Courier Democrat., 1904-04-28

"she's goin' to rain," said old Jack
son. 1.-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.
Radway 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 q
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 a 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
,okee 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 gayly 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, a 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 we're 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 IL 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.
81 don't know" said Radway; ut
won't be SO bad. after oil. A couple of
days of zero weather. with all this wa
ter lying around. would fix things up
in pretty good shape. II she only
freezes tight. well have good solid
bottom to build on"
The inscrutable goddess Of the will
derness smiled and calmly, relentlessly.
moved her next pawn.
It was all 90 unutterably simple and
yet so effective. 1t showed.
All night and all day the great fakes
dgzagged softly down through the air.
Railway plowed away two feet Of it.
Che surface was promptly covered by
q second storm. Radway doggedly
plowed 1t 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 a. l9ading 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 nsckA Nothing could
- more picturesque than q teamster
eooducting one Of his great pyramid
1eal loads ovef the little Inequalities Of