Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1912-03-07
IS
BY
Gene SGP@GG@m=
Porter
COPYRIGHT. 1904. BY DOUBLEDAY. PAGE
& CO..
COPYRIGHT. 1904. BY DOUBLEDAY. PAGE
r. co

ma u beat a dust from it care
fully. With his left hand he caught
the right sleeve. wiped his sweaty
face. and tried to straighten his hair
with his fingers. He broke a spray Of
ironwort beside him and used the pur-
pie blossoms to beat the dust from
his shoulders and limbs.
Mclean was a Scotchman. The men
of his camps had never known him to
be in a hurry or to lose his temper.
! Discipline was in1exible. but the boss
always was kind. He shared camp
life with his gangs. The only visible
signs of his great wealth consisted of
a big, shimmering diamond stone of
ice and fire that glittered and burned
on one of his fingers and the dainty.
beautiful, thoroughbred mare he rode.
No man of McLean's gangs could
honestly say that he had ever been
overdriven or underpaid. They all
knew that up in the great timber city
several millions stood to his credit.
He was the only son of that Nc
Lean who had sent out the finest ships
lever built in Scotland. That his son
should carry on this business after his
death had been the fathers ambition.
He Sent the boy through Edinburgh
university and Oxford and allowed
him several years travel.
Then he was ordered through south
ern Canada and Michigan to purchase
for masts and down into Indiana for
oak beams. The young mar entered
these mighty forests. parts Of which
still lay untouched since the dawn of
the morning of time. The intense 81
lence, like that of Il great empty cathe-
dral, fascinated him. He gradually
learned that to the shy wood crea-
lures that darted across his path or
peeped inquiringly from leafy ambush
he was brother. He found himself
approaching. with a feeling OF ever-
ence. those majestic trees that had
stood through ages Of sun, wind and
SNOW. Soon it became a difficult
thing to fell them. When he had fill
ed his order and returned home he
was amazed to find that in the swamps
and forests he had lost his heart, and
it was calling, forever calling him.
When he inherited his fathers prop
erty he promptly disposed of it and,
with his mother, founded a home in a
splendid residence in the outskirts Of
Grand Rapids. With three partners
he organized a lumber company. His
work was to purchase, fell and ship
the timber to the mills. Marshall
managed the milling process and pass
ed the lumber on to the factory. From
the lumber Barthol made beautiful
and useful furniture, which Uptegrove
scattered all over the world from a
big wholesale house.
Mclean faced a young man, still I'M
der twenty, tall. spare. heavily framed.
thickly freckled and red haired, with
a homely Irish face. but in the steady
gray eyes. straightly meeting his
searching ones Of blue. there were un-
swerving candor and a look Of long
ing not to be ignored.
"You are looking for work." ques-
toned Mclean.
"Yis," answered Freckles.
81 am very sorry said the boss,
''but there is only one man I want at
present-a good, big fellow with a
stout heart and a strong body. l hoped
that you would do, but l am afraid
you are too young and hardly strong
enough"
"And what was it you thought l
might be doing?' asked Freckles.
The boss could scarcely repress Il
start. Somewhere back of accident
and poverty had been an ancestor who
used cultivated English, even with a II
accent. The boy spoke in a mellow
Irish voice, sweet and pure. 1t was
scarcely definite enough to be called
brogue, yet there was a trick in the
turning of the sentence. the wrong
sound Of a letter here and there, that
was almost irresistible to Mclean.
He was Of foreign birth, and. despite
years of alienation, in times of strong
feeling he fell into inherited sins of
accent and construction.
cts no child's job" answered Nc
Lean. IT am the field manager Of a
lumber company. We have just leased
1000 acres of the Limberlost. Many
Of these trees are of great value. We
can't leave our camp, six miles south,
for almost a year yet, so we have
blazed a trail and strung barbed wires
securely about the extent Of this lease.
Before we return to u work I must
put this Limberlost lease in the hands
of a reliable, brave. strong man who
will guard it every hour of the day
and sleep with one eye open at night.
I should require the entire length Of
the trail to be walked at least twice
every day, to make sure that u lines
were up and no one had been tres
passing"
"But why wouldn't that be the finest
Job in the world for me-? pleaded
Freckles. "I am never sick. I could
walk the trail twice. three times every
day. and I'd be watching sharp all the
while"
cts because you are little more than
a boy. and this will be a trying job
for a work hardened man." answered
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