Mower County transcript., 1904-05-25
essy,t5As. 1902. - -rss~s.s Es~e,1 uv4iss
CHAPTER XXI.

uOuS lie among great Responsiveness
q starved, hungry life Of the, affections
whence even the sister had withdrawn
her love-all these had worked un-
obtrusively toward the formation Of a
single psychological condition. Such a
moment comes to every man. Then are
happiness and misery beside which the
mere struggle to dominate men be-
comes trivial, the petty striving with
the forces of nature little thing, and
the woman he at that time meets is
more than woman; she is the best Of
that man made visible.
Thorpe found himself for the first
time filled with the spirit of restless
ness. His customary iron evenness of
temper was gone, SO that he wandered
quickly from one detail of his work to
another without seeming to penetrate
below the surface need of any one task.
But week before he had felt himself
absorbed in the component parts of his
enterprise Now he was outside of it.
Thorpe took this state Of mind much to
heart and combated' it. Invariably he
held himself to his task. BY an effort,
a tremendous effort, he succeeded in
doing 50. The effort left him limp. He
found himself often standing or NOV
ing gently, his eyes staring sightless,
his will chained 80 softly, and yet so
firmly that he feit no strength ana
hardly the desire to. break from the
dream that lulled him.. Then he was
conscious; of the physical warmth of
the sun, the faint sweet wood smells,
the soothing cares OF the, breeze, the
sleepy 1cicada-nke note Of the pine
creeper. ,He. wanted nothing SO much
as to sit on the pine needles there i'll
the golden food Of radiance; and dream
dream on 81 VA gn1ely, comfortably,
SWeetly. ~ ls.tsg5,itt<.-, ~,
Lord, Lord!' he cried impatiently.
whats coming to me? l must be lit
tie off my feed"*', s..'.
And he hurried rapidly, to his duties.
After an hour of the hardest concentra-
ton he had ever; been required to be-
stow on a trivial subject he again un-
consciously sank by degrees into the
old apathy.
"Glad 1t isn't the busy season. he
commented to himself. Here, I must
quit this! Guess it's the warm weather.
I'll get down to the mill for a day or
two"
There he found himself incapable of
even the most petty routine work. He
sat at his desk at s O'clock and began
the perusal of sheaf of letters. The
first three he read carefully, the follow
Ing two rather hurriedly, of the next
one he seized only the salient and es-
sential points, the seventh and eighth
he skinned, the remainder of the bun
die he thrust aside in uncomfortable
1mpatience. Next day he returned to
the woods.
The incident of the letters had
aroused to the full his old fighting spir-
1t, before which no mere instincts
could stand.
Once more his mental process became
clear and incisive, his commands direct
and to the point. To all outward ap-
pearance Thorpe was as before:
He opened Camp One, and the Fight
Ing Forty came back from distant
drinking joints. This was in early Sep
tember. That ablebodied and devoted
band Of men was on hand when need
ed. Shearer in some subtle manner Of
his own had let them feel that this year
meant 30,000,O0O or ''bust." They
tightened their. leather belts and stood
ready for command. After much dis
cussion with :Shearer the young man
decided to take out the logs from
"eleven" by driving them down French
creek.
To this end gang was put to clear
ing the creek bed. 1t was a tremen-
dous job. Centuries of forest life had
choked the little stream nearly to the
level Of it's banks. Old snags and
stumps lay imbedded in the ooze; de-
cayed trunks, moss grown, blocked the
current; leaning tamaracks, fallen tim
Der, tangled vines. dense thickets. gave
to Its course more the appearance of
tropical jungle than of north country
brook bed. All these things had to be
removed one by one and either piled to
one side or burned. In the end, how
ever, 1t would pay. French creek was
not a large stream, but it could be
driven during the time OF the spring
freShetS. +
Each night the men returned in the
beautiful dreamlike twilight to the
camp. There they. sat. after eating,
smoking their pipes in the open air.
Much of the time they sang, while Phil.
crouching wolf-like over his violin.
rasped out an accompaniment OF disso-
nances. The mems voices lent them!
selves well to the weird minor strains
OF the chanteys. These times, when the
men sang and the night wind rose and
died In the hemlock tops, were Thorpe's
worst moments. His soul. tired with:
the days iron struggle, fell to brooding.
he wanted something, lie knew not
what. ,sf. # & r.
Ihe men were singing in a ri.i;t;,
chorus, sWaying their heads in uni.n.l
and bringing out with Il rou.. the e,u-
phatic words Of the crude ditti;sss wr.t-
ten by some genius from. ;hair G,, G,,fi335 u
ranks 4, .5.ss 81 &.