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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Young Woodsman, by J. McDonald Oxley
+
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+Title: The Young Woodsman
+       Life in the Forests of Canada
+
+Author: J. McDonald Oxley
+
+Release Date: February, 2006 [EBook #9968]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on November 5, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE YOUNG WOODSMAN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Imran Ghory, Stan Goodman, Mary Meehan
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+THE YOUNG WOODSMAN
+
+OR
+
+Life in the Forests of Canada
+
+BY J. MACDONALD OXLEY
+
+Author of "Diamond Rock; or, On the Right Track," &c. &c.
+
+1895
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+     I. THE CALL TO WORK
+
+    II. THE CHOICE OF AN OCCUPATION
+
+   III. OFF TO THE WOODS
+
+    IV. THE BUILDING OF THE SHANTY
+
+     V. STANDING FIRE
+
+    VI. LIFE IN THE LUMBER CAMP
+
+   VII. A THRILLING EXPERIENCE
+
+  VIII. IN THE NICK OF TIME
+
+    IX. OUT OF CLOUDS, SUNSHINE
+
+     X. A HUNTING-TRIP
+
+    XI. THE GREAT SPRING DRIVE
+
+   XII. HOME AGAIN
+
+
+
+
+THE YOUNG WOODSMAN.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE CALL TO WORK.
+
+
+"I'm afraid there'll be no more school for you now, Frank darling. Will
+you mind having to go to work?"
+
+"Mind it! Why, no, mother; not the least bit. I'm quite old enough, ain't
+I?"
+
+"I suppose you are, dear; though I would like to have you stay at your
+lessons for one more year anyway. What kind of work would you like best?"
+
+"That's not a hard question to answer, mother. I want to be what father
+was."
+
+The mother's face grew pale at this reply, and for some few moments she
+made no response.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The march of civilization on a great continent means loss as well as
+gain. The opening up of the country for settlement, the increase and
+spread of population, the making of the wilderness to blossom as the
+rose, compel the gradual retreat and disappearance of interesting
+features that can never be replaced. The buffalo, the beaver, and the elk
+have gone; the bear, the Indian, and the forest in which they are both
+most at home, are fast following.
+
+Along the northern border of settlement in Canada there are flourishing
+villages and thriving hamlets to-day where but a few years ago the
+verdurous billows of the primeval forest rolled in unbroken grandeur. The
+history of any one of these villages is the history of all. An open space
+beside the bank of a stream or the margin of a lake presented itself to
+the keen eye of the woodranger traversing the trackless waste of forest
+as a fine site for a lumber camp. In course of time the lumber camp grew
+into a depot from which other camps, set still farther back in the depths
+of the "limits," are supplied. Then the depot develops into a settlement
+surrounded by farms; the settlement gathers itself into a village with
+shops, schools, churches, and hotels; and so the process of growth goes
+on, the forest ever retreating as the dwellings of men multiply.
+
+It was in a village with just such a history, and bearing the name of
+Calumet, occupying a commanding situation on a vigorous tributary of the
+Ottawa River--the Grand River, as the dwellers beside its banks are fond
+of calling it--that Frank Kingston first made the discovery of his own
+existence and of the world around him. He at once proceeded to make
+himself master of the situation, and so long as he confined his efforts
+to the limits of his own home he met with an encouraging degree of
+success; for he was an only child, and, his father's occupation requiring
+him to be away from home a large part of the year, his mother could
+hardly be severely blamed if she permitted her boy to have a good deal of
+his own way.
+
+In the result, however, he was not spoiled. He came of sturdy, sensible
+stock, and had inherited some of the best qualities from both sides of
+the house. To his mother he owed his fair curly hair, his deep blue,
+honest eyes, his impulsive and tender heart; to his father, his strong
+symmetrical figure, his quick brain, and his eager ambition. He was a
+good-looking, if not strikingly handsome, boy, and carried himself in an
+alert, active way that made a good impression on one at the start. He had
+a quick temper that would flash out hotly if he were provoked, and at
+such times he would do and say things for which he was heartily sorry
+afterwards. But from those hateful qualities that we call malice,
+rancour, and sullenness he was absolutely free. To "have it out" and then
+shake hands and forget all about it--that was his way of dealing with a
+disagreement. Boys built on these lines are always popular among their
+comrades, and Frank was no exception. In fact, if one of those amicable
+contests as to the most popular personage, now so much in vogue at fairs
+and bazaars, were to have been held in Calumet school, the probabilities
+were all in favour of Frank coming out at the head of the poll.
+
+But better, because more enduring than all these good qualities of body,
+head, and heart that formed Frank's sole fortune in the world, was the
+thorough religious training upon which they were based. His mother had
+left a Christian household to help her husband to found a new home in the
+great Canadian timberland; and this new home had ever been a sweet,
+serene centre of light and love. While Calumet was little more than a
+straggling collection of unlovely frame cottages, and too small to have a
+church and pastor of its own, the hard-working Christian minister who
+managed to make his way thither once a month or so, to hold service in
+the little schoolroom, was always sure of the heartiest kind of a
+welcome, and the daintiest dinner possible in that out-of-the-way place,
+at Mrs. Kingston's cozy cottage. And thus Frank had been brought into
+friendly relations with the "men in black" from the start, with the good
+result of causing him to love and respect these zealous home
+missionaries, instead of shrinking from them in vague repugnance, as did
+many of his companions who had not his opportunities.
+
+When he grew old enough to be trusted, it was his proud privilege to take
+the minister's tired horse to water and to fill the rack with sweet hay
+for his refreshment before they all went off to the service together; and
+very frequently when the minister was leaving he would take Frank up
+beside him for a drive as far as the cross-roads, not losing the chance
+to say a kindly and encouraging word or two that might help the little
+fellow heavenward.
+
+In due time the settlement so prospered and expanded that a little church
+was established there, and great was the delight of Mrs. Kingston when
+Calumet had its minister, to whom she continued to be a most effective
+helper. This love for the church and its workers, which was more manifest
+in her than in her husband--for, although he thought and felt alike with
+her, he was a reserved, undemonstrative man--Mrs. Kingston sought by
+every wise means to instill into her only son; and she had much success.
+Religion had no terrors for him. He had never thought of it as a gloomy,
+joy-dispelling influence that would make him a long-faced "softy." Not a
+bit of it. His father was religious; and who was stronger, braver, or
+more manly than his father? His mother was a pious woman; and who could
+laugh more cheerily or romp more merrily than his mother? The ministers
+who came to the house were men of God; and yet they were full of life and
+spirits, and dinner never seemed more delightful than when they sat at
+the table. No, indeed! You would have had a hard job to persuade Frank
+Kingston that you lost anything by being religious. He knew far better
+than that; and while of course he was too thorough a boy, with all a
+boy's hasty, hearty, impulsive ways, to do everything "decently and in
+order," and would kick over the traces, so to speak, sometimes, and give
+rather startling exhibitions of temper, still in the main and at heart he
+was a sturdy little Christian, who, when the storm was over, felt more
+sorry and remembered it longer than did anybody else.
+
+Out of the way as Calumet might seem to city folk, yet the boys of the
+place managed to have a very good time. There were nearly a hundred of
+them, ranging in age from seven years to seventeen, attending the school
+which stood in the centre of a big lot at the western end of the village,
+and with swimming, boating, lacrosse, and baseball in summer, and
+skating, snow-shoeing, and tobogganing in winter, they never lacked for
+fun. Frank was expert in all these sports. Some of the boys might excel
+him at one or another of them, but not one of his companions could beat
+him in an all-round contest. This was due in part to the strength and
+symmetry of his frame, and in part to that spirit of thoroughness which
+characterized all he undertook. There was nothing half-way about him. He
+put his whole soul into everything that interested him, and, so far as
+play was concerned, at fifteen years of age he could swim, run, handle a
+lacrosse, hit a base-ball, skim over the ice on skates, or over snow on
+snow-shoes, with a dexterity that gave himself a vast amount of pleasure
+and his parents a good deal of pride in him.
+
+Nor was he behindhand as regarded the training of his mind. Mr. Warren,
+the head teacher of the Calumet school, regarded him favourably as one of
+his best and brightest pupils, and it was not often that the "roll of
+honour" failed to contain the name of Frank Kingston. At the midsummer
+closing of the school it was Mr. Warren's practice to award a number of
+simple prizes to the pupils whose record throughout the half-year had
+been highest in the different subjects, and year after year Frank had won
+a goodly share of these trophies, which were always books, so that now
+there was a shelf in his room upon which stood in attractive array
+Livingstone's "Travels," Ballantyne's "Hudson Bay," Kingsley's "Westward
+Ho!" side by side with "Robinson Crusoe," "Pilgrim's Progress," and "Tom
+Brown at Rugby." Frank knew these books almost by heart, yet never
+wearied of turning to them again and again. He drew inspiration from
+them. They helped to mould his character, although of this he was hardly
+conscious, and they filled his soul with a longing for adventure and
+enterprise that no ordinary everyday career could satisfy. He looked
+forward eagerly to the time when he would take a man's part in life and
+attempt and achieve notable deeds. With Amyas Leigh he traversed the
+tropical wilderness of Southern America, or with the "Young Fur Traders"
+the hard-frozen wastes of the boundless North, and he burned to
+emulate their brave doings. He little knew, as he indulged in these
+boyish imaginations, that the time was not far off when the call would
+come to him to begin life in dead earnest on his own account, and with as
+many obstacles to be overcome in his way as had any of his favourite
+heroes in theirs.
+
+Mr. Kingston was at home only during the summer season. The long cold
+winter months were spent by him at the "depot," many miles off in the
+heart of the forest, or at the "shanties" that were connected with it. At
+rare intervals during the winter he might manage to get home for a
+Sunday, but that was all his wife and son saw of him until the spring
+time. When the "drive" of the logs that represented the winter's work was
+over, he returned to them, to remain until the falling of the leaves
+recalled him to the forest. Frank loved and admired his father to the
+utmost of his ability; and when in his coolest, calmest moods he realized
+that there was small possibility of his ever sailing the Spanish main
+like Amyas Leigh, or exploring the interior of Africa like Livingstone,
+he felt quite settled in his own mind that, following in his father's
+footsteps, he would adopt lumbering as his business. 'Tis true, his
+father was only an agent or foreman, and might never be anything more;
+but even that was not to be despised, and then, with a little extra good
+fortune, he might in time become an owner of "limits" and mills himself.
+Why not? Many another boy had thus risen into wealth and importance. He
+had at least the right to try.
+
+Fifteen in October, and in the highest class, this was to be Frank's last
+winter at school; and before leaving for the woods his father had
+enjoined upon him to make the best of it, as after the summer holidays
+were over he would have to "cease learning, and begin earning." Frank was
+rather glad to hear this. He was beginning to think he had grown too big
+for school, and ought to be doing something more directly remunerative.
+Poor boy! Could he have guessed that those were the last words he would
+hear from his dear father's lips, how differently would they have
+affected him! Calumet never saw Mr. Kingston again. In returning alone to
+the depot from a distant shanty, he was caught in a fierce and sudden
+snowstorm. The little-travelled road through the forest was soon
+obliterated. Blinded and bewildered by the pitiless storm beating in
+their faces, both man and beast lost their way, and, wandering about
+until all strength was spent, lay down to die in the drifts that quickly
+hid their bodies from sight. It was many days before they were found,
+lying together, close wrapped in their winding-sheet of snow.
+
+Mrs. Kingston bore the dreadful trial with the fortitude and submissive
+grace that only a serene and unmurmuring faith can give. Frank was more
+demonstrative in his grief, and disposed to rebel against so cruel a
+calamity. But his mother calmed and inspired him, and when the first
+numbing force of the blow had passed away, they took counsel together as
+to the future. This was dark and uncertain enough. All that was left to
+them was the little cottage in which they lived. Mr. Kingston's salary
+had not been large, and only by careful management had the house been
+secured. Of kind and sympathizing friends there was no lack, but they
+were mostly people in moderate circumstances, like themselves, from whom
+nothing more than sympathy could be expected.
+
+There was no alternative but that Frank should begin at once to earn his
+own living, and thus the conversation came about with which this chapter
+began, and which brought forth the reply from Frank that evidently gave
+his mother deep concern.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE CHOICE OF AN OCCUPATION.
+
+
+The fact was that Mrs. Kingston felt a strong repugnance to her son's
+following in his father's footsteps, so far as his occupation was
+concerned. She dreaded the danger that was inseparable from it, and
+shrank from the idea of giving up the boy, whose company was now the
+chief delight of her life, for all the long winter months that would be
+so dreary without him.
+
+Frank had some inkling of his mother's feelings, but, boy like, thought
+of them as only the natural nervousness of womankind; and his heart being
+set upon going to the woods, he was not very open to argument.
+
+"Why don't you want me to go lumbering, mother?" he inquired in a tone
+that had a touch of petulance in it. "I've got to do something for
+myself, and I detest shopkeeping. It's not in my line at all. Fellows
+like Tom Clemon and Jack Stoner may find it suits them, but I can't bear
+the idea of being shut up in a shop or office all day. I want to be out
+of doors. That's the kind of life for me."
+
+Mrs. Kingston gave a sigh that was a presage of defeat as she regarded
+her son standing before her, his handsome face flushed with eagerness and
+his eyes flashing with determination.
+
+"But, Frank dear," said she gently, "have you thought how dreadfully
+lonely it will be for me living all alone here during the long
+winter--your father gone from me, and you away off in the woods, where I
+can never get to you or you to me?"
+
+The flush on Frank's face deepened and extended until it covered forehead
+and neck with its crimson glow. He had not taken this view of the case
+into consideration before, and his tender heart reproached him for so
+forgetting his mother while laying out his own plans. He sprang forward,
+and kneeling down beside the lounge, threw his arms about his mother's
+neck and clasped her fondly, finding it hard to keep the tears back as he
+said,--
+
+"You dear, darling mother! I have been selfish. I should have thought how
+lonely it would be for you in the winter time."
+
+Mrs. Kingston returned the embrace with no less fervour, and as usually
+happens where the other side seems to be giving way, began to weaken
+somewhat herself, and to feel a little doubtful as to whether, after all,
+it would be right to oppose her son's wishes when his inclinations toward
+the occupation he had chosen were evidently so very decided.
+
+"Well, Frank dear," she said after a pause, while Frank looked at her
+expectantly, "I don't want to be selfish either. If it were not for the
+way we lost your father, perhaps I should not have such a dread of the
+woods for you; and no doubt even then it is foolish for me to give way to
+it. We won't decide the matter now. If you do go to the woods, it won't
+be until the autumn, and perhaps during the summer something will turn up
+that will please us better. We will leave the matter in God's hands. He
+will bring it to pass in the way that will be best for us both, I am
+confident."
+
+So with that understanding the matter rested, although of course it was
+continually being referred to as the weeks slipped by and the summer
+waxed and waned. Although Frank felt quite convinced in his own mind that
+he was not cut out for a position behind a desk or counter, he determined
+to make the experiment, and accordingly applied to Squire Eagleson, who
+kept the principal shop and was the "big man" of the village, for a place
+in his establishment. Summer being the squire's busy season, and Frank
+being well known to him, he was glad enough to add to his small staff of
+clerks so promising a recruit, especially as, taking advantage of the
+boy's ignorance of business affairs, he was able to engage him at wages
+much below his actual worth to him. This the worthy squire regarded as
+quite a fine stroke of business, and told it to his wife with great
+gusto, rubbing his fat hands complacently together as he chuckled over
+his shrewdness.
+
+"Bright boy that Frank Kingston! Writes a good fist, and can run up a row
+of figures like smoke. Mighty civil, too, and sharp. And all for seven
+shillings a week! Ha, ha, ha! Wish I could make as good a bargain as that
+every day." And the squire looked the picture of virtuous content as he
+leaned back in his big chair to enjoy the situation.
+
+Mrs. Eagleson did not often venture to intermeddle in her husband's
+business affairs, although frequently she became aware of things which
+she could not reconcile with her conscience. But this time she was moved
+to speak by an impulse she could not control. She knew the Kingstons, and
+had always thought well of them. Mrs. Kingston seemed to her in many
+respects a model woman, who deserved well of everybody; and that her
+husband, who was so well-to-do, should take any advantage of these worthy
+people who had so little, touched her to the quick. There was a bright
+spot on the centre of her pale cheeks and an unaccustomed ring in her
+voice as she exclaimed, with a sharpness that made her husband give quite
+a start of surprise,--
+
+"Do you mean to tell me, Daniel, that you've been mean enough to take
+advantage of that boy who has to support his widowed mother, and to hire
+him for half the wages he's worth, just because he didn't know any
+better? And then you come home here and boast of it! Have you no
+conscience?"
+
+The squire was so taken aback by this unexpected attack that at first he
+hardly knew how to meet it. Should he lecture his wife for her
+presumption in meddling in his affairs, which were quite beyond her
+comprehension as a woman, or should he make light of the matter and laugh
+it off? After a moment's reflection he decided on the latter course.
+
+"Hoity, toity, Mrs. Eagleson! but what's set you so suddenly on fire?
+Business is business, you know, and if Frank Kingston did not know enough
+to ask for more wades, it wasn't my concern to enlighten him."
+
+Mrs. Eagleson rose from her chair and came over and stood in front of her
+husband, pointing her long, thin forefinger at him as, with a trembling
+yet scornful voice, she addressed him thus,--
+
+"Daniel, how you can kneel down and ask the blessing of God upon such
+doings is beyond me, or how your head can lie easy on your pillow when
+you know that you are taking the bread out of that poor lone widow's
+mouth it is not for me to say. But this I will say, whether you like it
+or not: if you are not ashamed of yourself, I am for you." And before the
+now much-disturbed squire had time to say another word in his defence the
+speaker had swept indignantly out of his presence and hastened to her own
+room, there to throw herself down upon the bed and burst into a passion
+of tears, for she was at best but a weak-nerved woman.
+
+Left to himself, the squire shifted about uneasily in his chair, and then
+rose and stumped angrily to the window.
+
+"What does she know about business?" he muttered. "If she were to have
+her own way at the store, she'd ruin me in a twelvemonth."
+
+Yet Mrs. Eagleson's brave outburst was not in vain. Somehow or other
+after it the squire never felt comfortable in his mind until, much to
+Frank's surprise and delight, he one day called him to him, and, with an
+air of great generosity and patronage, said,--
+
+"See here, my lad. You seem to be doing your work real well, so I am
+going to give you half-a-crown a week more just to encourage you, and
+then if a little extra work comes along"--for autumn was approaching--"ye
+won't mind tackling it with a goodwill; eh?"
+
+Frank thanked his employer very heartily, and this unexpected increase of
+earnings and his mother's joy over it for a time almost reconciled him to
+the work at the shop, which he liked less and less the longer he was at
+it.
+
+The fact of the matter was, a place behind the counter was uncongenial to
+him in many ways. There was too much in-doors about it, to begin with.
+From early morning until late evening he had to be at his post, with
+brief intervals for meals; and the colour was leaving his cheeks, and his
+muscles were growing slack and soft, owing to the constant confinement.
+
+But this was the least of his troubles. A still more serious matter
+was that his conscience did not suffer him to take kindly to the "tricks
+of the trade," in which his employer was a "passed master" and his
+fellow-clerks very promising pupils. He could not find it in his heart to
+depreciate the quality of Widow Perkins's butter, or to cajole unwary Sam
+Struthers, from the backlands, into taking a shop-worn remnant for the
+new dress his wife had so carefully commissioned him to buy. His idea of
+trade was that you should deal with others as fairly as you would have
+them deal with you; and while, of course, according to the squire's
+philosophy, you could never make a full purse that way, still you could
+at least have a clear conscience, which surely was the more desirable
+after all.
+
+The squire had noticed Frank's "pernickety nonsense," as he was pleased
+to call it, and at first gave him several broad hints as to the better
+mode of doing business; but finding that the lad was firm, and would no
+doubt give up his place rather than learn these "business ways," he had
+the good sense to let him alone, finding in his quickness, fidelity, and
+attention to his work sufficient compensation for this deficiency in
+bargaining acumen.
+
+"You'll be content to stay at the shop now, won't you, Frank?" said his
+mother as they talked over the welcome and much-needed rise of salary.
+
+"It does seem to make it easier to stay, mother," answered Frank.
+"But--" And he gave a big sigh, and stopped.
+
+"But what, dear?" asked Mrs. Kingston, tenderly.
+
+Frank was slow in answering. He evidently felt reluctant to bring up the
+matter again, and yet his mind was full of it.
+
+"But what, Frank?" repeated his mother, taking his hands in hers and
+looking earnestly into his face.
+
+"Well, mother, it's no use pretending. I'm not cut out for keeping shop,
+and I'll never be much good at it. I don't like being in-doors all day.
+And then, if you want to get on, you've got to do all sorts of things
+that are nothing else but downright mean; and I don't like that either."
+And then Frank went on to tell of some of the tricks and stratagems the
+squire or the other clerks would resort to in order to make a good
+bargain.
+
+Mrs. Kingston listened with profound attention. More than once of late,
+as she noticed her son's growing pallor and loss of spirits, she had
+asked herself whether she were not doing wrong in seeking to turn him
+aside from the life for which he longed; and now that he was finding
+fresh and fatal objections to the occupation he had chosen in deference
+to her wishes, she began to relent of her insistence, and to feel more
+disposed to discuss the question again. But before doing so she wished to
+ask the advice of a friend in whom she placed much confidence, and so for
+the present she contented herself with applauding Frank for his
+conscientiousness, and assuring him that she would a thousand times
+rather have him always poor than grow rich after the same fashion as
+Squire Eagleson.
+
+The friend whose advice Mrs. Kingston wished to take was her husband's
+successor as foreman at the depot for the lumber camps--a sensible,
+steady, reliable young man, who had risen to his present position
+by process of promotion from the bottom, and who was therefore well
+qualified to give her just the counsel she desired. At the first
+opportunity, therefore, she went over to Mr. Stewart's cottage, and,
+finding him at home, opened her heart fully to him. Mr. Stewart, or Alec
+Stewart, as he was generally called, listened with ready sympathy to what
+Mrs. Kingston had to say, and showed much interest in the matter, for he
+had held a high opinion of his former chief, and knew Frank well enough
+to admire his spirit and character.
+
+"Well, you see, Mrs. Kingston, it's just this way," said he, when his
+visitor had stated the case upon which she wanted his opinion: "if
+Frank's got his heart so set upon going into the woods, I don't know as
+there's any use trying to cross him. He won't take kindly to anything
+else while he's thinking of that; and he'd a big sight better be a good
+lumberman than a poor clerk, don't you think?"
+
+Mrs. Kingston felt the force of this reasoning, yet could hardly make up
+her mind to yield to it at once.
+
+"But, Mr. Stewart," she urged, "it may only be a boyish notion of
+Frank's. He thinks, perhaps, he'd like it because that's what his father
+was before him, and then he may find his mistake."
+
+"Well, Mrs. Kingston," replied Mr. Stewart, "if you think there's any
+chance of that being the case, we can settle the question right enough in
+this way:--Let Frank come to the woods with me this winter. I will give
+him a berth as chore-boy in one of the camps; and if that doesn't sicken
+him of the business, then all I can say is you'd better let the lad have
+his will."
+
+Mrs. Kingston sighed.
+
+"I suppose you're right. I don't quite like the idea of his being
+chore-boy; but if he's really in earnest, there's no better way of
+proving him."
+
+Now Frank knew well enough how humble was the position of "chore-boy" in
+a lumber camp. It meant that he would be the boy-of-all-work; that he
+would have to be up long before dawn, and be one of the last in the camp
+to get into his bunk; that he would have to help the cook, take messages
+for the foreman, be obliging to the men, and altogether do his best to be
+generally useful. Yet he did not shrink from the prospect. The idea of
+release from the uncongenial routine of shopkeeping filled him with
+happiness, and his mother was almost reconciled to letting him go from
+her, so marked was the change in his spirits.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+OFF TO THE WOODS.
+
+
+September, the finest of all the months in the Canadian calendar, was at
+hand, as the sumac and the maple took evident delight in telling by their
+lovely tints of red and gold, and the hot, enervating breath of summer
+had yielded to the inspiring coolness of early autumn. The village of
+Calumet fairly bubbled over with business and bustle. Preparations for
+the winter's work were being made on all sides. During the course of the
+next two weeks or so a large number of men would be leaving their homes
+for the lumber camps, and the chief subject of conversation in all
+circles was the fascinating and romantic occupation in which they were
+engaged.
+
+No one was more busy than Mrs. Kingston. Even if her son was to be only a
+chore-boy, his equipment should be as comfortable and complete as though
+he were going to be a foreman. She knew very well that Jack Frost has no
+compunctions about sending the thermometer away down thirty or forty
+degrees below zero in those far-away forest depths; and whatever other
+hardships Frank might be called upon to endure, it was very well settled
+in her mind that he should not suffer for lack of warm clothing.
+Accordingly, the knitting-needles and sewing-needles had been plied
+industriously from the day his going into the woods was decided upon; and
+now that the time for departure drew near, the result was to be seen in a
+chest filled with such thick warm stockings, shirts, mittens, and
+comforters, besides a good outfit of other clothing, that Frank, looking
+them over with a keen appreciation of their merits and of the loving
+skill they evidenced, turned to his mother, saying, with a grateful
+smile,--
+
+"Why, mother, you've fitted me out as though I were going to the North
+Pole."
+
+"You'll need them all, my dear, before the winter's over," said Mrs.
+Kingston, the tears rising in her eyes, as involuntarily she thought of
+how the cruel cold had taken from her the father of the bright, hopeful
+boy before her. "Your father never thought I provided too many warm
+things for him."
+
+Frank was in great spirits. He had resigned his clerkship at Squire
+Eagleson's, much to that worthy merchant's regret. The squire looked upon
+him as a very foolish fellow to give up a position in his shop, where he
+had such good opportunities of learning business ways, in order to go
+"galivanting off to the woods," where his good writing and correct
+figuring would be of no account.
+
+Frank said nothing about his decided objections to the squire's ideas of
+business ways and methods, but contented himself with stating
+respectfully his strong preference for out-door life, and his intention
+to make lumbering his occupation, as it had been his father's before him.
+
+"Well, well, my lad," said the squire, when he saw there was no moving
+him, "have your own way. I reckon you'll be glad enough to come back to
+me in the spring. One winter in the camps will be all you'll want."
+
+Frank left the squire, saying to himself as he went out from the shop:--
+
+"If I do get sick of the camp and want a situation in the spring, this
+is not the place I'll come to for it; you can depend upon that, Squire
+Eagleson. Many thanks to you, all the same."
+
+Mr. Stewart was going up to the depot the first week in September, to
+get matters in readiness for the men who would follow him a week later,
+and much to Frank's satisfaction he announced that he would take him
+along if he could be ready in time. Thanks to Mrs. Kingston's being of
+the fore-handed kind, nothing was lacking in her son's preparations, and
+the day of departure was anticipated with great eagerness by him, and
+with much sinking of heart by her.
+
+The evening previous mother and son had a long talk together, in the
+course of which she impressed upon him the absolute importance of his
+making no disguise of his religious principles.
+
+"You'll be the youngest in the camp, perhaps, Frank darling, and it will,
+no doubt, be very hard for you to read your Bible and say your prayers,
+as you've always done here at home. But the braver you are about it at
+first, the easier it'll be in the end. Take your stand at the very start.
+Let the shanty men see that you're not afraid to confess yourself a
+Christian, and rough and wicked as they may be, never fear but they'll
+respect you for it."
+
+Mrs. Kingston spoke with an earnestness and emphasis that went straight
+to Frank's heart. He had perfect faith in his mother. In his eyes she was
+without fault or failing, and he knew very well that she was asking
+nothing of him that she was not altogether ready to do herself, were she
+to be put in his place. Not only so. His own shrewd sense confirmed the
+wisdom of her words. There could be no half-way position for him at the
+lumber camp; no half-hearted serving of God would be of any use there. He
+must take Caleb for his pattern, and follow the Lord wholly. His voice
+was low, but full of quiet determination, as he answered,--
+
+"I know it, mother. It won't be easy, but I'm not afraid. I'll begin fair
+and let the others know just where I stand, and they may say or do what
+they like."
+
+Mrs. Kingston needed no further assurance to make her mind quite easy
+upon this point; and she took no small comfort from the thought that,
+faithful and consistent as she felt so confident Frank would be, despite
+the many trials and temptations inseparable from his new sphere of life,
+he could hardly fail to exercise some good influence upon those about
+him, and perhaps prove a very decided power for good among the rough men
+of the lumber camp.
+
+The day of departure dawned clear and bright. The air was cool and
+bracing, the ground glistened with the heavy autumn dew that the sun had
+not yet had time to drink up, and the village was not fairly astir for
+the day when Mr. Stewart drove up to Mrs. Kingston's door for his young
+passenger. He was not kept long waiting, for Frank had been ready fully
+half-an-hour beforehand, and all that remained to be done was to bid his
+mother "good-bye," until he should return with the spring floods.
+Overflowing with joy as he was at the realization of his desire, yet he
+was too fond a son not to feel keenly the parting with his mother, and
+he bustled about very vigorously, stowing away his things in the back of
+the waggon, as the best way of keeping himself under control.
+
+He had a good deal of luggage for a boy. First, of all, there was his
+chest packed tight with warm clothing; then another box heavy with cake,
+preserves, pickles, and other home-made dainties, wherewith to vary the
+monotony of shanty fare; then a big bundle containing a wool mattress, a
+pillow, two pairs of heavy blankets, and a thick comforter to insure his
+sleep being undisturbed by saucy Jack Frost; and finally, a narrow box
+made by his own father to carry the light rifle that always accompanied
+him, together with a plentiful supply of ammunition. In this box Frank
+was particularly interested, for he had learned to handle this rifle
+pretty well during the summer, and looked forward to accomplishing great
+things with it when he got into the woods.
+
+Mr. Stewart laughed when he saw all that Frank was taking with him.
+
+"I guess you'll be the swell of the camp, and make all the other fellows
+wish they had a mother to fit them out. It's a fortunate thing my
+waggon's roomy, or we'd have to leave some of your stuff to come up by
+one of the teams," said he.
+
+Mrs. Kingston was about to make apologies for the size of Frank's outfit,
+but Mr. Stewart stopped her.
+
+"It's all right, Mrs. Kingston. The lad might just as well be comfortable
+as not. He'll have plenty of roughing it, anyway. And now we've got it
+all on board, we must be starting."
+
+The moment Mrs. Kingston dreaded had now come. Throwing her arms around
+Frank's neck, she clasped him passionately to her heart again and again,
+and then, tearing herself away from him, rushed up the steps as if she
+dared not trust herself any longer. Gulping down the big lump that rose
+into his throat, Frank sprang up beside Mr. Stewart, and the next moment
+they were off. But before they turned the corner Frank, looking back,
+caught sight of his mother standing in the doorway, and taking off his
+cap he gave her a farewell salute, calling out rather huskily his last
+"good-bye" as the swiftly-moving waggon bore him away.
+
+Mr. Stewart took much pride in his turn-out, and with good reason; for
+there was not a finer pair of horses in Calumet than those that were now
+trotting along before him, as if the well-filled waggon to which they
+were attached was no impediment whatever. His work required him to be
+much upon the road in all seasons, and he considered it well worth his
+while to make the business of driving about as pleasant as possible. The
+horses were iron-grays, beautifully matched in size, shape, and speed;
+the harness sparkled with bright brass mountings; and the waggon, a kind
+of express, with specially strong springs and comfortable seat, had
+abundant room for passengers and luggage.
+
+As they rattled along the village street there were many shouts of
+"Good-bye, Frank," and "Good luck to you," from shop and sidewalk; for
+everybody knew Frank's destination, and there were none that did not wish
+him well, whatever might be their opinion of the wisdom of his action. In
+responding to these expressions of good-will, Frank found timely relief
+for the feelings stirred by the parting with his mother, and before the
+impatient grays had breasted the hill which began where the village ended
+he had quite regained his customary good spirits, and was ready to reply
+brightly enough to Mr. Stewart's remarks.
+
+"Well, Frank, you've put your hand to the plough now, as the Scripture
+says, and you mustn't turn back on any account, or all the village will
+be laughing at you," he said, scanning his companion closely.
+
+"Not much fear of that, Mr. Stewart," answered Frank firmly. "Calumet
+won't see me again until next spring. Whether I like the lumbering or
+not, I'm going to stick out the winter, anyway; you see if I don't."
+
+"I haven't much fear of you, my boy," returned Mr. Stewart, "even if you
+do find shanty life a good deal rougher than you may have imagined.
+You'll have to fight your own way, you know. I shan't be around much, and
+the other men will all be strangers at first; but just you do what you
+know and feel to be right without minding the others, and they won't
+bother you long, but will respect you for having a conscience and the
+pluck to obey it. As for your work, it'll seem pretty heavy and hard at
+the start; but you've got lots of grit, and it won't take you long to get
+used to it."
+
+Frank listened attentively to Mr. Stewart's kindly, sensible advice, and
+had many questions to ask him as the speedy horses bore them further and
+further away from Calumet. The farms, which at first had followed one
+another in close succession, grew more widely apart, and finally ended
+altogether before many miles of the dusty road had been covered, and
+thenceforward their way ran through unbroken woods, not the stately
+"forest primeval" but the scrubby "second growth," from which those who
+have never been into the heart of the leafy wilderness can form but a
+poor conception of the grandeur to which trees can attain.
+
+About mid-day they halted at a lonely log-house which served as a sort of
+inn or resting-place, the proprietor finding compensation for the
+dreariness of his situation in the large profit derived from an illegal
+but thriving traffic in liquor. A more unkempt, unattractive
+establishment could hardly be imagined, and if rumour was to be relied
+upon, it had good reason to be haunted by more than one untimely ghost.
+
+"A wretched den!" said Mr. Stewart, as he drew up before the door. "I
+wouldn't think of stopping here for a moment but for the horses. But we
+may as well go in and see if old Pierre can get us a decent bite to eat."
+
+The horses having been attended to, the travellers entered the house,
+where they found Pierre, the proprietor, dozing on his bar; a bloated,
+blear-eyed creature, who evidently would have much preferred making them
+drunk with his vile whisky to preparing them any pretence for a dinner.
+But they firmly declined his liquor, so muttering unintelligibly to
+himself he shambled off to obey their behests. After some delay they
+succeeded in getting a miserable meal of some kind; and then, the horses
+being sufficiently rested, they set off once more at a good pace, not
+halting again until, just before sundown, they arrived at the depot,
+where the first stage of their journey ended.
+
+This depot was simply a large farm set in the midst of a wilderness of
+trees, and forming a centre from which some half-dozen shanties, or
+lumber camps, placed at different distances in the depths of the
+forest that stretched away interminably north, south, east, and west,
+were supplied with all that was necessary for their maintenance. Besides
+the ordinary farm buildings, there was another which served as a sort of
+a shop or warehouse, being filled with a stock of axes, saws, blankets,
+boots, beef, pork, tea, sugar, molasses, flour, and so forth, for the use
+of the lumbermen. This was Mr. Stewart's headquarters, and as the tired
+horses drew up before the door he tossed the reins over their backs,
+saying,--
+
+"Here we are, Frank. You'll stay here until your gang is made up.
+To-morrow morning I'll introduce you to some of your mates."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE BUILDING OF THE SHANTY.
+
+
+Frank looked about him with quick curiosity, expecting to see some of the
+men in whose society he was to spend the jointer. But there were only the
+farm-hands lounging listlessly about, their days work being over, and
+they had nothing to do except to smoke their pipes and wait for
+nightfall, when they would lounge off to bed.
+
+The shantymen had not yet arrived, Mr. Stewart always making a point of
+being at the depot some days in advance of them, in order to have plenty
+of time to prepare his plans for the winter campaign. Noting Frank's
+inquiring look, he laughed, and said,--
+
+"Oh, there are none of them here yet--we're the first on the field-but by
+the end of the week there'll be more than a hundred men here."
+
+A day or two later the first batch made their appearance, coming up by
+the heavy teams that they would take with them into the woods; and each
+day brought a fresh contingent, until by the time Mr. Stewart had
+mentioned the farm fairly swarmed with them, and it became necessary for
+this human hive to imitate the bees and send off its superfluous
+inhabitants without delay.
+
+They were a rough, noisy, strange-looking lot of men, and Frank, whose
+acquaintance with the shantymen had been limited to seeing them in small
+groups as they passed through Calumet in the autumn and spring, on their
+way to and from the camps, meeting them now for the first time in such
+large numbers, could not help some inward shrinking of soul as he noted
+their uncouth ways and listened to their oath-besprinkled talk. They
+were "all sorts and conditions of men"--habitants who could not speak a
+word of English, and Irishmen who could not speak a word of French;
+shrewd Scotchmen, chary of tongue and reserved of manner, and loquacious
+half-breeds, ready for song, or story, or fight, according to the humour
+of the moment. Here and there were dusky skins and prominent features
+that betrayed a close connection with the aboriginal owners of this
+continent. Almost all bad come from the big saw-mills away down the
+river, or from some other equally arduous employment, and were glad of
+the chance of a few days' respite from work while Mr. Stewart was
+dividing them up and making the necessary arrangements for the winter's
+work.
+
+Frank mingled freely with them, scraping acquaintance with those who
+seemed disposed to be friendly, and whenever he came across one with an
+honest, pleasant, prepossessing face, hoping very much that he would be a
+member of his gang. He was much impressed by the fact that he was
+evidently the youngest member of the gathering, and did not fail to
+notice the sometimes curious, sometimes contemptuous, looks with which he
+was regarded by the fresh arrivals.
+
+In the course of a few days matters were pretty well straightened out at
+the depot, and the gangs of men began to leave for the different camps.
+Mr. Stewart had promised Frank that he would take care to put him under a
+foreman who would treat him well; and when one evening he was called into
+the office and introduced to a tall, powerful, grave-looking man, with
+heavy brown beard and deep voice, Mr. Stewart said,--
+
+"Here is Frank Kingston, Dan; Jack's only son, you know. He's set his
+heart on lumbering, and I'm going to let him try it for a winter."
+
+Frank scrutinized the man called Dan very closely as. Mr. Stewart
+continued,--
+
+"I'm going to send him up to the Kippewa camp with you, Dan. There's
+nobody'll look after him better than you will, for I know you thought a
+big sight of his father, and for his sake as well as mine you'll see that
+nothing happens to the lad."
+
+Dan Johnston's face relaxed into a smile that showed there were rich
+depths of good nature beneath his rather stern exterior, for he was
+pleased at the compliment implied in the superintendent's words, and
+stretching out a mighty hand to Frank, he laid it on his shoulder in a
+kindly way, saying,--
+
+"He seems a likely lad, Mr. Stewart, and a chip of the old block, if I'm
+not mistaken. I'll be right glad to have him with me. But what kind of
+work is he to go at? He seems rather light for chopping, doesn't he?"
+
+Mr. Stewart gave a quizzical sort of glance at Frank as he replied,--
+
+"Well, you see, Dan, I think myself he is too light for chopping, so I
+told him he'd have to be chore-boy for this winter, anyway."
+
+A look of surprise came over Johnston's face, and, more to himself than
+the others, he muttered in a low tone,--
+
+"Chore-boy, eh? Jack Kingston's son a chore-boy!" Then turning to Frank,
+he said aloud, "All right, my boy. There's nothing like beginning at
+the bottom if you want to learn the whole business. You must make up your
+mind to put in a pretty hard time, but I'll see you have fair play,
+anyway."
+
+As Frank looked at the rugged, honest, determined face, and the stalwart
+frame, he felt thoroughly satisfied that in Dan Johnston he had a friend
+in whom he could place perfect confidence, and that Mr. Stewart's promise
+had been fully kept. The foreman then became quite sociable, and asked
+him many questions about his mother, and his life in Calumet, and his
+plans for the future, so that before they parted for the night Frank felt
+as if they were quite old friends instead of recent acquaintances.
+
+The following morning Johnston was bestirring himself bright and early
+getting his men and stores together, and before noon a start was made for
+the Kippewa River, on whose southern bank a site had already been
+selected for the lumber camp which would be the centre of his operations
+for the winter. Johnston's gang numbered fifty men all told, himself
+included, and they were in high spirits as they set out for their
+destination. The stores and tools were, of course, transported by waggon;
+but the men had to go on foot, and with fifteen miles of a rough forest
+road to cover before sundown, they struck a brisk pace as, in twos and
+threes and quartettes, they marched noisily along the dusty road.
+
+"You stay by me, Frank," said the foreman, "and if your young legs happen
+to go back on you, you can have a lift on one of the teams until you're
+rested."
+
+Frank felt in such fine trim that although he fully appreciated his big
+friend's thoughtfulness, he was rash enough to think he would not require
+to avail himself of it; but the next five miles showed him his mistake,
+and at the end of them he was very glad to jump upon one of the teams
+that happened to be passing, and in this way hastened over a good part of
+the remainder of the tramp.
+
+As the odd-looking gang pushed forward steadily, if not in exactly
+martial order, Frank had a good opportunity of inspecting its members,
+and making in his own mind an estimate of their probable good of bad
+qualities as companions. In this he was much assisted by the foreman,
+who, in reply to his questions, gave him helpful bits of information
+about the different ones that attracted his attention. Fully one-half
+of the gang were French Canadians, dark-complexioned, black-haired,
+bright-eyed men, full of life and talk, their tongues going unceasingly
+as they plodded along in sociable groups. Of the remainder, some were
+Scotch, others Irish, the rest English. Upon the whole, they were quite a
+promising-looking lot of men; indeed, Johnston took very good care to
+have as little "poor stuff" as possible in his gang; for he had long held
+the reputation of turning out more logs at his camp than were cut at any
+other on the same "limits;" and this well-deserved fame he cherished very
+dearly.
+
+Darkness was coming on apace, when at last a glad shout from the foremost
+group announced that the end of the journey was near; and in a few
+minutes more the whole band of tired men were resting their wearied limbs
+on the bank of the river near which the shanty was to be erected at once.
+The teams had arrived some time before them, and two large tents had been
+put up as temporary-shelter; while brightly-burning fires and the
+appetizing fizzle of frying bacon joined with the wholesome aroma of hot
+tea to make glad the hearts of the dusty, hungry pedestrians.
+
+Frank enjoyed his open-air tea immensely. It was his first taste of real
+lumberman's life, and was undoubtedly a pleasant introduction to it; for
+the hard work would not begin until the morrow, and in the meantime
+everybody was still a-holidaying. So refreshing was the evening meal
+that, tired as all no doubt felt from their long tramp, they soon forgot
+it sufficiently to spend an hour or more in song and chorus that made the
+vast forest aisles re-echo with rough melody before they sank into the
+silence of slumber for the night.
+
+At daybreak next morning Dan Johnston's stentorian voice aroused the
+sleepers, and Frank could hardly believe that he had taken more than
+twice forty winks at the most before the stirring shout of "Turn out!
+turn out! The work's waiting!" broke into his dreams and recalled him to
+life's realities. The morning was gray and chilly, the men looked
+sleepy and out of humour, and Johnston himself had it a stern distant
+manner, or seemed to have, as after a wash at the river bank Frank
+approached him and reported himself for duty.
+
+"Will you please to tell me what is to be my work, Mr. Johnston?" said
+he, in quite a timid tone; for somehow or other there seemed to be a
+change in the atmosphere.
+
+The foreman's face relaxed a little as he turned to answer him.
+
+"You want to be set to work, eh? Well, that won't take long." And looking
+around among the moving men until he found the one he wanted, he raised
+his voice and called,--
+
+"Hi, there, Baptiste! Come here a moment."
+
+In response to the summons a short, stout, smooth-faced, and decidedly
+good-natured looking Frenchman, who had been busy at one of the fires,
+came over to the foreman.
+
+"See here, Baptiste; this lad's to be your chore-boy this winter, and I
+don't want you to be too hard on him--_savez?_ Let him have plenty of
+work, but not more than his share."
+
+Baptiste examined Frank's sturdy figure with much the same smile of
+approval that he might bestow upon a fine capon that he was preparing for
+the pot, and murmured out something like,--
+
+"_Bien, m'sieur_. I sall be easy wid him if ee's a good boy."
+
+The foreman then said to Frank,--
+
+"There, Frank, go with Baptiste, and he'll give you work enough."
+
+So Frank went dutifully off with the Frenchman.
+
+He soon found out what his work was to be. Baptiste was cook, and he was
+his assistant, not so much in the actual cooking, for Baptiste looked
+after that himself, but in the scouring of the pots and pans, the keeping
+up of the fires, the setting out of the food, and such other
+supplementary duties. Not very dignified or inspiring employment,
+certainly, especially for a boy "with a turn for books and figures." But
+Frank had come to the camp prepared to undertake, without a murmur, any
+work within his powers that might be given him, and he now went quietly
+and steadily at what was required of him.
+
+As soon as breakfast was despatched, Johnston called the men together to
+give them directions about the building of the shanty, which was the
+first thing of all to be done; and having divided them up into parties,
+to each of which a different task was assigned, he set them at work
+without delay.
+
+Frank was very glad that attention to his duties would not prevent his
+watching the others at theirs; for what could be more interesting than to
+study every stage of the erection of the building that was to be their
+shelter and home during the long winter months now rapidly approaching?
+It was a first experience for him, and nothing escaped his vigilant eye.
+This is the way he described the building of the shanty to his mother on
+his return to Calumet:--
+
+"You see, mother, everybody except Baptiste and myself took a hand, and
+just worked like beavers. I wish you could have seen the men. And Mr.
+Johnston--why, he was in two places at once most of the time, or at least
+seemed to be! It was grand fun watching them. The first thing they did
+was to cut down a lot of trees--splendid big fellows, that would make the
+trees round here look pretty small, I can tell you. Then they chopped off
+all the branches and cut up the trunks into the lengths that suited, and
+laid them one on the top of the other until they made a wall about as
+high as Mr. Johnston, or perhaps higher, in the shape of one big room
+forty feet long by thirty feet wide, Mr. Johnston said. It looked very
+funny then--just like a huge pig-pen, with no windows and only one
+door--on the side that faced the river. Next day they laid long timbers
+across the top of the wall, resting them in the middle on four great
+posts they called 'scoop-bearers.' Funny name, isn't it? But they called
+them that because they bear the 'scoops' that make the roof; and a grand
+roof it is, I tell you. The scoops are small logs hollowed out on one
+side and flat on the other; and they lay them on the cross timbers in
+such a way that the edges of one fit into the hollows of two others, so
+that the rain hasn't a chance to get in, no matter how bard it tries.
+Next thing they made the floor; and that wasn't a hard job, for they just
+made logs flat on two sides and laid them on the ground, so that it was a
+pretty rough sort of a floor. All the cracks were stuffed tight with moss
+and mud, and a big bank of earth thrown up around the bottom of the wall
+to keep the draught out.
+
+"But you should have seen the beds, or 'bunks,' as they called them, for
+the men. I don't believe you could ever sleep on them. They were nothing
+but board platforms all around three sides of the room, built on a slant
+so that your head was higher than your feet; so you see I'd have had
+nothing better than the soft side of a plank for a mattress if you hadn't
+fitted me out with one. And when the other fellows saw how snug I was,
+they vowed they'd have a soft bed too; so what do you think they did?
+They gathered an immense quantity of hemlock branches--little soft ones,
+you know--and spread them thick over the boards, and then they laid
+blankets over that and made a really fine mattress for all. So that, you
+see, I quite set the fashion. The last thing to be made was the
+fireplace, which has the very queer name of 'caboose,' and is queerer
+than its name. It is right in the middle of the room, not at one end, and
+is as big as a small room by itself. First of all, a great bank of stones
+and sand is laid on the floor, kept together by boards at the edges; then
+a large square hole is cut in the roof above, and a wooden chimney built
+on the top of it; and then at two of the corners cranes to hold the pots
+are fixed, and the caboose is complete. And oh, mother, such roaring big
+fires as were always going in it after the cold came--all night long, you
+know; and sometimes I had to stay awake to keep the fire from going out,
+which wasn't much fun, but, of course, I had to take my turn. So now,
+mother, you ought to have a pretty good idea of what our shanty was like;
+for, besides a table and our chests, there was nothing much else in it to
+describe."
+
+Such were Frank Kingston's surroundings as he entered upon the humble
+and laborious duties of chore-boy in Camp Kippewa, not attempting to
+conceal from himself that he would much rather be a chopper or teamster
+or road-maker, but with his mind fully fixed upon doing his work, however
+uncongenial it might be, cheerfully and faithfully for one winter at
+least, feeling confident that if he did he would not be chore-boy for
+long, but would in due time be promoted to some more dignified and
+attractive position.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+STANDING FIRE.
+
+
+The shanty finished, a huge mass of wood cut into convenient lengths and
+piled near the door, a smooth road made down to the river-bank, the
+store-house filled with barrels of pork and flour and beans and chests of
+tea, the stable for the score of horses, put up after much the same
+architectural design as the shanty, and then the lumber camp was
+complete, and the men were free to address themselves to the business
+that had brought them so far.
+
+As Frank looked around him at the magnificent forests into whose heart
+they had penetrated, and tried with his eyes to measure the height of the
+splendid trees that towered above his head on every side, he found
+himself touched with a feeling of sympathy for them--as if it seemed a
+shame to humble the pride of those silvan monarchs by bringing them
+crashing to the earth. And then this feeling gave way to another; and as
+he watched the expert choppers swinging their bright axes in steady
+rhythm, and adding wound to wound in the gaping trunk so skilfully that
+the defenceless monster fell just where they wished, his heart thrilled
+with pride at man's easy victory over nature, and he longed to seize an
+axe himself and attack the forest on his own account.
+
+He had plenty of axe work as it was, but of a much more prosaic kind.
+An important part of his duty consisted in keeping up the great fire
+that roared and crackled unceasingly in the caboose. The appetite of this
+fire seemed unappeasable, and many a time did his arms and legs grow
+weary in ministering to its wants. Sometimes, when all his other work was
+done, he would go out to the wood-pile, and selecting the thickest and
+toughest-looking logs, arrange them upon the hearth so that they might
+take as long as possible to burn; and then, congratulating himself that
+he had secured some respite from toil, get out his rifle for a little
+practice at a mark, or would open one of the few books he had brought
+with him. But it seemed to him he would hardly have more than one shot at
+the mark, or get through half-a-dozen pages, before Baptiste's thick
+voice would be heard calling out,--
+
+"Francois, Francois! Ver is yer? Some more wood, k'vick!" And with a
+groan poor Frank would have to put away the rifle or book and return
+to the wood-pile.
+
+"I suppose I'm what the Bible calls a hewer of wood and a drawer of
+water," he would say to himself; for hardly less onerous than the task
+of keeping the fire in fuel was that of keeping well filled the two
+water-barrels that stood on either side of the door--one for the thirsty
+shantymen, the other for Baptiste's culinary needs.
+
+The season's work once well started, it went forward with commendable
+steadiness and vigour under Foreman Johnston's strict and energetic
+management. He was admirably suited for his difficult position. His
+grave, reserved manner rendered impossible that familiarity which is so
+apt to breed contempt, while his thorough mastery of all the secrets of
+woodcraft, his great physical strength, and his absolute fearlessness
+in the face of any peril, combined to make him a fit master for the
+strangely-assorted half-hundred of men now under his sole control. Frank
+held him in profound respect, and would have endured almost anything
+rather than seem unmanly or unheedful in his eyes. To win a word of
+commendation from those firm-set lips that said so little was the desire
+of his heart, and, feeling sure that it would come time enough, he stuck
+to his work bravely, quite winning good-natured Baptiste's heart by his
+prompt obedience to orders.
+
+"You are a _bon garcon,_ Francois," he would say, patting his shoulder
+with his plump palm. "Too good to be chore-boy; but not for long--eh,
+Francois? You be chopper _bientot_, and then"--with an expressive wave of
+his hand to indicate the rapid flight of time--"you'll be foreman, like
+M'sieur Johnston, while Baptiste"--and the broad shoulders would rise
+in that meaning shrug which only Frenchmen can achieve--"poor Baptiste
+will be cook still."
+
+Beginning with Johnston and Baptiste, Frank was rapidly making friends
+among his companions, and as he was soon to learn, much to his surprise
+and sorrow, some enemies too--or, rather, to be more correct, he was
+making the friends, but the enemies were making themselves; for he was to
+blame in small part, if at all, for their rising against him. There were
+all sorts and conditions of men, so far at least as character and
+disposition went, among the gang, and the evil element was fitly
+represented by a small group of inhabitants who recognized one Damase
+Deschenaux as their leader. This Damase made rather a striking figure.
+Although he scorned the suggestion as hotly as would a Southern planter
+the charge that negro blood darkened his veins, there was no doubt that
+some generations back the dusky wife of a _courier du bois_ had mingled
+the Indian nature with the French. Unhappily for Damase, the result of
+his ancestral error was manifest in him; for, while bearing but little
+outward resemblance to his savage progenitor, he was at heart a veritable
+Indian.
+
+Greedy, selfish, jealous, treacherous, quick to take offence and slow to
+forgive or forget, his presence in the Johnston gang was explained by his
+wonderful knowledge of the forest, his sure judgment in selecting good
+bunches of timber to be cut, and his intimate acquaintance with the
+course of the stream down which the logs would be floated in the spring.
+
+Johnston had no liking for Damase, but found him too valuable to dispense
+with. This year, by chance, or possibly by his own management, Damase had
+among the gang a number of companions much after his own pattern, and it
+was clearly his intention to take the lead in the shanty so far as he
+dared venture. When first he saw Frank, and learned that he was to be
+with Johnston also, he tried after his own fashion to make friends with
+him. But as might be expected, neither the man himself nor his overtures
+of friendship impressed Frank favourably. He wanted neither a pull from
+his pocket flask nor a chew from his plug of "navy," nor to handle his
+greasy cards; and although he declined the offer of all these uncongenial
+things as politely as possible, the veritable suspicious, sensitive,
+French-Indian nature took offence, which deepened day after day, as he
+could not help seeing that Frank was careful to give himself and
+companions as wide a berth as he could without being pointedly rude or
+offensive.
+
+When one is seeking to gratify evil feelings toward another with whom he
+has daily contact, the opportunity is apt to be not long in coming, and
+Damase conceived that he had his chance of venting his spite on Frank by
+seizing upon the habit of Bible reading and prayer which the lad had as
+scrupulously observed in the shanty as if he had been at home. As might
+be imagined, he was altogether alone in this good custom, and at first
+the very novelty of it had secured him immunity from pointed notice or
+comment. But when Damase, thinking he saw in his daily devotions an
+opening for his malicious purposes, drew attention to them by jeering
+remarks and taunting insinuations, the others, yielding to that natural
+tendency to be incensed with any one who seems to assert superior
+goodness, were inclined to side with him, or at all events to make no
+attempt to interfere.
+
+At first Damase confined himself to making as much noise as possible
+while Frank was reading his Bible or saying his prayers, keeping up a
+constant fire of remarks that were aimed directly at the much-tried boy,
+and which were sometimes clever or impertinent enough to call forth a
+hearty laugh from his comrades. But finding that Frank was not to be
+overcome by this, he resorted to more active measures. Pretending to be
+dancing carelessly about the room he would, as if by accident, bump up
+against the object of his enmity, sending the precious book flying on the
+floor, or, if Frank was kneeling by his bunk, tripping and tumbling
+roughly over his outstretched feet. Another time he knocked the Bible out
+of his hands with a well-aimed missile, and, again, covered him with a
+heavy blanket as he knelt at prayer.
+
+All this Frank bore in patient silence, hoping in that way to secure
+peace in time. But Damase's persecutions showing no signs of ceasing, the
+poor lad's self-control began to desert him, and at last the crisis came
+one night when, while he was kneeling as usual at the foot of his bunk,
+Damase crept up softly behind him, and springing upon his shoulders,
+brought him sprawling to the floor. In an instant Frank was on his feet,
+and when the others saw his flashing and indignant countenance and
+noticed his tight-clinched fists, the roar of laughter that greeted his
+downfall was checked half way, and a sudden silence fell upon them. They
+all expected him to fly at his tormentor like a young tiger, and Damase
+evidently expected it too, for he stepped back a little, and his grinning
+face sobered as he assumed a defensive attitude.
+
+But Frank had no thought of striking. That was not his way of defending
+his religion, much as he was willing to endure rather than be unfaithful.
+Drawing himself up to his full height, and looking a splendid type of
+righteous indignation, he commanded the attention of all as in clear,
+strong tones, holding his sturdy fists close to his sides as though he
+dared not trust them elsewhere, and looking straight into Damase's eyes,
+lie exclaimed,--
+
+"Aren't you ashamed to do such an unmanly thing--you, who are twice my
+size and age? I have done nothing to you. Why should you torment me? And
+just when I want most to be quiet, too!"
+
+Then, turning to the other men with a gesture of appeal that was
+irresistible, he cried,--
+
+"Do you think it's fair, fellows, for that man to plague me so when I've
+done him no harm? Why don't you stop him? You can do it easy enough. He's
+nothing but a big coward."
+
+Frank's anger had risen as he spoke, and this last sentence slipped out
+before he had time to stop it. No sooner was it uttered than he regretted
+it; but the bolt had been shot, and it went straight to its mark. While
+Frank had been speaking, Damase was too keen of sight and sense not to
+notice that the manly speech and fine self-control of the boy were
+causing a quick revulsion of feeling in his hearers, and that unless
+diverted they would soon be altogether on his side, and the taunt he had
+just flung out awoke a deep murmur of applause which was all that was
+needed to inflame his passion to the highest pitch. The Frenchman looked
+the very incarnation of fury as, springing towards Frank with uplifted
+fist, he hissed, rather cried, through his gleaming teeth,--
+
+"Coward! I teach you call me coward."
+
+Stepping back a little, Frank threw up his arms in a posture of defence;
+for he was not without knowledge of what is so oddly termed "the noble
+art."
+
+But before the blow fell an unlooked-for intervention relieved him from
+the danger that threatened.
+
+The foreman, when the shanty was being built, had the farther right-hand
+corner partitioned off so as to form a sort of cabin just big enough
+to contain his bunk, his chest, and a small rude table on which lay
+the books in which he kept his accounts and made memoranda, and some
+half-dozen volumes that constituted his library. In this nook, shut off
+from the observation and society of the others, yet able to overhear and,
+if he chose to open the door, to oversee also all that went on in the
+larger room, Johnston spent, his evenings poring over his books by the
+light of a tallow candle, the only other light in the room being that
+given forth by the ever-blazing fire.
+
+Owing to this separation from the others, Johnston had been unaware of
+the manner in which Frank had been tormented, as it was borne so
+uncomplainingly. But this time Frank's indignant speech, followed so
+fast by Damase's angry retort, told him plainly that there was need of
+his interference. He emerged from his corner just at the moment when
+Damase was ready to strike. One glance at the state of affairs was
+enough. Damase's back was turned toward him. With a swift spring, that
+startled the others as if he had fallen through the roof, he darted
+forward, and ere the French-Canadian's fist could reach its mark a
+resistless grasp was laid upon his collar, and, swung clear off his feet,
+he was flung staggering across the room as though he had been a mere
+child.
+
+"You Indian dog!" growled Johnston, in his fiercest tones, "what are you
+about? Don't let me catch you tormenting that boy again!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+LIFE IN THE LUMBER CAMP.
+
+
+For a moment there was absolute silence in the shanty, the sudden and
+effectual intervention of the big foreman in Frank Kingston's behalf
+filling the onlookers with astonishment. But then, as they recovered
+themselves, there came a burst of laughter that made the rafters ring, in
+the midst of which Damase, gathering himself together, slunk scowling to
+his berth with a face that was dark with hate.
+
+Not deigning to take any further notice of him, Johnston turned to go
+back to his corner, touching Frank on his shoulder as he did so, and
+saying to him in a low tone,--
+
+"Come with me, my lad; I want a word with you."
+
+Still trembling from the excitement of the scene through which he had
+just passed, Frank followed the foreman into his little sanctum, the
+inside of which he had never seen before, for it was kept jealously
+locked whenever its occupant was absent. Johnston threw himself clown on
+his bunk, and motioned Frank to take a seat upon the chest. For a few
+moments he regarded him in silence, and so intently that, although his
+expression was full of kindness, and it seemed of admiration, too, the
+boy felt his face flushing under his steady scrutiny. At last the foreman
+spoke.
+
+"You're a plucky lad, Frank. Just like your father-God bless him' He was
+a good friend to me when I needed a friend sorely. I heard all that went
+on to-night, though I didn't see it, and had some hint of it before,
+though I didn't let on, for I wanted to see what stuff you were made of.
+But you played the man, my boy, and your father would have been proud to
+see you. Now just you go right ahead, Frank; and if any of those French
+rascals or anybody else tries to hinder you, out of this shanty he'll go,
+neck and crop, and stay out, as sure as my name is Dan Johnston."
+
+"You're very kind, Mr. Johnston," said Frank, his eyes glistening
+somewhat suspiciously, for, to tell the truth, this warm praise coming
+after the recent strain upon his nerves was a little too much for his
+self-control. "I felt sometimes like telling you when the men tormented
+me so; but I didn't want to be a tale-bearer, and I was hoping they'd get
+tired of it and give up of their own accord."
+
+"It's best as it is, lad," replied Johnston. "If the men found out you
+told me, they'd be like to think hard of you. But there's no fear of that
+now. And look here, Frank. After this, when you want to read your Bible
+in peace, and say your prayers, just come in here. No one'll bother you
+here, and you can sit down on the chest there and have a quiet time to
+yourself."
+
+Frank's face fairly beamed with delight at this unexpected invitation,
+and he stood up on his feet to thank his kind friend.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Johnston, I'm so glad! I've never been able to read my Bible or
+say my prayers right since I came to the shanty-there's always such a
+noise going on. But I won't mind that in here. It's so good of you to let
+me come in."
+
+The foreman smiled in his deep, serious way, and then as he relapsed into
+silence, and took up again the book he had laid down to spring to Frank's
+assistance, Frank thought it time to withdraw; and with a respectful
+"Good-night, sir," which Johnston acknowledged by a nod, returned to the
+larger room.
+
+The shantymen were evidently awaiting his reappearance with much
+curiosity; but he went quietly back to his bunk, picked up his Bible,
+finished the passage in the midst of which he had been interrupted, and,
+having said his prayers, lay down to sleep without a word to any one; for
+no one questioned him, and he felt no disposition to start a discussion
+by questioning any of the others.
+
+From this time forth he could see clearly that two very different
+opinions concerning himself prevailed in the shanty. By all the English
+members of the gang, and some of the. French, headed by honest Baptiste,
+he was looked upon, with hearty liking and admiration, as a plucky chap
+that knew how to take care of himself; by the remainder of the French
+contingent, with Damase as the ruling spirit, he was regarded as a
+stuck-up youngster that wanted taking down badly, and who was trying to
+make himself a special favourite with the foreman just to advance his
+own selfish ends. Gladly would Frank have been on friendly terms with
+all; but this being now impossible, through no fault of his own, he made
+up his mind to go on his way as quietly as possible, being constantly
+careful to give no cause of offence to those who, as he well knew, were
+only too eager to take it.
+
+There were some slight flurries of snow, fragile and short-lived heralds
+of winter's coming, during the latter part of November, and then December
+was ushered in by a grand storm that lasted a whole day, and made glad
+the hearts of the lumbermen by filling the forest aisles with a deep,
+soft, spotless carpet, that asked only to be packed smooth and hard in
+order to make perfect roads over which to transport the noble logs that
+had been accumulating upon the "roll-ways" during the past weeks.
+
+A shantyman is never so completely in his element as when the snow lies
+two feet deep upon the earth's brown breast. An open winter is his bane,
+Jack Frost his best friend; and there was a perceptible rise in the
+spirits of the occupants of Camp Kippewa as the mercury sank lower and
+lower in the tube of the foreman's thermometer. Plenty of snow meant not
+only easy hauling all winter long, but a full river and "high water" in
+the spring-time, and no difficulty in getting the drive of logs that
+would represent their winter's work down the Kippewa to the Grand River
+beyond. Frank did not entirely share their exultation. The colder it got
+the more wood had to be chopped, the more food had to be cooked--for the
+men's appetites showed a marked increase--and, furthermore, the task of
+keeping the water-barrels filled became one of serious magnitude. But
+bracing himself to meet his growing burdens, he toiled away cheerfully,
+resisting every temptation to grumble, his clear tuneful whistling of the
+sacred airs in vogue at Calumet making Baptiste, who had a quick ear for
+music, so familiar with "Rock of Ages," "Abide with Me," "Nearer, my God,
+to Thee," and other melodies, which have surely strayed down to us from
+heaven, that unconsciously he took to whistling them himself, much to
+Frank's amusement and approval.
+
+The days were very much alike. At early dawn, before it was yet light
+enough to see clearly, Johnston would emerge from his corner, and, in
+stentorian tones whose meaning was not to be mistaken, shout to the
+sleeping men scattered along the rows of sloping bunks.
+
+"Up with ye, men! up with ye!" And with many a growl and grunt they
+would, one by one, unroll from their blankets. As their only preparation
+for bed had been to lay aside their coats and boots or moccasins, the
+morning toilet did not consume much time. A dash of cold water as an
+eye-opener, a tugging on of boots or lacing up of moccasins, a scrambling
+into coats, and that was the sum of it. The only brush and comb in the
+camp belonged to Frank, and he felt half ashamed to use them, because no
+one else thought such articles necessary.
+
+Breakfast hurriedly disposed of, all but Baptiste and Frank sallied forth
+into the snow, to be seen no more until mid-day. There were just fifty
+persons, all told, in the camp, each man having his definite work to do
+the carpenter, whose business it was to keep the sleighs in repair; the
+teamsters, who directed the hauling of the logs; the "sled-tenders," who
+saw that the loads were well put on; the "head chopper" and his
+assistants, whose was the laborious yet fascinating task of felling the
+forest monarchs; the "sawyers," who cut their prostrate forms into
+convenient lengths; the "scorers," who stripped off the branches and slab
+sides from tree trunks set apart for square timber; and finally, the
+"hewer," who with his huge, broad axe made square the "stick," as the
+great piece of timber is called.
+
+All these men had to be fed three times a day, and almost insatiable were
+their appetites, as poor Frank had no chance to forget. Happily they did
+not demand the same variety in their bill of fare as do the guests at a
+metropolitan hotel. Pork and beans, bread and tea, these were the staple
+items. Anything else was regarded as an "extra." A rather monotonous
+diet, undoubtedly; but it would not be easy to prescribe a better one for
+men working twelve hours a day, in the open air, through the still,
+steady cold of a Canadian winter in the backwoods.
+
+At noon the hungry toilers trooped back for dinner, which they devoured
+in ravenous haste that there might be as much as possible left of the
+hour for a lounge upon the bunk, with pipe in mouth, in luxurious
+idleness. Then as the dusk gathered they appeared once more, this time
+for the night, and disposed to eat their supper with much more decorous
+slowness. Supper over, the snow-soaked mittens and stockings hung about
+the fire to dry, and pipes put in full blast, they were ready for song,
+story, or dance, until bed time.
+
+Thus day followed day, until Frank, whose work kept him closely confined
+to the camp, grew so weary of it that he was on the verge of heartily
+repenting that he had ever consented to be a chore-boy, ever thought that
+was the only condition upon which he could gratify his longing for a
+lumberman's life, when another mischance became his good fortune, and he
+was unexpectedly relieved of a large part of his tiresome duties. This
+was how it came about.
+
+One morning he was surprised by seeing one of the sleighs returning a
+good while before the dinner hour, and was somewhat alarmed when he
+noticed that it bore the form of a man, who had evidently been the victim
+of an accident. Happily, however, it proved to be not a very serious
+case. An immense pine in falling headlong had borne with it a number of
+smaller trees that stood near by, and one of these had fallen upon an
+unwary "scorer," hurling him to the ground, and badly bruising his right
+leg, besides causing some internal injury. He was insensible when picked
+up, but came to himself soon after reaching the shanty, where Frank made
+him as comfortable as he could, even putting him upon his own mattress
+that he might lie as easy as possible.
+
+The injured man proved to be one of Damase Deschenaux's allies; but Frank
+did not let that prevent his showing him every kindness while he was
+recovering from his injuries, with the result of completely winning the
+poor ignorant fellow's heart, much to Damase's disgust. Damase, indeed,
+did his best to persuade Laberge that Frank's attentions were prompted
+by some secret motive, and that it was not to be trusted. But deeds are
+far stronger arguments than words, and the sufferer was not to be
+convinced. By the end of a week he was able to limp about the shanty, but
+it was very evident that he would not be fit to take up his work again
+that season. This state of affairs caused the foreman some concern, for
+he felt loath to send the unfortunate fellow home, and yet he could not
+keep him in idleness. Then it appeared that what is one man's extremity
+may be another's opportunity. Johnston knew very well that however
+bravely he might go about it, Frank's work could not help being
+distasteful to him, and a bright plan flashed into his mind. Calling
+Frank into his corner one evening, he said,--
+
+"How would you like, my lad, to have some of the out-door work for a
+change?"
+
+The mere expression of Frank's face was answer enough. It fairly shone
+with gladness, as he replied,--
+
+"I would like it above all things, sir, for I am a little tired of being
+nothing but a chore-boy."
+
+"Well, I think we might manage it, Frank," said the foreman. "You see,
+Laberge can't do his work again this winter, and it goes against my heart
+to send him home, for he's nobody but himself to depend upon. So I've hit
+upon this plan: Laberge can't chop the wood or haul the water, but he can
+help Baptiste in cooking and cleaning up. Suppose, then, you were to get
+the wood ready and see about the water in the morning, and then come out
+into the woods with us after dinner, leaving Laberge to do the rest of
+the work. How would that suit you?"
+
+"It would suit me just splendidly, sir," exclaimed Frank, delightedly. "I
+can see about the wood and water all right before dinner, and I'll be so
+glad to go to the woods with you. I'll just do the best I can to fill
+Laberge's place."
+
+"I'm right sure you will, Frank," replied Johnston. "So you may consider
+it settled for the present, at any rate."
+
+Frank felt like dancing a jig on the way back to his bunk, and not even
+the scowling face of Damase, who had been listening to the conversation
+in the foreman's room with keen Indian ears, and had caught enough of it
+to learn of the arrangement made, could cast any damper upon his spirits.
+In this case half a loaf was decidedly better than no bread at all.
+Freedom from the restraints and irksome duties of chore-boy's lot for
+even half the day was a precious boon, and the happy boy lay down to rest
+that night feeling like quite a different person from what he had been
+of late, when there seemed no way of escape from the monotonous,
+wearisome task he had taken upon himself, except to give it all up and
+return to Calumet, which was almost the last thing that he could imagine
+himself doing; for Frank Kingston had plenty of pride as well as pluck,
+and his love for lumbering had not suffered any eclipse because of his
+experiences.
+
+But what is one man's meat is another man's poison, according to the
+homely adage, and in this case what made Frank so happy made--Damase
+miserable. The jealous, revengeful fellow saw in it only another proof
+of the foreman's favouritism, and was also pleased to regard the
+relegating of Laberge to the dish-washing and so forth as the degradation
+of a compatriot, which it behoved him to resent, since Laberge seemed
+lacking in the spirit to do it himself. Had he imagined that he would
+meet with the support of the majority, he would have sought to organize a
+rebellion in the camp. But he knew well enough that such a thing was
+utterly out of the question, so he was forced to content himself with
+fresh determinations to "get even" with the foreman and his favourite in
+some way before the winter passed; and, as will be seen, he came
+perilously near attaining his object.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+A THRILLING EXPERIENCE.
+
+
+Frank was very happy now that the way had been so opportunely opened for
+him to take part in the whole round of lumbering operations. He awaited
+with impatience the coming of noon and the rush of hungry men to their
+hearty dinner, because it was the signal for his release from chore-boy
+work and promotion to the more honourable position of assistant-teamster.
+The long afternoons out in the cold, crisp air, amid the thud of
+well-aimed axes, the crash of falling trees, the shouts of busy men, and
+all the other noisy incidents of the war they were waging against the
+innocent, defenceless forest, were precisely what his heart had craved so
+long, and he felt clearer than ever in his mind that lumbering was the
+life for him.
+
+After he had been a week at his new employment, Con Murphy, the big
+teamster to whom he had been assigned by the foreman, with the injunction
+to "be easy on the lad, and give him plenty of time to get handy," was
+heard to say in public,--
+
+"Faith, an' he's a broth of a boy, I can tell you; and I wouldn't give
+him for half-a-dozen of those _parlez-vous_ Frenchies like the chap whose
+place he took--indade that I wouldn't."
+
+Which, coming to Damase's ears, added further fuel to the fire of
+jealousy and hate that was burning within this half-savage creature's
+breast. So fierce indeed were Damase's feelings that he could not keep
+them concealed, and more than one of the shantymen took occasion to drop
+a word of warning into Frank's ear about him.
+
+"You'd better keep a sharp eye on that chap Damase, Frank," they would
+say. "He's an ugly customer, and he seems to have got it in for you."
+Frank, on his part, was by no means disposed to laugh at or neglect these
+kindly warnings. Indeed, he fully intended repeating them to Johnston at
+the first opportunity. But the days slipped by without a favourable
+chance presenting itself, and Damase's wild thirst for the revenge which
+he thought was merited came perilously near a dreadful satisfaction.
+
+February had come, and supplies at the shanty were running low, so that
+Foreman Johnston deemed it necessary to pay a visit to the depot to see
+about having a fresh stock sent out. The first that Frank knew of his
+intention was the night before he started. He had gone into the foreman's
+little room as usual to read his Bible and pray, and having finished, was
+about to slip quietly out, Johnston having apparently been quite
+unobservant of his presence, when he was asked,--
+
+"How would you like to go over to the depot with me to-morrow?"
+
+How would he like! Such a question to ask of a boy, when it meant a
+twenty-five miles' drive and a whole day's holiday after months of steady
+work at the camp!
+
+"I should be delighted, sir," replied Frank, as promptly as he could get
+the words out.
+
+"Very well, then; you can come along with me. We'll start right after
+breakfast. Baptiste will have to look after himself for one day," said
+the foreman. And with a fervent "Thank you, sir," Frank went off, his
+face wreathed with smiles and his heart throbbing with joy at the
+prospect before him.
+
+So eager was he that it did not need Johnston's shout of "Turn out, lads,
+turn out!" to waken him next morning, for he was wide awake already, and
+he tumbled into his clothes with quite unusual alacrity. So soon as
+breakfast was over, the foreman had one of the best horses in the stable
+harnessed to his "jumper," as the low, strong, comfortable wooden sleigh
+that is alone able to cope with the rough forest roads is called;
+abundance of thick warm buffalo-robes were provided; and then he and
+Frank tucked themselves in tightly, and they set out on their long drive
+to the depot.
+
+The mercury stood at twenty degrees below zero when they started, but
+they did not mind that. Not a breath of wind stirred the clear cold air.
+The sun soon rose into the blue vault above them, and shone down upon
+the vast expanse of snow about them with a vigour that made their eyes
+blink. The horse was a fine animal, and, having been off duty for a few
+days previous, was full of speed and spirit, and they glided over the
+well-beaten portion of the road at a dashing pace. But when they came to
+the part over which there had been little travel all winter long the
+going was too heavy for much speed, and often the horse could not do more
+than walk.
+
+This seemed to Frank just the opportunity for which he had been waiting,
+to tell the foreman about Damase and his threats of revenge. At first
+Johnston was disposed to make light of the matter, but when Frank told
+him what he had himself observed, as well as what had been reported to
+him by the others, the foreman was sufficiently impressed to say,--
+
+"The rascal wants some looking after, that's clear. He's a worthless
+fellow, anyway, and I'm mighty sorry I ever let him into my gang. I think
+the best thing will be to drop him as soon as I get back, or he may make
+some trouble for us. I'm glad you told me this, Frank. I won't forget
+it."
+
+At the depot they found Alec Stewart, just returned from a tour of
+inspection of the different camps, and full of hearty welcome. He was
+very glad to see Frank.
+
+"Ah ha, my boy!" he cried, slapping him vigorously on the back, "I
+needn't ask you how you are. Your looks answer for you. Why, you must
+weigh ten pounds more than when I last saw you. Well, what do you think
+of lumbering now, and how does Mr. Johnston treat you? They tell me,"
+looking at the foreman with a sly smile, "that he's a mighty stiff boss.
+Is that the way you find him?"
+
+Frank was ready enough to answer all his friend's questions, and to
+assure him that the foreman treated him like a kind father, and that he
+himself was fonder of lumbering than ever. Both he and Johnston had
+famous appetites for the bountiful dinner that was soon spread before
+them, and the resources of the depot permitting of a much more extensive
+bill of fare than was possible at the shanty, he felt in duty bound to
+apologize for the avidity with which he attacked the juicy roast of beef,
+the pearly potatoes, the toothsome pudding, and the other dainties that,
+after months of pork and beans, tasted like ambrosia.
+
+The superintendent and the foreman had much to say to one another which
+did not concern Frank, and so while they talked business he roamed about
+the place, enjoying the freedom from work, and chatting with the men at
+the depot, telling them some of his experiences and being told some of
+theirs in return. Happening to mention Damase Deschenaux, one of the
+men at once exclaimed,--
+
+"That's a first-class scoundrel! It beats me to understand why Johnston
+has him in his gang. He's sure to raise trouble wherever he goes."
+
+Frank felt tempted to tell how Damase had "raised trouble" with him, but
+thought he would better not, and the talk soon turned in another
+direction.
+
+The afternoon was waning before Johnston prepared to start on the return
+journey, and Mr. Stewart tried hard to persuade him to stay for the
+night--an invitation that Frank devoutly hoped would be accepted. But the
+big foreman would not hear of it.
+
+"No, no," said be in his decided way, "I must get back to the shanty.
+There's been only half a day's work done to-day, I'll warrant you,
+because I wasn't on hand to keep the beggars at it. Why, they'll lie
+abed till mid-day to-morrow if I'm not there to rouse them out of their
+bunks."
+
+Whatever Johnston said he stuck to, so there was no use in argument, and
+shortly after four o'clock he and Frank tucked themselves snugly into the
+jumper again and drove away from the depot, Stewart shouting after
+them,--
+
+"If you change your mind after you've gone a couple of miles, don't feel
+delicate about coming back. I won't laugh at you."
+
+Johnston's only answer was a grim smile and a crack of the whip over the
+horse's hind-quarters that sent him off at full gallop, the snow flying
+in clouds from his plunging feet into the faces of his passengers.
+
+The hours crept by as the sleigh made its slow way over the heavy ground,
+and Frank, as might be expected after the big dinner he had eaten, began
+to feel very sleepy. There was no reason why he should not yield to the
+seductive influence of the drowsy god, so, sinking down low into the seat
+and drawing the buffalo-robe up over his head, he soon was lost to sight
+and sense. While he slept the night fell, and they were still many miles
+from home. The cold was great, but not a breath of wind stirred the
+intense stillness. The stars shone out like flashing diamonds set in
+lapis-lazuli. Silence reigned supreme, save as it was intruded upon by
+the heavy breathing of the frost-flaked horse and the crunching of the
+runners through the crisp snow.
+
+Johnston felt glad when they breasted the hill on the other side of which
+was Deep Gully, crossed by a rude corduroy bridge; for that bridge was
+just five miles from the camp, and another hour, at the farthest, would
+bring them to the end of their journey.
+
+When the top of the hill was reached, the foreman gathered up the reins,
+called upon the horse to quicken his pace, and away they went down the
+slope at a tearing gallop.
+
+Deep Gully well deserved the name that had been given it when the road
+was made. A turbulent torrent among the hills had in the course of time
+eaten a way for itself, which, although very narrow, made up for its lack
+of breadth by a great degree of depth. It was a rather picturesque place
+in summer time, when abundant foliage softened its steep sides; but in
+winter, when it seemed more like a crevasse in a glacier than anything
+else, there was no charm about it. The bridge that crossed it was a very
+simple affair, consisting merely of two long stringers laid six feet
+apart, and covered with flattened timbers.
+
+Upon this slight structure the jumper descended with a bump that woke
+Frank from his pleasant nap, and, putting aside the buffalo-robe, he sat
+up in the sleigh to gather his wits. It was well he did, for if ever he
+needed them it was at that moment. Almost simultaneous with the thud of
+the horse's feet upon the bridge there came a crash, a sound of rending
+timbers, the bridge quivered like a ship struck by a mighty billow, and
+the next instant dropped into the chasm below, bearing with it a man, and
+boy, and horse, and sleigh!
+
+Full thirty feet they fell; the bridge, which had given way at one end
+only, hurling them from it so that they landed at the bottom of Deep
+Gully in a confused heap, yet happily free from entanglement with its
+timbers. So soon as he felt himself falling Frank threw aside the robes
+and made ready to spring; but Johnston instinctively held on to the
+reins, with the result that, being suddenly dragged forward by the
+frantic plunging of the terrified animal, he received a kick in the
+forehead that rendered him insensible, and would have dashed his brains
+out but for the thick fur cap he wore, while the jumper, turning over
+upon him, wrenched his leg so as to render him completely helpless.
+
+Frank was more fortunate. His timely spring, aided by the impetus of
+their descent, carried him clear of the horse and sleigh, and sent him
+headlong into a deep drift that filled a hollow at the gully's bottom.
+The snow-bank opened its arms to receive him, and buried him to the hips.
+The first shock completely deprived him of breath, and almost of his
+senses too. But beyond that he received no injury, and was soon
+struggling with all his might to free himself from the snow that held him
+captive. This proved to be no easy task. He was pretty firmly embedded,
+and at first it seemed as though his efforts at release only made his
+position worse.
+
+"This is a fine fix to be in!" said he to himself. "Buried in a
+snow-drift; and dear knows what's happened to Mr. Johnston."
+
+He had been hoping that the foreman would come to his assistance, but
+getting no reply to his shouts, he began to fear lest his companion might
+be unable to render any help. Perhaps, indeed, he might be dead! The
+thought roused him to still greater exertions, and at last by a heroic
+effort he succeeded in turning a kind of somersault in his cold prison,
+which had the happy result of putting his head where his heels had been.
+To scramble out altogether was then an easy job, and in another instant
+he was beside the sleigh.
+
+His first thought was that his worst fears were realized. Certainly the
+sight was one that might have filled a stouter heart with chill alarm.
+The horse had fallen into a deep drift, which covered him to the
+shoulders, and rendered him utterly helpless, entangled as he was with
+the harness and the over-turned jumper. He had evidently, like Frank,
+been struggling violently to free himself, but finding it useless, had
+for a time ceased his efforts, and stood wild-eyed and panting, the
+picture of animal terror. On seeing Frank he made another frantic plunge
+or two, looking at the boy with an expression of agonized appeal, as
+though he would say,--
+
+"Oh, help me out of this dreadful place!"
+
+And glad would Frank have been to respond to the best of his ability. But
+the poor horse could not be considered first. Half under the sleigh, half
+buried in the snow, lay the big foreman, to all appearance dead, the
+blood flowing freely from an ugly gash in his forehead, where the fur cap
+had failed to protect him entirely from the horse's hoof.
+
+Frank sprang to his side, and with a tremendous effort turned him over
+upon his back, and getting out his handkerchief, wiped the blood away
+from his face. As he did so, the first awful thought of death gave way to
+a feeling of hope. White and still as Johnston lay, his face was warm,
+and he was surely breathing a little. Seizing a handful of snow, Frank
+pressed it to the foreman's forehead, and cried to him as though he were
+asleep,--
+
+"Mr. Johnston, Mr. Johnston! What's the matter with you? Tell me, won't
+you?"
+
+For some minutes there was no sign of response. Then the injured man
+stirred, gave a deep sigh followed by a groan, opened his eyes with a
+look of dazed bewilderment, and put his hand up to his head, which was
+evidently giving him intense pain.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Johnston, I'm so glad! I was afraid you were dead!" exclaimed
+Frank. "Can't I help you to get up?"
+
+Turning upon his shoulder, the foreman made an effort to raise himself,
+but at once sank back with a groan.
+
+"I'm sore hurt, my lad," he said; "I can't stir. You'll have to get
+help."
+
+And so great was his suffering that he well nigh lost consciousness
+again.
+
+Frank tried his best to lift him away from the sleigh, but found the task
+altogether beyond his young strength in that deep snow, and had to give
+it up as hopeless. Certainly he was in a most trying situation for a mere
+boy--fully five miles from the shanty, with an almost untravelled road
+between that must be traversed by him alone, while the injured man would
+have to lie helpless in the snow until his return. Little wonder if he
+felt in sore perplexity as to what should be done, and how he should act
+under the circumstances.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+IN THE NICK OF TIME.
+
+
+If Frank was undecided, Mr. Johnston's mind was fully made up.
+
+"Our only chance is for you to get to the shanty at once, Frank. It'll be
+a hard job, my boy, but you'll have to try it," said he.
+
+"But what'll become of you, sir, staying here all alone? The wolves might
+find you out, and how could you defend yourself then?" asked Frank, in
+sore bewilderment as to the solution of the dilemma.
+
+"I'll have to take my chances of that, Frank; for if I stay here all
+night, I'll freeze to death, anyway. So just throw the buffaloes over me,
+and put for the shanty as fast as you can," replied the foreman.
+
+Unable to suggest any better plan, Frank covered Johnston carefully with
+the robes, making him as comfortable as he could; then buttoning up his
+coat and pulling his cap on tightly, he was about to scramble up the
+steep side of the gully to regain the road, when the foreman said, in a
+low tone, almost a whisper,--
+
+"This is about the time you generally say your prayers, Frank. Couldn't
+you say them here before you start?"
+
+With quick intuition Frank divined the big bashful man's meaning. It was
+his roundabout way of asking the boy to commit him to the care of God
+before leaving him alone in his helplessness.
+
+Feeling half condemned at not having thought of it himself, Frank came
+back, and kneeling close beside his friend, lifted up his voice in prayer
+with a fervour and simplicity that showed how strong and sure was his
+faith in the love and power of his Father in heaven. When he had finished
+his petition, the foreman added to it an "Amen" that seemed to come from
+the very depths of his heart; and then, yielding to an impulse that was
+irresistible, Frank bent down and implanted a sudden kiss upon the pale
+face looking at him with such earnest, anxious eyes. This unexpected
+proof of warm affection completely overcame the foreman, whose feelings
+had been already deeply stirred by the prayer. Strong, reserved man as he
+was, be could not keep back the tears.
+
+"God bless you, my boy!" he murmured huskily. "If I get safely out of
+this, I shall be a different man. You have taught me a lesson I won't
+forget."
+
+"God bless you and take care of you, sir!" answered Frank. "I hope
+nothing will happen to you while I'm away, and I'll be back as soon as I
+can."
+
+The next moment he was making his way up the gully's side, and soon a
+triumphant shout announced that he had reached the road and was off for
+the lumber camp at his best speed.
+
+The task before him was one from which many a grown man might have shrunk
+in dismay. For five long, lonely miles the road ran through the forest
+that darkened it with heavy shadows, and not a living soul could he hope
+to meet until he reached the shanty.
+
+It was now past eight o'clock, and to do his best it would take him a
+whole hour to reach his goal. The snow lay deep upon the road, and was
+but little beaten down by the few sleighs that had passed over it. The
+air was keen and crisp with frost, the temperature being many degrees
+below zero. And finally, the most fear-inspiring of all, there was the
+possibility of wolves, for the dreaded timber wolf had been both heard
+and seen in close proximity to the camp of late, an unusual scarcity of
+small game having made him daring in his search for food.
+
+But Frank possessed a double source of strength. He was valiant by
+nature, and he had implicit faith in God's overruling providence. He felt
+specially under the divine care now, and resolutely putting away all
+thoughts of personal danger, addressed himself, mind and body, to the one
+thing--the relief of Johnston from his perilous position.
+
+With arms braced at his sides and head bent forward, he set out at a
+jog-trot, which was better suited for getting through the deep snow than
+an ordinary walk. Fortunately he was in the very pink of condition. The
+steady, hard work of the preceding months, combined with the coarse but
+abundant food and early hours, had developed and strengthened every
+muscle in his body and hardened his constitution until few boys of his
+age could have been found better fitted to endure a long tramp through
+heavy snow than he. Moreover, running had always been his favourite form
+of athletic exercise, and the muscles it required were well trained for
+their work.
+
+"I'll do it all right inside the hour," he said to himself. And then, as
+a sudden thought struck him, he gave a nervous little laugh, and added,
+"And perhaps make a good deal better time if I hear anything of the
+wolves."
+
+Try as he might, he could not get the wolves out of his head. He had not
+himself seen any signs of them, but several times the choppers working
+farthest from the camp had mentioned finding their tracks in the snow,
+and once they had been heard howling in the distance after the men had
+all come into the shanty for the night.
+
+On he went through the snow and night, now making good progress at his
+brisk jog-trot, now going more slowly as he dropped into a walk to rest
+himself and recover breath. Although the moon rode high in the heavens,
+the trees which stood close to the road allowed few of her beams to light
+his path.
+
+"If it was only broad daylight I wouldn't mind it a bit," Frank
+soliloquized; "but this going alone at this time of night is not the sort
+of a job I care for."
+
+And then the thought of poor Johnston lying helpless but uncomplaining in
+the snow made him feel ashamed of his words, and to ease his conscience
+he broke into a trot again. Just as he did so a sound reached his ear
+that sent a thrill of terror to his heart. Hoping he might be mistaken,
+he stopped and listened with straining senses. For a moment there was
+absolute silence. Then the sound came again--distant, but clear and
+unmistakable. He had heard it only once before, yet he felt as sure of it
+now as if it had been his mother's voice. It was the howl of the timber
+wolf sounding through the still night air from somewhere to the north;
+how far away he could not determine.
+
+At the sound all his strength seemed to leave him. How helpless he was
+alone in that mighty forest without even so much as a knife wherewith to
+defend himself! But it would not do to stand irresolute. His own life as
+well as the foreman's depended upon his reaching the shanty. Were he to
+climb one of the big trees that stood around, the wolves, of course,
+could not get at him; but Johnston would be dead before daylight came to
+release him from his tree citadel, and perhaps he would himself fall a
+victim to the cold in that exposed situation. There was no other
+alternative than to run for his life, so, breathing out a fervent prayer
+for divine help and protection, he summoned all his energies to the
+struggle. He was more than a mile from the shanty, and his exertion had
+told severely upon his strength; but the great peril of his situation
+made him forget his weariness, and he started off as if he were perfectly
+fresh.
+
+But the howling of the wolves grew more and more distinct as they drew
+swiftly nearer, and with agony of heart the poor boy felt his breath
+coming short and his limbs beginning to fail beneath him. Nearer and
+nearer came his dreaded pursuers, and every moment he expected to see
+them burst into the road behind him.
+
+Fortunately, be had reached a part of the road which, being near the
+camp, was much used by the teams drawing logs to the river-bank, and was
+consequently beaten hard and smooth. This welcome change enabled him to
+quicken his steps, which had dropped into a walk; and although he felt
+almost blind from exhaustion, he pushed desperately forward, hoping at
+every turn of the road to catch a glimpse of the shanty showing dark
+through the trees. The cry of the disciples caught in the sudden storm on
+Galilee, "Lord, save us; we perish!" kept coming to his lips as he
+staggered onward. Surely there could not be much further to go! He turned
+for a moment to look behind him. The wolves were in sight, their dark
+forms showing distinctly against the snow as in silence now they gained
+upon their prey. Run as hard as he might, they must be upon him ere
+another fifty yards were passed. He felt as if it were all over with him,
+and so utter was his exhaustion that it seemed to benumb his faculties
+and make him half willing for the end to come.
+
+But the end was not to be as the wolves desired. Just at the critical
+moment, when further exertion seemed impossible, he caught sight of some
+one approaching him rapidly from the direction of the shanty, and
+shouting aloud while he rushed forward to meet him. With one last supreme
+effort he plunged toward this timely apparition, and a moment later
+fell insensible at his feet.
+
+It was Baptiste--good-hearted, affectionate Baptiste--who, having awaited
+the travellers' return and grown concerned at their long delay, had gone
+out to look along the road to see if they were anywhere in view. Catching
+sight of Frank's lonely figure, he had made all haste to meet him, and
+reached him just in time to ward off the wolves that in a minute more
+would have been upon him.
+
+When the wolves saw Baptiste, who swung a gleaming axe about his head, as
+he shouted, "_Chiens donc!_ I'll split your heads eef I get at you!" they
+stopped short, and even retreated a little, drawing themselves together
+in a sort of group in the middle of the road, snapping their teeth and
+snarling in a half-frightened, half-furious manner. But Baptiste was not
+to be daunted. Lifting his axe on high, he shouted at them in his
+choicest French, and charged upon the pack as though they had been simply
+a flock of marauding sheep. Wolves are arrant cowards, and without
+pausing to take into consideration the disparity of numbers, for they
+stood twelve to one, they fled ignominiously before the plucky Frenchman,
+not halting until they had put fifty yards between themselves and him.
+Whereupon Baptiste seized upon the opportunity to pick up the still
+senseless Frank, throw him over his broad shoulder, and hasten back to
+the shanty before the wolves should regain their self-possession.
+
+They were all asleep in the shanty when the cook returned with his
+unconscious burden; but he soon roused the others with his vigorous
+shouts, and by the time they were fully awake, Frank was awake too, the
+warm air of the room quickly reviving him from his faint. Looking round
+about with a bewildered expression, he asked anxiously,--
+
+"Where is Mr. Johnston? Hasn't he come back too?"
+
+Then he recollected himself, and a picture of his good friend lying
+prostrate and helpless in the snow, perhaps surrounded by the same wolves
+that brave Baptiste had rescued him from, flashed into his mind, and
+springing to his feet he cried,--
+
+"Hurry--hurry! Mr. Johnston is in Deep Gully, and he can't move. The
+bridge broke under us, and he was almost killed. Oh, hurry, won't you, or
+the wolves will be after him!"
+
+The men looked at one another in astonishment and horror.
+
+"Deep Gully!" they exclaimed. "That's five miles off. We must go at
+once."
+
+And immediately all was bustle and excitement as they prepared to go out
+into the night. As lumbermen always sleep in their clothes, they did not
+take long to dress, and in a wonderfully short space of time the
+teamsters had a sleigh with a pair of horses at the door, upon which
+eight of the men, armed with guns and axes, sprang, and off they went
+along the road as fast as the horses could gallop. Frank wanted to
+accompany them, but Baptiste would not allow him.
+
+"No, no, _mon cher._ You must stay wid me. You tired out. They get him
+all right, and bring him safe home."
+
+And he was fair to lie back, so tortured with anxiety for the foreman
+that he could hardly appreciate the blessing of rest, although his own
+exertions had been tremendous.
+
+Not sparing the horses, the rescuers sped over the road, ever now and
+then discharging a gun, in order to let Johnston know of their approach
+and keep his courage up. In less than half-an-hour they reached the
+gully, and peering over the brink, beheld the dark heap in the snow below
+that was the object of their search. One glance was sufficient to show
+how timely was their coming, for almost encircling the hapless man were
+smaller shapes that even at that distance could be readily recognized.
+
+"We're too late!" cried one of the men; "they're wolves." And with a wild
+shout he flung himself recklessly down the snowy slope, and others
+followed close behind.
+
+Before their tumultuous onset the wolves fled like leaves before the
+autumn wind, and poor Johnston, almost dead with pain, cold, and
+exhaustion, raising himself a little from the snow, called out in a faint
+but joyful tone,--
+
+"Thank God; you've come in time! I thought it was all over with me."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+OUT OF CLOUDS, SUNSHINE.
+
+
+Great was the joy of the men at finding Johnston alive and still able to
+speak, and at once their united strength was applied to extricating him
+from his painful position. The poor horse, utterly unable to help
+himself, had long ago given up the vain struggle, and in a state of
+pitiful exhaustion and fright was lying where he first fell, the snow all
+about him being torn up in a way that showed how furious had been his
+struggles. Johnston had by dint of heroic exertion managed to withdraw
+his leg a little from underneath the heavy jumper; but he could not free
+himself altogether, so that had the wolves found out how completely both
+horse and man were in their power, they would have made short work of
+both. Fortunately, by vigorous shouting and wild waving of his arms, the
+foreman had been able to keep the cowardly creatures at bay long enough
+to allow the rescuing party to reach him. But he could not have kept up
+many minutes more, and if strength and voice had entirely forsaken him
+the dreadful end would soon have followed.
+
+Handling the injured man with a tenderness and care one would hardly have
+looked for in such rough fellows, the lumbermen after no small exertion
+got him up out of the gully and laid him upon the sleigh in the road.
+Then the horse was released from the jumper, and, being coaxed to his
+feet, led down the gully to where the sides were not so steep and he
+could scramble up, while the jumper itself was left behind to be
+recovered when they had more time to spare.
+
+Before they started off for the shanty one of the men had the curiosity
+to cross the gully and examine the bridge where it broke, in order to
+find out the cause of the accident. When he returned there was a strange
+expression on his face, which added to the curiosity of the others who
+were awaiting his report.
+
+"Both stringers are sawed near through!" he exclaimed. "And it's not been
+done long, either. Must have been done to-day, for the sawdust's lying
+round still."
+
+The men looked at one another in amazement and horror. The stringers
+sawed through! What scoundrel could have done such a thing? Who was the
+murderous traitor in their camp? Then to the quickest-witted of them came
+the thought of Damase's dire threat and consuming jealousy.
+
+"I know who did it," he cried. "There's only one man in the camp villain
+enough to do it. It was that hound Damase, as sure as I stand here!"
+
+Instantly the others saw the matter in the same light. Damase had done it
+beyond a doubt, hoping thereby to have the revenge for which his savage
+heart thirsted. Ill would it have gone with him could the men have laid
+hands on him at that moment. They were just in the mood to have inflicted
+such punishment as would probably have put the wretch in a worse plight
+than his intended victim, and many and fervent were their vows of
+vengeance, expressed in language rather the reverse of polite. Strict
+almost to severity as Johnston was in his management of the camp, the
+majority of the men, including all the best elements, regarded him with
+deep respect, if not affection; and that Damase Deschenaux should make so
+dastardly an attempt upon his life aroused in them a storm of indignant
+wrath which would not soon be allayed.
+
+They succeeded in making the sufferer quite comfortable upon the sleigh;
+but they had to go very slowly on the return journey to the shanty, both
+to make it easy for Johnston, and because the men had to walk now that
+the sleigh was occupied. So soon as they came in sight, Frank ran to meet
+them, calling out eagerly,--
+
+"Is he all right? Have you got him?"
+
+"We've got him, Frank, safe enough," replied the driver of the sleigh.
+"But we wasn't a minute too soon, I can tell you. I guess you must have
+sent your wolves off to him when you'd done with them."
+
+"Were the wolves at you, sir?" exclaimed Frank, bending over the foreman,
+and looking anxiously into his face.
+
+Johnston had fallen into a sort of doze or stupor but the stopping of the
+sleigh and Frank's anxious voice aroused him, and he opened his eyes with
+a smile that told plainly how dear to him the boy had become.
+
+"They weren't quite at me, Frank, but they soon would have been if the
+men hadn't come along," he replied.
+
+With exceeding tenderness the big helpless man was lifted from the sleigh
+and placed in his own bunk in the corner. The whole shanty was awake to
+receive him, a glorious fire roared and crackled upon the hearth, and the
+pleasant fragrance of fresh-brewed tea filled the room. So soon as the
+foreman's outer garments had been removed, Frank brought him a pannikin
+of the lumberman's pet beverage, and he drank it eagerly, saying that it
+was all the medicine he needed. Beyond making him as comfortable as
+possible, nothing further could be done for him, and in a little while
+the shantymen were all asleep again as soundly as though there had been
+no disturbance of their slumbers. Frank wanted to sit up with Johnston;
+but the foreman would not hear of it, and, anyway, thoroughly sincere as
+was his offer, he never could have carried it out, for he was very weary
+himself and ready to drop asleep at the first chance.
+
+Of Damase there was no sign. Some of the men had noticed him quitting
+work earlier than usual in the afternoon, and when he did not appear at
+supper-time had thought he was gone off hunting, which he loved to do
+whenever he got the opportunity. Whether or not he would have the
+assurance to return to the shanty would depend upon whether he had waited
+in ambush to see the result of his villany; for if he had done so, and
+had witnessed the at least partial failure of his plot, there was little
+chance of his being seen again.
+
+The next morning a careful examination of Johnston showed that, while no
+bones were broken, his right leg had been very badly twisted and strained
+almost to dislocation, and he had been internally injured to an extent
+that could be determined only by a doctor. It was decided to send a
+message for the nearest doctor, and meanwhile to do everything possible
+for the sufferer in the way of bandages and liniments that the simple
+shanty outfit afforded. By general understanding Frank assumed the duties
+of nurse; and it was not long before life at the camp settled down into
+its accustomed routine, Johnston having appointed the most experienced
+and reliable of the gang its foreman during his confinement. In due time
+the doctor came, examined his patient, made everybody glad by announcing
+that none of the injuries were serious, and that they required only time
+and attention for their cure, wrote out full directions for Frank to
+follow, and then, congratulating Johnston upon his good fortune in having
+so devoted and intelligent a nurse, set off again on the long drive to
+his distant home with the pleasant consciousness of having done his duty
+and earned a good fee.
+
+The weeks that followed were the happiest Frank spent that winter. His
+duties as nurse were not onerous, and he enjoyed very much the importance
+with which they invested him. So long as his patient was well looked
+after, he was free to come and go according to his inclinations, and the
+thoughtful foreman saw to it that he spent at least half the day in the
+open air, often sending him with messages to the men working far off in
+the woods. Frank always carried his rifle with him on these tramps, and
+frequently brought back with him a brace of hares or partridges, which,
+having had the benefit of Baptiste's skill, were greatly relished by
+Johnston, who found his appetite for the plain fare of the shanty much
+dulled by his confinement.
+
+As the days slipped by the foreman began to open his heart to his young
+companion and to tell him much about his boyhood, which deeply interested
+Frank. Living a frontier life, he had his full share of adventure in
+hunting, lumbering, and prospecting for limits, and many an hour was
+spent reviewing the past. One evening while they were thus talking
+together Johnston became silent and fell into a sort of reverie, from
+which he presently roused himself, and looking very earnestly into
+Frank's face, asked him,--
+
+"Have you always been a Christian, Frank?"
+
+The question came so unexpectedly and was so direct that Frank was quite
+taken aback, and being slow to answer, the foreman, as if fearing he had
+been too abrupt, went on to say,--
+
+"The reason I asked was because you seem to enjoy so much reading your
+Bible and saying your prayers that I thought you must have had those good
+habits a long time."
+
+Frank had now fully recovered himself, and with a blush that greatly
+became him, answered modestly,--
+
+"I have always loved God. Mother taught me how good and kind he is as
+soon as I was old enough to understand; and the older I get the more I
+want to love him and to try to do what is right."
+
+A look of ineffable tenderness came into Johnston's dark eyes while the
+boy was speaking. Then his face darkened, and giving vent to a heavy
+sigh, he passed his hand over his eyes as though to put away some painful
+recollection. After a moment's silence, he said,--
+
+"My mother loved her Bible, and wanted me to love it too. But I was a
+wild, headstrong chap, and didn't take kindly to the notion of being
+religious, and I'm afraid I cost her many a tear. God bless her! I wonder
+does she ever up there think of her son down here, and wonder if he's any
+better than he was when she had to leave him to look after himself."
+
+Not knowing just what to say, Frank made no reply, but his face glowed
+with sympathetic interest; and after another pause the foreman went on,--
+
+"I've been thinking a great deal lately, Frank, and it's been all your
+doing. Seeing you so particular about your religion, and not letting
+anything stop you from saying your prayers and reading your Bible just
+as you would at home, has made me feel dreadfully ashamed of myself, and
+I've been wanting to have a talk with you about it. Would you mind
+reading your Bible to me? I haven't been inside a church for many a year,
+and I guess I'd be none the worse of a little Bible-reading."
+
+Frank could not restrain an exclamation of delight. Would he mind? Had
+not this very thing been on his conscience for weeks past? Had he not
+been hoping and praying for a good opportunity to propose it himself, and
+only kept back because of his fear lest the foreman should think this
+offer presumptuous?
+
+"I shall be very glad indeed to read my Bible to you, sir," he answered
+eagerly. "I've been wanting to ask if I mightn't do it, but was afraid
+that perhaps you would not like it."
+
+"Well, Frank, to be honest with you, I'd a good deal rather have you read
+to me than read it for myself," said Johnston; "because you must know it
+'most by heart, and I've forgotten what little I did know once."
+
+The reading began that night, and thenceforward was never missed while
+the two were at Camp Kippewa. Young as Frank was, he had learned from
+his parents and at the Sunday school a great deal about the Book of
+books, and especially about the life of Christ, so that to Johnston he
+seemed almost a marvel of knowledge. It was beautiful to see the big
+man's simplicity as he sat at the feet, so to speak, of a mere boy, and
+learned anew from him the sublime and precious gospel truths that the
+indifference and neglect of more than forty years had buried in dim
+obscurity; and Frank found an ever-increasing pleasure in repeating the
+comments and explanations that he had heard from the dear lips at home.
+Even to his young eyes it was clear that the foreman was thoroughly in
+earnest, and would not stop short of a full surrender of himself to the
+Master he had so long refused to acknowledge. Above all things, he was a
+thorough man, and therefore this would take time, for he would insist
+upon knowing every step of the way; but once well started; no power on
+earth or beneath would be permitted to bar his progress to the very end.
+
+And this great end was achieved before he left his bunk to resume his
+work. He lay down there bruised and crippled and godless; but lie arose
+healed and strengthened and a new man in Christ Jesus! If Frank was proud
+of his big convert, who can blame him? But for his coming to the camp,
+Johnston might have remained as he was, caring for none of those things
+which touched his eternal interests; but now through the influence of his
+example, aided by favouring circumstances, he had been led to the
+Master's feet.
+
+But Damase--what of Damase? There is not much to tell. Whether or not he
+was watching when the bridge fell, and how he spent that night, no one
+ever knew. The next morning he was seen at the depot, where he explained
+his presence by saying that the foreman had "bounced" him, and that he
+was going back to his native town. Beyond this, nothing further was ever
+heard of him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+A HUNTING-TRIP.
+
+
+The hold of winter had begun to relax ere Johnston was able fully to
+resume his work, and a good deal of time having been lost through his
+accident, every effort had to be exerted to make it up ere the warm
+sunshine should put an end to the winter's work. Frank was looking
+forward eagerly to the day when they should break camp, for, to tell the
+truth, he felt that he had had quite enough of it for one season, and he
+was longing to be back in Calumet and enjoying the comforts of home once
+more. He was not exactly homesick. You would have very much offended him
+by hinting at that. He was simply tired of the monotony of camp fare and
+camp life, and anxious to return to civilization. So he counted the days
+that must pass before the order to break camp would come, and felt very
+light of heart when the sun shone warm, and correspondingly downcast when
+the thermometer sank below zero, as it was still liable to do.
+
+"Striving" was the order of the day at the lumber camp--that is, the
+different gangs of choppers and sawyers and teamsters vied with each
+other as to which could chop, saw, and haul the most logs in a day. The
+amount of work they could accomplish when thus striving might astonish
+Mr. Gladstone himself, from eighty to one hundred logs felled and trimmed
+being the day's work of two men. Frank was deeply interested in this
+competition, and enjoying the fullest confidence of the men, he was
+unanimously appointed scorer, keeping each gang's "tally" in a book, and
+reporting the results to the foreman, who heartily encouraged the rivalry
+among his men; for the harder they worked the better would be the showing
+for the season, and he was anxious not to lose the reputation he had won
+of turning out more logs at his shanty than did any other foreman on the
+Kippewa.
+
+As the weeks passed and March gave way to April, and April drew toward
+its close, the lumbermen's work grew more and more arduous; but they kept
+at it bravely until at last, near the end of April, the snow became so
+soft in the woods and the roads so bad that no more hauling could be
+done, and the whole attention of the camp was then given to getting the
+logs that had been gathering at the river-side all through the winter out
+upon the ice, so that they might be sure to be carried off by the spring
+floods. This work did not require all hands, and Johnston now saw the way
+clear to giving Frank a treat that he had long had in mind for him, but
+had said nothing about. They were having their usual chat together before
+going to bed, when the foreman said,--
+
+"Is there anything you would like to do before we break up camp?"
+
+Frank did not at first see the drift of the question, and looking at
+Johnston with a puzzled sort of expression, replied, questioningly,--
+
+"I don't know. I've had a very good time here."
+
+"Well, but can you think of anything you would like to do before you go
+back to Calumet?" persisted the foreman. "I'm asking you because there'll
+not be enough work to go round next week, and you can have a bit of
+holiday. Now, isn't there something you would like to have a taste of
+while you have the chance?" And as he spoke his eyes were directed toward
+the wall at the head of his bed, where hung his rifle, powder-flask, and
+hunting knife. Frank caught his meaning at once.
+
+"Oh, I see what you are driving at now!" he exclaimed. "You want to know
+if I wouldn't like to go out hunting."
+
+"Right you are," said Johnston. "Would you?"
+
+"Would I?" cried Frank. "Would a duck swim? Just try me, that's all."
+
+"Well, I do intend to try you," returned Johnston. "The firm have some
+limits over there near the foot of the mountain that they want me to
+prospect before I go back, and pick out the best place for a camp. I've
+been trying to make out to go over there all winter, but getting hurt
+upset my plans, and I've not had a chance until now. So I'm thinking of
+making a start to-morrow. There's nothing much else to do except to
+finish getting the logs on the ice, and I can trust the men to see to
+that; and, no odds what kind of weather we have, the ice can't start for
+a week at least. So if you'd like to come along with me and take your
+rifle, you may get a chance to have a shot at something before we get
+back. Does that suit you?"
+
+This proposition suited Frank admirably. A week in the woods in
+Johnston's company could not fail to be a week of delight, and he thanked
+the foreman in his warmest words for offering to take him on his
+prospecting tour.
+
+The following morning they set off, the party consisting of four--namely,
+the foreman, Frank, Laberge, who accompanied them as cook, and another
+man named Booth as a sort of assistant. The snow still lay deep enough to
+render snow-shoes necessary, and while Johnston and Frank carried their
+rifles, Laberge and Booth drew behind them a toboggan, upon which was
+packed a small tent and an abundant supply of provisions. Their route led
+straight into the heart of the vast and so far little-explored forest,
+and away from the river beside whose bank they had been living all
+winter. It was Johnston's purpose to penetrate to the foot of the
+mountain range that rose into sight nearly thirty miles away, and then
+work backward by a different route, noting carefully the lie of the land,
+the course of the streams, and the best bunches of timber, so as to make
+sure of selecting a site for the future camp in the very best locality.
+
+He was evidently in excellent spirits himself at the prospect of a week's
+holiday, for such it would really be, and all trace of his injury having
+entirely disappeared, there was no drawback to the energy with which he
+led his little expedition into the forest where they would be buried for
+the rest of the week.
+
+The weather was as fine as heart could wish. All day the sun shone
+brightly, and even at night the temperature never got anywhere near zero,
+so that with a buffalo-robe under you and a couple of good blankets over
+you it was possible to sleep quite comfortably in a canvas tent.
+
+"I can't promise you much in the way of game, Frank," said Johnston, as
+the two tramped along side by side. "It is too late in the season. But
+the bears must be out of their dens by this time, and if we see one we'll
+do our best to get his skin for you to take home."
+
+The idea of bringing a big bear-skin home as a trophy of his first real
+hunting expedition pleased Frank mightily, and his eyes flashed as he
+grasped his rifle in a way that would in itself have been sufficient
+warning to bruin, could he only have seen it, to keep well out of the way
+of so doughty an assailant.
+
+"I'd like immensely to have a shot at a bear, sir," he replied. "So I do
+hope we shall see one."
+
+"You must be precious careful, though, Frank," said Johnston, "for
+they're generally in mighty bad humour at this time of year, and you need
+to get your work in quick, or they may make short work of you."
+
+Various kinds of game were seen during the next day or two, and Frank had
+many a shot. But Johnston seldom fired, preferring to let Frank have all
+the fun, as he said. One afternoon, just before they went into camp, the
+keen eyes of Laberge detected something among the branches of a pine a
+little distance to the right of their path which caused his face to glow
+with excitement as he pointed eagerly to it, and exclaimed,--
+
+"_Voila_! A lucifee--shoot him, quick!"
+
+They all turned in the direction he pointed out, and there, sure enough,
+was a dark mass in the fork of the tree that, as they hastened toward it,
+resolved itself into a fierce-looking creature, full four times the size
+of an ordinary cat, which, instead of showing any fear at their approach,
+bristled up its back and uttered a deep, angry snarl that spoke volumes
+for its courage.
+
+"Now, then, Frank," said Johnston, "take first shot, and see if you can
+fetch the brute down."
+
+Trembling with excitement, Frank threw up his rifle, did his best to
+steady himself, took aim at the bewhiskered muzzle of the lynx, and
+pulled the trigger. The sharp crack of the rifle was followed by an
+ear-piercing shriek of mingled pain and rage, and the next instant the
+wounded creature launched forth into the air toward the hunters. Frank's
+nervousness, natural enough under the circumstances, had caused him to
+miss his mark a little, and the bullet, instead of piercing the
+"lucifee's" brain, had only stung him sorely in the shoulder.
+
+But quick as was its movements, Johnston was still quicker, and the
+moment its feet touched the snow, ere it could gather itself for another
+spring, his rifle cracked and a bullet put an end to its career.
+
+"Just as well you weren't by yourself, Frank; hey?" said he, with a smile
+of satisfaction at the accuracy of his shot. "This chap would have been
+an ugly customer at close quarters, and," turning the body over to find
+where the first bullet had hit, "you see you hardly winged him."
+
+Frank blushed furiously and looked very much ashamed of himself for not
+being a better marksman; but the foreman cheered him up by assuring him
+that he had really done very well in hitting the animal at all at that
+distance.
+
+"You only want a little practice, my boy," said he. "You have plenty of
+pluck; there's no mistake about that."
+
+The lynx had a fine skin, which Laberge deftly removed, and it was given
+to Frank because he had fired the first shot at it, so that he would not
+go back to Calumet without at least one hunting trophy on the strength of
+which he might do a little boasting.
+
+Further and further into the forest the little party pierced their way,
+not following any direct line, but making detours to right and left, in
+order that the country might be thoroughly inspected. As they neared the
+mountains the trees diminished in size and the streams shrank until, at
+the end of their journey, the first were too small to pay for cutting,
+and the second too shallow to be any good for floating. With no little
+difficulty they ascended a shoulder of the mountain range, in order to
+get a look over all the adjoining country, and then, Johnston having made
+up his mind as to the location of the best bunches of timber and the most
+convenient site for the projected lumber camp, the object of the
+expedition was accomplished, and they were at liberty to return to the
+shanty. But before they could do this they were destined to have an
+adventure that came perilously near taking away from them the youngest of
+their number.
+
+It was the afternoon before they struck camp on the return journey. The
+foreman was sitting by the tent mending one of his snow-shoes, which had
+been damaged tramping through the bush, Booth was busy cutting firewood,
+and Laberge making preparations for the evening meal. Having nothing else
+to do, Frank picked up his rifle and sauntered off toward the mountain
+side, with no very clear idea as to anything more than to kill a little
+time. Whistling cheerfully one of the many sacred melodies he knew and
+loved, he made his way over the snow, being soon lost to sight from the
+camp, Johnston calling after him just before he disappeared,--
+
+"Take care of yourself, my boy, and don't go too far."
+
+To which Frank responded with a smiling, "All right, sir."
+
+At the distance of about a quarter of a mile from the camp he noticed a
+sort of rift in the mountain, where the rocks were bare and exposed, and
+at the end of this rift a dark aperture was visible, which at once
+attracted his attention.
+
+The boy that could come across a cave without being filled with a burning
+curiosity to take a peep in and, if possible, explore its interior, would
+have to be a very dull fellow, and Frank certainly was not of that kind.
+This dark aperture was no doubt the mouth of a cave of some sort, and he
+determined to inspect it. When he got within about fifteen yards, he
+noticed what he had not seen before, that there was a well-defined track
+leading from the cave to the underbrush to the right, which had evidently
+been made by some large animal; and with somewhat of a start Frank
+immediately thought of a bear.
+
+Now, of course, under the circumstances, there was but one thing for him
+to do if he wished to illustrate his common sense, and that was to hurry
+back to the tent as fast as possible for reinforcements. Ordinarily, he
+would have done so at once, but this time he was still smarting a bit at
+his poor marksmanship in the case of the "lucifee," and the sight of the
+track in the snow suggested the idea of winning a reputation for himself
+by killing a bear without any assistance from the others. It was a rash
+and foolish notion; but then boys will be boys.
+
+Moving forward cautiously, he approached within ten yards of the cave and
+then halted again, bringing his rifle forward so as to be ready to fire
+at a moment's notice. Bending down until his eyes were on a level with
+the opening, he tried hard to peer into its depths; but the darkness was
+too deep to pierce, and he could not make out anything. Then he bethought
+him of another expedient. Picking up a lump of snow, he pressed it into a
+ball and threw it into the cave, at the same time shouting out, "Hallo
+there! Anybody inside?" A proceeding that capped the climax of his
+rashness and produced quite as sensational a result as he could possibly
+have desired, for the next moment a deep angry roar issued from the rocky
+retreat and a fiery pair of eyes gleamed out from its shadows. The
+critical moment had come, and taking aim a little below the shining orbs,
+so as to make sure of hitting, Frank pulled the trigger. The report of
+the rifle and the roar of the bear followed close upon one another,
+awaking the echoes of the adjoining heights. Then came a moment's
+silence, broken the next instant by a cry of alarm from Frank; for the
+bear, instead of writhing in the agonies of death, was charging down upon
+him with open mouth! Once more he had missed his mark and only wounded
+when he should have killed.
+
+There was but one thing for him to do--to flee for his life; and uttering
+a shout of "Help! help!" with all the strength of his lungs, he threw
+down his rifle and started for the tent at the top of his speed.
+
+It was well for him that the snow still lay deep upon the ground, and
+that he was so expert in the use of his snow-shoes; for while the bear
+wallowed heavily in the drifts, he flew lightly over them, so that for a
+time the furious creature lost ground rather than gained upon him. For a
+hundred yards the boy and bear raced through the forest, Frank continuing
+his cries for help while he ran. Looking back for an instant, he saw that
+the bear bad not yet drawn any nearer, and, terrified as he was, the
+thought flashed into his mind that if the brute followed him all the way
+to the camp he would soon be despatched by the men, and then he, Frank,
+would be entitled to some credit for thus bringing him to execution.
+
+On sped the two in their race for life, the boy skimming swiftly over the
+soft snow, the bear ploughing his way madly through it, until more than
+half the distance to the camp had been accomplished. If Johnston had
+heard the report of the rifle and Frank's wild cries for help, he should
+be coming into sight now, and with intense anxiety Frank looked ahead in
+hopes of seeing him emerge from the trees which clustered thickly in that
+direction. But there was no sign of him yet; and shouting again as loudly
+as he could, the boy pressed strenuously forward. There was greater need
+for exertion than ever, for he had reached a spot where the snow was not
+very deep and had been firmly packed by the wind, so that the bear's
+broad feet sank but little in it, and his rate of speed ominously
+increased. So close was the fierce creature coming that Frank could hear
+his paws pattering on the snow and his deep panting breath.
+
+Oh why did not Johnston appear? Surely he must have heard Frank's cries.
+Ah, there he was, just bursting through the trees into the opening, with
+Laberge and Booth close at his heels. Frank's heart bounded with joy, and
+he was tempted to take a glance back to see how close the bear had got.
+It was not a wise thing to do, and he came near paying dearly for doing
+it; for at the same instant his snowshoes caught in each other, and
+before he could recover himself he fell headlong in the snow with the
+bear right upon him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE GREAT SPRING DRIVE.
+
+
+At the sight of Frank's fall the three men gave a simultaneous shout of
+alarm that caused the bear to halt for a moment in his fierce pursuit,
+and lifting his head to look angrily in the direction from which the
+sound had come. This action saved the helpless boy--striving to regain
+his feet only a yard from death. The instant the creature's broad breast
+was exposed, Johnston threw his rifle to his shoulder, and without
+waiting to take aim, but ejaculating a fervent "Help me, O God!" pulled
+the trigger. The report of the rifle rang out sharp and clear, the heavy
+bullet sped through the air straight to its mark, and with it embedded in
+his heart the mighty animal, leaving untouched the boy at his feet, made
+a mad bound across his body to reach the assailant who had given him his
+death wound.
+
+But it was a vain though gallant attempt. Ere he was half-way to the
+foreman, he staggered and rolled over upon the snow, and before he could
+lift himself again the men were upon him, and Laberge, swinging his keen
+axe high in the air, brought it down with a mighty blow upon the brute's
+slanting forehead, letting daylight into his brain. Not even a bear could
+survive such a stroke, and without a struggle the creature yielded up its
+life.
+
+Instantly the foreman sprang to Frank's side and lifted him upon his
+feet.
+
+"My dear boy!" he cried, his face aflame with anxious love, as he clasped
+Frank passionately in his arms, "are you hurt at all? Did he touch you?"
+
+What between his previous exertions and the big man's mighty embrace,
+poor Frank had hardly enough breath left in him to reply, but he managed
+to gasp out,--
+
+"Not a bit. He never touched me."
+
+"Are you quite sure now?" persisted Johnston, whose anxiety could not be
+at once relieved. "O my lad! my heart stood still when you fell down
+right in front of the brute."
+
+"I'm quite sure, Mr. Johnston," said Frank. "See!" And to prove his words
+he gave a jump into the air,  threw up his arms, and shouted, "Hip! hip!
+hurrah!" with the full force of his lungs.
+
+"God be praised!" exclaimed the foreman. "What a wonderful escape! Let
+us kneel down right here, and give Him thanks," he added, suiting his
+action to his words. Frank at once followed his example; so too did
+Laberge and Booth; and there in the midst of the forest-wilds this
+strange praise-meeting was held over the body of the fierce creature from
+whose murderous rage Frank had been so happily delivered.
+
+Johnston sent Laberge back to the tent for the toboggan, and before
+darkness set in the bear was dragged thither, where the two men skilfully
+skinned him by the light of the camp fire, and stretched the pelt out to
+dry.
+
+The quartette had a long talk over the whole affair after supper had been
+disposed of. Frank was plied with questions which he took much pleasure
+in answering, for naturally enough he felt himself to be in some measure
+the hero of the occasion. While he could not help admiring and cordially
+praising Frank's audacity, the foreman felt bound to reprove him for it,
+and to impress upon him the necessity of showing more caution in future,
+or he might get himself into a situation of danger from which there might
+be no one at hand to deliver him. Frank, by this time thoroughly sobered
+down, listened dutifully, and readily promised to be more careful if he
+ever came across bear tracks again.
+
+"Anyway, my boy," said Johnston, "you won't go home empty-handed; and
+when your mother sees those two skins, which are both pretty good ones,
+she'll think more of you than she ever did before."
+
+"Yes, but you know," said Frank, "both skins oughtn't to be mine, for I
+didn't kill either of the animals."
+
+"Neither you did, Frank," replied Johnston, "but you came mighty near
+killing the one, and the other came mighty near killing you; so I think
+it's only fair you should have both.--Don't you think so, mates?" turning
+to the men.
+
+"Ah, _oui_," exclaimed Laberge, with a vigorous nod of his head.
+
+"Of course," added Booth, no less emphatically; and so the matter was
+settled very much to Frank's satisfaction.
+
+The next day the tent was packed and the little party set out for the
+shanty, which was reached in good time without anything eventful
+occurring on the way. They found the work of getting the logs down upon
+the ice well nigh completed, and the foreman's return giving an impetus
+to the men's exertions, it was finished in a few days more, and then
+there was nothing to do but to await the breaking up of the ice.
+
+They were not kept long in expectancy. The sun was now in full vigour;
+before his burning rays the snow and ice fled in utter rout; and the
+frost king, confessing defeat, withdrew his grasp from the Kippewa,
+which, as if rejoicing in its release, went rippling and bounding merrily
+on toward the great river beyond, bearing upon its bosom the many
+thousand logs which represented the hard labour of Camp Kippewa during
+the long cold winter months that were now past and gone. The most arduous
+and exciting phase of the lumberman's life had begun, the great spring
+drive, as they call it, and for weeks to come he would be engaged playing
+the part of shepherd after a strange fashion, with huge, clumsy, unruly
+logs for his flock, and the rushing river for the highway along which
+they should be driven.
+
+The shantymen were divided into two parties, one section taking the teams
+and camp-belongings back to the depot, the other and much larger section
+following the logs in their journey to the mills. Johnston put himself at
+the head of the latter, and Frank, of course, accompanied him, for the
+foreman was no less anxious to have him than the boy was to go. The bonds
+of affection that bound the two were growing stronger every day they were
+together. Frank regarded Johnston as the preserver of his life, and
+Johnston, on his part, looked upon Frank as having been in God's hands
+the means of bringing light and joy to his soul. It might be said,
+without exaggeration, that either of them would risk his life in the
+other's behalf with the utmost willingness.
+
+The journey down the river had to be done in light marching order. Not
+much baggage could be carried, so as not to burden too heavily the three
+or four "_bonnes_," as they call the long, light, flat-bottomed boats
+peculiar to lumbermen, which had been all winter awaiting the time when
+their services would be required. The shore work being beyond his
+strength, Frank was given a place in one of the _bonnes_ along with
+Baptiste, Laberge, and part of the commissariat, and it was their duty to
+precede the main body of the men, and have their dinner and supper ready
+for them when they came up. In this way Frank would get a perfect view of
+the whole business of river driving, and he was in high feather as they
+made a start on a beautiful morning in early May, with the sun shining
+brightly, the air soft and balmy, and the river reflecting the blue of
+the unclouded heavens.
+
+"Now take good care of Baptiste and the grub," said Johnston, with a
+smile, as he pushed the boat in which Frank was sitting off into the
+stream. "If you let anything happen to them, Frank, I don't know what
+we'll do to you."
+
+"I'll do my best, sir," replied Frank, smiling back. "The boat won't
+upset if I can help it, and as Baptiste can't swim, he'll do his best to
+be careful too; won't you, Baptiste?"
+
+"_Vraiment, mon cher_," cried Baptiste. "If we upset--poor Baptiste! zat
+will be the last of him." And he shrugged his fat shoulders and made a
+serio-comic grimace that set everybody laughing.
+
+If the Kippewa, through all its course, had been as deep and free from
+obstructions as it was opposite the lumber camp, the river drivers
+would have had an easy time of it getting their wooden flock to market.
+But none of the rivers in this part of the country go quietly on their
+way from source to outlet. Falls and rapids are of frequent occurrence,
+and it is these which add difficulty and danger to the lumberman's
+work. Carrying pike-poles and cant-hooks, the former being simply long
+tough ash poles with a sharp spike on the business end, and the latter
+shorter stouter poles, something like the handle of a shovel, with a
+curious curved iron attachment that took a firm grip of a log and enabled
+the worker to roll its lazy bulk over and over in the direction he
+desired--with these weapons taking the place of the axe and saw, the men
+set off on their journey down the river side, two of the boats going
+ahead, and two bringing up the rear.
+
+Frank felt in great spirits. He was thoroughly expert in the management
+of a _bonne_, and the voyage down the river in this lovely spring weather
+could be only continued enjoyment, especially as beyond steering the boat
+he had nothing to do, and it would be practically one long holiday. There
+were nearly twenty thousand logs to be guided, coaxed, rolled, and shoved
+for one hundred miles or more through sullen pools, sleeping reaches,
+turbulent rapids, and roaring falls, where, as if they were living
+things, they would seem to exhaust every possible means of delay. The way
+in which they would stick at some critical point and pile one upon
+another, until the whole river was blocked, defies description; and one
+seeing the spectacle for the first time might well be pardoned if he were
+to be positive that there could be no way of bringing order out of so
+hopeless a confusion, and releasing the tangled obstructed mass.
+
+For the first few days matters went very smoothly, the river being
+deep and swift, and the logs giving little trouble. Of course, numbers of
+them were continually stranding on the banks, but the watchful drivers
+soon spied them out, and with a push of the pike-pole, or drag of the
+cant-hook, sent them floating off again on their journey. At mid-day all
+the men would gather about Baptiste's kettles and dispose of a hearty
+dinner, and then again at night they would leave the logs to look after
+themselves while they ate their supper and talked, and then lay down to
+rest their weary bodies. But this condition of things was too good to
+last. In due time the difficulties began to show themselves, and then
+Frank saw the most exciting and dangerous phase of a lumberman's life--a
+part of it with which when he grew older he must himself become familiar
+if he would be master of the whole business, as it was his ambition to
+be.
+
+The great army of logs, forging onward slowly or swiftly, according to
+the force of the current, would come to a point where the stream narrowed
+and jagged rocks thrust their unwelcome heads above the surface. The
+vanguard of the army, perhaps, passing either to right or left of the
+rocks, would go on its way unchecked. But when the main body came up, and
+the whole stream was full of drifting logs, some clumsy tree trunk going
+down broadside first would bring up short against the rock. As quickly as
+a crowd will gather in a city street, the other logs would cluster about
+the one that obstructed their passage. There would be no stopping the
+on-rush. In less time than it takes to describe it, a hundred logs would
+be jostling one another in the current; and every minute the confusion
+would increase, until ere long the disordered mass would stretch from
+shore to shore, the whole stream would be blocked up, and the event most
+dreaded by the river driver would have taken place, to wit, a log jam.
+
+The worst place that Johnston had to encounter in getting his drive of
+logs to the river was at the Black Rapids, and never will Frank forget
+the thrilling excitement of that experience. These rapids were the terror
+of the Kippewa lumbermen. They were situated in the swiftest part of the
+river, and if Nature had in cold blood tried her utmost to give the
+despoilers of her forest a hard nut to crack she could scarcely have
+succeeded better. The boiling current was divided into two portions by a
+jagged spur of rock that thrust itself above the surging waters, and so
+sure as a log came broadside against this projection it was caught and
+held in a firm embrace.
+
+Johnston thoroughly understood this, and had taken every care to
+prevent a jam occurring; and if it had been possible for him to do what
+was in his mind--namely, to land upon the troublesome rock, and with his
+pike-pole push back again into the current every log that threatened to
+stick--the whole drive would have slipped safely by. He did make a
+gallant attempt to carry this out, putting four of the best oarsmen into
+Frank's boat, and trying again and again to force his way through the
+fierce current to the rock, while Frank watched him with breathless
+interest from the bank. But, strain and tug as the oarsmen might, the
+eddying, whirling stream was too strong for them, and swept them past the
+rock again and again, until at length the foreman had to give up
+his design as impracticable.
+
+It was exciting work, and Frank longed very much to be in the boat; but
+Johnston, indulgent as he was toward his favourite, refused him this
+time.
+
+"No, no, Frank; I couldn't think of it," he said decidedly. "It's too
+risky a business. The _bonne_ might be smashed any time, and if it did
+we'd run a poor chance of getting out of these rapids. More than one good
+man has gone to his death here."
+
+"Have there been men killed in these rapids?" Frank asked, with a look of
+profound concern at his big friend, who was taking such risks. "The poor
+fellows! What a dreadful death! They must have been dashed against the
+rocks. Surely you won't try it again, will you?" For it was dinner-time,
+and all hands were taking a welcome rest before resuming the toils of the
+day.
+
+Johnston thoroughly understood and appreciated the boy's anxiety in his
+behalf, and there was a look of wonderful tenderness in his eyes as he
+answered him:--
+
+"I must try it once more, Frank; for if I can only get out to that rock
+there'll be no jam this day. But don't you worry. I've taken bigger risks
+and come out all right."
+
+So he made one more attempt, while Frank watched every movement of the
+boat, praying earnestly for its preservation. Again he failed, and the
+_bonne_ returned to the bank unharmed. But hardly had the weary men
+thrown themselves down for a brief spell of rest than what they all so
+dreaded happened. One of the logs, getting into a cross eddy, rolled
+broadside against the rock. It was caught and held fast. Another and
+another charged against it and stayed there. The main body of the drive
+was now passing down, and every moment the jam increased in size. Soon it
+would fill the whole stream. Yet the lumbermen were powerless to prevent
+its growth. They could do nothing until it had so checked the current
+that it would be possible to make a way over to its centre.
+
+So soon as this took place, Johnston, accompanied by three of his best
+men, armed with axes and cant-hooks, leaping from log to log with the
+sure agility only lumbermen could show, succeeded in reaching the heart
+of the jam, and at once proceeded to attack it with tremendous energy.
+One log after another was detached from the disordered mass and sent
+whirling off down stream, until at the end of an hour's arduous exertion,
+the key-piece--that is, the log that had caused all the trouble--was
+found.
+
+"Now, my boys," said Johnston to his men, "get ashore as quick as you
+can. I'll stay and cut out the key-piece."
+
+The men demurred for a moment. They were reluctant to leave their chief
+alone in a position of such extreme peril. But he commanded them to go.
+
+"There's only one man wanted," he said; "and I'll do it myself. It's no
+use you risking your lives too."
+
+So the men obeyed, and returned to the bank to join the group watching
+Johnston's movements with intense anxiety. They all knew as well as he
+did the exceeding peril of his position, and not one of them would
+breathe freely until he had accomplished his task, and found his way
+safely back to the shore.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+HOME AGAIN.
+
+
+For so large a man the foreman showed an agility that was really
+wonderful, as he leaped from log to log with the swiftness and sureness
+of a chamois. He had been lumbering all his life, and there was nothing
+that fell to the lumberman's experience with which he was not perfectly
+familiar. Yet it is doubtful if he ever had a more difficult or dangerous
+task than that before him now. The "key-piece" of the jam was fully
+exposed, and once it was cut in two it would no longer hold the
+accumulation of logs together. They would be released from their bondage,
+and springing forward with the full force of the pent-up current, would
+rush madly down stream, carrying everything before them.
+
+But what would Johnston do in the midst of this tumult? A few more
+moments would tell; for his axe was dealing tremendous strokes, before
+which the key-piece, stout though it was, must soon yield. Ah, it is
+almost severed. The foreman pauses for an instant and glances keenly
+around, evidently in order to see what will be his best course of action
+when the jam breaks. Frank, in an agony of apprehension and anxiety, has
+sunk to his knees, his lips moving in earnest prayer, while his eyes are
+fixed on his beloved friend. Johnston's quick glance falls upon him, and,
+catching the significance of his attitude, his face is irradiated with a
+heavenly light of love as lie calls out across the boiling current,--
+
+"God bless you, Frank! Keep praying."
+
+Then he returns to his work. The keen axe flashes through the air in
+stroke after stroke. At length there comes a sound that cannot be
+mistaken. The foreman throws aside his axe and prepares to jump for
+life; and, like one man, the breathless onlookers shout together as the
+key-piece rends in two, and the huge jam, suddenly released, bursts away
+from the rock and charges tumultuously down the river.
+
+If ever man needed the power of prompt decision, it was the foreman then.
+To the men on shore there seemed no possible way of escape from the
+avalanche of logs; and Frank shut his eyes lest he should have to witness
+a dreadful tragedy. A cry from the men caused him to open them again
+quickly, and when he looked at the rock it was untenanted--Johnston had
+disappeared! Speechless with dread, he turned to the man nearest him, his
+blanched countenance expressing the inquiry he could not utter.
+
+"He's there," cried the man, pointing to the whirl of water behind the
+body of logs. "He dived."
+
+And so it was. Recognizing that to remain in the way of the jam was to
+court certain death, the foreman chose the desperate alternative of
+diving beneath the logs, and allowing them to pass over him before he
+rose to the surface. Great was the relief of Frank and the others when,
+amid the foaming water, Johnston's head appeared, and he struck out to
+keep himself afloat. But it was evident that he had little strength left,
+and was quite unable to contend with the mighty current. Good swimmer as
+he was, the danger of drowning threatened him.
+
+Frank's quick eyes noticed this, and like a flash the fearless boy, not
+stopping to call any of the others to his aid, bounded down the bank to
+where the _bonne_ lay upon the shore, shoved her off into deep water,
+springing in over the bow as she slipped away, and in another moment was
+whirling down the river, crying out at the top of his voice,--
+
+"I'm coming! I'll save you! Keep up!"
+
+His eager shouts reached Johnston's ears, and the sight of the boat,
+pitching and tossing as the current swept it toward him, inspired him to
+renewed exertion. He struggled to get in the way of the boat, and
+succeeded so well that Frank, leaning over the side as far as he dared,
+was able to seize his outstretched hand and hold it until he could grasp
+the gunwale himself with a grip that no current could loosen. A glad
+shout of relief went up from the men at sight of this, and Frank, having
+made sure that the foreman was now out of danger, seized the oars and
+began to ply them vigorously with the purpose of beaching the _bonne_ at
+the first opportunity. They had to go some distance before this could be
+done, but Johnston held on firmly, and presently a projecting point was
+reached, against which Frank steered the boat; and the moment she was
+aground, he hastened to the stern and helped the foreman ashore, the
+latter having just strength enough left to drag himself out of the water
+and fall in a limp, dripping heap upon the ground.
+
+"God bless you, Frank dear," he said, as soon as he recovered his breath.
+"You've saved my life again. I never could have got ashore if you hadn't
+come after me. One of the logs must have hit me on the head when I was
+diving, for I felt so faint and dizzy when I came up that I thought it
+was all over with me. But, thank God, I'm a live man still; and I'm sure
+it's not for nothing that I've been spared."
+
+The men all thought it a plucky act on Frank's part to go off alone in
+the boat to the foreman's rescue, and showered unstinted praise upon him;
+all of which he took very quietly, for, indeed, he felt quite
+sufficiently rewarded in that his venture was crowned with success. The
+exciting incident of course threw everybody out in their work, and when
+they returned to it they found that the logs had taken advantage of their
+being left uncared for to play all sorts of queer pranks and run
+themselves aground in every conceivable fashion.
+
+But the river drivers did not mind this very much. The hated Black Rapids
+were passed, and the rest of the Kippewa was comparatively smooth
+sailing. So, with song and joke, they toiled away until all their charges
+were afloat again and gliding steadily onward toward their goal.
+Thenceforward they had little interruption in their course; and Frank
+found the life wonderfully pleasant, drifting idly all day long in the
+_bonne_, and camping at night beside the river, the weather being bright,
+and warm, and delightful all the time.
+
+So soon as the Kippewa rolled its burden of forest spoils out upon the
+broad bosom of the Ottawa--the Grand River, as those who live beside its
+batiks love to call it--the work of the river drivers was over. The logs
+that had caused them so much trouble were now handed over to the care of
+a company which gathered them up into "tows," and with powerful steamers
+dragged them down the river until the sorting grounds were reached, where
+they were turned into the "booms" to await their time for execution--in
+other words, their sawing up.
+
+Frank felt really sorry when the driving was over. He loved the water,
+and would have been glad to spend the whole summer upon it. He was
+telling Johnston this as they were talking together on the evening of the
+last day upon the Kippewa. Johnston had been saying to him how glad he
+must be that the work was all over, and that they now could go over to
+the nearest village and take the stage for home. But Frank did not
+entirely agree with him.
+
+"I'm not anxious to go home by stage," said he. "I'd a good deal rather
+stick to the river. I think it's just splendid, so long as the weather's
+fine."
+
+"Why, what a water-dog you are, Frank!" said the foreman, laughing. "One
+would think you'd have had enough of the water by this time."
+
+"Not a bit of it," said Frank, returning the smile. "The woods in winter,
+and the water in summer--that's what I enjoy."
+
+"Well, but aren't you in a hurry to get home and see your mother again?"
+queried Johnston.
+
+"Of course I am," answered Frank. "But, you see, a day or two won't make
+much difference, for she doesn't know just when to look for me; and I've
+never been on this part of the Ottawa, and want to see it ever so much."
+
+"Well--let me see," reflected Johnston. "How can we manage it? You'd soon
+get sick of the steamers. They're mortal slow and very dirty. Besides,
+they don't encourage passengers, or they'd have too many of them. But
+hold on!" he exclaimed, his face lighting up with a new idea. "I've got
+it. How would you like to finish the rest of the trip home on a square
+timber raft? There'll be one passing any day, and I know 'most all the
+men in the business, so there'll be no difficulty about getting a
+passage."
+
+"The very idea!" cried Frank, jumping up and bringing his hand down upon
+his thigh with a resounding slap. "Nothing would please me better. Oh,
+what fun it will be shooting the slides!" And he danced about in delight
+at the prospect.
+
+"All right then, my lad," said Johnston, smiling at the boy's exuberance.
+"We'll just wait here until a raft comes along, and then we'll board her
+and ask the fellows to let us go down with them. They won't refuse."
+
+They had not long to wait, for the very next day a huge raft hove in
+sight--a real floating island of mighty timbers--and on going out to it
+in the _bonne_, Johnston was glad to find that the foreman in charge was
+an old friend who would be heartily pleased at having his company for the
+rest of the voyage. So he and Frank brought their scanty baggage on
+board, and joined themselves to the crew of men that, with the aid of a
+towing steamer, were navigating this very strange kind of craft down the
+river.
+
+This was an altogether novel experience for Frank, and he found it much
+to his liking. The raft was an immense one.
+
+"As fine a lot of square timber as I ever took down," said its captain
+proudly. "It's worth five thousand pounds if it's worth a penny."
+
+Five thousand pounds! Frank's eyes opened wide at the mention of this
+vast sum, and he wondered to himself if he should ever be the owner of
+such a valuable piece of property. Although he had begun as a chore-boy,
+his ambition was by no means limited to his becoming in due time a
+foreman like Johnston, or even an overseer like Alec Stewart. He allowed
+his imagination to carry him forward to a day of still greater things,
+when he should be his own master, and have foremen and overseers under
+him. This slow sailing down the river was very favourable to day
+dreaming, and Frank could indulge himself to his heart's content during
+the long lovely spring days. There were more than twoscore men upon the
+raft, the majority of them habitants and half-breeds, and they were as
+full of songs as robins; especially in the evening after supper, when
+they would gather about the great fire always burning on its clay bed in
+the centre of the raft, and with solo and chorus awake the echoes of the
+placid river.
+
+In common with the rivers which pour into it, the Ottawa is broken by
+many falls and rapids, and to have attempted to run the huge raft over
+one of these would have insured its complete destruction. But this
+difficulty is duly provided for. At one side of the fall a "slide" is
+built--that is, a contrivance something like a canal, with sides and
+bottom of heavy timber, and having a steep slope down which the water
+rushes in frantic haste to the level below. Now the raft is not put
+together in one piece, but is made up of a number of "cribs"--a crib
+being a small raft containing fifteen to twenty timbers, and being about
+twenty-four feet wide by thirty feet in length. At the head of the slide
+the big raft is separated into the cribs, and these cribs make the
+descent one at a time, each having three or four men on board.
+
+Shooting the slides, as it is called, is a most delightful amusement to
+people whose nerves don't bother them. Frank had heard so much about it
+that he was looking forward to it from the time he boarded the raft, and
+now at Des Joachim Falls he was to have the realization. He went down in
+one of the first cribs, and this is the way he described the experience
+to his mother:--
+
+"But, mother, the best fun of the whole thing is shooting the slides. I
+just wish there was a slide near Calumet, so that I could take you down
+and let you see how splendid it is. Why, it's just like--let me see--I've
+got it! It's just like tobogganing on water. You jump on board the crib
+at the mouth of the slide, you know, and it moves along very slowly at
+first, until it gets to the edge of the first slant; then it takes a
+sudden start, and away it goes shooting down like greased lightning,
+making the water fly up all around you, just like the snow does when
+you're tobogganing. Oh, but if it isn't grand! The timbers of the crib
+rub against the bottom of the slide, and groan and creak as if it hurt
+them. And then, besides coming in over the bow, the water spurts up
+between the timbers, so that you have to look spry or you're bound to get
+soaking wet. I got drenched nearly every time; but that didn't matter,
+for the sun soon made me dry again, and it was too good fun to mind a
+little wetting."
+
+Frank felt quite sorry when the last of the slides was passed, and wished
+there were twice as many on the route of the raft. But presently he had
+something else to occupy his thoughts, for each day brought him nearer to
+Calumet, and soon his journeyings by land and water would be ended, and
+he would be at home again to make his mother's heart glad.
+
+It was the perfection of a spring day when the raft, moving in its
+leisurely fashion--for was not the whole summer before it?--reached
+Calumet, and Mrs. Kingston, sitting alone in her cottage, and wondering
+when her boy would make his appearance, was surprised by an unceremonious
+opening of the front door, a quick step in the hall, and a sudden
+enfolding by two stout arms, while a voice that she had not heard for
+months shouted in joyous accents,--
+
+"Here I am, mother darling, safe and sound, right side up with care, and
+oh, so glad to be at home again!"
+
+Mrs. Kingston returned the fond embrace with interest, and then held
+Frank off at arms-length to see how much he had changed during his six
+months' absence. She found him both taller and stouter, and with his face
+well browned by the exposure to the bright spring sunshine.
+
+"You went away a boy, and you've come back almost a man, Frank," she
+said, her eyes brimming with tears of joy. "But you're my own boy the
+same as ever; aren't you, darling?"
+
+It was many a day before Frank reached the end of his story of life at
+the lumber camp, for Mrs. Kingston never wearied of hearing all about it.
+When she learned of his different escapes from danger, the inclination of
+her heart was to beseech him to be content with one winter in the woods,
+and to take up some other occupation. But she wisely said nothing, for
+there could be no doubt as to the direction in which Frank's heart
+inclined, and she determined not to interfere.
+
+When in the following autumn Frank went back to the forest, he was again
+under Johnston's command, but not as chore-boy. He was appointed clerk
+and checker, with liberty to do as much chopping or other work as he
+pleased. Whatever his duty was he did it with all his might, doing it
+heartily as to the Lord and not unto men, so that he found increasing
+favour in his employer's eyes, rising steadily higher and higher until,
+while still a young man, he was admitted into partnership, and had the
+sweet satisfaction of realizing the day dreams of that first trip down
+the Ottawa on a timber raft.
+
+Yet he never forgot what he had learned when chore-boy of Camp Kippewa,
+and out of that experience grew a practical philanthropic interest in the
+well-being and advancement of his employees, that made him the most
+popular and respected "lumber-king" on the river.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Young Woodsman, by J. McDonald Oxley
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Young Woodsman, by J. McDonald Oxley
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
+copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
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+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+
+Title: The Young Woodsman
+       Life in the Forests of Canada
+
+Author: J. McDonald Oxley
+
+Release Date: February, 2006 [EBook #9968]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on November 5, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE YOUNG WOODSMAN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Imran Ghory, Stan Goodman, Mary Meehan
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+THE YOUNG WOODSMAN
+
+OR
+
+Life in the Forests of Canada
+
+BY J. MACDONALD OXLEY
+
+Author of "Diamond Rock; or, On the Right Track," &c. &c.
+
+1895
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+     I. THE CALL TO WORK
+
+    II. THE CHOICE OF AN OCCUPATION
+
+   III. OFF TO THE WOODS
+
+    IV. THE BUILDING OF THE SHANTY
+
+     V. STANDING FIRE
+
+    VI. LIFE IN THE LUMBER CAMP
+
+   VII. A THRILLING EXPERIENCE
+
+  VIII. IN THE NICK OF TIME
+
+    IX. OUT OF CLOUDS, SUNSHINE
+
+     X. A HUNTING-TRIP
+
+    XI. THE GREAT SPRING DRIVE
+
+   XII. HOME AGAIN
+
+
+
+
+THE YOUNG WOODSMAN.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE CALL TO WORK.
+
+
+"I'm afraid there'll be no more school for you now, Frank darling. Will
+you mind having to go to work?"
+
+"Mind it! Why, no, mother; not the least bit. I'm quite old enough, ain't
+I?"
+
+"I suppose you are, dear; though I would like to have you stay at your
+lessons for one more year anyway. What kind of work would you like best?"
+
+"That's not a hard question to answer, mother. I want to be what father
+was."
+
+The mother's face grew pale at this reply, and for some few moments she
+made no response.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The march of civilization on a great continent means loss as well as
+gain. The opening up of the country for settlement, the increase and
+spread of population, the making of the wilderness to blossom as the
+rose, compel the gradual retreat and disappearance of interesting
+features that can never be replaced. The buffalo, the beaver, and the elk
+have gone; the bear, the Indian, and the forest in which they are both
+most at home, are fast following.
+
+Along the northern border of settlement in Canada there are flourishing
+villages and thriving hamlets to-day where but a few years ago the
+verdurous billows of the primeval forest rolled in unbroken grandeur. The
+history of any one of these villages is the history of all. An open space
+beside the bank of a stream or the margin of a lake presented itself to
+the keen eye of the woodranger traversing the trackless waste of forest
+as a fine site for a lumber camp. In course of time the lumber camp grew
+into a depot from which other camps, set still farther back in the depths
+of the "limits," are supplied. Then the depot develops into a settlement
+surrounded by farms; the settlement gathers itself into a village with
+shops, schools, churches, and hotels; and so the process of growth goes
+on, the forest ever retreating as the dwellings of men multiply.
+
+It was in a village with just such a history, and bearing the name of
+Calumet, occupying a commanding situation on a vigorous tributary of the
+Ottawa River--the Grand River, as the dwellers beside its banks are fond
+of calling it--that Frank Kingston first made the discovery of his own
+existence and of the world around him. He at once proceeded to make
+himself master of the situation, and so long as he confined his efforts
+to the limits of his own home he met with an encouraging degree of
+success; for he was an only child, and, his father's occupation requiring
+him to be away from home a large part of the year, his mother could
+hardly be severely blamed if she permitted her boy to have a good deal of
+his own way.
+
+In the result, however, he was not spoiled. He came of sturdy, sensible
+stock, and had inherited some of the best qualities from both sides of
+the house. To his mother he owed his fair curly hair, his deep blue,
+honest eyes, his impulsive and tender heart; to his father, his strong
+symmetrical figure, his quick brain, and his eager ambition. He was a
+good-looking, if not strikingly handsome, boy, and carried himself in an
+alert, active way that made a good impression on one at the start. He had
+a quick temper that would flash out hotly if he were provoked, and at
+such times he would do and say things for which he was heartily sorry
+afterwards. But from those hateful qualities that we call malice,
+rancour, and sullenness he was absolutely free. To "have it out" and then
+shake hands and forget all about it--that was his way of dealing with a
+disagreement. Boys built on these lines are always popular among their
+comrades, and Frank was no exception. In fact, if one of those amicable
+contests as to the most popular personage, now so much in vogue at fairs
+and bazaars, were to have been held in Calumet school, the probabilities
+were all in favour of Frank coming out at the head of the poll.
+
+But better, because more enduring than all these good qualities of body,
+head, and heart that formed Frank's sole fortune in the world, was the
+thorough religious training upon which they were based. His mother had
+left a Christian household to help her husband to found a new home in the
+great Canadian timberland; and this new home had ever been a sweet,
+serene centre of light and love. While Calumet was little more than a
+straggling collection of unlovely frame cottages, and too small to have a
+church and pastor of its own, the hard-working Christian minister who
+managed to make his way thither once a month or so, to hold service in
+the little schoolroom, was always sure of the heartiest kind of a
+welcome, and the daintiest dinner possible in that out-of-the-way place,
+at Mrs. Kingston's cozy cottage. And thus Frank had been brought into
+friendly relations with the "men in black" from the start, with the good
+result of causing him to love and respect these zealous home
+missionaries, instead of shrinking from them in vague repugnance, as did
+many of his companions who had not his opportunities.
+
+When he grew old enough to be trusted, it was his proud privilege to take
+the minister's tired horse to water and to fill the rack with sweet hay
+for his refreshment before they all went off to the service together; and
+very frequently when the minister was leaving he would take Frank up
+beside him for a drive as far as the cross-roads, not losing the chance
+to say a kindly and encouraging word or two that might help the little
+fellow heavenward.
+
+In due time the settlement so prospered and expanded that a little church
+was established there, and great was the delight of Mrs. Kingston when
+Calumet had its minister, to whom she continued to be a most effective
+helper. This love for the church and its workers, which was more manifest
+in her than in her husband--for, although he thought and felt alike with
+her, he was a reserved, undemonstrative man--Mrs. Kingston sought by
+every wise means to instill into her only son; and she had much success.
+Religion had no terrors for him. He had never thought of it as a gloomy,
+joy-dispelling influence that would make him a long-faced "softy." Not a
+bit of it. His father was religious; and who was stronger, braver, or
+more manly than his father? His mother was a pious woman; and who could
+laugh more cheerily or romp more merrily than his mother? The ministers
+who came to the house were men of God; and yet they were full of life and
+spirits, and dinner never seemed more delightful than when they sat at
+the table. No, indeed! You would have had a hard job to persuade Frank
+Kingston that you lost anything by being religious. He knew far better
+than that; and while of course he was too thorough a boy, with all a
+boy's hasty, hearty, impulsive ways, to do everything "decently and in
+order," and would kick over the traces, so to speak, sometimes, and give
+rather startling exhibitions of temper, still in the main and at heart he
+was a sturdy little Christian, who, when the storm was over, felt more
+sorry and remembered it longer than did anybody else.
+
+Out of the way as Calumet might seem to city folk, yet the boys of the
+place managed to have a very good time. There were nearly a hundred of
+them, ranging in age from seven years to seventeen, attending the school
+which stood in the centre of a big lot at the western end of the village,
+and with swimming, boating, lacrosse, and baseball in summer, and
+skating, snow-shoeing, and tobogganing in winter, they never lacked for
+fun. Frank was expert in all these sports. Some of the boys might excel
+him at one or another of them, but not one of his companions could beat
+him in an all-round contest. This was due in part to the strength and
+symmetry of his frame, and in part to that spirit of thoroughness which
+characterized all he undertook. There was nothing half-way about him. He
+put his whole soul into everything that interested him, and, so far as
+play was concerned, at fifteen years of age he could swim, run, handle a
+lacrosse, hit a base-ball, skim over the ice on skates, or over snow on
+snow-shoes, with a dexterity that gave himself a vast amount of pleasure
+and his parents a good deal of pride in him.
+
+Nor was he behindhand as regarded the training of his mind. Mr. Warren,
+the head teacher of the Calumet school, regarded him favourably as one of
+his best and brightest pupils, and it was not often that the "roll of
+honour" failed to contain the name of Frank Kingston. At the midsummer
+closing of the school it was Mr. Warren's practice to award a number of
+simple prizes to the pupils whose record throughout the half-year had
+been highest in the different subjects, and year after year Frank had won
+a goodly share of these trophies, which were always books, so that now
+there was a shelf in his room upon which stood in attractive array
+Livingstone's "Travels," Ballantyne's "Hudson Bay," Kingsley's "Westward
+Ho!" side by side with "Robinson Crusoe," "Pilgrim's Progress," and "Tom
+Brown at Rugby." Frank knew these books almost by heart, yet never
+wearied of turning to them again and again. He drew inspiration from
+them. They helped to mould his character, although of this he was hardly
+conscious, and they filled his soul with a longing for adventure and
+enterprise that no ordinary everyday career could satisfy. He looked
+forward eagerly to the time when he would take a man's part in life and
+attempt and achieve notable deeds. With Amyas Leigh he traversed the
+tropical wilderness of Southern America, or with the "Young Fur Traders"
+the hard-frozen wastes of the boundless North, and he burned to
+emulate their brave doings. He little knew, as he indulged in these
+boyish imaginations, that the time was not far off when the call would
+come to him to begin life in dead earnest on his own account, and with as
+many obstacles to be overcome in his way as had any of his favourite
+heroes in theirs.
+
+Mr. Kingston was at home only during the summer season. The long cold
+winter months were spent by him at the "depot," many miles off in the
+heart of the forest, or at the "shanties" that were connected with it. At
+rare intervals during the winter he might manage to get home for a
+Sunday, but that was all his wife and son saw of him until the spring
+time. When the "drive" of the logs that represented the winter's work was
+over, he returned to them, to remain until the falling of the leaves
+recalled him to the forest. Frank loved and admired his father to the
+utmost of his ability; and when in his coolest, calmest moods he realized
+that there was small possibility of his ever sailing the Spanish main
+like Amyas Leigh, or exploring the interior of Africa like Livingstone,
+he felt quite settled in his own mind that, following in his father's
+footsteps, he would adopt lumbering as his business. 'Tis true, his
+father was only an agent or foreman, and might never be anything more;
+but even that was not to be despised, and then, with a little extra good
+fortune, he might in time become an owner of "limits" and mills himself.
+Why not? Many another boy had thus risen into wealth and importance. He
+had at least the right to try.
+
+Fifteen in October, and in the highest class, this was to be Frank's last
+winter at school; and before leaving for the woods his father had
+enjoined upon him to make the best of it, as after the summer holidays
+were over he would have to "cease learning, and begin earning." Frank was
+rather glad to hear this. He was beginning to think he had grown too big
+for school, and ought to be doing something more directly remunerative.
+Poor boy! Could he have guessed that those were the last words he would
+hear from his dear father's lips, how differently would they have
+affected him! Calumet never saw Mr. Kingston again. In returning alone to
+the depot from a distant shanty, he was caught in a fierce and sudden
+snowstorm. The little-travelled road through the forest was soon
+obliterated. Blinded and bewildered by the pitiless storm beating in
+their faces, both man and beast lost their way, and, wandering about
+until all strength was spent, lay down to die in the drifts that quickly
+hid their bodies from sight. It was many days before they were found,
+lying together, close wrapped in their winding-sheet of snow.
+
+Mrs. Kingston bore the dreadful trial with the fortitude and submissive
+grace that only a serene and unmurmuring faith can give. Frank was more
+demonstrative in his grief, and disposed to rebel against so cruel a
+calamity. But his mother calmed and inspired him, and when the first
+numbing force of the blow had passed away, they took counsel together as
+to the future. This was dark and uncertain enough. All that was left to
+them was the little cottage in which they lived. Mr. Kingston's salary
+had not been large, and only by careful management had the house been
+secured. Of kind and sympathizing friends there was no lack, but they
+were mostly people in moderate circumstances, like themselves, from whom
+nothing more than sympathy could be expected.
+
+There was no alternative but that Frank should begin at once to earn his
+own living, and thus the conversation came about with which this chapter
+began, and which brought forth the reply from Frank that evidently gave
+his mother deep concern.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE CHOICE OF AN OCCUPATION.
+
+
+The fact was that Mrs. Kingston felt a strong repugnance to her son's
+following in his father's footsteps, so far as his occupation was
+concerned. She dreaded the danger that was inseparable from it, and
+shrank from the idea of giving up the boy, whose company was now the
+chief delight of her life, for all the long winter months that would be
+so dreary without him.
+
+Frank had some inkling of his mother's feelings, but, boy like, thought
+of them as only the natural nervousness of womankind; and his heart being
+set upon going to the woods, he was not very open to argument.
+
+"Why don't you want me to go lumbering, mother?" he inquired in a tone
+that had a touch of petulance in it. "I've got to do something for
+myself, and I detest shopkeeping. It's not in my line at all. Fellows
+like Tom Clemon and Jack Stoner may find it suits them, but I can't bear
+the idea of being shut up in a shop or office all day. I want to be out
+of doors. That's the kind of life for me."
+
+Mrs. Kingston gave a sigh that was a presage of defeat as she regarded
+her son standing before her, his handsome face flushed with eagerness and
+his eyes flashing with determination.
+
+"But, Frank dear," said she gently, "have you thought how dreadfully
+lonely it will be for me living all alone here during the long
+winter--your father gone from me, and you away off in the woods, where I
+can never get to you or you to me?"
+
+The flush on Frank's face deepened and extended until it covered forehead
+and neck with its crimson glow. He had not taken this view of the case
+into consideration before, and his tender heart reproached him for so
+forgetting his mother while laying out his own plans. He sprang forward,
+and kneeling down beside the lounge, threw his arms about his mother's
+neck and clasped her fondly, finding it hard to keep the tears back as he
+said,--
+
+"You dear, darling mother! I have been selfish. I should have thought how
+lonely it would be for you in the winter time."
+
+Mrs. Kingston returned the embrace with no less fervour, and as usually
+happens where the other side seems to be giving way, began to weaken
+somewhat herself, and to feel a little doubtful as to whether, after all,
+it would be right to oppose her son's wishes when his inclinations toward
+the occupation he had chosen were evidently so very decided.
+
+"Well, Frank dear," she said after a pause, while Frank looked at her
+expectantly, "I don't want to be selfish either. If it were not for the
+way we lost your father, perhaps I should not have such a dread of the
+woods for you; and no doubt even then it is foolish for me to give way to
+it. We won't decide the matter now. If you do go to the woods, it won't
+be until the autumn, and perhaps during the summer something will turn up
+that will please us better. We will leave the matter in God's hands. He
+will bring it to pass in the way that will be best for us both, I am
+confident."
+
+So with that understanding the matter rested, although of course it was
+continually being referred to as the weeks slipped by and the summer
+waxed and waned. Although Frank felt quite convinced in his own mind that
+he was not cut out for a position behind a desk or counter, he determined
+to make the experiment, and accordingly applied to Squire Eagleson, who
+kept the principal shop and was the "big man" of the village, for a place
+in his establishment. Summer being the squire's busy season, and Frank
+being well known to him, he was glad enough to add to his small staff of
+clerks so promising a recruit, especially as, taking advantage of the
+boy's ignorance of business affairs, he was able to engage him at wages
+much below his actual worth to him. This the worthy squire regarded as
+quite a fine stroke of business, and told it to his wife with great
+gusto, rubbing his fat hands complacently together as he chuckled over
+his shrewdness.
+
+"Bright boy that Frank Kingston! Writes a good fist, and can run up a row
+of figures like smoke. Mighty civil, too, and sharp. And all for seven
+shillings a week! Ha, ha, ha! Wish I could make as good a bargain as that
+every day." And the squire looked the picture of virtuous content as he
+leaned back in his big chair to enjoy the situation.
+
+Mrs. Eagleson did not often venture to intermeddle in her husband's
+business affairs, although frequently she became aware of things which
+she could not reconcile with her conscience. But this time she was moved
+to speak by an impulse she could not control. She knew the Kingstons, and
+had always thought well of them. Mrs. Kingston seemed to her in many
+respects a model woman, who deserved well of everybody; and that her
+husband, who was so well-to-do, should take any advantage of these worthy
+people who had so little, touched her to the quick. There was a bright
+spot on the centre of her pale cheeks and an unaccustomed ring in her
+voice as she exclaimed, with a sharpness that made her husband give quite
+a start of surprise,--
+
+"Do you mean to tell me, Daniel, that you've been mean enough to take
+advantage of that boy who has to support his widowed mother, and to hire
+him for half the wages he's worth, just because he didn't know any
+better? And then you come home here and boast of it! Have you no
+conscience?"
+
+The squire was so taken aback by this unexpected attack that at first he
+hardly knew how to meet it. Should he lecture his wife for her
+presumption in meddling in his affairs, which were quite beyond her
+comprehension as a woman, or should he make light of the matter and laugh
+it off? After a moment's reflection he decided on the latter course.
+
+"Hoity, toity, Mrs. Eagleson! but what's set you so suddenly on fire?
+Business is business, you know, and if Frank Kingston did not know enough
+to ask for more wades, it wasn't my concern to enlighten him."
+
+Mrs. Eagleson rose from her chair and came over and stood in front of her
+husband, pointing her long, thin forefinger at him as, with a trembling
+yet scornful voice, she addressed him thus,--
+
+"Daniel, how you can kneel down and ask the blessing of God upon such
+doings is beyond me, or how your head can lie easy on your pillow when
+you know that you are taking the bread out of that poor lone widow's
+mouth it is not for me to say. But this I will say, whether you like it
+or not: if you are not ashamed of yourself, I am for you." And before the
+now much-disturbed squire had time to say another word in his defence the
+speaker had swept indignantly out of his presence and hastened to her own
+room, there to throw herself down upon the bed and burst into a passion
+of tears, for she was at best but a weak-nerved woman.
+
+Left to himself, the squire shifted about uneasily in his chair, and then
+rose and stumped angrily to the window.
+
+"What does she know about business?" he muttered. "If she were to have
+her own way at the store, she'd ruin me in a twelvemonth."
+
+Yet Mrs. Eagleson's brave outburst was not in vain. Somehow or other
+after it the squire never felt comfortable in his mind until, much to
+Frank's surprise and delight, he one day called him to him, and, with an
+air of great generosity and patronage, said,--
+
+"See here, my lad. You seem to be doing your work real well, so I am
+going to give you half-a-crown a week more just to encourage you, and
+then if a little extra work comes along"--for autumn was approaching--"ye
+won't mind tackling it with a goodwill; eh?"
+
+Frank thanked his employer very heartily, and this unexpected increase of
+earnings and his mother's joy over it for a time almost reconciled him to
+the work at the shop, which he liked less and less the longer he was at
+it.
+
+The fact of the matter was, a place behind the counter was uncongenial to
+him in many ways. There was too much in-doors about it, to begin with.
+From early morning until late evening he had to be at his post, with
+brief intervals for meals; and the colour was leaving his cheeks, and his
+muscles were growing slack and soft, owing to the constant confinement.
+
+But this was the least of his troubles. A still more serious matter
+was that his conscience did not suffer him to take kindly to the "tricks
+of the trade," in which his employer was a "passed master" and his
+fellow-clerks very promising pupils. He could not find it in his heart to
+depreciate the quality of Widow Perkins's butter, or to cajole unwary Sam
+Struthers, from the backlands, into taking a shop-worn remnant for the
+new dress his wife had so carefully commissioned him to buy. His idea of
+trade was that you should deal with others as fairly as you would have
+them deal with you; and while, of course, according to the squire's
+philosophy, you could never make a full purse that way, still you could
+at least have a clear conscience, which surely was the more desirable
+after all.
+
+The squire had noticed Frank's "pernickety nonsense," as he was pleased
+to call it, and at first gave him several broad hints as to the better
+mode of doing business; but finding that the lad was firm, and would no
+doubt give up his place rather than learn these "business ways," he had
+the good sense to let him alone, finding in his quickness, fidelity, and
+attention to his work sufficient compensation for this deficiency in
+bargaining acumen.
+
+"You'll be content to stay at the shop now, won't you, Frank?" said his
+mother as they talked over the welcome and much-needed rise of salary.
+
+"It does seem to make it easier to stay, mother," answered Frank.
+"But--" And he gave a big sigh, and stopped.
+
+"But what, dear?" asked Mrs. Kingston, tenderly.
+
+Frank was slow in answering. He evidently felt reluctant to bring up the
+matter again, and yet his mind was full of it.
+
+"But what, Frank?" repeated his mother, taking his hands in hers and
+looking earnestly into his face.
+
+"Well, mother, it's no use pretending. I'm not cut out for keeping shop,
+and I'll never be much good at it. I don't like being in-doors all day.
+And then, if you want to get on, you've got to do all sorts of things
+that are nothing else but downright mean; and I don't like that either."
+And then Frank went on to tell of some of the tricks and stratagems the
+squire or the other clerks would resort to in order to make a good
+bargain.
+
+Mrs. Kingston listened with profound attention. More than once of late,
+as she noticed her son's growing pallor and loss of spirits, she had
+asked herself whether she were not doing wrong in seeking to turn him
+aside from the life for which he longed; and now that he was finding
+fresh and fatal objections to the occupation he had chosen in deference
+to her wishes, she began to relent of her insistence, and to feel more
+disposed to discuss the question again. But before doing so she wished to
+ask the advice of a friend in whom she placed much confidence, and so for
+the present she contented herself with applauding Frank for his
+conscientiousness, and assuring him that she would a thousand times
+rather have him always poor than grow rich after the same fashion as
+Squire Eagleson.
+
+The friend whose advice Mrs. Kingston wished to take was her husband's
+successor as foreman at the depot for the lumber camps--a sensible,
+steady, reliable young man, who had risen to his present position
+by process of promotion from the bottom, and who was therefore well
+qualified to give her just the counsel she desired. At the first
+opportunity, therefore, she went over to Mr. Stewart's cottage, and,
+finding him at home, opened her heart fully to him. Mr. Stewart, or Alec
+Stewart, as he was generally called, listened with ready sympathy to what
+Mrs. Kingston had to say, and showed much interest in the matter, for he
+had held a high opinion of his former chief, and knew Frank well enough
+to admire his spirit and character.
+
+"Well, you see, Mrs. Kingston, it's just this way," said he, when his
+visitor had stated the case upon which she wanted his opinion: "if
+Frank's got his heart so set upon going into the woods, I don't know as
+there's any use trying to cross him. He won't take kindly to anything
+else while he's thinking of that; and he'd a big sight better be a good
+lumberman than a poor clerk, don't you think?"
+
+Mrs. Kingston felt the force of this reasoning, yet could hardly make up
+her mind to yield to it at once.
+
+"But, Mr. Stewart," she urged, "it may only be a boyish notion of
+Frank's. He thinks, perhaps, he'd like it because that's what his father
+was before him, and then he may find his mistake."
+
+"Well, Mrs. Kingston," replied Mr. Stewart, "if you think there's any
+chance of that being the case, we can settle the question right enough in
+this way:--Let Frank come to the woods with me this winter. I will give
+him a berth as chore-boy in one of the camps; and if that doesn't sicken
+him of the business, then all I can say is you'd better let the lad have
+his will."
+
+Mrs. Kingston sighed.
+
+"I suppose you're right. I don't quite like the idea of his being
+chore-boy; but if he's really in earnest, there's no better way of
+proving him."
+
+Now Frank knew well enough how humble was the position of "chore-boy" in
+a lumber camp. It meant that he would be the boy-of-all-work; that he
+would have to be up long before dawn, and be one of the last in the camp
+to get into his bunk; that he would have to help the cook, take messages
+for the foreman, be obliging to the men, and altogether do his best to be
+generally useful. Yet he did not shrink from the prospect. The idea of
+release from the uncongenial routine of shopkeeping filled him with
+happiness, and his mother was almost reconciled to letting him go from
+her, so marked was the change in his spirits.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+OFF TO THE WOODS.
+
+
+September, the finest of all the months in the Canadian calendar, was at
+hand, as the sumac and the maple took evident delight in telling by their
+lovely tints of red and gold, and the hot, enervating breath of summer
+had yielded to the inspiring coolness of early autumn. The village of
+Calumet fairly bubbled over with business and bustle. Preparations for
+the winter's work were being made on all sides. During the course of the
+next two weeks or so a large number of men would be leaving their homes
+for the lumber camps, and the chief subject of conversation in all
+circles was the fascinating and romantic occupation in which they were
+engaged.
+
+No one was more busy than Mrs. Kingston. Even if her son was to be only a
+chore-boy, his equipment should be as comfortable and complete as though
+he were going to be a foreman. She knew very well that Jack Frost has no
+compunctions about sending the thermometer away down thirty or forty
+degrees below zero in those far-away forest depths; and whatever other
+hardships Frank might be called upon to endure, it was very well settled
+in her mind that he should not suffer for lack of warm clothing.
+Accordingly, the knitting-needles and sewing-needles had been plied
+industriously from the day his going into the woods was decided upon; and
+now that the time for departure drew near, the result was to be seen in a
+chest filled with such thick warm stockings, shirts, mittens, and
+comforters, besides a good outfit of other clothing, that Frank, looking
+them over with a keen appreciation of their merits and of the loving
+skill they evidenced, turned to his mother, saying, with a grateful
+smile,--
+
+"Why, mother, you've fitted me out as though I were going to the North
+Pole."
+
+"You'll need them all, my dear, before the winter's over," said Mrs.
+Kingston, the tears rising in her eyes, as involuntarily she thought of
+how the cruel cold had taken from her the father of the bright, hopeful
+boy before her. "Your father never thought I provided too many warm
+things for him."
+
+Frank was in great spirits. He had resigned his clerkship at Squire
+Eagleson's, much to that worthy merchant's regret. The squire looked upon
+him as a very foolish fellow to give up a position in his shop, where he
+had such good opportunities of learning business ways, in order to go
+"galivanting off to the woods," where his good writing and correct
+figuring would be of no account.
+
+Frank said nothing about his decided objections to the squire's ideas of
+business ways and methods, but contented himself with stating
+respectfully his strong preference for out-door life, and his intention
+to make lumbering his occupation, as it had been his father's before him.
+
+"Well, well, my lad," said the squire, when he saw there was no moving
+him, "have your own way. I reckon you'll be glad enough to come back to
+me in the spring. One winter in the camps will be all you'll want."
+
+Frank left the squire, saying to himself as he went out from the shop:--
+
+"If I do get sick of the camp and want a situation in the spring, this
+is not the place I'll come to for it; you can depend upon that, Squire
+Eagleson. Many thanks to you, all the same."
+
+Mr. Stewart was going up to the depot the first week in September, to
+get matters in readiness for the men who would follow him a week later,
+and much to Frank's satisfaction he announced that he would take him
+along if he could be ready in time. Thanks to Mrs. Kingston's being of
+the fore-handed kind, nothing was lacking in her son's preparations, and
+the day of departure was anticipated with great eagerness by him, and
+with much sinking of heart by her.
+
+The evening previous mother and son had a long talk together, in the
+course of which she impressed upon him the absolute importance of his
+making no disguise of his religious principles.
+
+"You'll be the youngest in the camp, perhaps, Frank darling, and it will,
+no doubt, be very hard for you to read your Bible and say your prayers,
+as you've always done here at home. But the braver you are about it at
+first, the easier it'll be in the end. Take your stand at the very start.
+Let the shanty men see that you're not afraid to confess yourself a
+Christian, and rough and wicked as they may be, never fear but they'll
+respect you for it."
+
+Mrs. Kingston spoke with an earnestness and emphasis that went straight
+to Frank's heart. He had perfect faith in his mother. In his eyes she was
+without fault or failing, and he knew very well that she was asking
+nothing of him that she was not altogether ready to do herself, were she
+to be put in his place. Not only so. His own shrewd sense confirmed the
+wisdom of her words. There could be no half-way position for him at the
+lumber camp; no half-hearted serving of God would be of any use there. He
+must take Caleb for his pattern, and follow the Lord wholly. His voice
+was low, but full of quiet determination, as he answered,--
+
+"I know it, mother. It won't be easy, but I'm not afraid. I'll begin fair
+and let the others know just where I stand, and they may say or do what
+they like."
+
+Mrs. Kingston needed no further assurance to make her mind quite easy
+upon this point; and she took no small comfort from the thought that,
+faithful and consistent as she felt so confident Frank would be, despite
+the many trials and temptations inseparable from his new sphere of life,
+he could hardly fail to exercise some good influence upon those about
+him, and perhaps prove a very decided power for good among the rough men
+of the lumber camp.
+
+The day of departure dawned clear and bright. The air was cool and
+bracing, the ground glistened with the heavy autumn dew that the sun had
+not yet had time to drink up, and the village was not fairly astir for
+the day when Mr. Stewart drove up to Mrs. Kingston's door for his young
+passenger. He was not kept long waiting, for Frank had been ready fully
+half-an-hour beforehand, and all that remained to be done was to bid his
+mother "good-bye," until he should return with the spring floods.
+Overflowing with joy as he was at the realization of his desire, yet he
+was too fond a son not to feel keenly the parting with his mother, and
+he bustled about very vigorously, stowing away his things in the back of
+the waggon, as the best way of keeping himself under control.
+
+He had a good deal of luggage for a boy. First, of all, there was his
+chest packed tight with warm clothing; then another box heavy with cake,
+preserves, pickles, and other home-made dainties, wherewith to vary the
+monotony of shanty fare; then a big bundle containing a wool mattress, a
+pillow, two pairs of heavy blankets, and a thick comforter to insure his
+sleep being undisturbed by saucy Jack Frost; and finally, a narrow box
+made by his own father to carry the light rifle that always accompanied
+him, together with a plentiful supply of ammunition. In this box Frank
+was particularly interested, for he had learned to handle this rifle
+pretty well during the summer, and looked forward to accomplishing great
+things with it when he got into the woods.
+
+Mr. Stewart laughed when he saw all that Frank was taking with him.
+
+"I guess you'll be the swell of the camp, and make all the other fellows
+wish they had a mother to fit them out. It's a fortunate thing my
+waggon's roomy, or we'd have to leave some of your stuff to come up by
+one of the teams," said he.
+
+Mrs. Kingston was about to make apologies for the size of Frank's outfit,
+but Mr. Stewart stopped her.
+
+"It's all right, Mrs. Kingston. The lad might just as well be comfortable
+as not. He'll have plenty of roughing it, anyway. And now we've got it
+all on board, we must be starting."
+
+The moment Mrs. Kingston dreaded had now come. Throwing her arms around
+Frank's neck, she clasped him passionately to her heart again and again,
+and then, tearing herself away from him, rushed up the steps as if she
+dared not trust herself any longer. Gulping down the big lump that rose
+into his throat, Frank sprang up beside Mr. Stewart, and the next moment
+they were off. But before they turned the corner Frank, looking back,
+caught sight of his mother standing in the doorway, and taking off his
+cap he gave her a farewell salute, calling out rather huskily his last
+"good-bye" as the swiftly-moving waggon bore him away.
+
+Mr. Stewart took much pride in his turn-out, and with good reason; for
+there was not a finer pair of horses in Calumet than those that were now
+trotting along before him, as if the well-filled waggon to which they
+were attached was no impediment whatever. His work required him to be
+much upon the road in all seasons, and he considered it well worth his
+while to make the business of driving about as pleasant as possible. The
+horses were iron-grays, beautifully matched in size, shape, and speed;
+the harness sparkled with bright brass mountings; and the waggon, a kind
+of express, with specially strong springs and comfortable seat, had
+abundant room for passengers and luggage.
+
+As they rattled along the village street there were many shouts of
+"Good-bye, Frank," and "Good luck to you," from shop and sidewalk; for
+everybody knew Frank's destination, and there were none that did not wish
+him well, whatever might be their opinion of the wisdom of his action. In
+responding to these expressions of good-will, Frank found timely relief
+for the feelings stirred by the parting with his mother, and before the
+impatient grays had breasted the hill which began where the village ended
+he had quite regained his customary good spirits, and was ready to reply
+brightly enough to Mr. Stewart's remarks.
+
+"Well, Frank, you've put your hand to the plough now, as the Scripture
+says, and you mustn't turn back on any account, or all the village will
+be laughing at you," he said, scanning his companion closely.
+
+"Not much fear of that, Mr. Stewart," answered Frank firmly. "Calumet
+won't see me again until next spring. Whether I like the lumbering or
+not, I'm going to stick out the winter, anyway; you see if I don't."
+
+"I haven't much fear of you, my boy," returned Mr. Stewart, "even if you
+do find shanty life a good deal rougher than you may have imagined.
+You'll have to fight your own way, you know. I shan't be around much, and
+the other men will all be strangers at first; but just you do what you
+know and feel to be right without minding the others, and they won't
+bother you long, but will respect you for having a conscience and the
+pluck to obey it. As for your work, it'll seem pretty heavy and hard at
+the start; but you've got lots of grit, and it won't take you long to get
+used to it."
+
+Frank listened attentively to Mr. Stewart's kindly, sensible advice, and
+had many questions to ask him as the speedy horses bore them further and
+further away from Calumet. The farms, which at first had followed one
+another in close succession, grew more widely apart, and finally ended
+altogether before many miles of the dusty road had been covered, and
+thenceforward their way ran through unbroken woods, not the stately
+"forest primeval" but the scrubby "second growth," from which those who
+have never been into the heart of the leafy wilderness can form but a
+poor conception of the grandeur to which trees can attain.
+
+About mid-day they halted at a lonely log-house which served as a sort of
+inn or resting-place, the proprietor finding compensation for the
+dreariness of his situation in the large profit derived from an illegal
+but thriving traffic in liquor. A more unkempt, unattractive
+establishment could hardly be imagined, and if rumour was to be relied
+upon, it had good reason to be haunted by more than one untimely ghost.
+
+"A wretched den!" said Mr. Stewart, as he drew up before the door. "I
+wouldn't think of stopping here for a moment but for the horses. But we
+may as well go in and see if old Pierre can get us a decent bite to eat."
+
+The horses having been attended to, the travellers entered the house,
+where they found Pierre, the proprietor, dozing on his bar; a bloated,
+blear-eyed creature, who evidently would have much preferred making them
+drunk with his vile whisky to preparing them any pretence for a dinner.
+But they firmly declined his liquor, so muttering unintelligibly to
+himself he shambled off to obey their behests. After some delay they
+succeeded in getting a miserable meal of some kind; and then, the horses
+being sufficiently rested, they set off once more at a good pace, not
+halting again until, just before sundown, they arrived at the depot,
+where the first stage of their journey ended.
+
+This depot was simply a large farm set in the midst of a wilderness of
+trees, and forming a centre from which some half-dozen shanties, or
+lumber camps, placed at different distances in the depths of the
+forest that stretched away interminably north, south, east, and west,
+were supplied with all that was necessary for their maintenance. Besides
+the ordinary farm buildings, there was another which served as a sort of
+a shop or warehouse, being filled with a stock of axes, saws, blankets,
+boots, beef, pork, tea, sugar, molasses, flour, and so forth, for the use
+of the lumbermen. This was Mr. Stewart's headquarters, and as the tired
+horses drew up before the door he tossed the reins over their backs,
+saying,--
+
+"Here we are, Frank. You'll stay here until your gang is made up.
+To-morrow morning I'll introduce you to some of your mates."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE BUILDING OF THE SHANTY.
+
+
+Frank looked about him with quick curiosity, expecting to see some of the
+men in whose society he was to spend the jointer. But there were only the
+farm-hands lounging listlessly about, their days work being over, and
+they had nothing to do except to smoke their pipes and wait for
+nightfall, when they would lounge off to bed.
+
+The shantymen had not yet arrived, Mr. Stewart always making a point of
+being at the depot some days in advance of them, in order to have plenty
+of time to prepare his plans for the winter campaign. Noting Frank's
+inquiring look, he laughed, and said,--
+
+"Oh, there are none of them here yet--we're the first on the field-but by
+the end of the week there'll be more than a hundred men here."
+
+A day or two later the first batch made their appearance, coming up by
+the heavy teams that they would take with them into the woods; and each
+day brought a fresh contingent, until by the time Mr. Stewart had
+mentioned the farm fairly swarmed with them, and it became necessary for
+this human hive to imitate the bees and send off its superfluous
+inhabitants without delay.
+
+They were a rough, noisy, strange-looking lot of men, and Frank, whose
+acquaintance with the shantymen had been limited to seeing them in small
+groups as they passed through Calumet in the autumn and spring, on their
+way to and from the camps, meeting them now for the first time in such
+large numbers, could not help some inward shrinking of soul as he noted
+their uncouth ways and listened to their oath-besprinkled talk. They
+were "all sorts and conditions of men"--habitants who could not speak a
+word of English, and Irishmen who could not speak a word of French;
+shrewd Scotchmen, chary of tongue and reserved of manner, and loquacious
+half-breeds, ready for song, or story, or fight, according to the humour
+of the moment. Here and there were dusky skins and prominent features
+that betrayed a close connection with the aboriginal owners of this
+continent. Almost all bad come from the big saw-mills away down the
+river, or from some other equally arduous employment, and were glad of
+the chance of a few days' respite from work while Mr. Stewart was
+dividing them up and making the necessary arrangements for the winter's
+work.
+
+Frank mingled freely with them, scraping acquaintance with those who
+seemed disposed to be friendly, and whenever he came across one with an
+honest, pleasant, prepossessing face, hoping very much that he would be a
+member of his gang. He was much impressed by the fact that he was
+evidently the youngest member of the gathering, and did not fail to
+notice the sometimes curious, sometimes contemptuous, looks with which he
+was regarded by the fresh arrivals.
+
+In the course of a few days matters were pretty well straightened out at
+the depot, and the gangs of men began to leave for the different camps.
+Mr. Stewart had promised Frank that he would take care to put him under a
+foreman who would treat him well; and when one evening he was called into
+the office and introduced to a tall, powerful, grave-looking man, with
+heavy brown beard and deep voice, Mr. Stewart said,--
+
+"Here is Frank Kingston, Dan; Jack's only son, you know. He's set his
+heart on lumbering, and I'm going to let him try it for a winter."
+
+Frank scrutinized the man called Dan very closely as. Mr. Stewart
+continued,--
+
+"I'm going to send him up to the Kippewa camp with you, Dan. There's
+nobody'll look after him better than you will, for I know you thought a
+big sight of his father, and for his sake as well as mine you'll see that
+nothing happens to the lad."
+
+Dan Johnston's face relaxed into a smile that showed there were rich
+depths of good nature beneath his rather stern exterior, for he was
+pleased at the compliment implied in the superintendent's words, and
+stretching out a mighty hand to Frank, he laid it on his shoulder in a
+kindly way, saying,--
+
+"He seems a likely lad, Mr. Stewart, and a chip of the old block, if I'm
+not mistaken. I'll be right glad to have him with me. But what kind of
+work is he to go at? He seems rather light for chopping, doesn't he?"
+
+Mr. Stewart gave a quizzical sort of glance at Frank as he replied,--
+
+"Well, you see, Dan, I think myself he is too light for chopping, so I
+told him he'd have to be chore-boy for this winter, anyway."
+
+A look of surprise came over Johnston's face, and, more to himself than
+the others, he muttered in a low tone,--
+
+"Chore-boy, eh? Jack Kingston's son a chore-boy!" Then turning to Frank,
+he said aloud, "All right, my boy. There's nothing like beginning at
+the bottom if you want to learn the whole business. You must make up your
+mind to put in a pretty hard time, but I'll see you have fair play,
+anyway."
+
+As Frank looked at the rugged, honest, determined face, and the stalwart
+frame, he felt thoroughly satisfied that in Dan Johnston he had a friend
+in whom he could place perfect confidence, and that Mr. Stewart's promise
+had been fully kept. The foreman then became quite sociable, and asked
+him many questions about his mother, and his life in Calumet, and his
+plans for the future, so that before they parted for the night Frank felt
+as if they were quite old friends instead of recent acquaintances.
+
+The following morning Johnston was bestirring himself bright and early
+getting his men and stores together, and before noon a start was made for
+the Kippewa River, on whose southern bank a site had already been
+selected for the lumber camp which would be the centre of his operations
+for the winter. Johnston's gang numbered fifty men all told, himself
+included, and they were in high spirits as they set out for their
+destination. The stores and tools were, of course, transported by waggon;
+but the men had to go on foot, and with fifteen miles of a rough forest
+road to cover before sundown, they struck a brisk pace as, in twos and
+threes and quartettes, they marched noisily along the dusty road.
+
+"You stay by me, Frank," said the foreman, "and if your young legs happen
+to go back on you, you can have a lift on one of the teams until you're
+rested."
+
+Frank felt in such fine trim that although he fully appreciated his big
+friend's thoughtfulness, he was rash enough to think he would not require
+to avail himself of it; but the next five miles showed him his mistake,
+and at the end of them he was very glad to jump upon one of the teams
+that happened to be passing, and in this way hastened over a good part of
+the remainder of the tramp.
+
+As the odd-looking gang pushed forward steadily, if not in exactly
+martial order, Frank had a good opportunity of inspecting its members,
+and making in his own mind an estimate of their probable good of bad
+qualities as companions. In this he was much assisted by the foreman,
+who, in reply to his questions, gave him helpful bits of information
+about the different ones that attracted his attention. Fully one-half
+of the gang were French Canadians, dark-complexioned, black-haired,
+bright-eyed men, full of life and talk, their tongues going unceasingly
+as they plodded along in sociable groups. Of the remainder, some were
+Scotch, others Irish, the rest English. Upon the whole, they were quite a
+promising-looking lot of men; indeed, Johnston took very good care to
+have as little "poor stuff" as possible in his gang; for he had long held
+the reputation of turning out more logs at his camp than were cut at any
+other on the same "limits;" and this well-deserved fame he cherished very
+dearly.
+
+Darkness was coming on apace, when at last a glad shout from the foremost
+group announced that the end of the journey was near; and in a few
+minutes more the whole band of tired men were resting their wearied limbs
+on the bank of the river near which the shanty was to be erected at once.
+The teams had arrived some time before them, and two large tents had been
+put up as temporary-shelter; while brightly-burning fires and the
+appetizing fizzle of frying bacon joined with the wholesome aroma of hot
+tea to make glad the hearts of the dusty, hungry pedestrians.
+
+Frank enjoyed his open-air tea immensely. It was his first taste of real
+lumberman's life, and was undoubtedly a pleasant introduction to it; for
+the hard work would not begin until the morrow, and in the meantime
+everybody was still a-holidaying. So refreshing was the evening meal
+that, tired as all no doubt felt from their long tramp, they soon forgot
+it sufficiently to spend an hour or more in song and chorus that made the
+vast forest aisles re-echo with rough melody before they sank into the
+silence of slumber for the night.
+
+At daybreak next morning Dan Johnston's stentorian voice aroused the
+sleepers, and Frank could hardly believe that he had taken more than
+twice forty winks at the most before the stirring shout of "Turn out!
+turn out! The work's waiting!" broke into his dreams and recalled him to
+life's realities. The morning was gray and chilly, the men looked
+sleepy and out of humour, and Johnston himself had it a stern distant
+manner, or seemed to have, as after a wash at the river bank Frank
+approached him and reported himself for duty.
+
+"Will you please to tell me what is to be my work, Mr. Johnston?" said
+he, in quite a timid tone; for somehow or other there seemed to be a
+change in the atmosphere.
+
+The foreman's face relaxed a little as he turned to answer him.
+
+"You want to be set to work, eh? Well, that won't take long." And looking
+around among the moving men until he found the one he wanted, he raised
+his voice and called,--
+
+"Hi, there, Baptiste! Come here a moment."
+
+In response to the summons a short, stout, smooth-faced, and decidedly
+good-natured looking Frenchman, who had been busy at one of the fires,
+came over to the foreman.
+
+"See here, Baptiste; this lad's to be your chore-boy this winter, and I
+don't want you to be too hard on him--_savez?_ Let him have plenty of
+work, but not more than his share."
+
+Baptiste examined Frank's sturdy figure with much the same smile of
+approval that he might bestow upon a fine capon that he was preparing for
+the pot, and murmured out something like,--
+
+"_Bien, m'sieur_. I sall be easy wid him if ee's a good boy."
+
+The foreman then said to Frank,--
+
+"There, Frank, go with Baptiste, and he'll give you work enough."
+
+So Frank went dutifully off with the Frenchman.
+
+He soon found out what his work was to be. Baptiste was cook, and he was
+his assistant, not so much in the actual cooking, for Baptiste looked
+after that himself, but in the scouring of the pots and pans, the keeping
+up of the fires, the setting out of the food, and such other
+supplementary duties. Not very dignified or inspiring employment,
+certainly, especially for a boy "with a turn for books and figures." But
+Frank had come to the camp prepared to undertake, without a murmur, any
+work within his powers that might be given him, and he now went quietly
+and steadily at what was required of him.
+
+As soon as breakfast was despatched, Johnston called the men together to
+give them directions about the building of the shanty, which was the
+first thing of all to be done; and having divided them up into parties,
+to each of which a different task was assigned, he set them at work
+without delay.
+
+Frank was very glad that attention to his duties would not prevent his
+watching the others at theirs; for what could be more interesting than to
+study every stage of the erection of the building that was to be their
+shelter and home during the long winter months now rapidly approaching?
+It was a first experience for him, and nothing escaped his vigilant eye.
+This is the way he described the building of the shanty to his mother on
+his return to Calumet:--
+
+"You see, mother, everybody except Baptiste and myself took a hand, and
+just worked like beavers. I wish you could have seen the men. And Mr.
+Johnston--why, he was in two places at once most of the time, or at least
+seemed to be! It was grand fun watching them. The first thing they did
+was to cut down a lot of trees--splendid big fellows, that would make the
+trees round here look pretty small, I can tell you. Then they chopped off
+all the branches and cut up the trunks into the lengths that suited, and
+laid them one on the top of the other until they made a wall about as
+high as Mr. Johnston, or perhaps higher, in the shape of one big room
+forty feet long by thirty feet wide, Mr. Johnston said. It looked very
+funny then--just like a huge pig-pen, with no windows and only one
+door--on the side that faced the river. Next day they laid long timbers
+across the top of the wall, resting them in the middle on four great
+posts they called 'scoop-bearers.' Funny name, isn't it? But they called
+them that because they bear the 'scoops' that make the roof; and a grand
+roof it is, I tell you. The scoops are small logs hollowed out on one
+side and flat on the other; and they lay them on the cross timbers in
+such a way that the edges of one fit into the hollows of two others, so
+that the rain hasn't a chance to get in, no matter how bard it tries.
+Next thing they made the floor; and that wasn't a hard job, for they just
+made logs flat on two sides and laid them on the ground, so that it was a
+pretty rough sort of a floor. All the cracks were stuffed tight with moss
+and mud, and a big bank of earth thrown up around the bottom of the wall
+to keep the draught out.
+
+"But you should have seen the beds, or 'bunks,' as they called them, for
+the men. I don't believe you could ever sleep on them. They were nothing
+but board platforms all around three sides of the room, built on a slant
+so that your head was higher than your feet; so you see I'd have had
+nothing better than the soft side of a plank for a mattress if you hadn't
+fitted me out with one. And when the other fellows saw how snug I was,
+they vowed they'd have a soft bed too; so what do you think they did?
+They gathered an immense quantity of hemlock branches--little soft ones,
+you know--and spread them thick over the boards, and then they laid
+blankets over that and made a really fine mattress for all. So that, you
+see, I quite set the fashion. The last thing to be made was the
+fireplace, which has the very queer name of 'caboose,' and is queerer
+than its name. It is right in the middle of the room, not at one end, and
+is as big as a small room by itself. First of all, a great bank of stones
+and sand is laid on the floor, kept together by boards at the edges; then
+a large square hole is cut in the roof above, and a wooden chimney built
+on the top of it; and then at two of the corners cranes to hold the pots
+are fixed, and the caboose is complete. And oh, mother, such roaring big
+fires as were always going in it after the cold came--all night long, you
+know; and sometimes I had to stay awake to keep the fire from going out,
+which wasn't much fun, but, of course, I had to take my turn. So now,
+mother, you ought to have a pretty good idea of what our shanty was like;
+for, besides a table and our chests, there was nothing much else in it to
+describe."
+
+Such were Frank Kingston's surroundings as he entered upon the humble
+and laborious duties of chore-boy in Camp Kippewa, not attempting to
+conceal from himself that he would much rather be a chopper or teamster
+or road-maker, but with his mind fully fixed upon doing his work, however
+uncongenial it might be, cheerfully and faithfully for one winter at
+least, feeling confident that if he did he would not be chore-boy for
+long, but would in due time be promoted to some more dignified and
+attractive position.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+STANDING FIRE.
+
+
+The shanty finished, a huge mass of wood cut into convenient lengths and
+piled near the door, a smooth road made down to the river-bank, the
+store-house filled with barrels of pork and flour and beans and chests of
+tea, the stable for the score of horses, put up after much the same
+architectural design as the shanty, and then the lumber camp was
+complete, and the men were free to address themselves to the business
+that had brought them so far.
+
+As Frank looked around him at the magnificent forests into whose heart
+they had penetrated, and tried with his eyes to measure the height of the
+splendid trees that towered above his head on every side, he found
+himself touched with a feeling of sympathy for them--as if it seemed a
+shame to humble the pride of those silvan monarchs by bringing them
+crashing to the earth. And then this feeling gave way to another; and as
+he watched the expert choppers swinging their bright axes in steady
+rhythm, and adding wound to wound in the gaping trunk so skilfully that
+the defenceless monster fell just where they wished, his heart thrilled
+with pride at man's easy victory over nature, and he longed to seize an
+axe himself and attack the forest on his own account.
+
+He had plenty of axe work as it was, but of a much more prosaic kind.
+An important part of his duty consisted in keeping up the great fire
+that roared and crackled unceasingly in the caboose. The appetite of this
+fire seemed unappeasable, and many a time did his arms and legs grow
+weary in ministering to its wants. Sometimes, when all his other work was
+done, he would go out to the wood-pile, and selecting the thickest and
+toughest-looking logs, arrange them upon the hearth so that they might
+take as long as possible to burn; and then, congratulating himself that
+he had secured some respite from toil, get out his rifle for a little
+practice at a mark, or would open one of the few books he had brought
+with him. But it seemed to him he would hardly have more than one shot at
+the mark, or get through half-a-dozen pages, before Baptiste's thick
+voice would be heard calling out,--
+
+"Francois, Francois! Ver is yer? Some more wood, k'vick!" And with a
+groan poor Frank would have to put away the rifle or book and return
+to the wood-pile.
+
+"I suppose I'm what the Bible calls a hewer of wood and a drawer of
+water," he would say to himself; for hardly less onerous than the task
+of keeping the fire in fuel was that of keeping well filled the two
+water-barrels that stood on either side of the door--one for the thirsty
+shantymen, the other for Baptiste's culinary needs.
+
+The season's work once well started, it went forward with commendable
+steadiness and vigour under Foreman Johnston's strict and energetic
+management. He was admirably suited for his difficult position. His
+grave, reserved manner rendered impossible that familiarity which is so
+apt to breed contempt, while his thorough mastery of all the secrets of
+woodcraft, his great physical strength, and his absolute fearlessness
+in the face of any peril, combined to make him a fit master for the
+strangely-assorted half-hundred of men now under his sole control. Frank
+held him in profound respect, and would have endured almost anything
+rather than seem unmanly or unheedful in his eyes. To win a word of
+commendation from those firm-set lips that said so little was the desire
+of his heart, and, feeling sure that it would come time enough, he stuck
+to his work bravely, quite winning good-natured Baptiste's heart by his
+prompt obedience to orders.
+
+"You are a _bon garçon,_ Francois," he would say, patting his shoulder
+with his plump palm. "Too good to be chore-boy; but not for long--eh,
+Francois? You be chopper _bientôt_, and then"--with an expressive wave of
+his hand to indicate the rapid flight of time--"you'll be foreman, like
+M'sieur Johnston, while Baptiste"--and the broad shoulders would rise
+in that meaning shrug which only Frenchmen can achieve--"poor Baptiste
+will be cook still."
+
+Beginning with Johnston and Baptiste, Frank was rapidly making friends
+among his companions, and as he was soon to learn, much to his surprise
+and sorrow, some enemies too--or, rather, to be more correct, he was
+making the friends, but the enemies were making themselves; for he was to
+blame in small part, if at all, for their rising against him. There were
+all sorts and conditions of men, so far at least as character and
+disposition went, among the gang, and the evil element was fitly
+represented by a small group of inhabitants who recognized one Damase
+Deschenaux as their leader. This Damase made rather a striking figure.
+Although he scorned the suggestion as hotly as would a Southern planter
+the charge that negro blood darkened his veins, there was no doubt that
+some generations back the dusky wife of a _courier du bois_ had mingled
+the Indian nature with the French. Unhappily for Damase, the result of
+his ancestral error was manifest in him; for, while bearing but little
+outward resemblance to his savage progenitor, he was at heart a veritable
+Indian.
+
+Greedy, selfish, jealous, treacherous, quick to take offence and slow to
+forgive or forget, his presence in the Johnston gang was explained by his
+wonderful knowledge of the forest, his sure judgment in selecting good
+bunches of timber to be cut, and his intimate acquaintance with the
+course of the stream down which the logs would be floated in the spring.
+
+Johnston had no liking for Damase, but found him too valuable to dispense
+with. This year, by chance, or possibly by his own management, Damase had
+among the gang a number of companions much after his own pattern, and it
+was clearly his intention to take the lead in the shanty so far as he
+dared venture. When first he saw Frank, and learned that he was to be
+with Johnston also, he tried after his own fashion to make friends with
+him. But as might be expected, neither the man himself nor his overtures
+of friendship impressed Frank favourably. He wanted neither a pull from
+his pocket flask nor a chew from his plug of "navy," nor to handle his
+greasy cards; and although he declined the offer of all these uncongenial
+things as politely as possible, the veritable suspicious, sensitive,
+French-Indian nature took offence, which deepened day after day, as he
+could not help seeing that Frank was careful to give himself and
+companions as wide a berth as he could without being pointedly rude or
+offensive.
+
+When one is seeking to gratify evil feelings toward another with whom he
+has daily contact, the opportunity is apt to be not long in coming, and
+Damase conceived that he had his chance of venting his spite on Frank by
+seizing upon the habit of Bible reading and prayer which the lad had as
+scrupulously observed in the shanty as if he had been at home. As might
+be imagined, he was altogether alone in this good custom, and at first
+the very novelty of it had secured him immunity from pointed notice or
+comment. But when Damase, thinking he saw in his daily devotions an
+opening for his malicious purposes, drew attention to them by jeering
+remarks and taunting insinuations, the others, yielding to that natural
+tendency to be incensed with any one who seems to assert superior
+goodness, were inclined to side with him, or at all events to make no
+attempt to interfere.
+
+At first Damase confined himself to making as much noise as possible
+while Frank was reading his Bible or saying his prayers, keeping up a
+constant fire of remarks that were aimed directly at the much-tried boy,
+and which were sometimes clever or impertinent enough to call forth a
+hearty laugh from his comrades. But finding that Frank was not to be
+overcome by this, he resorted to more active measures. Pretending to be
+dancing carelessly about the room he would, as if by accident, bump up
+against the object of his enmity, sending the precious book flying on the
+floor, or, if Frank was kneeling by his bunk, tripping and tumbling
+roughly over his outstretched feet. Another time he knocked the Bible out
+of his hands with a well-aimed missile, and, again, covered him with a
+heavy blanket as he knelt at prayer.
+
+All this Frank bore in patient silence, hoping in that way to secure
+peace in time. But Damase's persecutions showing no signs of ceasing, the
+poor lad's self-control began to desert him, and at last the crisis came
+one night when, while he was kneeling as usual at the foot of his bunk,
+Damase crept up softly behind him, and springing upon his shoulders,
+brought him sprawling to the floor. In an instant Frank was on his feet,
+and when the others saw his flashing and indignant countenance and
+noticed his tight-clinched fists, the roar of laughter that greeted his
+downfall was checked half way, and a sudden silence fell upon them. They
+all expected him to fly at his tormentor like a young tiger, and Damase
+evidently expected it too, for he stepped back a little, and his grinning
+face sobered as he assumed a defensive attitude.
+
+But Frank had no thought of striking. That was not his way of defending
+his religion, much as he was willing to endure rather than be unfaithful.
+Drawing himself up to his full height, and looking a splendid type of
+righteous indignation, he commanded the attention of all as in clear,
+strong tones, holding his sturdy fists close to his sides as though he
+dared not trust them elsewhere, and looking straight into Damase's eyes,
+lie exclaimed,--
+
+"Aren't you ashamed to do such an unmanly thing--you, who are twice my
+size and age? I have done nothing to you. Why should you torment me? And
+just when I want most to be quiet, too!"
+
+Then, turning to the other men with a gesture of appeal that was
+irresistible, he cried,--
+
+"Do you think it's fair, fellows, for that man to plague me so when I've
+done him no harm? Why don't you stop him? You can do it easy enough. He's
+nothing but a big coward."
+
+Frank's anger had risen as he spoke, and this last sentence slipped out
+before he had time to stop it. No sooner was it uttered than he regretted
+it; but the bolt had been shot, and it went straight to its mark. While
+Frank had been speaking, Damase was too keen of sight and sense not to
+notice that the manly speech and fine self-control of the boy were
+causing a quick revulsion of feeling in his hearers, and that unless
+diverted they would soon be altogether on his side, and the taunt he had
+just flung out awoke a deep murmur of applause which was all that was
+needed to inflame his passion to the highest pitch. The Frenchman looked
+the very incarnation of fury as, springing towards Frank with uplifted
+fist, he hissed, rather cried, through his gleaming teeth,--
+
+"Coward! I teach you call me coward."
+
+Stepping back a little, Frank threw up his arms in a posture of defence;
+for he was not without knowledge of what is so oddly termed "the noble
+art."
+
+But before the blow fell an unlooked-for intervention relieved him from
+the danger that threatened.
+
+The foreman, when the shanty was being built, had the farther right-hand
+corner partitioned off so as to form a sort of cabin just big enough
+to contain his bunk, his chest, and a small rude table on which lay
+the books in which he kept his accounts and made memoranda, and some
+half-dozen volumes that constituted his library. In this nook, shut off
+from the observation and society of the others, yet able to overhear and,
+if he chose to open the door, to oversee also all that went on in the
+larger room, Johnston spent, his evenings poring over his books by the
+light of a tallow candle, the only other light in the room being that
+given forth by the ever-blazing fire.
+
+Owing to this separation from the others, Johnston had been unaware of
+the manner in which Frank had been tormented, as it was borne so
+uncomplainingly. But this time Frank's indignant speech, followed so
+fast by Damase's angry retort, told him plainly that there was need of
+his interference. He emerged from his corner just at the moment when
+Damase was ready to strike. One glance at the state of affairs was
+enough. Damase's back was turned toward him. With a swift spring, that
+startled the others as if he had fallen through the roof, he darted
+forward, and ere the French-Canadian's fist could reach its mark a
+resistless grasp was laid upon his collar, and, swung clear off his feet,
+he was flung staggering across the room as though he had been a mere
+child.
+
+"You Indian dog!" growled Johnston, in his fiercest tones, "what are you
+about? Don't let me catch you tormenting that boy again!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+LIFE IN THE LUMBER CAMP.
+
+
+For a moment there was absolute silence in the shanty, the sudden and
+effectual intervention of the big foreman in Frank Kingston's behalf
+filling the onlookers with astonishment. But then, as they recovered
+themselves, there came a burst of laughter that made the rafters ring, in
+the midst of which Damase, gathering himself together, slunk scowling to
+his berth with a face that was dark with hate.
+
+Not deigning to take any further notice of him, Johnston turned to go
+back to his corner, touching Frank on his shoulder as he did so, and
+saying to him in a low tone,--
+
+"Come with me, my lad; I want a word with you."
+
+Still trembling from the excitement of the scene through which he had
+just passed, Frank followed the foreman into his little sanctum, the
+inside of which he had never seen before, for it was kept jealously
+locked whenever its occupant was absent. Johnston threw himself clown on
+his bunk, and motioned Frank to take a seat upon the chest. For a few
+moments he regarded him in silence, and so intently that, although his
+expression was full of kindness, and it seemed of admiration, too, the
+boy felt his face flushing under his steady scrutiny. At last the foreman
+spoke.
+
+"You're a plucky lad, Frank. Just like your father-God bless him' He was
+a good friend to me when I needed a friend sorely. I heard all that went
+on to-night, though I didn't see it, and had some hint of it before,
+though I didn't let on, for I wanted to see what stuff you were made of.
+But you played the man, my boy, and your father would have been proud to
+see you. Now just you go right ahead, Frank; and if any of those French
+rascals or anybody else tries to hinder you, out of this shanty he'll go,
+neck and crop, and stay out, as sure as my name is Dan Johnston."
+
+"You're very kind, Mr. Johnston," said Frank, his eyes glistening
+somewhat suspiciously, for, to tell the truth, this warm praise coming
+after the recent strain upon his nerves was a little too much for his
+self-control. "I felt sometimes like telling you when the men tormented
+me so; but I didn't want to be a tale-bearer, and I was hoping they'd get
+tired of it and give up of their own accord."
+
+"It's best as it is, lad," replied Johnston. "If the men found out you
+told me, they'd be like to think hard of you. But there's no fear of that
+now. And look here, Frank. After this, when you want to read your Bible
+in peace, and say your prayers, just come in here. No one'll bother you
+here, and you can sit down on the chest there and have a quiet time to
+yourself."
+
+Frank's face fairly beamed with delight at this unexpected invitation,
+and he stood up on his feet to thank his kind friend.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Johnston, I'm so glad! I've never been able to read my Bible or
+say my prayers right since I came to the shanty-there's always such a
+noise going on. But I won't mind that in here. It's so good of you to let
+me come in."
+
+The foreman smiled in his deep, serious way, and then as he relapsed into
+silence, and took up again the book he had laid down to spring to Frank's
+assistance, Frank thought it time to withdraw; and with a respectful
+"Good-night, sir," which Johnston acknowledged by a nod, returned to the
+larger room.
+
+The shantymen were evidently awaiting his reappearance with much
+curiosity; but he went quietly back to his bunk, picked up his Bible,
+finished the passage in the midst of which he had been interrupted, and,
+having said his prayers, lay down to sleep without a word to any one; for
+no one questioned him, and he felt no disposition to start a discussion
+by questioning any of the others.
+
+From this time forth he could see clearly that two very different
+opinions concerning himself prevailed in the shanty. By all the English
+members of the gang, and some of the. French, headed by honest Baptiste,
+he was looked upon, with hearty liking and admiration, as a plucky chap
+that knew how to take care of himself; by the remainder of the French
+contingent, with Damase as the ruling spirit, he was regarded as a
+stuck-up youngster that wanted taking down badly, and who was trying to
+make himself a special favourite with the foreman just to advance his
+own selfish ends. Gladly would Frank have been on friendly terms with
+all; but this being now impossible, through no fault of his own, he made
+up his mind to go on his way as quietly as possible, being constantly
+careful to give no cause of offence to those who, as he well knew, were
+only too eager to take it.
+
+There were some slight flurries of snow, fragile and short-lived heralds
+of winter's coming, during the latter part of November, and then December
+was ushered in by a grand storm that lasted a whole day, and made glad
+the hearts of the lumbermen by filling the forest aisles with a deep,
+soft, spotless carpet, that asked only to be packed smooth and hard in
+order to make perfect roads over which to transport the noble logs that
+had been accumulating upon the "roll-ways" during the past weeks.
+
+A shantyman is never so completely in his element as when the snow lies
+two feet deep upon the earth's brown breast. An open winter is his bane,
+Jack Frost his best friend; and there was a perceptible rise in the
+spirits of the occupants of Camp Kippewa as the mercury sank lower and
+lower in the tube of the foreman's thermometer. Plenty of snow meant not
+only easy hauling all winter long, but a full river and "high water" in
+the spring-time, and no difficulty in getting the drive of logs that
+would represent their winter's work down the Kippewa to the Grand River
+beyond. Frank did not entirely share their exultation. The colder it got
+the more wood had to be chopped, the more food had to be cooked--for the
+men's appetites showed a marked increase--and, furthermore, the task of
+keeping the water-barrels filled became one of serious magnitude. But
+bracing himself to meet his growing burdens, he toiled away cheerfully,
+resisting every temptation to grumble, his clear tuneful whistling of the
+sacred airs in vogue at Calumet making Baptiste, who had a quick ear for
+music, so familiar with "Rock of Ages," "Abide with Me," "Nearer, my God,
+to Thee," and other melodies, which have surely strayed down to us from
+heaven, that unconsciously he took to whistling them himself, much to
+Frank's amusement and approval.
+
+The days were very much alike. At early dawn, before it was yet light
+enough to see clearly, Johnston would emerge from his corner, and, in
+stentorian tones whose meaning was not to be mistaken, shout to the
+sleeping men scattered along the rows of sloping bunks.
+
+"Up with ye, men! up with ye!" And with many a growl and grunt they
+would, one by one, unroll from their blankets. As their only preparation
+for bed had been to lay aside their coats and boots or moccasins, the
+morning toilet did not consume much time. A dash of cold water as an
+eye-opener, a tugging on of boots or lacing up of moccasins, a scrambling
+into coats, and that was the sum of it. The only brush and comb in the
+camp belonged to Frank, and he felt half ashamed to use them, because no
+one else thought such articles necessary.
+
+Breakfast hurriedly disposed of, all but Baptiste and Frank sallied forth
+into the snow, to be seen no more until mid-day. There were just fifty
+persons, all told, in the camp, each man having his definite work to do
+the carpenter, whose business it was to keep the sleighs in repair; the
+teamsters, who directed the hauling of the logs; the "sled-tenders," who
+saw that the loads were well put on; the "head chopper" and his
+assistants, whose was the laborious yet fascinating task of felling the
+forest monarchs; the "sawyers," who cut their prostrate forms into
+convenient lengths; the "scorers," who stripped off the branches and slab
+sides from tree trunks set apart for square timber; and finally, the
+"hewer," who with his huge, broad axe made square the "stick," as the
+great piece of timber is called.
+
+All these men had to be fed three times a day, and almost insatiable were
+their appetites, as poor Frank had no chance to forget. Happily they did
+not demand the same variety in their bill of fare as do the guests at a
+metropolitan hotel. Pork and beans, bread and tea, these were the staple
+items. Anything else was regarded as an "extra." A rather monotonous
+diet, undoubtedly; but it would not be easy to prescribe a better one for
+men working twelve hours a day, in the open air, through the still,
+steady cold of a Canadian winter in the backwoods.
+
+At noon the hungry toilers trooped back for dinner, which they devoured
+in ravenous haste that there might be as much as possible left of the
+hour for a lounge upon the bunk, with pipe in mouth, in luxurious
+idleness. Then as the dusk gathered they appeared once more, this time
+for the night, and disposed to eat their supper with much more decorous
+slowness. Supper over, the snow-soaked mittens and stockings hung about
+the fire to dry, and pipes put in full blast, they were ready for song,
+story, or dance, until bed time.
+
+Thus day followed day, until Frank, whose work kept him closely confined
+to the camp, grew so weary of it that he was on the verge of heartily
+repenting that he had ever consented to be a chore-boy, ever thought that
+was the only condition upon which he could gratify his longing for a
+lumberman's life, when another mischance became his good fortune, and he
+was unexpectedly relieved of a large part of his tiresome duties. This
+was how it came about.
+
+One morning he was surprised by seeing one of the sleighs returning a
+good while before the dinner hour, and was somewhat alarmed when he
+noticed that it bore the form of a man, who had evidently been the victim
+of an accident. Happily, however, it proved to be not a very serious
+case. An immense pine in falling headlong had borne with it a number of
+smaller trees that stood near by, and one of these had fallen upon an
+unwary "scorer," hurling him to the ground, and badly bruising his right
+leg, besides causing some internal injury. He was insensible when picked
+up, but came to himself soon after reaching the shanty, where Frank made
+him as comfortable as he could, even putting him upon his own mattress
+that he might lie as easy as possible.
+
+The injured man proved to be one of Damase Deschenaux's allies; but Frank
+did not let that prevent his showing him every kindness while he was
+recovering from his injuries, with the result of completely winning the
+poor ignorant fellow's heart, much to Damase's disgust. Damase, indeed,
+did his best to persuade Laberge that Frank's attentions were prompted
+by some secret motive, and that it was not to be trusted. But deeds are
+far stronger arguments than words, and the sufferer was not to be
+convinced. By the end of a week he was able to limp about the shanty, but
+it was very evident that he would not be fit to take up his work again
+that season. This state of affairs caused the foreman some concern, for
+he felt loath to send the unfortunate fellow home, and yet he could not
+keep him in idleness. Then it appeared that what is one man's extremity
+may be another's opportunity. Johnston knew very well that however
+bravely he might go about it, Frank's work could not help being
+distasteful to him, and a bright plan flashed into his mind. Calling
+Frank into his corner one evening, he said,--
+
+"How would you like, my lad, to have some of the out-door work for a
+change?"
+
+The mere expression of Frank's face was answer enough. It fairly shone
+with gladness, as he replied,--
+
+"I would like it above all things, sir, for I am a little tired of being
+nothing but a chore-boy."
+
+"Well, I think we might manage it, Frank," said the foreman. "You see,
+Laberge can't do his work again this winter, and it goes against my heart
+to send him home, for he's nobody but himself to depend upon. So I've hit
+upon this plan: Laberge can't chop the wood or haul the water, but he can
+help Baptiste in cooking and cleaning up. Suppose, then, you were to get
+the wood ready and see about the water in the morning, and then come out
+into the woods with us after dinner, leaving Laberge to do the rest of
+the work. How would that suit you?"
+
+"It would suit me just splendidly, sir," exclaimed Frank, delightedly. "I
+can see about the wood and water all right before dinner, and I'll be so
+glad to go to the woods with you. I'll just do the best I can to fill
+Laberge's place."
+
+"I'm right sure you will, Frank," replied Johnston. "So you may consider
+it settled for the present, at any rate."
+
+Frank felt like dancing a jig on the way back to his bunk, and not even
+the scowling face of Damase, who had been listening to the conversation
+in the foreman's room with keen Indian ears, and had caught enough of it
+to learn of the arrangement made, could cast any damper upon his spirits.
+In this case half a loaf was decidedly better than no bread at all.
+Freedom from the restraints and irksome duties of chore-boy's lot for
+even half the day was a precious boon, and the happy boy lay down to rest
+that night feeling like quite a different person from what he had been
+of late, when there seemed no way of escape from the monotonous,
+wearisome task he had taken upon himself, except to give it all up and
+return to Calumet, which was almost the last thing that he could imagine
+himself doing; for Frank Kingston had plenty of pride as well as pluck,
+and his love for lumbering had not suffered any eclipse because of his
+experiences.
+
+But what is one man's meat is another man's poison, according to the
+homely adage, and in this case what made Frank so happy made--Damase
+miserable. The jealous, revengeful fellow saw in it only another proof
+of the foreman's favouritism, and was also pleased to regard the
+relegating of Laberge to the dish-washing and so forth as the degradation
+of a compatriot, which it behoved him to resent, since Laberge seemed
+lacking in the spirit to do it himself. Had he imagined that he would
+meet with the support of the majority, he would have sought to organize a
+rebellion in the camp. But he knew well enough that such a thing was
+utterly out of the question, so he was forced to content himself with
+fresh determinations to "get even" with the foreman and his favourite in
+some way before the winter passed; and, as will be seen, he came
+perilously near attaining his object.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+A THRILLING EXPERIENCE.
+
+
+Frank was very happy now that the way had been so opportunely opened for
+him to take part in the whole round of lumbering operations. He awaited
+with impatience the coming of noon and the rush of hungry men to their
+hearty dinner, because it was the signal for his release from chore-boy
+work and promotion to the more honourable position of assistant-teamster.
+The long afternoons out in the cold, crisp air, amid the thud of
+well-aimed axes, the crash of falling trees, the shouts of busy men, and
+all the other noisy incidents of the war they were waging against the
+innocent, defenceless forest, were precisely what his heart had craved so
+long, and he felt clearer than ever in his mind that lumbering was the
+life for him.
+
+After he had been a week at his new employment, Con Murphy, the big
+teamster to whom he had been assigned by the foreman, with the injunction
+to "be easy on the lad, and give him plenty of time to get handy," was
+heard to say in public,--
+
+"Faith, an' he's a broth of a boy, I can tell you; and I wouldn't give
+him for half-a-dozen of those _parlez-vous_ Frenchies like the chap whose
+place he took--indade that I wouldn't."
+
+Which, coming to Damase's ears, added further fuel to the fire of
+jealousy and hate that was burning within this half-savage creature's
+breast. So fierce indeed were Damase's feelings that he could not keep
+them concealed, and more than one of the shantymen took occasion to drop
+a word of warning into Frank's ear about him.
+
+"You'd better keep a sharp eye on that chap Damase, Frank," they would
+say. "He's an ugly customer, and he seems to have got it in for you."
+Frank, on his part, was by no means disposed to laugh at or neglect these
+kindly warnings. Indeed, he fully intended repeating them to Johnston at
+the first opportunity. But the days slipped by without a favourable
+chance presenting itself, and Damase's wild thirst for the revenge which
+he thought was merited came perilously near a dreadful satisfaction.
+
+February had come, and supplies at the shanty were running low, so that
+Foreman Johnston deemed it necessary to pay a visit to the depot to see
+about having a fresh stock sent out. The first that Frank knew of his
+intention was the night before he started. He had gone into the foreman's
+little room as usual to read his Bible and pray, and having finished, was
+about to slip quietly out, Johnston having apparently been quite
+unobservant of his presence, when he was asked,--
+
+"How would you like to go over to the depot with me to-morrow?"
+
+How would he like! Such a question to ask of a boy, when it meant a
+twenty-five miles' drive and a whole day's holiday after months of steady
+work at the camp!
+
+"I should be delighted, sir," replied Frank, as promptly as he could get
+the words out.
+
+"Very well, then; you can come along with me. We'll start right after
+breakfast. Baptiste will have to look after himself for one day," said
+the foreman. And with a fervent "Thank you, sir," Frank went off, his
+face wreathed with smiles and his heart throbbing with joy at the
+prospect before him.
+
+So eager was he that it did not need Johnston's shout of "Turn out, lads,
+turn out!" to waken him next morning, for he was wide awake already, and
+he tumbled into his clothes with quite unusual alacrity. So soon as
+breakfast was over, the foreman had one of the best horses in the stable
+harnessed to his "jumper," as the low, strong, comfortable wooden sleigh
+that is alone able to cope with the rough forest roads is called;
+abundance of thick warm buffalo-robes were provided; and then he and
+Frank tucked themselves in tightly, and they set out on their long drive
+to the depot.
+
+The mercury stood at twenty degrees below zero when they started, but
+they did not mind that. Not a breath of wind stirred the clear cold air.
+The sun soon rose into the blue vault above them, and shone down upon
+the vast expanse of snow about them with a vigour that made their eyes
+blink. The horse was a fine animal, and, having been off duty for a few
+days previous, was full of speed and spirit, and they glided over the
+well-beaten portion of the road at a dashing pace. But when they came to
+the part over which there had been little travel all winter long the
+going was too heavy for much speed, and often the horse could not do more
+than walk.
+
+This seemed to Frank just the opportunity for which he had been waiting,
+to tell the foreman about Damase and his threats of revenge. At first
+Johnston was disposed to make light of the matter, but when Frank told
+him what he had himself observed, as well as what had been reported to
+him by the others, the foreman was sufficiently impressed to say,--
+
+"The rascal wants some looking after, that's clear. He's a worthless
+fellow, anyway, and I'm mighty sorry I ever let him into my gang. I think
+the best thing will be to drop him as soon as I get back, or he may make
+some trouble for us. I'm glad you told me this, Frank. I won't forget
+it."
+
+At the depot they found Alec Stewart, just returned from a tour of
+inspection of the different camps, and full of hearty welcome. He was
+very glad to see Frank.
+
+"Ah ha, my boy!" he cried, slapping him vigorously on the back, "I
+needn't ask you how you are. Your looks answer for you. Why, you must
+weigh ten pounds more than when I last saw you. Well, what do you think
+of lumbering now, and how does Mr. Johnston treat you? They tell me,"
+looking at the foreman with a sly smile, "that he's a mighty stiff boss.
+Is that the way you find him?"
+
+Frank was ready enough to answer all his friend's questions, and to
+assure him that the foreman treated him like a kind father, and that he
+himself was fonder of lumbering than ever. Both he and Johnston had
+famous appetites for the bountiful dinner that was soon spread before
+them, and the resources of the depot permitting of a much more extensive
+bill of fare than was possible at the shanty, he felt in duty bound to
+apologize for the avidity with which he attacked the juicy roast of beef,
+the pearly potatoes, the toothsome pudding, and the other dainties that,
+after months of pork and beans, tasted like ambrosia.
+
+The superintendent and the foreman had much to say to one another which
+did not concern Frank, and so while they talked business he roamed about
+the place, enjoying the freedom from work, and chatting with the men at
+the depot, telling them some of his experiences and being told some of
+theirs in return. Happening to mention Damase Deschenaux, one of the
+men at once exclaimed,--
+
+"That's a first-class scoundrel! It beats me to understand why Johnston
+has him in his gang. He's sure to raise trouble wherever he goes."
+
+Frank felt tempted to tell how Damase had "raised trouble" with him, but
+thought he would better not, and the talk soon turned in another
+direction.
+
+The afternoon was waning before Johnston prepared to start on the return
+journey, and Mr. Stewart tried hard to persuade him to stay for the
+night--an invitation that Frank devoutly hoped would be accepted. But the
+big foreman would not hear of it.
+
+"No, no," said be in his decided way, "I must get back to the shanty.
+There's been only half a day's work done to-day, I'll warrant you,
+because I wasn't on hand to keep the beggars at it. Why, they'll lie
+abed till mid-day to-morrow if I'm not there to rouse them out of their
+bunks."
+
+Whatever Johnston said he stuck to, so there was no use in argument, and
+shortly after four o'clock he and Frank tucked themselves snugly into the
+jumper again and drove away from the depot, Stewart shouting after
+them,--
+
+"If you change your mind after you've gone a couple of miles, don't feel
+delicate about coming back. I won't laugh at you."
+
+Johnston's only answer was a grim smile and a crack of the whip over the
+horse's hind-quarters that sent him off at full gallop, the snow flying
+in clouds from his plunging feet into the faces of his passengers.
+
+The hours crept by as the sleigh made its slow way over the heavy ground,
+and Frank, as might be expected after the big dinner he had eaten, began
+to feel very sleepy. There was no reason why he should not yield to the
+seductive influence of the drowsy god, so, sinking down low into the seat
+and drawing the buffalo-robe up over his head, he soon was lost to sight
+and sense. While he slept the night fell, and they were still many miles
+from home. The cold was great, but not a breath of wind stirred the
+intense stillness. The stars shone out like flashing diamonds set in
+lapis-lazuli. Silence reigned supreme, save as it was intruded upon by
+the heavy breathing of the frost-flaked horse and the crunching of the
+runners through the crisp snow.
+
+Johnston felt glad when they breasted the hill on the other side of which
+was Deep Gully, crossed by a rude corduroy bridge; for that bridge was
+just five miles from the camp, and another hour, at the farthest, would
+bring them to the end of their journey.
+
+When the top of the hill was reached, the foreman gathered up the reins,
+called upon the horse to quicken his pace, and away they went down the
+slope at a tearing gallop.
+
+Deep Gully well deserved the name that had been given it when the road
+was made. A turbulent torrent among the hills had in the course of time
+eaten a way for itself, which, although very narrow, made up for its lack
+of breadth by a great degree of depth. It was a rather picturesque place
+in summer time, when abundant foliage softened its steep sides; but in
+winter, when it seemed more like a crevasse in a glacier than anything
+else, there was no charm about it. The bridge that crossed it was a very
+simple affair, consisting merely of two long stringers laid six feet
+apart, and covered with flattened timbers.
+
+Upon this slight structure the jumper descended with a bump that woke
+Frank from his pleasant nap, and, putting aside the buffalo-robe, he sat
+up in the sleigh to gather his wits. It was well he did, for if ever he
+needed them it was at that moment. Almost simultaneous with the thud of
+the horse's feet upon the bridge there came a crash, a sound of rending
+timbers, the bridge quivered like a ship struck by a mighty billow, and
+the next instant dropped into the chasm below, bearing with it a man, and
+boy, and horse, and sleigh!
+
+Full thirty feet they fell; the bridge, which had given way at one end
+only, hurling them from it so that they landed at the bottom of Deep
+Gully in a confused heap, yet happily free from entanglement with its
+timbers. So soon as he felt himself falling Frank threw aside the robes
+and made ready to spring; but Johnston instinctively held on to the
+reins, with the result that, being suddenly dragged forward by the
+frantic plunging of the terrified animal, he received a kick in the
+forehead that rendered him insensible, and would have dashed his brains
+out but for the thick fur cap he wore, while the jumper, turning over
+upon him, wrenched his leg so as to render him completely helpless.
+
+Frank was more fortunate. His timely spring, aided by the impetus of
+their descent, carried him clear of the horse and sleigh, and sent him
+headlong into a deep drift that filled a hollow at the gully's bottom.
+The snow-bank opened its arms to receive him, and buried him to the hips.
+The first shock completely deprived him of breath, and almost of his
+senses too. But beyond that he received no injury, and was soon
+struggling with all his might to free himself from the snow that held him
+captive. This proved to be no easy task. He was pretty firmly embedded,
+and at first it seemed as though his efforts at release only made his
+position worse.
+
+"This is a fine fix to be in!" said he to himself. "Buried in a
+snow-drift; and dear knows what's happened to Mr. Johnston."
+
+He had been hoping that the foreman would come to his assistance, but
+getting no reply to his shouts, he began to fear lest his companion might
+be unable to render any help. Perhaps, indeed, he might be dead! The
+thought roused him to still greater exertions, and at last by a heroic
+effort he succeeded in turning a kind of somersault in his cold prison,
+which had the happy result of putting his head where his heels had been.
+To scramble out altogether was then an easy job, and in another instant
+he was beside the sleigh.
+
+His first thought was that his worst fears were realized. Certainly the
+sight was one that might have filled a stouter heart with chill alarm.
+The horse had fallen into a deep drift, which covered him to the
+shoulders, and rendered him utterly helpless, entangled as he was with
+the harness and the over-turned jumper. He had evidently, like Frank,
+been struggling violently to free himself, but finding it useless, had
+for a time ceased his efforts, and stood wild-eyed and panting, the
+picture of animal terror. On seeing Frank he made another frantic plunge
+or two, looking at the boy with an expression of agonized appeal, as
+though he would say,--
+
+"Oh, help me out of this dreadful place!"
+
+And glad would Frank have been to respond to the best of his ability. But
+the poor horse could not be considered first. Half under the sleigh, half
+buried in the snow, lay the big foreman, to all appearance dead, the
+blood flowing freely from an ugly gash in his forehead, where the fur cap
+had failed to protect him entirely from the horse's hoof.
+
+Frank sprang to his side, and with a tremendous effort turned him over
+upon his back, and getting out his handkerchief, wiped the blood away
+from his face. As he did so, the first awful thought of death gave way to
+a feeling of hope. White and still as Johnston lay, his face was warm,
+and he was surely breathing a little. Seizing a handful of snow, Frank
+pressed it to the foreman's forehead, and cried to him as though he were
+asleep,--
+
+"Mr. Johnston, Mr. Johnston! What's the matter with you? Tell me, won't
+you?"
+
+For some minutes there was no sign of response. Then the injured man
+stirred, gave a deep sigh followed by a groan, opened his eyes with a
+look of dazed bewilderment, and put his hand up to his head, which was
+evidently giving him intense pain.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Johnston, I'm so glad! I was afraid you were dead!" exclaimed
+Frank. "Can't I help you to get up?"
+
+Turning upon his shoulder, the foreman made an effort to raise himself,
+but at once sank back with a groan.
+
+"I'm sore hurt, my lad," he said; "I can't stir. You'll have to get
+help."
+
+And so great was his suffering that he well nigh lost consciousness
+again.
+
+Frank tried his best to lift him away from the sleigh, but found the task
+altogether beyond his young strength in that deep snow, and had to give
+it up as hopeless. Certainly he was in a most trying situation for a mere
+boy--fully five miles from the shanty, with an almost untravelled road
+between that must be traversed by him alone, while the injured man would
+have to lie helpless in the snow until his return. Little wonder if he
+felt in sore perplexity as to what should be done, and how he should act
+under the circumstances.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+IN THE NICK OF TIME.
+
+
+If Frank was undecided, Mr. Johnston's mind was fully made up.
+
+"Our only chance is for you to get to the shanty at once, Frank. It'll be
+a hard job, my boy, but you'll have to try it," said he.
+
+"But what'll become of you, sir, staying here all alone? The wolves might
+find you out, and how could you defend yourself then?" asked Frank, in
+sore bewilderment as to the solution of the dilemma.
+
+"I'll have to take my chances of that, Frank; for if I stay here all
+night, I'll freeze to death, anyway. So just throw the buffaloes over me,
+and put for the shanty as fast as you can," replied the foreman.
+
+Unable to suggest any better plan, Frank covered Johnston carefully with
+the robes, making him as comfortable as he could; then buttoning up his
+coat and pulling his cap on tightly, he was about to scramble up the
+steep side of the gully to regain the road, when the foreman said, in a
+low tone, almost a whisper,--
+
+"This is about the time you generally say your prayers, Frank. Couldn't
+you say them here before you start?"
+
+With quick intuition Frank divined the big bashful man's meaning. It was
+his roundabout way of asking the boy to commit him to the care of God
+before leaving him alone in his helplessness.
+
+Feeling half condemned at not having thought of it himself, Frank came
+back, and kneeling close beside his friend, lifted up his voice in prayer
+with a fervour and simplicity that showed how strong and sure was his
+faith in the love and power of his Father in heaven. When he had finished
+his petition, the foreman added to it an "Amen" that seemed to come from
+the very depths of his heart; and then, yielding to an impulse that was
+irresistible, Frank bent down and implanted a sudden kiss upon the pale
+face looking at him with such earnest, anxious eyes. This unexpected
+proof of warm affection completely overcame the foreman, whose feelings
+had been already deeply stirred by the prayer. Strong, reserved man as he
+was, be could not keep back the tears.
+
+"God bless you, my boy!" he murmured huskily. "If I get safely out of
+this, I shall be a different man. You have taught me a lesson I won't
+forget."
+
+"God bless you and take care of you, sir!" answered Frank. "I hope
+nothing will happen to you while I'm away, and I'll be back as soon as I
+can."
+
+The next moment he was making his way up the gully's side, and soon a
+triumphant shout announced that he had reached the road and was off for
+the lumber camp at his best speed.
+
+The task before him was one from which many a grown man might have shrunk
+in dismay. For five long, lonely miles the road ran through the forest
+that darkened it with heavy shadows, and not a living soul could he hope
+to meet until he reached the shanty.
+
+It was now past eight o'clock, and to do his best it would take him a
+whole hour to reach his goal. The snow lay deep upon the road, and was
+but little beaten down by the few sleighs that had passed over it. The
+air was keen and crisp with frost, the temperature being many degrees
+below zero. And finally, the most fear-inspiring of all, there was the
+possibility of wolves, for the dreaded timber wolf had been both heard
+and seen in close proximity to the camp of late, an unusual scarcity of
+small game having made him daring in his search for food.
+
+But Frank possessed a double source of strength. He was valiant by
+nature, and he had implicit faith in God's overruling providence. He felt
+specially under the divine care now, and resolutely putting away all
+thoughts of personal danger, addressed himself, mind and body, to the one
+thing--the relief of Johnston from his perilous position.
+
+With arms braced at his sides and head bent forward, he set out at a
+jog-trot, which was better suited for getting through the deep snow than
+an ordinary walk. Fortunately he was in the very pink of condition. The
+steady, hard work of the preceding months, combined with the coarse but
+abundant food and early hours, had developed and strengthened every
+muscle in his body and hardened his constitution until few boys of his
+age could have been found better fitted to endure a long tramp through
+heavy snow than he. Moreover, running had always been his favourite form
+of athletic exercise, and the muscles it required were well trained for
+their work.
+
+"I'll do it all right inside the hour," he said to himself. And then, as
+a sudden thought struck him, he gave a nervous little laugh, and added,
+"And perhaps make a good deal better time if I hear anything of the
+wolves."
+
+Try as he might, he could not get the wolves out of his head. He had not
+himself seen any signs of them, but several times the choppers working
+farthest from the camp had mentioned finding their tracks in the snow,
+and once they had been heard howling in the distance after the men had
+all come into the shanty for the night.
+
+On he went through the snow and night, now making good progress at his
+brisk jog-trot, now going more slowly as he dropped into a walk to rest
+himself and recover breath. Although the moon rode high in the heavens,
+the trees which stood close to the road allowed few of her beams to light
+his path.
+
+"If it was only broad daylight I wouldn't mind it a bit," Frank
+soliloquized; "but this going alone at this time of night is not the sort
+of a job I care for."
+
+And then the thought of poor Johnston lying helpless but uncomplaining in
+the snow made him feel ashamed of his words, and to ease his conscience
+he broke into a trot again. Just as he did so a sound reached his ear
+that sent a thrill of terror to his heart. Hoping he might be mistaken,
+he stopped and listened with straining senses. For a moment there was
+absolute silence. Then the sound came again--distant, but clear and
+unmistakable. He had heard it only once before, yet he felt as sure of it
+now as if it had been his mother's voice. It was the howl of the timber
+wolf sounding through the still night air from somewhere to the north;
+how far away he could not determine.
+
+At the sound all his strength seemed to leave him. How helpless he was
+alone in that mighty forest without even so much as a knife wherewith to
+defend himself! But it would not do to stand irresolute. His own life as
+well as the foreman's depended upon his reaching the shanty. Were he to
+climb one of the big trees that stood around, the wolves, of course,
+could not get at him; but Johnston would be dead before daylight came to
+release him from his tree citadel, and perhaps he would himself fall a
+victim to the cold in that exposed situation. There was no other
+alternative than to run for his life, so, breathing out a fervent prayer
+for divine help and protection, he summoned all his energies to the
+struggle. He was more than a mile from the shanty, and his exertion had
+told severely upon his strength; but the great peril of his situation
+made him forget his weariness, and he started off as if he were perfectly
+fresh.
+
+But the howling of the wolves grew more and more distinct as they drew
+swiftly nearer, and with agony of heart the poor boy felt his breath
+coming short and his limbs beginning to fail beneath him. Nearer and
+nearer came his dreaded pursuers, and every moment he expected to see
+them burst into the road behind him.
+
+Fortunately, be had reached a part of the road which, being near the
+camp, was much used by the teams drawing logs to the river-bank, and was
+consequently beaten hard and smooth. This welcome change enabled him to
+quicken his steps, which had dropped into a walk; and although he felt
+almost blind from exhaustion, he pushed desperately forward, hoping at
+every turn of the road to catch a glimpse of the shanty showing dark
+through the trees. The cry of the disciples caught in the sudden storm on
+Galilee, "Lord, save us; we perish!" kept coming to his lips as he
+staggered onward. Surely there could not be much further to go! He turned
+for a moment to look behind him. The wolves were in sight, their dark
+forms showing distinctly against the snow as in silence now they gained
+upon their prey. Run as hard as he might, they must be upon him ere
+another fifty yards were passed. He felt as if it were all over with him,
+and so utter was his exhaustion that it seemed to benumb his faculties
+and make him half willing for the end to come.
+
+But the end was not to be as the wolves desired. Just at the critical
+moment, when further exertion seemed impossible, he caught sight of some
+one approaching him rapidly from the direction of the shanty, and
+shouting aloud while he rushed forward to meet him. With one last supreme
+effort he plunged toward this timely apparition, and a moment later
+fell insensible at his feet.
+
+It was Baptiste--good-hearted, affectionate Baptiste--who, having awaited
+the travellers' return and grown concerned at their long delay, had gone
+out to look along the road to see if they were anywhere in view. Catching
+sight of Frank's lonely figure, he had made all haste to meet him, and
+reached him just in time to ward off the wolves that in a minute more
+would have been upon him.
+
+When the wolves saw Baptiste, who swung a gleaming axe about his head, as
+he shouted, "_Chiens donc!_ I'll split your heads eef I get at you!" they
+stopped short, and even retreated a little, drawing themselves together
+in a sort of group in the middle of the road, snapping their teeth and
+snarling in a half-frightened, half-furious manner. But Baptiste was not
+to be daunted. Lifting his axe on high, he shouted at them in his
+choicest French, and charged upon the pack as though they had been simply
+a flock of marauding sheep. Wolves are arrant cowards, and without
+pausing to take into consideration the disparity of numbers, for they
+stood twelve to one, they fled ignominiously before the plucky Frenchman,
+not halting until they had put fifty yards between themselves and him.
+Whereupon Baptiste seized upon the opportunity to pick up the still
+senseless Frank, throw him over his broad shoulder, and hasten back to
+the shanty before the wolves should regain their self-possession.
+
+They were all asleep in the shanty when the cook returned with his
+unconscious burden; but he soon roused the others with his vigorous
+shouts, and by the time they were fully awake, Frank was awake too, the
+warm air of the room quickly reviving him from his faint. Looking round
+about with a bewildered expression, he asked anxiously,--
+
+"Where is Mr. Johnston? Hasn't he come back too?"
+
+Then he recollected himself, and a picture of his good friend lying
+prostrate and helpless in the snow, perhaps surrounded by the same wolves
+that brave Baptiste had rescued him from, flashed into his mind, and
+springing to his feet he cried,--
+
+"Hurry--hurry! Mr. Johnston is in Deep Gully, and he can't move. The
+bridge broke under us, and he was almost killed. Oh, hurry, won't you, or
+the wolves will be after him!"
+
+The men looked at one another in astonishment and horror.
+
+"Deep Gully!" they exclaimed. "That's five miles off. We must go at
+once."
+
+And immediately all was bustle and excitement as they prepared to go out
+into the night. As lumbermen always sleep in their clothes, they did not
+take long to dress, and in a wonderfully short space of time the
+teamsters had a sleigh with a pair of horses at the door, upon which
+eight of the men, armed with guns and axes, sprang, and off they went
+along the road as fast as the horses could gallop. Frank wanted to
+accompany them, but Baptiste would not allow him.
+
+"No, no, _mon cher._ You must stay wid me. You tired out. They get him
+all right, and bring him safe home."
+
+And he was fair to lie back, so tortured with anxiety for the foreman
+that he could hardly appreciate the blessing of rest, although his own
+exertions had been tremendous.
+
+Not sparing the horses, the rescuers sped over the road, ever now and
+then discharging a gun, in order to let Johnston know of their approach
+and keep his courage up. In less than half-an-hour they reached the
+gully, and peering over the brink, beheld the dark heap in the snow below
+that was the object of their search. One glance was sufficient to show
+how timely was their coming, for almost encircling the hapless man were
+smaller shapes that even at that distance could be readily recognized.
+
+"We're too late!" cried one of the men; "they're wolves." And with a wild
+shout he flung himself recklessly down the snowy slope, and others
+followed close behind.
+
+Before their tumultuous onset the wolves fled like leaves before the
+autumn wind, and poor Johnston, almost dead with pain, cold, and
+exhaustion, raising himself a little from the snow, called out in a faint
+but joyful tone,--
+
+"Thank God; you've come in time! I thought it was all over with me."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+OUT OF CLOUDS, SUNSHINE.
+
+
+Great was the joy of the men at finding Johnston alive and still able to
+speak, and at once their united strength was applied to extricating him
+from his painful position. The poor horse, utterly unable to help
+himself, had long ago given up the vain struggle, and in a state of
+pitiful exhaustion and fright was lying where he first fell, the snow all
+about him being torn up in a way that showed how furious had been his
+struggles. Johnston had by dint of heroic exertion managed to withdraw
+his leg a little from underneath the heavy jumper; but he could not free
+himself altogether, so that had the wolves found out how completely both
+horse and man were in their power, they would have made short work of
+both. Fortunately, by vigorous shouting and wild waving of his arms, the
+foreman had been able to keep the cowardly creatures at bay long enough
+to allow the rescuing party to reach him. But he could not have kept up
+many minutes more, and if strength and voice had entirely forsaken him
+the dreadful end would soon have followed.
+
+Handling the injured man with a tenderness and care one would hardly have
+looked for in such rough fellows, the lumbermen after no small exertion
+got him up out of the gully and laid him upon the sleigh in the road.
+Then the horse was released from the jumper, and, being coaxed to his
+feet, led down the gully to where the sides were not so steep and he
+could scramble up, while the jumper itself was left behind to be
+recovered when they had more time to spare.
+
+Before they started off for the shanty one of the men had the curiosity
+to cross the gully and examine the bridge where it broke, in order to
+find out the cause of the accident. When he returned there was a strange
+expression on his face, which added to the curiosity of the others who
+were awaiting his report.
+
+"Both stringers are sawed near through!" he exclaimed. "And it's not been
+done long, either. Must have been done to-day, for the sawdust's lying
+round still."
+
+The men looked at one another in amazement and horror. The stringers
+sawed through! What scoundrel could have done such a thing? Who was the
+murderous traitor in their camp? Then to the quickest-witted of them came
+the thought of Damase's dire threat and consuming jealousy.
+
+"I know who did it," he cried. "There's only one man in the camp villain
+enough to do it. It was that hound Damase, as sure as I stand here!"
+
+Instantly the others saw the matter in the same light. Damase had done it
+beyond a doubt, hoping thereby to have the revenge for which his savage
+heart thirsted. Ill would it have gone with him could the men have laid
+hands on him at that moment. They were just in the mood to have inflicted
+such punishment as would probably have put the wretch in a worse plight
+than his intended victim, and many and fervent were their vows of
+vengeance, expressed in language rather the reverse of polite. Strict
+almost to severity as Johnston was in his management of the camp, the
+majority of the men, including all the best elements, regarded him with
+deep respect, if not affection; and that Damase Deschenaux should make so
+dastardly an attempt upon his life aroused in them a storm of indignant
+wrath which would not soon be allayed.
+
+They succeeded in making the sufferer quite comfortable upon the sleigh;
+but they had to go very slowly on the return journey to the shanty, both
+to make it easy for Johnston, and because the men had to walk now that
+the sleigh was occupied. So soon as they came in sight, Frank ran to meet
+them, calling out eagerly,--
+
+"Is he all right? Have you got him?"
+
+"We've got him, Frank, safe enough," replied the driver of the sleigh.
+"But we wasn't a minute too soon, I can tell you. I guess you must have
+sent your wolves off to him when you'd done with them."
+
+"Were the wolves at you, sir?" exclaimed Frank, bending over the foreman,
+and looking anxiously into his face.
+
+Johnston had fallen into a sort of doze or stupor but the stopping of the
+sleigh and Frank's anxious voice aroused him, and he opened his eyes with
+a smile that told plainly how dear to him the boy had become.
+
+"They weren't quite at me, Frank, but they soon would have been if the
+men hadn't come along," he replied.
+
+With exceeding tenderness the big helpless man was lifted from the sleigh
+and placed in his own bunk in the corner. The whole shanty was awake to
+receive him, a glorious fire roared and crackled upon the hearth, and the
+pleasant fragrance of fresh-brewed tea filled the room. So soon as the
+foreman's outer garments had been removed, Frank brought him a pannikin
+of the lumberman's pet beverage, and he drank it eagerly, saying that it
+was all the medicine he needed. Beyond making him as comfortable as
+possible, nothing further could be done for him, and in a little while
+the shantymen were all asleep again as soundly as though there had been
+no disturbance of their slumbers. Frank wanted to sit up with Johnston;
+but the foreman would not hear of it, and, anyway, thoroughly sincere as
+was his offer, he never could have carried it out, for he was very weary
+himself and ready to drop asleep at the first chance.
+
+Of Damase there was no sign. Some of the men had noticed him quitting
+work earlier than usual in the afternoon, and when he did not appear at
+supper-time had thought he was gone off hunting, which he loved to do
+whenever he got the opportunity. Whether or not he would have the
+assurance to return to the shanty would depend upon whether he had waited
+in ambush to see the result of his villany; for if he had done so, and
+had witnessed the at least partial failure of his plot, there was little
+chance of his being seen again.
+
+The next morning a careful examination of Johnston showed that, while no
+bones were broken, his right leg had been very badly twisted and strained
+almost to dislocation, and he had been internally injured to an extent
+that could be determined only by a doctor. It was decided to send a
+message for the nearest doctor, and meanwhile to do everything possible
+for the sufferer in the way of bandages and liniments that the simple
+shanty outfit afforded. By general understanding Frank assumed the duties
+of nurse; and it was not long before life at the camp settled down into
+its accustomed routine, Johnston having appointed the most experienced
+and reliable of the gang its foreman during his confinement. In due time
+the doctor came, examined his patient, made everybody glad by announcing
+that none of the injuries were serious, and that they required only time
+and attention for their cure, wrote out full directions for Frank to
+follow, and then, congratulating Johnston upon his good fortune in having
+so devoted and intelligent a nurse, set off again on the long drive to
+his distant home with the pleasant consciousness of having done his duty
+and earned a good fee.
+
+The weeks that followed were the happiest Frank spent that winter. His
+duties as nurse were not onerous, and he enjoyed very much the importance
+with which they invested him. So long as his patient was well looked
+after, he was free to come and go according to his inclinations, and the
+thoughtful foreman saw to it that he spent at least half the day in the
+open air, often sending him with messages to the men working far off in
+the woods. Frank always carried his rifle with him on these tramps, and
+frequently brought back with him a brace of hares or partridges, which,
+having had the benefit of Baptiste's skill, were greatly relished by
+Johnston, who found his appetite for the plain fare of the shanty much
+dulled by his confinement.
+
+As the days slipped by the foreman began to open his heart to his young
+companion and to tell him much about his boyhood, which deeply interested
+Frank. Living a frontier life, he had his full share of adventure in
+hunting, lumbering, and prospecting for limits, and many an hour was
+spent reviewing the past. One evening while they were thus talking
+together Johnston became silent and fell into a sort of reverie, from
+which he presently roused himself, and looking very earnestly into
+Frank's face, asked him,--
+
+"Have you always been a Christian, Frank?"
+
+The question came so unexpectedly and was so direct that Frank was quite
+taken aback, and being slow to answer, the foreman, as if fearing he had
+been too abrupt, went on to say,--
+
+"The reason I asked was because you seem to enjoy so much reading your
+Bible and saying your prayers that I thought you must have had those good
+habits a long time."
+
+Frank had now fully recovered himself, and with a blush that greatly
+became him, answered modestly,--
+
+"I have always loved God. Mother taught me how good and kind he is as
+soon as I was old enough to understand; and the older I get the more I
+want to love him and to try to do what is right."
+
+A look of ineffable tenderness came into Johnston's dark eyes while the
+boy was speaking. Then his face darkened, and giving vent to a heavy
+sigh, he passed his hand over his eyes as though to put away some painful
+recollection. After a moment's silence, he said,--
+
+"My mother loved her Bible, and wanted me to love it too. But I was a
+wild, headstrong chap, and didn't take kindly to the notion of being
+religious, and I'm afraid I cost her many a tear. God bless her! I wonder
+does she ever up there think of her son down here, and wonder if he's any
+better than he was when she had to leave him to look after himself."
+
+Not knowing just what to say, Frank made no reply, but his face glowed
+with sympathetic interest; and after another pause the foreman went on,--
+
+"I've been thinking a great deal lately, Frank, and it's been all your
+doing. Seeing you so particular about your religion, and not letting
+anything stop you from saying your prayers and reading your Bible just
+as you would at home, has made me feel dreadfully ashamed of myself, and
+I've been wanting to have a talk with you about it. Would you mind
+reading your Bible to me? I haven't been inside a church for many a year,
+and I guess I'd be none the worse of a little Bible-reading."
+
+Frank could not restrain an exclamation of delight. Would he mind? Had
+not this very thing been on his conscience for weeks past? Had he not
+been hoping and praying for a good opportunity to propose it himself, and
+only kept back because of his fear lest the foreman should think this
+offer presumptuous?
+
+"I shall be very glad indeed to read my Bible to you, sir," he answered
+eagerly. "I've been wanting to ask if I mightn't do it, but was afraid
+that perhaps you would not like it."
+
+"Well, Frank, to be honest with you, I'd a good deal rather have you read
+to me than read it for myself," said Johnston; "because you must know it
+'most by heart, and I've forgotten what little I did know once."
+
+The reading began that night, and thenceforward was never missed while
+the two were at Camp Kippewa. Young as Frank was, he had learned from
+his parents and at the Sunday school a great deal about the Book of
+books, and especially about the life of Christ, so that to Johnston he
+seemed almost a marvel of knowledge. It was beautiful to see the big
+man's simplicity as he sat at the feet, so to speak, of a mere boy, and
+learned anew from him the sublime and precious gospel truths that the
+indifference and neglect of more than forty years had buried in dim
+obscurity; and Frank found an ever-increasing pleasure in repeating the
+comments and explanations that he had heard from the dear lips at home.
+Even to his young eyes it was clear that the foreman was thoroughly in
+earnest, and would not stop short of a full surrender of himself to the
+Master he had so long refused to acknowledge. Above all things, he was a
+thorough man, and therefore this would take time, for he would insist
+upon knowing every step of the way; but once well started; no power on
+earth or beneath would be permitted to bar his progress to the very end.
+
+And this great end was achieved before he left his bunk to resume his
+work. He lay down there bruised and crippled and godless; but lie arose
+healed and strengthened and a new man in Christ Jesus! If Frank was proud
+of his big convert, who can blame him? But for his coming to the camp,
+Johnston might have remained as he was, caring for none of those things
+which touched his eternal interests; but now through the influence of his
+example, aided by favouring circumstances, he had been led to the
+Master's feet.
+
+But Damase--what of Damase? There is not much to tell. Whether or not he
+was watching when the bridge fell, and how he spent that night, no one
+ever knew. The next morning he was seen at the depot, where he explained
+his presence by saying that the foreman had "bounced" him, and that he
+was going back to his native town. Beyond this, nothing further was ever
+heard of him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+A HUNTING-TRIP.
+
+
+The hold of winter had begun to relax ere Johnston was able fully to
+resume his work, and a good deal of time having been lost through his
+accident, every effort had to be exerted to make it up ere the warm
+sunshine should put an end to the winter's work. Frank was looking
+forward eagerly to the day when they should break camp, for, to tell the
+truth, he felt that he had had quite enough of it for one season, and he
+was longing to be back in Calumet and enjoying the comforts of home once
+more. He was not exactly homesick. You would have very much offended him
+by hinting at that. He was simply tired of the monotony of camp fare and
+camp life, and anxious to return to civilization. So he counted the days
+that must pass before the order to break camp would come, and felt very
+light of heart when the sun shone warm, and correspondingly downcast when
+the thermometer sank below zero, as it was still liable to do.
+
+"Striving" was the order of the day at the lumber camp--that is, the
+different gangs of choppers and sawyers and teamsters vied with each
+other as to which could chop, saw, and haul the most logs in a day. The
+amount of work they could accomplish when thus striving might astonish
+Mr. Gladstone himself, from eighty to one hundred logs felled and trimmed
+being the day's work of two men. Frank was deeply interested in this
+competition, and enjoying the fullest confidence of the men, he was
+unanimously appointed scorer, keeping each gang's "tally" in a book, and
+reporting the results to the foreman, who heartily encouraged the rivalry
+among his men; for the harder they worked the better would be the showing
+for the season, and he was anxious not to lose the reputation he had won
+of turning out more logs at his shanty than did any other foreman on the
+Kippewa.
+
+As the weeks passed and March gave way to April, and April drew toward
+its close, the lumbermen's work grew more and more arduous; but they kept
+at it bravely until at last, near the end of April, the snow became so
+soft in the woods and the roads so bad that no more hauling could be
+done, and the whole attention of the camp was then given to getting the
+logs that had been gathering at the river-side all through the winter out
+upon the ice, so that they might be sure to be carried off by the spring
+floods. This work did not require all hands, and Johnston now saw the way
+clear to giving Frank a treat that he had long had in mind for him, but
+had said nothing about. They were having their usual chat together before
+going to bed, when the foreman said,--
+
+"Is there anything you would like to do before we break up camp?"
+
+Frank did not at first see the drift of the question, and looking at
+Johnston with a puzzled sort of expression, replied, questioningly,--
+
+"I don't know. I've had a very good time here."
+
+"Well, but can you think of anything you would like to do before you go
+back to Calumet?" persisted the foreman. "I'm asking you because there'll
+not be enough work to go round next week, and you can have a bit of
+holiday. Now, isn't there something you would like to have a taste of
+while you have the chance?" And as he spoke his eyes were directed toward
+the wall at the head of his bed, where hung his rifle, powder-flask, and
+hunting knife. Frank caught his meaning at once.
+
+"Oh, I see what you are driving at now!" he exclaimed. "You want to know
+if I wouldn't like to go out hunting."
+
+"Right you are," said Johnston. "Would you?"
+
+"Would I?" cried Frank. "Would a duck swim? Just try me, that's all."
+
+"Well, I do intend to try you," returned Johnston. "The firm have some
+limits over there near the foot of the mountain that they want me to
+prospect before I go back, and pick out the best place for a camp. I've
+been trying to make out to go over there all winter, but getting hurt
+upset my plans, and I've not had a chance until now. So I'm thinking of
+making a start to-morrow. There's nothing much else to do except to
+finish getting the logs on the ice, and I can trust the men to see to
+that; and, no odds what kind of weather we have, the ice can't start for
+a week at least. So if you'd like to come along with me and take your
+rifle, you may get a chance to have a shot at something before we get
+back. Does that suit you?"
+
+This proposition suited Frank admirably. A week in the woods in
+Johnston's company could not fail to be a week of delight, and he thanked
+the foreman in his warmest words for offering to take him on his
+prospecting tour.
+
+The following morning they set off, the party consisting of four--namely,
+the foreman, Frank, Laberge, who accompanied them as cook, and another
+man named Booth as a sort of assistant. The snow still lay deep enough to
+render snow-shoes necessary, and while Johnston and Frank carried their
+rifles, Laberge and Booth drew behind them a toboggan, upon which was
+packed a small tent and an abundant supply of provisions. Their route led
+straight into the heart of the vast and so far little-explored forest,
+and away from the river beside whose bank they had been living all
+winter. It was Johnston's purpose to penetrate to the foot of the
+mountain range that rose into sight nearly thirty miles away, and then
+work backward by a different route, noting carefully the lie of the land,
+the course of the streams, and the best bunches of timber, so as to make
+sure of selecting a site for the future camp in the very best locality.
+
+He was evidently in excellent spirits himself at the prospect of a week's
+holiday, for such it would really be, and all trace of his injury having
+entirely disappeared, there was no drawback to the energy with which he
+led his little expedition into the forest where they would be buried for
+the rest of the week.
+
+The weather was as fine as heart could wish. All day the sun shone
+brightly, and even at night the temperature never got anywhere near zero,
+so that with a buffalo-robe under you and a couple of good blankets over
+you it was possible to sleep quite comfortably in a canvas tent.
+
+"I can't promise you much in the way of game, Frank," said Johnston, as
+the two tramped along side by side. "It is too late in the season. But
+the bears must be out of their dens by this time, and if we see one we'll
+do our best to get his skin for you to take home."
+
+The idea of bringing a big bear-skin home as a trophy of his first real
+hunting expedition pleased Frank mightily, and his eyes flashed as he
+grasped his rifle in a way that would in itself have been sufficient
+warning to bruin, could he only have seen it, to keep well out of the way
+of so doughty an assailant.
+
+"I'd like immensely to have a shot at a bear, sir," he replied. "So I do
+hope we shall see one."
+
+"You must be precious careful, though, Frank," said Johnston, "for
+they're generally in mighty bad humour at this time of year, and you need
+to get your work in quick, or they may make short work of you."
+
+Various kinds of game were seen during the next day or two, and Frank had
+many a shot. But Johnston seldom fired, preferring to let Frank have all
+the fun, as he said. One afternoon, just before they went into camp, the
+keen eyes of Laberge detected something among the branches of a pine a
+little distance to the right of their path which caused his face to glow
+with excitement as he pointed eagerly to it, and exclaimed,--
+
+"_Voila_! A lucifee--shoot him, quick!"
+
+They all turned in the direction he pointed out, and there, sure enough,
+was a dark mass in the fork of the tree that, as they hastened toward it,
+resolved itself into a fierce-looking creature, full four times the size
+of an ordinary cat, which, instead of showing any fear at their approach,
+bristled up its back and uttered a deep, angry snarl that spoke volumes
+for its courage.
+
+"Now, then, Frank," said Johnston, "take first shot, and see if you can
+fetch the brute down."
+
+Trembling with excitement, Frank threw up his rifle, did his best to
+steady himself, took aim at the bewhiskered muzzle of the lynx, and
+pulled the trigger. The sharp crack of the rifle was followed by an
+ear-piercing shriek of mingled pain and rage, and the next instant the
+wounded creature launched forth into the air toward the hunters. Frank's
+nervousness, natural enough under the circumstances, had caused him to
+miss his mark a little, and the bullet, instead of piercing the
+"lucifee's" brain, had only stung him sorely in the shoulder.
+
+But quick as was its movements, Johnston was still quicker, and the
+moment its feet touched the snow, ere it could gather itself for another
+spring, his rifle cracked and a bullet put an end to its career.
+
+"Just as well you weren't by yourself, Frank; hey?" said he, with a smile
+of satisfaction at the accuracy of his shot. "This chap would have been
+an ugly customer at close quarters, and," turning the body over to find
+where the first bullet had hit, "you see you hardly winged him."
+
+Frank blushed furiously and looked very much ashamed of himself for not
+being a better marksman; but the foreman cheered him up by assuring him
+that he had really done very well in hitting the animal at all at that
+distance.
+
+"You only want a little practice, my boy," said he. "You have plenty of
+pluck; there's no mistake about that."
+
+The lynx had a fine skin, which Laberge deftly removed, and it was given
+to Frank because he had fired the first shot at it, so that he would not
+go back to Calumet without at least one hunting trophy on the strength of
+which he might do a little boasting.
+
+Further and further into the forest the little party pierced their way,
+not following any direct line, but making detours to right and left, in
+order that the country might be thoroughly inspected. As they neared the
+mountains the trees diminished in size and the streams shrank until, at
+the end of their journey, the first were too small to pay for cutting,
+and the second too shallow to be any good for floating. With no little
+difficulty they ascended a shoulder of the mountain range, in order to
+get a look over all the adjoining country, and then, Johnston having made
+up his mind as to the location of the best bunches of timber and the most
+convenient site for the projected lumber camp, the object of the
+expedition was accomplished, and they were at liberty to return to the
+shanty. But before they could do this they were destined to have an
+adventure that came perilously near taking away from them the youngest of
+their number.
+
+It was the afternoon before they struck camp on the return journey. The
+foreman was sitting by the tent mending one of his snow-shoes, which had
+been damaged tramping through the bush, Booth was busy cutting firewood,
+and Laberge making preparations for the evening meal. Having nothing else
+to do, Frank picked up his rifle and sauntered off toward the mountain
+side, with no very clear idea as to anything more than to kill a little
+time. Whistling cheerfully one of the many sacred melodies he knew and
+loved, he made his way over the snow, being soon lost to sight from the
+camp, Johnston calling after him just before he disappeared,--
+
+"Take care of yourself, my boy, and don't go too far."
+
+To which Frank responded with a smiling, "All right, sir."
+
+At the distance of about a quarter of a mile from the camp he noticed a
+sort of rift in the mountain, where the rocks were bare and exposed, and
+at the end of this rift a dark aperture was visible, which at once
+attracted his attention.
+
+The boy that could come across a cave without being filled with a burning
+curiosity to take a peep in and, if possible, explore its interior, would
+have to be a very dull fellow, and Frank certainly was not of that kind.
+This dark aperture was no doubt the mouth of a cave of some sort, and he
+determined to inspect it. When he got within about fifteen yards, he
+noticed what he had not seen before, that there was a well-defined track
+leading from the cave to the underbrush to the right, which had evidently
+been made by some large animal; and with somewhat of a start Frank
+immediately thought of a bear.
+
+Now, of course, under the circumstances, there was but one thing for him
+to do if he wished to illustrate his common sense, and that was to hurry
+back to the tent as fast as possible for reinforcements. Ordinarily, he
+would have done so at once, but this time he was still smarting a bit at
+his poor marksmanship in the case of the "lucifee," and the sight of the
+track in the snow suggested the idea of winning a reputation for himself
+by killing a bear without any assistance from the others. It was a rash
+and foolish notion; but then boys will be boys.
+
+Moving forward cautiously, he approached within ten yards of the cave and
+then halted again, bringing his rifle forward so as to be ready to fire
+at a moment's notice. Bending down until his eyes were on a level with
+the opening, he tried hard to peer into its depths; but the darkness was
+too deep to pierce, and he could not make out anything. Then he bethought
+him of another expedient. Picking up a lump of snow, he pressed it into a
+ball and threw it into the cave, at the same time shouting out, "Hallo
+there! Anybody inside?" A proceeding that capped the climax of his
+rashness and produced quite as sensational a result as he could possibly
+have desired, for the next moment a deep angry roar issued from the rocky
+retreat and a fiery pair of eyes gleamed out from its shadows. The
+critical moment had come, and taking aim a little below the shining orbs,
+so as to make sure of hitting, Frank pulled the trigger. The report of
+the rifle and the roar of the bear followed close upon one another,
+awaking the echoes of the adjoining heights. Then came a moment's
+silence, broken the next instant by a cry of alarm from Frank; for the
+bear, instead of writhing in the agonies of death, was charging down upon
+him with open mouth! Once more he had missed his mark and only wounded
+when he should have killed.
+
+There was but one thing for him to do--to flee for his life; and uttering
+a shout of "Help! help!" with all the strength of his lungs, he threw
+down his rifle and started for the tent at the top of his speed.
+
+It was well for him that the snow still lay deep upon the ground, and
+that he was so expert in the use of his snow-shoes; for while the bear
+wallowed heavily in the drifts, he flew lightly over them, so that for a
+time the furious creature lost ground rather than gained upon him. For a
+hundred yards the boy and bear raced through the forest, Frank continuing
+his cries for help while he ran. Looking back for an instant, he saw that
+the bear bad not yet drawn any nearer, and, terrified as he was, the
+thought flashed into his mind that if the brute followed him all the way
+to the camp he would soon be despatched by the men, and then he, Frank,
+would be entitled to some credit for thus bringing him to execution.
+
+On sped the two in their race for life, the boy skimming swiftly over the
+soft snow, the bear ploughing his way madly through it, until more than
+half the distance to the camp had been accomplished. If Johnston had
+heard the report of the rifle and Frank's wild cries for help, he should
+be coming into sight now, and with intense anxiety Frank looked ahead in
+hopes of seeing him emerge from the trees which clustered thickly in that
+direction. But there was no sign of him yet; and shouting again as loudly
+as he could, the boy pressed strenuously forward. There was greater need
+for exertion than ever, for he had reached a spot where the snow was not
+very deep and had been firmly packed by the wind, so that the bear's
+broad feet sank but little in it, and his rate of speed ominously
+increased. So close was the fierce creature coming that Frank could hear
+his paws pattering on the snow and his deep panting breath.
+
+Oh why did not Johnston appear? Surely he must have heard Frank's cries.
+Ah, there he was, just bursting through the trees into the opening, with
+Laberge and Booth close at his heels. Frank's heart bounded with joy, and
+he was tempted to take a glance back to see how close the bear had got.
+It was not a wise thing to do, and he came near paying dearly for doing
+it; for at the same instant his snowshoes caught in each other, and
+before he could recover himself he fell headlong in the snow with the
+bear right upon him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE GREAT SPRING DRIVE.
+
+
+At the sight of Frank's fall the three men gave a simultaneous shout of
+alarm that caused the bear to halt for a moment in his fierce pursuit,
+and lifting his head to look angrily in the direction from which the
+sound had come. This action saved the helpless boy--striving to regain
+his feet only a yard from death. The instant the creature's broad breast
+was exposed, Johnston threw his rifle to his shoulder, and without
+waiting to take aim, but ejaculating a fervent "Help me, O God!" pulled
+the trigger. The report of the rifle rang out sharp and clear, the heavy
+bullet sped through the air straight to its mark, and with it embedded in
+his heart the mighty animal, leaving untouched the boy at his feet, made
+a mad bound across his body to reach the assailant who had given him his
+death wound.
+
+But it was a vain though gallant attempt. Ere he was half-way to the
+foreman, he staggered and rolled over upon the snow, and before he could
+lift himself again the men were upon him, and Laberge, swinging his keen
+axe high in the air, brought it down with a mighty blow upon the brute's
+slanting forehead, letting daylight into his brain. Not even a bear could
+survive such a stroke, and without a struggle the creature yielded up its
+life.
+
+Instantly the foreman sprang to Frank's side and lifted him upon his
+feet.
+
+"My dear boy!" he cried, his face aflame with anxious love, as he clasped
+Frank passionately in his arms, "are you hurt at all? Did he touch you?"
+
+What between his previous exertions and the big man's mighty embrace,
+poor Frank had hardly enough breath left in him to reply, but he managed
+to gasp out,--
+
+"Not a bit. He never touched me."
+
+"Are you quite sure now?" persisted Johnston, whose anxiety could not be
+at once relieved. "O my lad! my heart stood still when you fell down
+right in front of the brute."
+
+"I'm quite sure, Mr. Johnston," said Frank. "See!" And to prove his words
+he gave a jump into the air,  threw up his arms, and shouted, "Hip! hip!
+hurrah!" with the full force of his lungs.
+
+"God be praised!" exclaimed the foreman. "What a wonderful escape! Let
+us kneel down right here, and give Him thanks," he added, suiting his
+action to his words. Frank at once followed his example; so too did
+Laberge and Booth; and there in the midst of the forest-wilds this
+strange praise-meeting was held over the body of the fierce creature from
+whose murderous rage Frank had been so happily delivered.
+
+Johnston sent Laberge back to the tent for the toboggan, and before
+darkness set in the bear was dragged thither, where the two men skilfully
+skinned him by the light of the camp fire, and stretched the pelt out to
+dry.
+
+The quartette had a long talk over the whole affair after supper had been
+disposed of. Frank was plied with questions which he took much pleasure
+in answering, for naturally enough he felt himself to be in some measure
+the hero of the occasion. While he could not help admiring and cordially
+praising Frank's audacity, the foreman felt bound to reprove him for it,
+and to impress upon him the necessity of showing more caution in future,
+or he might get himself into a situation of danger from which there might
+be no one at hand to deliver him. Frank, by this time thoroughly sobered
+down, listened dutifully, and readily promised to be more careful if he
+ever came across bear tracks again.
+
+"Anyway, my boy," said Johnston, "you won't go home empty-handed; and
+when your mother sees those two skins, which are both pretty good ones,
+she'll think more of you than she ever did before."
+
+"Yes, but you know," said Frank, "both skins oughtn't to be mine, for I
+didn't kill either of the animals."
+
+"Neither you did, Frank," replied Johnston, "but you came mighty near
+killing the one, and the other came mighty near killing you; so I think
+it's only fair you should have both.--Don't you think so, mates?" turning
+to the men.
+
+"Ah, _oui_," exclaimed Laberge, with a vigorous nod of his head.
+
+"Of course," added Booth, no less emphatically; and so the matter was
+settled very much to Frank's satisfaction.
+
+The next day the tent was packed and the little party set out for the
+shanty, which was reached in good time without anything eventful
+occurring on the way. They found the work of getting the logs down upon
+the ice well nigh completed, and the foreman's return giving an impetus
+to the men's exertions, it was finished in a few days more, and then
+there was nothing to do but to await the breaking up of the ice.
+
+They were not kept long in expectancy. The sun was now in full vigour;
+before his burning rays the snow and ice fled in utter rout; and the
+frost king, confessing defeat, withdrew his grasp from the Kippewa,
+which, as if rejoicing in its release, went rippling and bounding merrily
+on toward the great river beyond, bearing upon its bosom the many
+thousand logs which represented the hard labour of Camp Kippewa during
+the long cold winter months that were now past and gone. The most arduous
+and exciting phase of the lumberman's life had begun, the great spring
+drive, as they call it, and for weeks to come he would be engaged playing
+the part of shepherd after a strange fashion, with huge, clumsy, unruly
+logs for his flock, and the rushing river for the highway along which
+they should be driven.
+
+The shantymen were divided into two parties, one section taking the teams
+and camp-belongings back to the depot, the other and much larger section
+following the logs in their journey to the mills. Johnston put himself at
+the head of the latter, and Frank, of course, accompanied him, for the
+foreman was no less anxious to have him than the boy was to go. The bonds
+of affection that bound the two were growing stronger every day they were
+together. Frank regarded Johnston as the preserver of his life, and
+Johnston, on his part, looked upon Frank as having been in God's hands
+the means of bringing light and joy to his soul. It might be said,
+without exaggeration, that either of them would risk his life in the
+other's behalf with the utmost willingness.
+
+The journey down the river had to be done in light marching order. Not
+much baggage could be carried, so as not to burden too heavily the three
+or four "_bonnes_," as they call the long, light, flat-bottomed boats
+peculiar to lumbermen, which had been all winter awaiting the time when
+their services would be required. The shore work being beyond his
+strength, Frank was given a place in one of the _bonnes_ along with
+Baptiste, Laberge, and part of the commissariat, and it was their duty to
+precede the main body of the men, and have their dinner and supper ready
+for them when they came up. In this way Frank would get a perfect view of
+the whole business of river driving, and he was in high feather as they
+made a start on a beautiful morning in early May, with the sun shining
+brightly, the air soft and balmy, and the river reflecting the blue of
+the unclouded heavens.
+
+"Now take good care of Baptiste and the grub," said Johnston, with a
+smile, as he pushed the boat in which Frank was sitting off into the
+stream. "If you let anything happen to them, Frank, I don't know what
+we'll do to you."
+
+"I'll do my best, sir," replied Frank, smiling back. "The boat won't
+upset if I can help it, and as Baptiste can't swim, he'll do his best to
+be careful too; won't you, Baptiste?"
+
+"_Vraiment, mon cher_," cried Baptiste. "If we upset--poor Baptiste! zat
+will be the last of him." And he shrugged his fat shoulders and made a
+serio-comic grimace that set everybody laughing.
+
+If the Kippewa, through all its course, had been as deep and free from
+obstructions as it was opposite the lumber camp, the river drivers
+would have had an easy time of it getting their wooden flock to market.
+But none of the rivers in this part of the country go quietly on their
+way from source to outlet. Falls and rapids are of frequent occurrence,
+and it is these which add difficulty and danger to the lumberman's
+work. Carrying pike-poles and cant-hooks, the former being simply long
+tough ash poles with a sharp spike on the business end, and the latter
+shorter stouter poles, something like the handle of a shovel, with a
+curious curved iron attachment that took a firm grip of a log and enabled
+the worker to roll its lazy bulk over and over in the direction he
+desired--with these weapons taking the place of the axe and saw, the men
+set off on their journey down the river side, two of the boats going
+ahead, and two bringing up the rear.
+
+Frank felt in great spirits. He was thoroughly expert in the management
+of a _bonne_, and the voyage down the river in this lovely spring weather
+could be only continued enjoyment, especially as beyond steering the boat
+he had nothing to do, and it would be practically one long holiday. There
+were nearly twenty thousand logs to be guided, coaxed, rolled, and shoved
+for one hundred miles or more through sullen pools, sleeping reaches,
+turbulent rapids, and roaring falls, where, as if they were living
+things, they would seem to exhaust every possible means of delay. The way
+in which they would stick at some critical point and pile one upon
+another, until the whole river was blocked, defies description; and one
+seeing the spectacle for the first time might well be pardoned if he were
+to be positive that there could be no way of bringing order out of so
+hopeless a confusion, and releasing the tangled obstructed mass.
+
+For the first few days matters went very smoothly, the river being
+deep and swift, and the logs giving little trouble. Of course, numbers of
+them were continually stranding on the banks, but the watchful drivers
+soon spied them out, and with a push of the pike-pole, or drag of the
+cant-hook, sent them floating off again on their journey. At mid-day all
+the men would gather about Baptiste's kettles and dispose of a hearty
+dinner, and then again at night they would leave the logs to look after
+themselves while they ate their supper and talked, and then lay down to
+rest their weary bodies. But this condition of things was too good to
+last. In due time the difficulties began to show themselves, and then
+Frank saw the most exciting and dangerous phase of a lumberman's life--a
+part of it with which when he grew older he must himself become familiar
+if he would be master of the whole business, as it was his ambition to
+be.
+
+The great army of logs, forging onward slowly or swiftly, according to
+the force of the current, would come to a point where the stream narrowed
+and jagged rocks thrust their unwelcome heads above the surface. The
+vanguard of the army, perhaps, passing either to right or left of the
+rocks, would go on its way unchecked. But when the main body came up, and
+the whole stream was full of drifting logs, some clumsy tree trunk going
+down broadside first would bring up short against the rock. As quickly as
+a crowd will gather in a city street, the other logs would cluster about
+the one that obstructed their passage. There would be no stopping the
+on-rush. In less time than it takes to describe it, a hundred logs would
+be jostling one another in the current; and every minute the confusion
+would increase, until ere long the disordered mass would stretch from
+shore to shore, the whole stream would be blocked up, and the event most
+dreaded by the river driver would have taken place, to wit, a log jam.
+
+The worst place that Johnston had to encounter in getting his drive of
+logs to the river was at the Black Rapids, and never will Frank forget
+the thrilling excitement of that experience. These rapids were the terror
+of the Kippewa lumbermen. They were situated in the swiftest part of the
+river, and if Nature had in cold blood tried her utmost to give the
+despoilers of her forest a hard nut to crack she could scarcely have
+succeeded better. The boiling current was divided into two portions by a
+jagged spur of rock that thrust itself above the surging waters, and so
+sure as a log came broadside against this projection it was caught and
+held in a firm embrace.
+
+Johnston thoroughly understood this, and had taken every care to
+prevent a jam occurring; and if it had been possible for him to do what
+was in his mind--namely, to land upon the troublesome rock, and with his
+pike-pole push back again into the current every log that threatened to
+stick--the whole drive would have slipped safely by. He did make a
+gallant attempt to carry this out, putting four of the best oarsmen into
+Frank's boat, and trying again and again to force his way through the
+fierce current to the rock, while Frank watched him with breathless
+interest from the bank. But, strain and tug as the oarsmen might, the
+eddying, whirling stream was too strong for them, and swept them past the
+rock again and again, until at length the foreman had to give up
+his design as impracticable.
+
+It was exciting work, and Frank longed very much to be in the boat; but
+Johnston, indulgent as he was toward his favourite, refused him this
+time.
+
+"No, no, Frank; I couldn't think of it," he said decidedly. "It's too
+risky a business. The _bonne_ might be smashed any time, and if it did
+we'd run a poor chance of getting out of these rapids. More than one good
+man has gone to his death here."
+
+"Have there been men killed in these rapids?" Frank asked, with a look of
+profound concern at his big friend, who was taking such risks. "The poor
+fellows! What a dreadful death! They must have been dashed against the
+rocks. Surely you won't try it again, will you?" For it was dinner-time,
+and all hands were taking a welcome rest before resuming the toils of the
+day.
+
+Johnston thoroughly understood and appreciated the boy's anxiety in his
+behalf, and there was a look of wonderful tenderness in his eyes as he
+answered him:--
+
+"I must try it once more, Frank; for if I can only get out to that rock
+there'll be no jam this day. But don't you worry. I've taken bigger risks
+and come out all right."
+
+So he made one more attempt, while Frank watched every movement of the
+boat, praying earnestly for its preservation. Again he failed, and the
+_bonne_ returned to the bank unharmed. But hardly had the weary men
+thrown themselves down for a brief spell of rest than what they all so
+dreaded happened. One of the logs, getting into a cross eddy, rolled
+broadside against the rock. It was caught and held fast. Another and
+another charged against it and stayed there. The main body of the drive
+was now passing down, and every moment the jam increased in size. Soon it
+would fill the whole stream. Yet the lumbermen were powerless to prevent
+its growth. They could do nothing until it had so checked the current
+that it would be possible to make a way over to its centre.
+
+So soon as this took place, Johnston, accompanied by three of his best
+men, armed with axes and cant-hooks, leaping from log to log with the
+sure agility only lumbermen could show, succeeded in reaching the heart
+of the jam, and at once proceeded to attack it with tremendous energy.
+One log after another was detached from the disordered mass and sent
+whirling off down stream, until at the end of an hour's arduous exertion,
+the key-piece--that is, the log that had caused all the trouble--was
+found.
+
+"Now, my boys," said Johnston to his men, "get ashore as quick as you
+can. I'll stay and cut out the key-piece."
+
+The men demurred for a moment. They were reluctant to leave their chief
+alone in a position of such extreme peril. But he commanded them to go.
+
+"There's only one man wanted," he said; "and I'll do it myself. It's no
+use you risking your lives too."
+
+So the men obeyed, and returned to the bank to join the group watching
+Johnston's movements with intense anxiety. They all knew as well as he
+did the exceeding peril of his position, and not one of them would
+breathe freely until he had accomplished his task, and found his way
+safely back to the shore.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+HOME AGAIN.
+
+
+For so large a man the foreman showed an agility that was really
+wonderful, as he leaped from log to log with the swiftness and sureness
+of a chamois. He had been lumbering all his life, and there was nothing
+that fell to the lumberman's experience with which he was not perfectly
+familiar. Yet it is doubtful if he ever had a more difficult or dangerous
+task than that before him now. The "key-piece" of the jam was fully
+exposed, and once it was cut in two it would no longer hold the
+accumulation of logs together. They would be released from their bondage,
+and springing forward with the full force of the pent-up current, would
+rush madly down stream, carrying everything before them.
+
+But what would Johnston do in the midst of this tumult? A few more
+moments would tell; for his axe was dealing tremendous strokes, before
+which the key-piece, stout though it was, must soon yield. Ah, it is
+almost severed. The foreman pauses for an instant and glances keenly
+around, evidently in order to see what will be his best course of action
+when the jam breaks. Frank, in an agony of apprehension and anxiety, has
+sunk to his knees, his lips moving in earnest prayer, while his eyes are
+fixed on his beloved friend. Johnston's quick glance falls upon him, and,
+catching the significance of his attitude, his face is irradiated with a
+heavenly light of love as lie calls out across the boiling current,--
+
+"God bless you, Frank! Keep praying."
+
+Then he returns to his work. The keen axe flashes through the air in
+stroke after stroke. At length there comes a sound that cannot be
+mistaken. The foreman throws aside his axe and prepares to jump for
+life; and, like one man, the breathless onlookers shout together as the
+key-piece rends in two, and the huge jam, suddenly released, bursts away
+from the rock and charges tumultuously down the river.
+
+If ever man needed the power of prompt decision, it was the foreman then.
+To the men on shore there seemed no possible way of escape from the
+avalanche of logs; and Frank shut his eyes lest he should have to witness
+a dreadful tragedy. A cry from the men caused him to open them again
+quickly, and when he looked at the rock it was untenanted--Johnston had
+disappeared! Speechless with dread, he turned to the man nearest him, his
+blanched countenance expressing the inquiry he could not utter.
+
+"He's there," cried the man, pointing to the whirl of water behind the
+body of logs. "He dived."
+
+And so it was. Recognizing that to remain in the way of the jam was to
+court certain death, the foreman chose the desperate alternative of
+diving beneath the logs, and allowing them to pass over him before he
+rose to the surface. Great was the relief of Frank and the others when,
+amid the foaming water, Johnston's head appeared, and he struck out to
+keep himself afloat. But it was evident that he had little strength left,
+and was quite unable to contend with the mighty current. Good swimmer as
+he was, the danger of drowning threatened him.
+
+Frank's quick eyes noticed this, and like a flash the fearless boy, not
+stopping to call any of the others to his aid, bounded down the bank to
+where the _bonne_ lay upon the shore, shoved her off into deep water,
+springing in over the bow as she slipped away, and in another moment was
+whirling down the river, crying out at the top of his voice,--
+
+"I'm coming! I'll save you! Keep up!"
+
+His eager shouts reached Johnston's ears, and the sight of the boat,
+pitching and tossing as the current swept it toward him, inspired him to
+renewed exertion. He struggled to get in the way of the boat, and
+succeeded so well that Frank, leaning over the side as far as he dared,
+was able to seize his outstretched hand and hold it until he could grasp
+the gunwale himself with a grip that no current could loosen. A glad
+shout of relief went up from the men at sight of this, and Frank, having
+made sure that the foreman was now out of danger, seized the oars and
+began to ply them vigorously with the purpose of beaching the _bonne_ at
+the first opportunity. They had to go some distance before this could be
+done, but Johnston held on firmly, and presently a projecting point was
+reached, against which Frank steered the boat; and the moment she was
+aground, he hastened to the stern and helped the foreman ashore, the
+latter having just strength enough left to drag himself out of the water
+and fall in a limp, dripping heap upon the ground.
+
+"God bless you, Frank dear," he said, as soon as he recovered his breath.
+"You've saved my life again. I never could have got ashore if you hadn't
+come after me. One of the logs must have hit me on the head when I was
+diving, for I felt so faint and dizzy when I came up that I thought it
+was all over with me. But, thank God, I'm a live man still; and I'm sure
+it's not for nothing that I've been spared."
+
+The men all thought it a plucky act on Frank's part to go off alone in
+the boat to the foreman's rescue, and showered unstinted praise upon him;
+all of which he took very quietly, for, indeed, he felt quite
+sufficiently rewarded in that his venture was crowned with success. The
+exciting incident of course threw everybody out in their work, and when
+they returned to it they found that the logs had taken advantage of their
+being left uncared for to play all sorts of queer pranks and run
+themselves aground in every conceivable fashion.
+
+But the river drivers did not mind this very much. The hated Black Rapids
+were passed, and the rest of the Kippewa was comparatively smooth
+sailing. So, with song and joke, they toiled away until all their charges
+were afloat again and gliding steadily onward toward their goal.
+Thenceforward they had little interruption in their course; and Frank
+found the life wonderfully pleasant, drifting idly all day long in the
+_bonne_, and camping at night beside the river, the weather being bright,
+and warm, and delightful all the time.
+
+So soon as the Kippewa rolled its burden of forest spoils out upon the
+broad bosom of the Ottawa--the Grand River, as those who live beside its
+batiks love to call it--the work of the river drivers was over. The logs
+that had caused them so much trouble were now handed over to the care of
+a company which gathered them up into "tows," and with powerful steamers
+dragged them down the river until the sorting grounds were reached, where
+they were turned into the "booms" to await their time for execution--in
+other words, their sawing up.
+
+Frank felt really sorry when the driving was over. He loved the water,
+and would have been glad to spend the whole summer upon it. He was
+telling Johnston this as they were talking together on the evening of the
+last day upon the Kippewa. Johnston had been saying to him how glad he
+must be that the work was all over, and that they now could go over to
+the nearest village and take the stage for home. But Frank did not
+entirely agree with him.
+
+"I'm not anxious to go home by stage," said he. "I'd a good deal rather
+stick to the river. I think it's just splendid, so long as the weather's
+fine."
+
+"Why, what a water-dog you are, Frank!" said the foreman, laughing. "One
+would think you'd have had enough of the water by this time."
+
+"Not a bit of it," said Frank, returning the smile. "The woods in winter,
+and the water in summer--that's what I enjoy."
+
+"Well, but aren't you in a hurry to get home and see your mother again?"
+queried Johnston.
+
+"Of course I am," answered Frank. "But, you see, a day or two won't make
+much difference, for she doesn't know just when to look for me; and I've
+never been on this part of the Ottawa, and want to see it ever so much."
+
+"Well--let me see," reflected Johnston. "How can we manage it? You'd soon
+get sick of the steamers. They're mortal slow and very dirty. Besides,
+they don't encourage passengers, or they'd have too many of them. But
+hold on!" he exclaimed, his face lighting up with a new idea. "I've got
+it. How would you like to finish the rest of the trip home on a square
+timber raft? There'll be one passing any day, and I know 'most all the
+men in the business, so there'll be no difficulty about getting a
+passage."
+
+"The very idea!" cried Frank, jumping up and bringing his hand down upon
+his thigh with a resounding slap. "Nothing would please me better. Oh,
+what fun it will be shooting the slides!" And he danced about in delight
+at the prospect.
+
+"All right then, my lad," said Johnston, smiling at the boy's exuberance.
+"We'll just wait here until a raft comes along, and then we'll board her
+and ask the fellows to let us go down with them. They won't refuse."
+
+They had not long to wait, for the very next day a huge raft hove in
+sight--a real floating island of mighty timbers--and on going out to it
+in the _bonne_, Johnston was glad to find that the foreman in charge was
+an old friend who would be heartily pleased at having his company for the
+rest of the voyage. So he and Frank brought their scanty baggage on
+board, and joined themselves to the crew of men that, with the aid of a
+towing steamer, were navigating this very strange kind of craft down the
+river.
+
+This was an altogether novel experience for Frank, and he found it much
+to his liking. The raft was an immense one.
+
+"As fine a lot of square timber as I ever took down," said its captain
+proudly. "It's worth five thousand pounds if it's worth a penny."
+
+Five thousand pounds! Frank's eyes opened wide at the mention of this
+vast sum, and he wondered to himself if he should ever be the owner of
+such a valuable piece of property. Although he had begun as a chore-boy,
+his ambition was by no means limited to his becoming in due time a
+foreman like Johnston, or even an overseer like Alec Stewart. He allowed
+his imagination to carry him forward to a day of still greater things,
+when he should be his own master, and have foremen and overseers under
+him. This slow sailing down the river was very favourable to day
+dreaming, and Frank could indulge himself to his heart's content during
+the long lovely spring days. There were more than twoscore men upon the
+raft, the majority of them habitants and half-breeds, and they were as
+full of songs as robins; especially in the evening after supper, when
+they would gather about the great fire always burning on its clay bed in
+the centre of the raft, and with solo and chorus awake the echoes of the
+placid river.
+
+In common with the rivers which pour into it, the Ottawa is broken by
+many falls and rapids, and to have attempted to run the huge raft over
+one of these would have insured its complete destruction. But this
+difficulty is duly provided for. At one side of the fall a "slide" is
+built--that is, a contrivance something like a canal, with sides and
+bottom of heavy timber, and having a steep slope down which the water
+rushes in frantic haste to the level below. Now the raft is not put
+together in one piece, but is made up of a number of "cribs"--a crib
+being a small raft containing fifteen to twenty timbers, and being about
+twenty-four feet wide by thirty feet in length. At the head of the slide
+the big raft is separated into the cribs, and these cribs make the
+descent one at a time, each having three or four men on board.
+
+Shooting the slides, as it is called, is a most delightful amusement to
+people whose nerves don't bother them. Frank had heard so much about it
+that he was looking forward to it from the time he boarded the raft, and
+now at Des Joachim Falls he was to have the realization. He went down in
+one of the first cribs, and this is the way he described the experience
+to his mother:--
+
+"But, mother, the best fun of the whole thing is shooting the slides. I
+just wish there was a slide near Calumet, so that I could take you down
+and let you see how splendid it is. Why, it's just like--let me see--I've
+got it! It's just like tobogganing on water. You jump on board the crib
+at the mouth of the slide, you know, and it moves along very slowly at
+first, until it gets to the edge of the first slant; then it takes a
+sudden start, and away it goes shooting down like greased lightning,
+making the water fly up all around you, just like the snow does when
+you're tobogganing. Oh, but if it isn't grand! The timbers of the crib
+rub against the bottom of the slide, and groan and creak as if it hurt
+them. And then, besides coming in over the bow, the water spurts up
+between the timbers, so that you have to look spry or you're bound to get
+soaking wet. I got drenched nearly every time; but that didn't matter,
+for the sun soon made me dry again, and it was too good fun to mind a
+little wetting."
+
+Frank felt quite sorry when the last of the slides was passed, and wished
+there were twice as many on the route of the raft. But presently he had
+something else to occupy his thoughts, for each day brought him nearer to
+Calumet, and soon his journeyings by land and water would be ended, and
+he would be at home again to make his mother's heart glad.
+
+It was the perfection of a spring day when the raft, moving in its
+leisurely fashion--for was not the whole summer before it?--reached
+Calumet, and Mrs. Kingston, sitting alone in her cottage, and wondering
+when her boy would make his appearance, was surprised by an unceremonious
+opening of the front door, a quick step in the hall, and a sudden
+enfolding by two stout arms, while a voice that she had not heard for
+months shouted in joyous accents,--
+
+"Here I am, mother darling, safe and sound, right side up with care, and
+oh, so glad to be at home again!"
+
+Mrs. Kingston returned the fond embrace with interest, and then held
+Frank off at arms-length to see how much he had changed during his six
+months' absence. She found him both taller and stouter, and with his face
+well browned by the exposure to the bright spring sunshine.
+
+"You went away a boy, and you've come back almost a man, Frank," she
+said, her eyes brimming with tears of joy. "But you're my own boy the
+same as ever; aren't you, darling?"
+
+It was many a day before Frank reached the end of his story of life at
+the lumber camp, for Mrs. Kingston never wearied of hearing all about it.
+When she learned of his different escapes from danger, the inclination of
+her heart was to beseech him to be content with one winter in the woods,
+and to take up some other occupation. But she wisely said nothing, for
+there could be no doubt as to the direction in which Frank's heart
+inclined, and she determined not to interfere.
+
+When in the following autumn Frank went back to the forest, he was again
+under Johnston's command, but not as chore-boy. He was appointed clerk
+and checker, with liberty to do as much chopping or other work as he
+pleased. Whatever his duty was he did it with all his might, doing it
+heartily as to the Lord and not unto men, so that he found increasing
+favour in his employer's eyes, rising steadily higher and higher until,
+while still a young man, he was admitted into partnership, and had the
+sweet satisfaction of realizing the day dreams of that first trip down
+the Ottawa on a timber raft.
+
+Yet he never forgot what he had learned when chore-boy of Camp Kippewa,
+and out of that experience grew a practical philanthropic interest in the
+well-being and advancement of his employees, that made him the most
+popular and respected "lumber-king" on the river.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Young Woodsman, by J. McDonald Oxley
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