Fabian Laveque elaborated the details of the catastrophe2 with volubility.
"Hee's not fonny dat she bre'ks t'rough," he said. "I 'ave see dem bre'k t'rough two, t'ree tam in de day, but nevaire dat she get drown! W'en dose dam-fool can't t'ink wit' hees haid--sacre Dieu! eet is so easy, to chok' dat cheval--she make me cry wit' de eye!"
"I suppose it was a good deal my fault," commented Radway, doubtfully shaking his head, after Laveque had left the office. "I ought to have been surer about the ice."
"Eight inches is a little light, with so much snow atop," remarked the scaler carelessly.
By virtue4 of that same careless remark, however, Radway was so confirmed in his belief as to his own culpability5 that he quite overlooked Fabian's just contention--that the mere6 thinness of the ice was in reality no excuse for the losing of the horses. So Pat and Henrys were not discharged--were not instructed to "get their time." Fabian Laveque promptly7 demanded his.
"Sacre bleu!" said he to old Jackson. "I no work wid dat dam-fool dat no t'ink wit' hees haid."
This deprived the camp at once of a teamster and a team. When you reflect that one pair of horses takes care of the exertions9 of a crew of sawyers, several swampers, and three or four cant-hook men, you will readily see what a serious derangement10 their loss would cause. And besides, the animals themselves are difficult to replace. They are big strong beasts, selected for their power, staying qualities, and intelligence, worth anywhere from three to six hundred dollars a pair. They must be shipped in from a distance. And, finally, they require a very careful and patient training before they are of value in co-operating with the nicely adjusted efforts necessary to place the sawlog where it belongs. Ready-trained horses are never for sale during the season.
Radway did his best. He took three days to search out a big team of farm horses. Then it became necessary to find a driver. After some deliberation he decided11 to advance Bob Stratton to the post, that "decker" having had more or less experience the year before. Erickson, the Swede, while not a star cant-hook man, was nevertheless sure and reliable. Radway placed him in Stratton's place. But now he must find a swamper. He remembered Thorpe.
So the young man received his first promotion12 toward the ranks of skilled labor1. He gained at last a field of application for the accuracy he had so intelligently acquired while road-making, for now a false stroke marred13 a saw-log; and besides, what was more to his taste, he found himself near the actual scene of operation, at the front, as it were. He had under his very eyes the process as far as it had been carried.
In his experience here he made use of the same searching analytical14 observation that had so quickly taught him the secret of the ax-swing. He knew that each of the things he saw, no matter how trivial, was either premeditated or the product of chance. If premeditated, he tried to find out its reason for being. If fortuitous, he wished to know the fact, and always attempted to figure out the possibility of its elimination15.
So he learned why and when the sawyers threw a tree up or down hill; how much small standing16 timber they tried to fell it through; what consideration held for the cutting of different lengths of log; how the timber was skilfully17 decked on the skids18 in such a manner that the pile should not bulge19 and fall, and so that the scaler could easily determine the opposite ends of the same log;--in short, a thousand and one little details which ordinarily a man learns only as the exigencies20 arise to call in experience. Here, too, he first realized he was in the firing line.
Thorpe had assigned him as bunk21 mate the young fellow who assisted Tom Broadhead in the felling. Henry Paul was a fresh-complexioned, clear-eyed, quick-mannered young fellow with an air of steady responsibility about him. He came from the southern part of the State, where, during the summer, he worked on a little homestead farm of his own. After a few days he told Thorpe that he was married, and after a few days more he showed his bunk mate the photograph of a sweet-faced young woman who looked trustingly out of the picture.
"She's waitin' down there for me, and it ain't so very long till spring," said Paul wistfully. "She's the best little woman a man ever had, and there ain't nothin' too good for her, chummy!"
Thorpe, soul-sick after his recent experiences with the charity of the world, discovered a real pleasure in this fresh, clear passion. As he contemplated22 the abounding23 health, the upright carriage, the sparkling, bubbling spirits of the young woodsman, he could easily imagine the young girl and the young happiness, too big for a little backwoods farm.
Three days after the newcomer had started in at the swamping, Paul, during their early morning walk from camp to the scene of their operations, confided24 in him further.
"Got another letter, chummy," said he, "come in yesterday. She tells me," he hesitated with a blush, and then a happy laugh, "that they ain't going to be only two of us at the farm next year."
"Yes," laughed Paul, "and if it's a girl she gets named after her mother, you bet."
The men separated. In a moment Thorpe found himself waist-deep in the pitchy aromatic26 top of an old bull-sap, clipping away at the projecting branches. After a time he heard Paul's gay halloo.
"TimBER!" came the cry, and then the swish-sh-sh,--CRASH of the tree's fall.
Thorpe knew that now either Hank or Tom must be climbing with the long measuring pole along the prostrate27 trunk, marking by means of shallow ax-clips where the saw was to divide the logs. Then Tom shouted something unintelligible28. The other men seemed to understand, however, for they dropped their work and ran hastily in the direction of the voice. Thorpe, after a moment's indecision, did the same. He arrived to find a group about a prostrate man. The man was Paul.
Two of the older woodsmen, kneeling, were conducting coolly a hasty examination. At the front every man is more or less of a surgeon.
"Is he hurt badly?" asked Thorpe; "what is it?"
"He's dead," answered one of the other men soberly.
With the skill of ghastly practice some of them wove a litter on which the body was placed. The pathetic little procession moved in the solemn, inscrutable forest.
When the tree had fallen it had crashed through the top of another, leaving suspended in the branches of the latter a long heavy limb. A slight breeze dislodged it. Henry Paul was impaled29 as by a javelin30.
This is the chief of the many perils31 of the woods. Like crouching32 pumas33 the instruments of a man's destruction poise34 on the spring, sometimes for days. Then swiftly, silently, the leap is made. It is a danger unavoidable, terrible, ever-present. Thorpe was destined35 in time to see men crushed and mangled36 in a hundred ingenious ways by the saw log, knocked into space and a violent death by the butts37 of trees, ground to powder in the mill of a jam, but never would he be more deeply impressed than by this ruthless silent taking of a life. The forces of nature are so tame, so simple, so obedient; and in the next instant so absolutely beyond human control or direction, so whirlingly contemptuous of puny38 human effort, that in time the wilderness39 shrouds40 itself to our eyes in the same impenetrable mystery as the sea.
That evening the camp was unusually quiet. Tellier let his fiddle41 hang. After supper Thorpe was approached by Purdy, the reptilian42 red-head with whom he had had the row some evenings before.
"You in, chummy?" he asked in a quiet voice. "It's a five apiece for Hank's woman."
"Yes," said Thorpe.
The men were earning from twenty to thirty dollars a month. They had, most of them, never seen Hank Paul before this autumn. He had not, mainly because of his modest disposition43, enjoyed any extraordinary degree of popularity. Yet these strangers cheerfully, as a matter of course, gave up the proceeds of a week's hard work, and that without expecting the slightest personal credit. The money was sent "from the boys." Thorpe later read a heart-broken letter of thanks to the unknown benefactors44. It touched him deeply, and he suspected the other men of the same emotions, but by that time they had regained45 the independent, self-contained poise of the frontiersman. They read it with unmoved faces, and tossed it aside with a more than ordinarily rough joke or oath. Thorpe understood their reticence46. It was a part of his own nature. He felt more than ever akin3 to these men.
As swamper he had more or less to do with a cant-hook in helping47 the teamsters roll the end of the log on the little "dray." He soon caught the knack48. Towards Christmas he had become a fairly efficient cant-hook man, and was helping roll the great sticks of timber up the slanting49 skids. Thus always intelligence counts, especially that rare intelligence which resolves into the analytical and the minutely observing.
On Sundays Thorpe fell into the habit of accompanying old Jackson Hines on his hunting expeditions. The ancient had been raised in the woods. He seemed to know by instinct the haunts and habits of all the wild animals, just as he seemed to know by instinct when one of his horses was likely to be troubled by the colic. His woodcraft was really remarkable50.
So the two would stand for hours in the early morning and late evening waiting for deer on the edges of the swamps. They haunted the runways during the middle of the day. On soft moccasined feet they stole about in the evening with a bull's-eye lantern fastened on the head of one of them for a "jack8." Several times they surprised the wolves, and shone the animals' eyes like the scattered51 embers of a camp fire.
Thorpe learned to shoot at a deer's shoulders rather than his heart, how to tell when the animal had sustained a mortal hurt from the way it leaped and the white of its tail. He even made progress in the difficult art of still hunting, where the man matches his senses against those of the creatures of the forest,--and sometimes wins. He soon knew better than to cut the animal's throat, and learned from Hines that a single stab at a certain point of the chest was much better for the purposes of bleeding. And, what is more, he learned not to over-shoot down hill.
Besides these things Jackson taught him many other, minor52, details of woodcraft. Soon the young man could interpret the thousands of signs, so insignificant53 in appearance and so important in reality, which tell the history of the woods. He acquired the knack of winter fishing.
These Sundays were perhaps the most nearly perfect of any of the days of that winter. In them the young man drew more directly face to face with the wilderness. He called a truce54 with the enemy; and in return that great inscrutable power poured into his heart a portion of her grandeur55. His ambition grew; and, as always with him, his determination became the greater and the more secret. In proportion as his ideas increased, he took greater pains to shut them in from expression. For failure in great things would bring keener disappointment than failure in little.
He was getting just the experience and the knowledge he needed; but that was about all. His wages were twenty-five dollars a month, which his van bill would reduce to the double eagle. At the end of the winter he would have but a little over a hundred dollars to show for his season's work, and this could mean at most only fifty dollars for Helen. But the future was his. He saw now more plainly what he had dimly perceived before, that for the man who buys timber, and logs it well, a sure future is waiting. And in this camp he was beginning to learn from failure the conditions of success.
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labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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catastrophe
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| n.大灾难，大祸 | |
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akin
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| adj.同族的，类似的 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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culpability
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| n.苛责，有罪 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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exertions
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| n.努力( exertion的名词复数 )；费力；（能力、权力等的）运用；行使 | |
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derangement
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| n.精神错乱 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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promotion
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| n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传 | |
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marred
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| adj. 被损毁, 污损的 | |
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analytical
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| adj.分析的；用分析法的 | |
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elimination
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| n.排除，消除，消灭 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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skilfully
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| adv. (美skillfully)熟练地 | |
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skids
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| n.滑向一侧( skid的名词复数 )；滑道；滚道；制轮器v.（通常指车辆） 侧滑( skid的第三人称单数 )；打滑；滑行；（住在）贫民区 | |
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bulge
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| n.突出，膨胀，激增；vt.突出，膨胀 | |
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exigencies
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| n.急切需要 | |
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bunk
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| n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位；废话 | |
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contemplated
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| adj. 预期的 动词contemplate的过去分词形式 | |
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abounding
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| adj.丰富的，大量的v.大量存在，充满，富于( abound的现在分词 ) | |
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confided
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| v.吐露（秘密，心事等）( confide的过去式和过去分词 )；（向某人）吐露（隐私、秘密等） | |
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queried
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| v.质疑，对…表示疑问( query的过去式和过去分词 )；询问 | |
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aromatic
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| adj.芳香的，有香味的 | |
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prostrate
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| v.拜倒，平卧，衰竭；adj.拜倒的，平卧的，衰竭的 | |
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unintelligible
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| adj.无法了解的，难解的，莫明其妙的 | |
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impaled
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| 钉在尖桩上( impale的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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javelin
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| n.标枪，投枪 | |
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perils
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| 极大危险( peril的名词复数 )； 危险的事（或环境） | |
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crouching
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 ) | |
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pumas
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| n.美洲狮( puma的名词复数 )；彪马；于1948年成立于德国荷索金劳勒(Herzogenaurach)的国际运动品牌；创始人：鲁道夫及达斯勒。 | |
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poise
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| vt./vi. 平衡，保持平衡；n.泰然自若，自信 | |
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destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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mangled
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| vt.乱砍（mangle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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butts
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| 笑柄( butt的名词复数 )； （武器或工具的）粗大的一端； 屁股； 烟蒂 | |
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puny
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| adj.微不足道的，弱小的 | |
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wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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shrouds
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| n.裹尸布( shroud的名词复数 )；寿衣；遮蔽物；覆盖物v.隐瞒( shroud的第三人称单数 )；保密 | |
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41
fiddle
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| n.小提琴；vi.拉提琴；不停拨弄，乱动 | |
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reptilian
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| adj.（像）爬行动物的；（像）爬虫的；卑躬屈节的；卑鄙的n.两栖动物；卑劣的人 | |
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disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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benefactors
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| n.捐助者，施主( benefactor的名词复数 )；恩人 | |
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45
regained
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| 复得( regain的过去式和过去分词 )； 赢回； 重回； 复至某地 | |
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reticence
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| n.沉默，含蓄 | |
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helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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knack
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| n.诀窍，做事情的灵巧的，便利的方法 | |
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slanting
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| 倾斜的，歪斜的 | |
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50
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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51
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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insignificant
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| adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的 | |
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54
truce
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| n.休战，(争执，烦恼等的)缓和；v.以停战结束 | |
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grandeur
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| n.伟大，崇高，宏伟，庄严，豪华 | |
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