Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-03-19

|
water on her. She amt freezing a
mite. Well pillow her out"
| So they finished the job and piowed
her out, leaving exposed the wet
marshy surface of the creek bottom, on
which at night thin crust formed.
She'll freeze little tonight" said
Railway hopefully, "You sprinkler
boys get at her and wet her down."
Until 2 o'clock in the morning the
four teams and the six men creaked
back and forth spilling hardly gath
cred water, Then they crept in and
ate sleepily the food that 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 gayiy up the warm
ing trunks of the trees; blue jays fluff
| ed and perked and screamed III the
hardwood tops; covey of grouse ven
| tured from the swamp and strutted
yainly, pause of contemplation be-
tween each step. Railway, walking out
on the tramped 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
lying idle; teams were doing the same.
Nothing went on but the days of the
year, and four of them had already
licked off the calendar. The deep SHOW
of the unusually cold autumn had now
disappeared from the tops of the
stumps. 1t even stopped freezing dur
ing the night. At times Dyers little
thermometer marked as high as 40 de-
grees.
81 often heard this was. sort "
summer resort" observed Tom Broad
head, "but hanged if knew it was a
summer resort all the year roundv
By and by it got to be a case Of look
ing on the bright side of the affair
from pure reaction.
81 don't know" said Railway; SIT
won't be so bad, after all. A couple of
days of zero weather, with all this wa.
ter lying around, would fix things up
in pretty good shape. If she only
freezes tight we'll have good solid
bottom to build on"
The inscrutable 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.
,irvl, oil II a
zigzagged softly down through the air.
Railway plowed away two feet of it.
Ehe surface was promptly covered by
a second storm. Railway doggedly
plowed it out again.
This time the goddess seemed to re-
lent The ground froze solid. The
sprinklers became assiduous in their
labor. Two days later the road was
ready for the first sleigh. its surface
of thick, CLASSY ice beautiful to be-
hold, the ruts cut deep and true, the
glades sanded or sprinkled with re-
tarding hay on the. descents. AT the
river the banking ground proved solid.
Railway breathed again, then sighed.
Spring was eight days nearer. He was
tlSut udyS u.
AS soon as loading began the cook
served breakfast at o'clock. The men
worked by the light of torches, which
were often merely catchup jugs with
wicking in the necks. Nothing could
be more picturesque than a teamster
conducting one Of his great pyramid
ical loads over the little inequalities of
the road, in the ticklish places stand
ing atop with the bent knee of 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
f1edged 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, I'M
til the log has rolled once when, his
weapon loosened, he drops lightly, cas-
lily 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
skids poised and just as it is about to
plunge down the other side is gripped
and held ine1orably 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 gigantic skidway to
await the spring freshets, which will
carry them down stream to the "boom.''
In that Enclosure they remain until
a