Mower County transcript., 1904-03-09

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ate sleepily Y the food that at sleepy
cOokee set out FOR them. q n {sfstsgs55:x fst.
BY morning the mere surface OF the
sprinkled water had frozen Radway
looked in despair at the sky.es Dimly
through the gray he caught the tint of
blue s& $ tSEl i .5stiSsa'Ssfs q tseS#5
* The SUN came out. Nuthatches and
-woodpeckers ran gayly up the warm
ing trunks of the trees; blue jays fluff
ed and perked and screamed lin the
hardwood tops;' aRcoyey of grouse ven
jtured from the swamp. and tstrutted
vanity, a pause of contemplation be-
tween each step. Radway, 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 @.;s III: t2,
+. The devil, seemed in it, Men; were
lying idle; teams were doing the same.
sNething went on but the days of the
year, and four: of, them had already
ticked OF 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. 4 .r*~ ~l.t 49,, $50. s.:..3f,,;, >;
II often heard this was sort ~
summer resort observed Tom Broad
head, "hut hanged IL l knew it was a
summer resort all the year roundv's :
BY and by it got to be case Of look
ing on the bright side of the affair
from pure reaction. ,5f .2,t%& u ~
II 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" ~. :. ..-.. r.
The inscrutable goddess of the will
derness smiled and calmly, relentlessly.
moved her next pawn. - = -
It was all SO unutterably simple and
yet so effective. It showed. > 81: -. =. e..@
All night and all day the great, fakes
zigzagged softly down through the air.
Radway plowed away two feet Of it.
che surface was promptly covered by
a second storm. Railway ,doggedly
plowed it out again. u T.
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
Radway 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, 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 a 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
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 oyerrun. 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 d bar, un.
til the, log has rolled once, when. bis
weapon loosened. he drops lightly, cas-
lly to the ground. And it is exciting to
pile the logs on the sleigh. first a layer
OF i've, 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 an held & :ilnlexorably by the little men
in blue flannel shirts Its5l "a .3|5 ss5,5
q 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 Ia and d squash out, then woe to the
driver q Fi'y or whoever happe to be
= Forth f +l reSs the leaders are picked
and eful sMen. h E Il.
st .l the banking NJ grounds, w hich lie in
and nd about the bed Of the river, the logs
are are t,l piled into a gigantic sl1idway to
await the spring freshets, which viii
carry carr them down stream to the .sboom. y, y.
4 In that \! inclosure they remain until
sawed in the mill. .5s
Ql' IQhorpe il i common with the other q
men, me had thou ght Radway i vacation
sat5 Chrhistm is EEl las As time q mist take. He could
not moi but admire the feyerish amin alton
that now ll chara cterized the jobber. Ev-
cry misc chance was as quickly repaired
as :, g8 aroused q expedient could do the.
work.
s Esprit dess 4 sgts corps ia woke. The men