In the days that followed, Thorpe cruised about the great woods. It was slow business, but fascinating. He knew that when he should embark1 on his attempt to enlist2 considerable capital in an "unsight unseen" investment, he would have to be well supplied with statistics. True, he was not much of a timber estimator, nor did he know the methods usually employed, but his experience, observation, and reading had developed a latent sixth sense by which he could appreciate quality, difficulties of logging, and such kindred practical matters.
First of all he walked over the country at large, to find where the best timber lay. This was a matter of tramping; though often on an elevation3 he succeeded in climbing a tall tree whence he caught bird's-eye views of the country at large. He always carried his gun with him, and was prepared at a moment's notice to seem engaged in hunting,--either for game or for spots in which later to set his traps. The expedient4 was, however, unnecessary.
Next he ascertained5 the geographical6 location of the different clumps7 and forests, entering the sections, the quarter-sections, even the separate forties in his note-book; taking in only the "descriptions" containing the best pine.
Finally he wrote accurate notes concerning the topography of each and every pine district,--the lay of the land; the hills, ravines, swamps, and valleys; the distance from the river; the character of the soil. In short, he accumulated all the information he could by which the cost of logging might be estimated.
The work went much quicker than he had anticipated, mainly because he could give his entire attention to it. Injin Charley attended to the commissary, with a delight in the process that removed it from the category of work. When it rained, an infrequent occurrence, the two hung Thorpe's rubber blankets before the opening of the driest shelter, and waited philosophically8 for the weather to clear. Injin Charley had finished the first canoe, and was now leisurely9 at work on another. Thorpe had filled his note-book with the class of statistics just described. He decided10 now to attempt an estimate of the timber.
For this he had really too little experience. He knew it, but determined11 to do his best. The weak point of his whole scheme lay in that it was going to be impossible for him to allow the prospective12 purchaser a chance of examining the pine. That difficulty Thorpe hoped to overcome by inspiring personal confidence in himself. If he failed to do so, he might return with a landlooker whom the investor13 trusted, and the two could re-enact the comedy of this summer. Thorpe hoped, however, to avoid the necessity. It would be too dangerous. He set about a rough estimate of the timber.
Injin Charley intended evidently to work up a trade in buckskin during the coming winter. Although the skins were in poor condition at this time of the year, he tanned three more, and smoked them. In the day-time he looked the country over as carefully as did Thorpe. But he ignored the pines, and paid attention only to the hardwood and the beds of little creeks14. Injin Charley was in reality a trapper, and he intended to get many fine skins in this promising15 district. He worked on his tanning and his canoe-making late in the afternoon.
One evening just at sunset Thorpe was helping16 the Indian shape his craft. The loose sac of birch-bark sewed to the long beech17 oval was slung18 between two tripods. Injin Charley had fashioned a number of thin, flexible cedar19 strips of certain arbitrary lengths and widths. Beginning with the smallest of these, Thorpe and his companion were catching20 one end under the beech oval, bending the strip bow-shape inside the sac, and catching again the other side of the oval. Thus the spring of the bent21 cedar, pressing against the inside of the birch-bark sac, distended22 it tightly. The cut of the sac and the length of the cedar strips gave to the canoe its graceful23 shape.
The two men bent there at their task, the dull glow of evening falling upon them. Behind them the knoll24 stood out in picturesque25 relief against the darker pine, the little shelters, the fire-places of green spruce, the blankets, the guns, a deer's carcass suspended by the feet from a cross pole, the drying buckskin on either side. The river rushed by with a never-ending roar and turmoil26. Through its shouting one perceived, as through a mist, the still lofty peace of evening.
A young fellow, hardly more than a boy, exclaimed with keen delight of the picturesque as his canoe shot around the bend into sight of it.
The canoe was large and powerful, but well filled. An Indian knelt in the stern; amidships was well laden27 with duffle of all descriptions; then the young fellow sat in the bow. He was a bright-faced, eager-eyed, curly-haired young fellow, all enthusiasm and fire. His figure was trim and clean, but rather slender; and his movements were quick but nervous. When he stepped carefully out on the flat rock to which his guide brought the canoe with a swirl28 of the paddle, one initiated29 would have seen that his clothes, while strong and serviceable, had been bought from a sporting catalogue. There was a trimness, a neatness, about them.
"This is a good place," he said to the guide, "we'll camp here." Then he turned up the steep bank without looking back.
"Hullo!" he called in a cheerful, unembarrassed fashion to Thorpe and Charley. "How are you? Care if I camp here? What you making? By Jove! I never saw a canoe made before. I'm going to watch you. Keep right at it."
He sat on one of the outcropping boulders30 and took off his hat.
"Say! you've got a great place here! You here all summer? Hullo! you've got a deer hanging up. Are there many of 'em around here? I'd like to kill a deer first rate. I never have. It's sort of out of season now, isn't it?"
"We only kill the bucks," replied Thorpe.
"I like fishing, too," went on the boy; "are there any here? In the pool? John," he called to his guide, "bring me my fishing tackle."
In a few moments he was whipping the pool with long, graceful drops of the fly. He proved to be adept32. Thorpe and Injin Charley stopped work to watch him. At first the Indian's stolid33 countenance34 seemed a trifle doubtful. After a time it cleared.
"You do that well," Thorpe remarked. "Is it difficult?"
"It takes practice," replied the boy. "See that riffle?" He whipped the fly lightly within six inches of a little suction hole; a fish at once rose and struck.
The others had been little fellows and easily handled. At the end of fifteen minutes the newcomer landed a fine two-pounder.
"That must be fun," commented Thorpe. "I never happened to get in with fly-fishing. I'd like to try it sometime."
"Try it now!" urged the boy, enchanted36 that he could teach a woodsman anything.
"No," Thorpe declined, "not to-night, to-morrow perhaps."
The other Indian had by now finished the erection of a tent, and had begun to cook supper over a little sheet-iron camp stove. Thorpe and Charley could smell ham.
"You've got quite a pantry," remarked Thorpe.
"Won't you eat with me?" proffered37 the boy hospitably38.
But Thorpe declined. He could, however, see canned goods, hard tack31, and condensed milk.
In the course of the evening the boy approached the older man's camp, and, with a charming diffidence, asked permission to sit awhile at their fire.
He was full of delight over everything that savored39 of the woods, or woodscraft. The most trivial and everyday affairs of the life interested him. His eager questions, so frankly40 proffered, aroused even the taciturn Charley to eloquence41. The construction of the shelter, the cut of a deer's hide, the simple process of "jerking" venison,--all these awakened42 his enthusiasm.
"It must be good to live in the woods," he said with a sigh, "to do all things for yourself. It's so free!"
The men's moccasins interested him. He asked a dozen questions about them,--how they were cut, whether they did not hurt the feet, how long they would wear. He seemed surprised to learn that they are excellent in cold weather.
"I thought ANY leather would wet through in the snow!" he cried. "I wish I could get a pair somewhere!" he exclaimed. "You don't know where I could buy any, do you?" he asked of Thorpe.
"I don't know," answered he, "perhaps Charley here will make you a pair."
"WILL you, Charley?" cried the boy.
"I mak' him," replied the Indian stolidly43.
The many-voiced night of the woods descended44 close about the little camp fire, and its soft breezes wafted45 stray sparks here and there like errant stars. The newcomer, with shining eyes, breathed deep in satisfaction. He was keenly alive to the romance, the grandeur46, the mystery, the beauty of the littlest things, seeming to derive47 a deep and solid contentment from the mere48 contemplation of the woods and its ways and creatures.
"I just DO love this!" he cried again and again. "Oh, it's great, after all that fuss down there!" and he cried it so fervently49 that the other men present smiled; but so genuinely that the smile had in it nothing but kindliness50.
"I came out for a month," said he suddenly, "and I guess I'll stay the rest of it right here. You'll let me go with you sometimes hunting, won't you?" he appealed to them with the sudden open-heartedness of a child. "I'd like first rate to kill a deer."
"Sure," said Thorpe, "glad to have you."
"My name is Wallace Carpenter," said the boy with a sudden unmistakable air of good-breeding.
"Well," laughed Thorpe, "two old woods loafers like us haven't got much use for names. Charley here is called Geezigut, and mine's nearly as bad; but I guess plain Charley and Harry51 will do."
"All right, Harry," replied Wallace.
After the young fellow had crawled into the sleeping bag which his guide had spread for him over a fragrant52 layer of hemlock53 and balsam, Thorpe and his companion smoked one more pipe. The whip-poor-wills called back and forth54 across the river. Down in the thicket55, fine, clear, beautiful, like the silver thread of a dream, came the notes of the white-throat--the nightingale of the North. Injin Charley knocked the last ashes from his pipe.
"Him nice boy!" said he.
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1
embark
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| vi.乘船，着手，从事，上飞机 | |
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enlist
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| vt.谋取(支持等)，赢得；征募；vi.入伍 | |
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elevation
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| n.高度；海拔；高地；上升；提高 | |
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expedient
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| adj.有用的，有利的；n.紧急的办法，权宜之计 | |
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ascertained
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| v.弄清，确定，查明( ascertain的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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geographical
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| adj.地理的；地区(性)的 | |
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clumps
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| n.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的名词复数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声v.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的第三人称单数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声 | |
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philosophically
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| adv.哲学上；富有哲理性地；贤明地；冷静地 | |
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leisurely
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| adj.悠闲的；从容的，慢慢的 | |
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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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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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prospective
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| adj.预期的，未来的，前瞻性的 | |
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investor
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| n.投资者，投资人 | |
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creeks
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| n.小湾( creek的名词复数 )；小港；小河；小溪 | |
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promising
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| adj.有希望的，有前途的 | |
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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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beech
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| n.山毛榉；adj.山毛榉的 | |
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slung
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| 抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往 | |
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cedar
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| n.雪松，香柏(木) | |
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catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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distended
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| v.（使）膨胀，肿胀( distend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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knoll
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| n.小山，小丘 | |
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picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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turmoil
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| n.骚乱，混乱，动乱 | |
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laden
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| adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的 | |
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swirl
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| v.(使)打漩，(使)涡卷；n.漩涡，螺旋形 | |
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initiated
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| n. 创始人 adj. 新加入的 vt. 开始，创始，启蒙，介绍加入 | |
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boulders
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| n.卵石( boulder的名词复数 )；巨砾；（受水或天气侵蚀而成的）巨石；漂砾 | |
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tack
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| n.大头钉；假缝，粗缝 | |
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adept
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| adj.老练的，精通的 | |
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stolid
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| adj.无动于衷的，感情麻木的 | |
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countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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grunted
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| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说 | |
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enchanted
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| adj. 被施魔法的，陶醉的，入迷的 动词enchant的过去式和过去分词 | |
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proffered
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| v.提供，贡献，提出( proffer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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hospitably
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| 亲切地，招待周到地，善于款待地 | |
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savored
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| v.意味，带有…的性质( savor的过去式和过去分词 )；给…加调味品；使有风味；品尝 | |
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frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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eloquence
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| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
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42
awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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43
stolidly
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| adv.迟钝地，神经麻木地 | |
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44
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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45
wafted
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| v.吹送，飘送，（使）浮动( waft的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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46
grandeur
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| n.伟大，崇高，宏伟，庄严，豪华 | |
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47
derive
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| v.取得；导出；引申；来自；源自；出自 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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fervently
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| adv.热烈地，热情地，强烈地 | |
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50
kindliness
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| n.厚道，亲切，友好的行为 | |
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51
harry
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| vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼 | |
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52
fragrant
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| adj.芬香的，馥郁的，愉快的 | |
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53
hemlock
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| n.毒胡萝卜，铁杉 | |
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54
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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thicket
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| n.灌木丛，树林 | |
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