Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-12-10

ing atop with the bent knee or the Ro- man charioteer, spying and forestall- ing the chances of the way with fixed eye and an intense concentration that relaxed not one inch in the miles of the haul. Thorpe had become full : fedged cant hook 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 sudden sure grasp applied at just the right moment to be effective. Sometimes he allows himself to be carried up bodily, clinging to the cant hook like an acrobat to bar, un- til the log has rolled once, when, his weapon loosened, he drops lightly, cas- fly to the ground. And it is exciting to pile the logs on the sleigh, first layer of five, say; then one of four smaller, of but three, of two, until at the very apex the last is dragged slowly up the slzids, poised and just as it is about to plunge down the other side is gripped and held inexorably by the little men in blue flannel shirts.
 Chains bind the loads And if ever during the loading or afterward when the sleigh is in motion the weight of the logs causes the pyramid to break down and squash out, then woe to the driver or whoever happens to be near. For this reason the leaders are picked and careful men.
 At the banking grounds. which lie in and about the bed of the river, the logs are piled into a gigantic skidway to await the spring freshets, which will carry them down stream to the bloom" Tn that inclosure they remain until sawed in the mill.
 Thorpe, in common with the other men, had thought Railways vacation at Christmas time mistake. He could not but admire the feverish animation that now characterized the jobber. Ev- cry mischance was as quickly repaired as aroused expedient could do the work.
 Esprit de corps awoke. The men sprang to their tasks with alacrity, gave more than an hours exertion to each of the twenty four, took pride in repulsing assaults of the great en- emy whom they personified under the generic ''She''
 One morning in February Thorpe was helping load big butt log. He was one of the two men who stand at either end of the skids to help the as cending log keep straight and true to its bed on the pile. His assistants s end caught on silver, ground for a second and slipped back Then the log ran slanting across the skids in stead of perpendicular to them To rectify the fault Thorpe dug his cant hook into the timber and threw his manner to check correspondingly the ascent of his end. In other words, he took the place on his side of the pre- venting silver, so equalizing the pres sure and forcing the timber to it's prop CT position. Instead of rolling the log slid. The stock of the cant hook was jerked from his hands. He fell back, and the cant hook, after clinging for a moment to the rough bark, snapped. down and hit him crushing blow on the top of the head.
 They took Thorpe up and carried him in, just as they had carried Hank Paul before Men who had not spoken dozen words to him in as many days gathered his few belongings and stuff ed them awkwardly into his satchel. Jackson Hines prepared the bed of straw and warm blankets in the bot tom of the sleigh that was to take him out
 He would have made good boss" said the old fellow. "He's hard man. to nick"