these forests, cutting down,
hauling and squaring trees; and to-
ward the spring, when the warm sun,
the rains and the melting snow in the
woods burst the icebound streams, the
woodmen roll the logs and timber in
to the rushing water, by which they
are borne down to the lakes
At the mouth of one OF these streams
was large boom constructed of Joints
OF timber fastened together at the ends
with short pieces of chain; into this the
logs and the tinbers swung as .hcy
were volleyed out of the river.
Old Ike Rogers and his two sons,
Albert and Frank, had spent several
days in tine middle of May picking out
all the logs that had upon them two
crosses, which was the mark of their
property. They had sharp, stesl
spikes in their boots, which enabled
them to stand upon the timber and
logs; and they pulled out each piece
from among the scores of others of
different marks with their pointed
iron peevys, dragging them out to the
clear water and putting them in raft
joints.
The joint of a raft is constructed of
three tiers of logs or timber from
twelve to twenty-four in a row, each
tier being placed across the one below
it. The corners are held together by
heavy wooden peg, and the joints are
fastened together in any number by
means of boom poles, till the raft is
made as large rs is necessary.
When the wind favors, the raft is cut
loose from its mornings, two or three
sails are hoisted upon it, and it is head
ed out into the lake for the sawmils. I
have known some of these RATS to be
an acre in area, having house built
on the top, where the raftmen sleep
and do their cooking
When the raft about which am to
relate this story was ready for sailing,
Old Ike set out for the nearest country
store to buy a couple of pairs of
blankets for the voyage, as it is very
cool on these northern lakes in May.
AS it was dead calm when he left, no
precaution was taken to moor the raft
to the stout piers at the brink of the
tired from their many hard hours toll
ing, lay down in the hut on the raft
and went to sleep. How long they
slept they could not say, but it was
probably four or five hours; however,
when they awoke the wind was shrek
ing over the raft; and when they came
out of the caboose, they found that
they had been driven better than half
mile out into the lake, and that great
waves were rolling over the logs Evil
IDENTIFY their father had not reached the
shore in time to join them, and the sur
face of the lake was in such state of
fury that it was impossible for him
now to be able to come to the raft in
small boat The two frightened boys
stood by the caboose, to which they
were obliged to cling fast in order to
keep their feet, so violent was the gale.
All around them was one white, roar
ing wilderness of water, and the spray
came drifting over their heads like
heavy rain. Two or three large
schooners, which had also been caught
in the storm, had taken three reefs in
their canvas and were lyingto, this be-
ing the only way in which they could
keep atloat in such heavy sea.
The raft was driving straight before
the wind, and if allowed to go on in
this course would reach the opposite
shore in five or six hours; but the
brothers knew that if they were to
strand there the raft would get broken
up among the great granite rocks and
would be lost. AS it was, they felt
that the great floating mass could not
long sustain the pounding of the
waves. 1t was made up of about thirty
joints, and as a great wave rolled I'M
der it the poles creaked and the whole
raft groaned. At one end three row.
locks were fastened into the logs, and
by these were lana three heavy spruce
oars each about twenty feet long with
wide blades, to be used in steering the
raft and sculling it along in the calm.
Albert and Frank had been with their
father many time before when he
took RATS to the sawmills, so that they
knew everything about steering and
sailing, but they had never been out on
the lake in such storm as this.
They had two large sails attached to
strong masts with them and three or
four places had been provided for step
ping these when there was wind. In
order to save the timber from being
lost by going to pieces on the lee shore
they decided to step the two masts one
on each side of the raft, and steer as
close to windward as possible. 1t was
all they could do to get each mast in
place. and when they loosed the first
sail it fluttered out in the wind and they
were obliged to take turn of the stay
around one of the logs in order to
draw it in and bring the sheet up close
to the wind. They had the same diff
Guilty with the other sail; however, they
succeeded in hauling both close and
then putting out two of the steering
oars with which by hard pushing they
were able to bring the raft close to the
storm. The waves came rolling behind
them fully six feet high, and frequent
~ knocked them over upon the logs,
but they held on to the oars and grad
ually brought their charge closer to-
ward the shore, from which the hurri-
cane was blowing. About mile below
the course in which they were heading,
the shore curved out and was covered
with thick spruce and pine forest
almost to the brink of the water. In
the shelter of this wood they would be
safe from the pounding of the waves,
and they struggled with all their might