The Princeton union., 1904-06-02

3 !
For some distance the way led along
comparatively high ground. Then.
skirting the edge Of lake, it plunged
into deep creek bottom between hills.
Here earlier in the year eleven bridges
had Deen constructed. and perhaps as
many sWampy places had been ..cor-
uuroyed" by carpeting them with long
parallel poles. Now the first Difficulty
began.
Some of the bridges had sunk below
the level and the approaches had tn
De "corduroyed' to practicable grade.
Others again were bumped up like TOM
cats and had to be pulled apart en-
tirely.
Still that sort Of thing was to be ex-
pected. A gang of men who followed
the plow carried axes and cant hooks
Tor the purpose of repairing extern
poraneously just such defects which
never would have been discovered 9th
erwise than by the practical expert
ence. Railway himself accompanied
the plow. Thorpe who went along as
one of the ''road monkeys" saw now
why such care had been required of
him in smoothing the way of stubs,
knots and hummocks.
When the road had been partly
cleaned Radway started one of his
sprinklers. Water holes Of suitable
size had been blown in the creek bank
by dynamite. There the machines
were filed. Stratton attached his horse
to the chain and drove him back and
forth, hauling the barrel up and down
the slide way. At the bottom it was
capsized and filled by means of long
pole shackled to it's bottom and manip-
ulated by old man Heath. At the TOP
it turned over by it's own weight. Thus
seventy odd times.
Then Fred Green hitched his team
on and the four horses drew the creak-
ing, cumbrous vehicle spouting down
the road. Water gushed in fans from
the openings on either side and beneath
and in streams from two holes behind.
Not for an instant as long as the flow
continued dared the teamsters breathe
their horses, for a pause would freeze
the runners tight to the ground. A
tongue at either end obviated the ne
cessity Of turning around.
That night it turned warmer. The
change was heralded by shift of
wind
"She's goin' to rain,' said old Jack
son. '"The air is kind O. holler."
Hollow" said Thorpe. laughing.
"How is that?"
II don know" confessed Hines, ''but
she is. She just feels that way"
In the morning the icicles dripped
from the roof, and the snow became
pockmarked on the surface.
Railway was down looking at the
road.
"She's holdin' her own,' said he,
''but there amt any use putting more
water on her. She amt freezing a
mite. Well plow her out"
So they finished the Job and plowed
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
us
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 a sleepy
cookee set out for them.
By morning the mere surface of the
gprinkled water had frozen. Radway
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 in the
hardwood tops; covey of grouse ven
tured from the swamp and strutted
vainly, 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 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
II often heard this was a sort "
summer resort" observed Tom Broad
head, "but hanged if knew it was
summer resort all the year roundy'
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; lit
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 a good solid
bottom to build on.''