There had been much rain during the summer, and the Saco was very high, so on the third day of the Edgewood drive there was considerable excitement at the bridge, and a goodly audience of villagers from both sides of the river. There were some who never came, some who had no fancy for the sight, some to whom it was an old story, some who were too busy, but there were many to whom it was the event of events, a never-ending source of interest.
Above the fall, covering the placid11 surface of the river, thousands of logs lay quietly “in boom” until the “turning out” process, on the last day of the drive, should release them and give them their chance of display, their brief moment of notoriety, their opportunity of interesting, amusing, exciting, and exasperating12 the onlookers13 by their antics.
Heaps of logs had been cast up on the rocks below the dam, where they lay in hopeless confusion, adding nothing, however, to the problem of the moment, for they too bided14 their time. If they had possessed15 wisdom, discretion16, and caution, they might have slipped gracefully17 over the falls and, steering18 clear of the hidden ledges19 (about which it would seem they must have heard whispers from the old pine trees along the river), have kept a straight course and reached their destination without costing the Edgewood Lumber22 Company a small fortune. Or, if they had inclined toward a jolly and adventurous23 career, they could have joined one of the various jams or “bungs,” stimulated24 by the thought that any one of them might be a key-log, holding for a time the entire mass in its despotic power. But they had been stranded25 early in the game, and, after lying high and dry for weeks, would be picked off one by one and sent downstream.
In the tumultuous boil, the foaming26 hubbub27 and flurry at the foot of the falls, one enormous peeled log wallowed up and clown like a huge rhinoceros28, greatly pleasing the children by its clumsy cavortings. Some conflict of opposing forces kept it ever in motion, yet never set it free. Below the bridge were always the real battle-grounds, the scenes of the first and the fiercest conflicts. A ragged29 ledge20 of rock, standing30 well above the yeasty torrent, marked the middle of the river. Stephen had been stranded there once, just at dusk, on a stormy afternoon in spring. A jam had broken under the men, and Stephen, having taken too great risks, had been caught on the moving mass, and, leaping from log to log, his only chance for life had been to find a footing on Gray Rock, which was nearer than the shore.
Rufus was ill at the time, and Mrs. Waterman so anxious and nervous that processions of boys had to be sent up to the River Farm, giving the frightened mother the latest bulletins of her son's welfare. Luckily, the river was narrow just at the Gray Rock, and it was a quite possible task, though no easy one, to lash31 two ladders together and make a narrow bridge on which the drenched32 and shivering man could reach the shore. There were loud cheers when Stephen ran lightly across the slender pathway that led to safety—ran so fast that the ladders had scarce time to bend beneath his weight. He had certainly “taken chances,” but when did he not do that? The logger's life is one of “moving accidents by flood and field,” and Stephen welcomed with wild exhilaration every hazard that came in his path. To him there was never a dull hour from the moment that the first notch33 was cut in the tree (for he sometimes joined the boys in the lumber camp just for a frolic) till the later one when the hewn log reached its final destination. He knew nothing of “tooling” a four-in-hand through narrow lanes or crowded thoroughfares,—nothing of guiding a horse over the hedges and through the pitfalls34 of a stiff bit of hunting country; his steed was the rearing, plunging35, kicking log, and he rode it like a river god.
The crowd loves daring, and so it welcomed Stephen with bravos, but it knew, as he knew, that he was only doing his duty by the Company, only showing the Saco that man was master, only keeping the old Waterman name in good repute. “Ye can't drownd some folks,” Old Kennebec had said, as he stood in a group on the shore; “not without you tie sand-bags to 'em an' drop 'em in the Great Eddy36. I'm the same kind; I remember when I was stranded on jest sech a rock in the Kennebec, only they left me there all night for dead, an' I had to swim the rapids when it come daylight.”
“We're well acquainted with that rock and them rapids,” exclaimed one of the river-drivers, to the delight of the company.
Rose had reason to remember Stephen's adventure, for he had clambered up the bank, smiling and blushing under the hurrahs of the boys, and, coming to the wagon37 where she sat waiting for her grandfather, had seized a moment to whisper: “Did you care whether I came across safe, Rose? Say you did!”
Stephen recalled that question, too, on this August morning; perhaps because this was to be a red-letter day, and some time, when he had a free moment,—some time before supper, when he and Rose were sitting apart from the others, watching the logs,—he intended again to ask her to marry him. This thought trembled in him, stirring the deeps of his heart like a great wave, almost sweeping him off his feet when he held it too close and let it have full sway. It would be the fourth time that he had asked Rose this question of all questions, but there was no unerceptible difference in his excitement, for there was always the possible chance that she might change her mind and say yes, if only for variety. Wanting a thing continuously, unchangingly, unceasingly, year after year, he thought,—longing to reach it as the river longed to reach the sea,—such wanting might, in course of time, mean having.
Rose drove up to the bridge with the men's luncheon38, and the under boss came up to take the baskets and boxes from the back of the wagon.
“We've had a reg'lar tussle39 this mornin', Rose,” he said. “The logs are determined40 not to move. Ike Billings, that's the han'somest and fluentest all-round swearer on the Saco, has tried his best on the side jam. He's all out o' cuss-words and there hain't a log budged41. Now, stid o' dog-warpin' this afternoon, an' lettin' the oxen haul off all them stubborn logs by main force, we're goin' to ask you to set up on the bank and smile at the jam. 'Land! she can do it!' says Ike a minute ago. 'When Rose starts smilin',' he says, 'there ain't a jam nor a bung in me that don't melt like wax and jest float right off same as the logs do when they get into quiet, sunny water.'”
Rose blushed and laughed, and drove up the hill to Mite43 Shapley's, where she put up the horse and waited till the men had eaten their luncheon. The drivers slept and had breakfast and supper at the Billings house, a mile down-river, but for several years Mrs. Wiley had furnished the noon meal, sending it down piping hot on the stroke of twelve. The boys always said that up or down the whole length of the Saco there was no such cooking as the Wileys', and much of this praise was earned by Rose's serving. It was the old grandmother who burnished44 the tin plates and dippers till they looked like silver; for—crotchety and sharp-tongued as she was—she never allowed Rose to spoil her hands with soft soap and sand: but it was Rose who planned and packed, Rose who hemmed45 squares of old white table-cloths and sheets to line the baskets and keep things daintily separate, Rose, also, whose tarts42 and cakes were the pride and admiration46 of church sociables and sewing societies.
Where could such smoking pots of beans be found? A murmur47 of ecstatic approval ran through the crowd when the covers were removed. Pieces of sweet home-fed pork glistened48 like varnished49 mahogany on the top of the beans, and underneath50 were such deeps of fragrant51 juice as come only from slow fires and long, quiet hours in brick ovens. Who else could steam and bake such mealy loaves of brown bread, brown as plum-pudding, yet with no suspicion of sogginess? Who such soda52 biscuits, big, feathery, tasting of cream, and hardly needing butter? And green-apple pies! Could such candied lower crusts be found elsewhere, or more delectable53 filling? Or such rich, nutty doughnuts?—doughnuts that had spurned54 the hot fat which is the ruin of so many, and risen from its waves like golden-brown Venuses.
“By the great seleckmen!” ejaculated Jed Towle, as he swallowed his fourth, “I'd like to hev a wife, two daughters, and four sisters like them Wileys, and jest set still on the river-bank an' hev 'em cook victuals55 for me. I'd hev nothin' to wish for then but a mouth as big as the Saco's.”
“And I wish this custard pie was the size o' Bonnie Eagle Pond,” said Ike Billings. “I'd like to fall into the middle of it and eat my way out!”
“Look at that bunch o' Chiny asters tied on t' the bail56 o' that biscuit-pail!” said Ivory Dunn. “That's the girl's doin's, you bet; women-folks don't seem to make no bo'quets after they git married. Let's divide 'em up an' wear 'em drivin' this afternoon; mebbe they'll ketch the eye so 't our rags won't show so bad. Land! it's lucky my hundred days is about up! If I don't git home soon, I shall be arrested for goin' without clo'es. I set up 'bout21 all night puttin' these blue patches in my pants an' tryin' to piece together a couple of old red-flannel shirts to make one whole one. That's the worst o' drivin' in these places where the pretty girls make a habit of comin' down to the bridge to see the fun. You hev to keep rigged up jest so stylish57; you can't git no chance at the rum bottle, an' you even hev to go a leetle mite light on swearin'.”
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1
sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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luminous
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| adj.发光的，发亮的；光明的；明白易懂的；有启发的 | |
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3
torrent
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| n.激流，洪流；爆发，(话语等的)连发 | |
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4
gushes
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| n.涌出，迸发( gush的名词复数 )v.喷，涌( gush的第三人称单数 )；滔滔不绝地说话 | |
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5
amber
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| n.琥珀；琥珀色；adj.琥珀制的 | |
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seething
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| 沸腾的，火热的 | |
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7
cascade
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| n.小瀑布，喷流；层叠；vi.成瀑布落下 | |
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crevices
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| n.（尤指岩石的）裂缝，缺口( crevice的名词复数 ) | |
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9
majestically
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| 雄伟地； 庄重地； 威严地； 崇高地 | |
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10
gorges
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| n.山峡，峡谷( gorge的名词复数 )；咽喉v.（用食物把自己）塞饱，填饱( gorge的第三人称单数 )；作呕 | |
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11
placid
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| adj.安静的，平和的 | |
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12
exasperating
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| adj. 激怒的 动词exasperate的现在分词形式 | |
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13
onlookers
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| n.旁观者，观看者( onlooker的名词复数 ) | |
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14
bided
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| v.等待，停留( bide的过去式 )；居住；等待；面临 | |
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15
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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16
discretion
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| n.谨慎；随意处理 | |
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17
gracefully
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| ad.大大方方地；优美地 | |
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18
steering
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| n.操舵装置 | |
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19
ledges
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| n.（墙壁，悬崖等）突出的狭长部分( ledge的名词复数 )；（平窄的）壁架；横档；（尤指）窗台 | |
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ledge
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| n.壁架，架状突出物；岩架，岩礁 | |
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21
bout
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| n.侵袭，发作；一次(阵，回)；拳击等比赛 | |
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22
lumber
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| n.木材，木料；v.以破旧东西堆满；伐木；笨重移动 | |
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23
adventurous
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| adj.爱冒险的；惊心动魄的，惊险的，刺激的 | |
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24
stimulated
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| a.刺激的 | |
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25
stranded
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| a.搁浅的，进退两难的 | |
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26
foaming
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| adj.布满泡沫的；发泡 | |
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27
hubbub
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| n.嘈杂；骚乱 | |
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28
rhinoceros
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| n.犀牛 | |
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29
ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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30
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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31
lash
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| v.系牢；鞭打；猛烈抨击；n.鞭打；眼睫毛 | |
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32
drenched
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| adj.湿透的；充满的v.使湿透( drench的过去式和过去分词 )；在某人（某物）上大量使用（某液体） | |
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33
notch
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| n.(V字形)槽口，缺口，等级 | |
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34
pitfalls
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| （捕猎野兽用的）陷阱( pitfall的名词复数 )； 意想不到的困难，易犯的错误 | |
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35
plunging
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| adj.跳进的，突进的v.颠簸( plunge的现在分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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36
eddy
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| n.漩涡，涡流 | |
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37
wagon
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| n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车 | |
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38
luncheon
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| n.午宴，午餐，便宴 | |
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39
tussle
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| n.&v.扭打，搏斗，争辩 | |
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40
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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41
budged
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| v.（使）稍微移动( budge的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）改变主意，（使）让步 | |
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42
tarts
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| n.果馅饼( tart的名词复数 )；轻佻的女人；妓女；小妞 | |
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43
mite
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| n.极小的东西；小铜币 | |
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44
burnished
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| adj.抛光的，光亮的v.擦亮（金属等），磨光( burnish的过去式和过去分词 )；被擦亮，磨光 | |
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45
hemmed
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| 缝…的褶边( hem的过去式和过去分词 )； 包围 | |
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46
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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47
murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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48
glistened
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| v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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49
varnished
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| 浸渍过的，涂漆的 | |
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50
underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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51
fragrant
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| adj.芬香的，馥郁的，愉快的 | |
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52
soda
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| n.苏打水；汽水 | |
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53
delectable
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| adj.使人愉快的；美味的 | |
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54
spurned
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| v.一脚踢开，拒绝接受( spurn的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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55
victuals
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| n.食物；食品 | |
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56
bail
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| v.舀（水），保释；n.保证金，保释，保释人 | |
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57
stylish
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| adj.流行的，时髦的；漂亮的，气派的 | |
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