Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1896-09-28


time one summer Just above Rangers
at the entrance to the lake. 1t worked
night and day with two crews; the
day crew went to work at six o'clock
IN the morning and quit at six o'clock
at night, when the night crew came
on. Vhere wasn't much difference be-
tween night work and day work ex-
ceptlng in the matter of sleep. The
day men, of course, could sleep all
night; but 1t was not SO easy for the
night men to sleep days when the sun
was blazing down on the tarred roof
of the quarter boat. Everybody
agreed that the only drawback to night
work, paraaoxically put, came in the
day time. AS the summer wore on it
got worse and worse with the night
crew. If they went ashore to wrap up
in their blankets in the bushes, mos
quitoes or sand deas drove them out
If they tried to sleep on the shady
side OF the quarter boat, some passing
steamer would below and snort them
into wakefulness, so they settled down
to sleeping a couple OF hours in the
morning, and piecing out again with
another nap in the afternoon when
the sun got low. This was the best
plan, but still far from satisfactory,
for it left a gap of four or five hours
in the middle of the day when there
was nothing to eat or do or see, ashore
adoat, and when it was impossible to
sleep.
Probably it was this that caused Mr..
| Cnln nip,hf inSnaofnr n tn
wander down to Rangers Landing
frequently. AS is often the case with
inspectors, Mr.. Cole was not exactly
like the men among whom he worked ;
he talked very much as they did and
used all the colloquialisms of the river
as freely as they, but still he was not
one of them. He treated them well
but made no friends among them.
AT first Mr.. Cole went down to Ran
gers to pass the time of the long days
on the quarter boat. But as he grew
better acquainted he went down from
pure enjoyment of having somebody
to talk to, somebody with whose life
and manners he felt himself somewhat
akin. Mr.. Cole was not q philosopher
or hermit, and in the exile of uncon-
genial companionship with the night
crew, he often felt a tug of homesick-
ness for surroundings that were not
quite so sordid and aimless, so he was
often Mt Rangers. He was treated
with the hospitality that characterizes
the plain and honest heartedness of
river homes. They were a simple folk
at the landing, and Mr.. Cole was, they
vaguely felt, man from the outer
world, little of which they saw in
the guise OF slow moving steamers,
and read of in papers that were long
sinee out of date. Mr.. and Mrs. Ran
ger accepted his visits with no embar-
rassment; but not SO Miss Jane. She
began to feel for the first time In her
life that possibly they were a plain
people, yes, uncultured even, on the
river. True, she had no very clear
ideas Of what culture was. How could
she have? The only life she saw or
knew was summers OF work and traffic
with passing boats, and long, cold
winters when they were shut away
from the world by deep SHOWS, furi-
Gus storms and lonesomeness. The
few books she read described life
which she could not imagine to her
self; and the men and women who
looked down from the steamers on
their log house and little farm were
people from that vague, mysterious
world which she could not compre-
hend. AS long as these thoughts came
as passing thoughts she was not dis
| ft1r k,,t AJp Cola ranalla1 thpn,
continually, and in different way.
He talked with her about life on the
river, and often fell to picturing life
as he knew it himself away from the
river. And as she learned more about
life elsewhere, she felt an indetinable
sense of discomfort, or, il not that, of
uneasiness when the inspector came to
visit them at the landing.
The dredge never worked Sundays,
more from Difference to some forgot
ten tradition than riety on the part
of the owners. The tug usually went
to the 500 for mail, repairs and
groceries. OF course, the men went
along. Mr.. Cole had always gone
with them before he made the ac-
qualntance of the people at Rangers,
but now he preferred to spend his
Sundays there rather than in the
hilarious company that the tug carried
on such trips. The men noticed it,
and they cracked many jokes at his
expense, some sly, some bold Jokes
were Jokes, but when fellow one day
made some disparaging remarks about
a girl Mt the landing, Cole promptly
knocked him into the river. From
this the river commune argued that
the inspector was in love. And they
we're right, they found that out before
Mr. Cole did himself.
The inspector had few books with
him on the quarter erboat-books of
poetry and novels. These he carried
down to the landing; but nobody
read them much except Miss Jane.
Poetry was too deep for Rangers 8
folks; and the novels too foreign to
their mode of life. Miss Jane, how
ever, read and re-read them, and Mr..
Cole offered explanations occasionally.