The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-11-09

sleepily the food that a sleepy cookee
set out for them.
BY morning the mere surface of the
sprinkled water had frozen. Railway
looked in despair at the sky. Dimly
through the gray he caught the tint
Of blue.
The sun came out. Nuthatches and
woodpeckers ran gayly up the warm
ing trunks of the trees. Bluejays
1uffed and perked and screamed in the
hard wood tops. A cOVey of grouse
Ventured from the swamp and strutted
vainly, pause of contemplation be
tween each step. Railway, walking out
on the tramDed road of the marsh,
cracked the artificial skin and thrust
his foot through into icy water That
night the sprinklers stayed in.
The devil seemed in it. Men were ly-
ing idle; teams were doing the same.
Nothing went on but the days of the
year, and four of them had already
licked OF the calendar. The deep snow
of the unusually cold autumn had now
disappeared from the tops of the
stumps. 1t even stopped freezing dur
ing the night. At times Dyer's little
thermometer marked as high as 40 de-
grees.
L often heard this was a sort "
summer resort" observed Tom Broad
head but DANCED if / knew it was a
by and by 1t got to be case of
looking on the bright side of the af-
fair from pure reaction
Il don't know said Railway, lit
won't be so bad after all. A couple of
days of zero. weather, with all this
water lying around. would fix things
up in pretty good shape. If she only
freezes tight. we'll have a good solid
bottom TO build on
The inseTutable goddess of the will
derness smiled, and calmly, relentlessly.
moved her next pawn.
1t was all so unutterably simple, and
yet so effective. 1t showed.
All night and all day the great flakes
zigzagged SOFTLY down through the air.
Roadway ploughed away two feet of it.
The surface was promptly covered by
a second storm. Railway doggedIy
ploughed il out again.
This time the goddess seemed to re-
lent. The ground froze Solid. The
hold; the ruts cut deep and true; the
Sprlnklers became assiduous in their
labor Two days later the road was
ready for the first sleigh, it's surface
of thick, CLASSY ice, beautiful to be-
glades sanded, or sprinkled with retard-
ing hay on the descents. At the river
the banking ground proved solid. Rad
way breathed again, then sighed.
Spring was eight days nearer. He was
eight DAYS more behind
As soon as loading began, the cook
served breakfast al o'clock. The men
worked by the light of torches, which
were often merely catsup jugs with
wlcking in the necks. Nothing could
be more picturesque that a teamster
conducting one of his great pyramidical
loads over the little inequalities of the
road, in the ticldish places standing
atop with the bent knee OF the Roman
charioteer, spying and forestalling the
chances Of the way with a fixed eye
and an intense concentration that re-
Taxed not one inch in the miles of the
haul Thorpe had become a full
nedged canthoOk man.
He liked the work. There is about it
skill that fascinates. A man grips
suddenly with the hook of his strong
instrument, stopping one end that the
other may slide; he thrusts the short,
strong stock between the log and the
skid, allowing it TO be overrun; he
stops the roll with a sudden sure grasp
applied at just the right moment 10 be
effective Sometimes he allows himself
to be carried up bodily, clinging TO the
eanthook hike an acrobat to a bar. until
the log has rolled once; when. his
weapon loosened, he drops lightly,
easily TO the ground. And it is excit-
ing TO pile the logs on the sleigh, first
a layer Of i've, say; then one OF six