The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1904-11-30


The devil seemed in IL 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 snow
of the unusually cold autumn had now
disappeared from the tops of the
stumps 1t even stopped freezing dur
ing the night AT times Dyer's 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 round?'
By and by it got to be case of look
ing on the bright side of the affair
from pure reaction.
II don't know" said Railway; ut
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 Wen have a 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
All night and all day the great fakes
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
eight days more behind.
AS soon as loading began the cook
served breakfast at 3 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, jim 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 a full
fedged cant hook man.
He liked the work. There is about it
a 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 a 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 a 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 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 gigantic skidway to
await the spring freshets, which will
carry them down stream to the "boom."
In that Enclosure they remain until
sawed in the mill.
Thorpe. in common with the other
men. had thought Railways vacation
at Christmas time a 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 a pride
in repulsing assaults of the great en-
envy 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
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