The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-11-02

I be only two of us at the farm mex
year
You meant" queried Thorpe.
YES" laughed Paul 'and if it's {
| girl she gets named after her mother
.rou bet
The men separated. In a momen
] Thorpe found himself waist deep in th'
( pitchy aromatic top of an old bull sap
/ clipping away at the projecting
branches. After a time he heard Paul.
''Timbre.'' came the cry, and Their
the wish-sh-sh,-cr of the tree;
I fall
Thorpe knew that now either HANK
| or Tom must be climbing with the Ions
] measuring pole along the prostratC
trunk, marking by means of shallow
axe clips where the saw was to divide
. the logs. Then Tom shouted something
unintelligible. The other men seemed
| TO understand, however, for they
J dropped their work and ran hastily il
1 the direction of the voice. Thorpe
after a moments indecision, did the
same. He arrived to find a group about
| a PROSTATE man. The man was Paul
Two of the older woodsmen, kneeling
were conducting coolly a hasty exami;
/ nation. At the front every man is more
or less of a surgeon.
rs he hurt badly?,.' asked Thorpe;
what IS it?"
He's dead" answered one of the
other men, soberly.
With the skill of CHASTITY practice
some Of them wove a litter on which
the body was placed. The pathetic lit
tie procession moved in the solemn, in
scrutable forest.
When the tree had fallen it had
crashed through the top of another
leaving suspended in the branches oi
the latter a long, heavy limb. A slight
breeze dislodged it. Henry Paul was
impaIed as by "a javelin. This is the
chief of the many perils OF the woods
That evening the camp was unusually
quiet. Taller let his fiddle hang. After
supper Thorpe was approached by
Purdy, the reptilian red head with
whom he had had the row some even
ings before.
you in, chummy?" he asked in a
quiet voice. Its a FIVE apiece for
Hanks woman"
YES said Thorpe.
The men were earning from 500 to s3C
month They had. most of them
never seen Hank Paul before this au-
tumn. He had not, mainly because OF
his modest disposition, enjoyed any eX-
traordinary degree of popularity. Yet
these strangers cheerfully as a matter
of course, gave up the proceeds of a
weeks hard work, and that without ex-
pecting the slightest personal credit
The money was sent "from the boys.
Thorpe later read a heart broken letter
20 the unknown benefactors. II
touched him deeply, and he suspected
the other men of the same emotions,
but by that time they had regained the
independent, self contained poise of the
frontiersman. They read it with I'M
moved faces, and tossed it aside with
a more than ordinarily rough joke or
oath. Thorpe understood their reti-
cence. 1t was a part of his own nature.
He felt more than ever akin to these
men.
As swamper he had more or less to
do with a cant hook in helping the
teamsters roll the end of the log on the
little "dray." He soon caught the
knack. Towards Christmas he had be-
come a fairly efficient cant hook man,
and was helping roll the great sticks of
timber up the slanting skids- Thus al
ways intelligence counts, especially
that rare intelligence which resolves
into the analytical and the infinitely
observing.
He was getting just the experience
and the knowledge he needed; but that
was about all. His wages were $25 a
month, which his van bill would reduce
to the double eagle. At the end Of
the winter he would have but little
over 800 to show for his seasons work,
and this could mean at most only $40
for Helen. But the future was his.
He saw now more plainly what he had
dimly perceived before, that for the
man who buys timber, and logs 1t well.
a sure future is waiting. And in this
camp he was beginning to learn from