The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1902-04-10
IN THE FACE
OF FEAR. -
BY WILLIAM D. MAC hAR0.
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- lumber camp on the shore op
pnsite Fisherman's Island, which lay
beyond six hundred yards of shifting
ely water. About the island the ba,
BY waves ran crosswise among half q
mile of hidden reefs and shadows.
Everywhere along the shore stood
The brown cedar trunks, straight and
clear, and back Of them the hemlock
and farther still, where the glacial loo
Aad cut range beyond range Of low
Anls, the ash and beech and maple
al marketable timber. waiting for the
AZ. Yet the camp was foredoomed to
allure because Bronson knew nothing
about numbering. and had spent $780,.
600 on things for which there was no
Reed. All one summer was spent BY
the st. Clair in bringing up to Bron.
son's great chained and timbered dock
the needless things Bronson had
bought.
Larson-"Shocky" Larson, IS years
old, big, light-haired and clumsy. was
the porter of the st. Clair. Once on
the lakes there had been built 20 or
more boats all exactly alike-high-
sided, stubby craft, made to fit tho
locks of the canals and called canal
boats; and they turned out to be the
hest rough-weather boats the lakes
had ever seen; puffy little boats.
smelling OF the galley, but Indifferent
70 wind or wave or floating ice-and
che st. Clair was one of them. But
Shocky Larson laughed at the St.
Clair and called her "the tub"
Shocky was drftwood. He had been
east to the beginning of the St. Law
renee, and west to the mississippi;
10 had seen little of the lakes and
. little Of the land. and he was no
more than a boy. he Dragged. He
Dragged to Van Clede, a stoop-shoul-
dexed man with child-liks eyes, who
vas chief engineer Of the st. Clair;
hs Dragged to the hangers-on who
waited at table on the St. Clair. and
60 the men upon the docks; but most
Of all he Dragged to the men at
Bronson's camp, a loud-voiced, simple
folk, who did their duty as they knew
tt. but had seen little of the world.
II suppose. now," said Bronson's
camp boss, "you could bring the boat
In rs well as the old man."
ed not lose a fender at every
dock" said Shocky.
-All right, boy" said tho camp boss
he was a square, brown man,
marked in more than one place by the
return swing of the double-bitted az
-~ail right, boy, weIl vote for you"
~For what?"
~When they're electing the cham
plon liar"
Shocky saw that they wers laugh
ing at him, but the lauenteF slipped
on his shoulders like water, and he
told both question and answer TO
Van Clede, who listened, saying moth
ing. Van Clede liked Shocky; he called
him son." which was condesrrnsion
so Van Clede's part, but he had tried
s1ee to take Shocky down. and had
Jailed. He did not try again.
Neither Shocky Larson, nor Van
Cede, nor the camp boss. nor Capt.
Willis, of the ST. Clair, could guess
that time was coming when what
vas true in all of them was to be
tried ont. when all the Dragging that
= quick tongue and q careless head
ever let loose upon the world would
make no difference, and tho manho ood
and the strength that was in them
would show on the outside, and the
eowardice, too.
AL summer the St. Clair went up
and down the lake and in and out at
Rronson's, poking her nose into mud
hohes and losing fender now and
then in pinches where she might have
lost more with small blame; all sum
ner Van Clede watched his engines,
and Shocky looked out for baggage
and silver quarters. In the very end
Of the summer there came a long hot
spell, when the piled timber at Bron-
sons was hot TO the touch, and shin
gies dropped from the roofs of the
warehouses. Day after day to the
uorth and west the smoke Of forest
dres hung like fog over the lake.
The hot spell was broken by a wind
out Of the east, at first dry and
burning from blowing over miles of
baknd clearing and scorched forest,
inter- dslnp and chilly, and bringing
with I, banks OF gray and yellow
cloud and the promise of rain. The
wind found the 81. Clair steaming
xouOtonously through the night, and
set her to wallowing in the troughs
of ftile off-shore whitecaps.
Now, aft Of the after gsngway, on
the port side Of the 81. Clair, was a
species Of cubby-hole where the stew
ard lived, and aft Of the after gang
way on the starbosrd side was anoth-
- just like il, where the clerk kept
has books, and slept with his boots
On and q lead pencil behind his ear;
and between the two, in a little coop,
slept shocky.
II Was Just at the change Of watch
o. tina. shocky swoke with the sound
At tbe clerks yOice IN his ear and tho