Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1902-09-26
KENNEDY'S SNEAK.
ny JOHN II. SPEARS.

about the most amusing incident in his ex.
perience as log driver he said:
1T was when we were driving Mill creek,
above marlborough, the first time. The
worst gorge on the west side of the Adj
rondacks is on that brook. It's more than
a quarter of a mile long, and the walls are
so steep it would make fly dizzy to climb
them, save at point. ON the west side,
where split in the rock makes down to the
water. Of course, the logs jammed into the
gorge, and we had to work between the
walls, with no chance to get ashore when
the Jam started unless we could reach that
split.
And that wasn't the worst of it. and it
isn't the worst now. AT the mouth of the
gorge, where the alders grow down to the
water edge where man that got carried
down from the jam might think he'd have
a chance to get ashore, the stream takes
pitch down, as steep as a shed roof, for two
rods, and then it jumps over a 2O-foot fall
into a pot that is perhaps 80 feet deep
There wasn't anything funny about tire
gorge, nor the falls. But old Bill NIacGav-
ock was alive, then, and he came to MOBILES
borough for the sake of the booze when we
gathered there. Old Bill was the worst nui-
sance you ever saw. He'd fawn on man.
or abuse him like dog, according to wheth-
er the fellow would stand treat or not, but
he'd been a good man in his day, and the
boys were sorry for him, generally.
This time, however, he wore us all out,
for we were at the hotel two days, and so
when he went to Weldon Kennedy. the fore
man, for the price of a drink Weldon called
him down for fair, and then said:
81 amt forgettin' that you used to be
a good man, Bill, and we, all of us, take a
drop too much, now and then. SO / don't
mean to be too hard on you, and if you'll
Just keep away from us until we've cleaned
the gorge, tomorrow, III give you the
price of quart. But you're to let us all
alone, and you're to come to me for the
money, while I'm on the trail. won't have
you abusing us around the hotel here any
more
cold Bill blinked hard at that but he
saw Weldon was hot under the collar,
and there was no other way but to let the
boys alone.
eve forgot all about the matter next
day, you may be sure, for working the logs
through that gorge was a job to turn your
hair gray. Along about two o'clock in the
afternoon they were piled 30 feet high from
wall to wall. beginning a rod below that
split | mentioned, and five of us, Weldon in
the lead, went down on the face of the jam
to see what we could do, and after rolling
off 80 or 10 sticks thrown up loose, the seri.
Gus work began.
eve could feel that the logs had damned
the water back and that the jam might Weld
to the pressure at any minute, and spread
us out through the white water that was
dancing between Us and the falls but there
was no waiting for what might happen.
We just clamped on to the pieces next to
a big boulder in midstream, and for ten
minutes we heaved and pried at them with
out doing more than to turn a dozen or so
loose. Then Weldon put his peavy on
ten-inch standing end up. With one pry
he started it rolling around the boulder, and
with that everything seemed to melt from
under us, and the jam was broken.
at was all so unexpected that lost my
balance and fell sprawling. but Weldon
with lift got me on my feet, and the way
/ climbed for the shore wasn't slow. And
made it, too, but Weldon, though his fin
gers reached the edge of the openings, had
lost his chance by stopping to help me, and
the next minute he was adrift in the tumble
of water riding logs as we never saw a man
ride before, but heading for the falls, in
spite OF all he could do.
Cover to the alders, boy Over to the
alders.' yelled one of the men, as we all
went tearing along the top of the precpice,
but he was already doing that the best he
could. From log to log he went, jumping
breast high, more than once, to make it. but
the strain was wearing him down, and when
at last he reached the head of the rapids and
made a leap for the alders, he fell a foot
short of them, and disappeared.