The train stopped about noon at a small board town. Fox and Bob descended1. The latter drew his lungs full of the sparkling clear air and felt inclined to shout. The thing that claimed his attention most strongly was the dull green band of the forest, thick and impenetrable to the south, fringing into ragged2 tamaracks on the east, opening into a charming vista3 of a narrowing bay to the west. Northward4 the land ran down to sandpits and beyond them tossed the vivid white and blue of the Lake. Then when his interest had detached itself from the predominant note of the imminent5 wilderness6, predominant less from its physical size--for it lay in remote perspective--than from a certain indefinable and psychological right of priority, Bob's eye was at once drawn7 to the huge red-painted sawmill, with its very tall smokestacks, its row of water barrels along the ridge8, its uncouth9 and separate conical sawdust burner, and its long lines of elevated tramways leading out into the lumber10 yard where was piled the white pine held over from the season before. As Bob looked, a great, black horse appeared on one of these aerial tramways, silhouetted11 against the sky. The beast moved accurately12, his head held low against his chest, his feet lifted and planted with care. Behind him rumbled13 a whole train of little cars each laden14 with planks15. On the foremost sat a man, his shoulders bowed, driving the horse. They proceeded slowly, leisurely16, without haste, against the brightness of the sky. The spider supports below them seemed strangely inadequate17 to their mass, so that they appeared in an occult manner to maintain their elevation18 by some buoyancy of their own, some quality that sustained them not only in their distance above the earth but in a curious, decorative19, extra-human world of their own. After a moment they disappeared behind the tall piles of lumber.
Against the sky, now, the place of the elephantine black horse and the little tram cars and the man was taken by the masts of ships lying beyond. They rose straight and tall, their cordage like spider webs, in a succession of regular spaces until they were lost behind the mill. From the exhaust of the mill's engine a jet of white steam shot up sparkling. Close on its apparition20 sounded the exultant21, high-keyed shriek22 of the saw. It ceased abruptly23. Then Bob became conscious of a heavy _rud, thud_ of mill machinery24.
All this time he and Fox were walking along a narrow board walk, elevated two or three feet above the sawdust-strewn street. They passed the mill and entered the cool shade of the big lumber piles. Along their base lay half-melted snow. Soggy pools soaked the ground in the exposed places. Bob breathed deep of the clear air, keenly conscious of the freshness of it after the murky25 city. A sweet and delicate odour was abroad, an odour elusive26 yet pungent27, an aroma28 of the open. The young man sniffed29 it eagerly, this essence of fresh sawdust, of new-cut pine, of sawlogs dripping from the water, of faint old reminiscence of cured lumber standing30 in the piles of the year before, and more fancifully of the balsam and spruce, the hemlock31 and pine of the distant forest.
"Great!" he cried aloud, "I never knew anything like it! What a country to train in!"
"All this lumber here is going to be sold within the next two months," said Fox with the first approach to enthusiasm Bob had ever observed in him. "All of it. It's got to be carried down to the docks, and tallied32 there, and loaded in those vessels33. The mill isn't much--too old-fashioned. We saw with 'circulars' instead of band-saws. Not like our Minnesota mills. We bought the plant as it stands. Still we turn out a pretty good cut every day, and it has to be run out and piled."
They stepped abruptly, without transition, into the town. A double row of unpainted board shanties34 led straight to the water's edge. This row was punctuated35 by four buildings different from the rest--a huge rambling36 structure with a wide porch over which was suspended a large bell; a neatly37 painted smaller building labelled "Office"; a trim house surrounded by what would later be a garden; and a square-fronted store. The street between was soft and springy with sawdust and finely broken shingles38. Various side streets started out bravely enough, but soon petered out into stump39 land. Along one of them were extensive stables.
Bob followed his conductor in silence. After an interval40 they mounted short steps and entered the office.
Here Bob found himself at once in a small entry railed off from the main room by a breast-high line of pickets42 strong enough to resist a battering-ram. A man he had seen walking across from the mill was talking rapidly through a tiny wicket, emphasizing some point on a soiled memorandum43 by the indication of a stubby forefinger44. He was a short, active, blue-eyed man, very tanned. Bob looked at him with interest, for there was something about him the young man did not recognize, something he liked--a certain independent carriage of the head, a certain self-reliance in the set of his shoulders, a certain purposeful directness of his whole personality. When he caught sight of Fox he turned briskly, extending his hand.
"How are you, Mr. Fox?" he greeted. "Just in?"
"Hullo, Johnny," replied Fox, "how are things? I see you're busy."
"Yes, we're busy," replied the man, "and we'll keep busy."
"Everything going all right?"
"Pretty good. Poor lot of men this year. A good many of the old men haven't showed up this year--some sort of pull-out to Oregon and California. I'm having a little trouble with them off and on."
"I'll bet on you to stay on top," replied Fox easily. "I'll be over to see you pretty soon."
The man nodded to the bookkeeper with whom he had been talking, and turned to go out. As he passed Bob, that young man was conscious of a keen, gimlet scrutiny45 from the blue eyes, a scrutiny instantaneous, but which seemed to penetrate46 his very flesh to the soul of him. He experienced a distinct physical shock as at the encountering of an elemental force.
He came to himself to hear Fox saying:
"That's Johnny Mason, our mill foreman. He has charge of all the sawing, and is a mighty47 good man. You'll see more of him."
The speaker opened a gate in the picket41 railing and stepped inside.
A long shelf desk, at which were high stools, backed up against the pickets; a big round stove occupied the centre; a safe crowded one corner. Blue print maps decorated the walls. Coarse rope matting edged with tin strips protected the floor. A single step down through a door led into a painted private office where could be seen a flat table desk. In the air hung a mingled48 odour of fresh pine, stale tobacco, and the closeness of books.
Fox turned at once sharply to the left and entered into earnest conversation with a pale, hatchet-faced man of thirty-five, whom he addressed as "Collins." In a moment he turned, beckoning49 Bob forward.
"Here's a youngster for you, Collins," said he, evidently continuing former remarks. "Young Mr. Orde. He's been in our home office awhile, but I brought him up to help you out. He can get busy on your tally50 sheets and time checks and tally boards, and sort of ease up the strain a little."
"I can use him, right now," said Collins, nervously51 smoothing back a strand52 of his pale hair. "Glad to meet you, Mr. Orde. These 'jumpers' ... and that confounded mixed stuff from _seventeen_ ..." he trailed off, his eye glazing53 in the abstraction of some inner calculation, his long, nervous fingers reaching unconsciously toward the soiled memoranda54 left by Mason.
"Well, I'll set you to work," he roused himself, when he perceived that the two were about to leave him. And almost before they had time to turn away he was busy at the papers, his pencil, beautifully pointed55, running like lightning down the long columns, pausing at certain places as though by instinct, hovering56 the brief instant necessary to calculation, then racing57 on as though in pursuit of something elusive.
As they turned away a slow, cool voice addressed them from behind the stove.
"Hullo, bub!" it drawled.
Fox's face lighted and he extended both hands.
"Well, Tally!" he cried. "You old snoozer!"
The man was upward of sixty years of age, but straight and active. His features were tanned a deep mahogany, and carved by the years and exposure into lines of capability58 and good humour. In contrast to this brown his sweeping59 white moustache and bushy eyebrows60, blenched61 flaxen by the sun, showed strongly. His little blue eyes twinkled, and fine wrinkles at their corners helped the twinkles. His long figure was so heavily clothed as to be concealed62 from any surmise63, except that it was gaunt and wiry. Hands gnarled, twisted, veined, brown, seemed less like flesh than like some skilful64 Japanese carving65. On his head he wore a visored cap with an extraordinary high crown; on his back a rather dingy66 coat cut from a Mackinaw blanket; on his legs trousers that had been "stagged" off just below the knees, heavy German socks, and shoes nailed with sharp spikes67 at least three-quarters of an inch in length.
"Thought you were up in the woods!" Fox was exclaiming. "Where's Fagan?"
"He's walkin' white water," replied the old man.
"Things going well?"
"Damn poor," admitted Tally frankly68. "That is to say, the Whitefish branch is off. There's trouble with the men. They're a mixed lot. Then there's old Meadows. He's assertin' his heaven-born rights some more. It's all right. We're on their backs. Other branches just about down."
There followed a rapid exchange of which Bob could make little--talk of flood water, of "plugging" and "pulling," of "winging out," of "white water." It made no sense, and yet somehow it thrilled him, as at times the mere69 roll of Greek names used to arouse in his breast vague emotions of grandeur70 and the struggle of mighty forces.
Still talking, the two men began slowly to move toward the inner office. Suddenly Fox seemed to remember his companion's existence.
"By the way, Jim," he said, "I want you to know one of our new men, young Mr. Orde. You've worked for his father. This is Jim Tally, and he's one of the best rivermen, the best woodsman, the best boss of men old Michigan ever turned out. He walked logs before I was born."
"Glad to know you, Mr. Orde," said Tally, quite unmoved.
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descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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vista
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| n.远景，深景，展望，回想 | |
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northward
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| adv.向北；n.北方的地区 | |
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imminent
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| adj.即将发生的，临近的，逼近的 | |
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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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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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uncouth
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| adj.无教养的，粗鲁的 | |
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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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silhouetted
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| 显出轮廓的，显示影像的 | |
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accurately
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| adv.准确地，精确地 | |
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rumbled
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| 发出隆隆声，发出辘辘声( rumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 轰鸣着缓慢行进； 发现…的真相； 看穿（阴谋） | |
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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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planks
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| （厚）木板( plank的名词复数 )； 政纲条目，政策要点 | |
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leisurely
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| adj.悠闲的；从容的，慢慢的 | |
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inadequate
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| adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的 | |
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elevation
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| n.高度；海拔；高地；上升；提高 | |
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decorative
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| adj.装饰的，可作装饰的 | |
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apparition
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| n.幽灵，神奇的现象 | |
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exultant
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| adj.欢腾的，狂欢的，大喜的 | |
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shriek
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| v./n.尖叫，叫喊 | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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murky
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| adj.黑暗的，朦胧的；adv.阴暗地，混浊地；n.阴暗；昏暗 | |
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elusive
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| adj.难以表达(捉摸)的；令人困惑的；逃避的 | |
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pungent
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| adj.（气味、味道）刺激性的，辛辣的；尖锐的 | |
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aroma
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| n.香气，芬芳，芳香 | |
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sniffed
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| v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
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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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hemlock
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| n.毒胡萝卜，铁杉 | |
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tallied
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| v.计算，清点( tally的过去式和过去分词 )；加标签（或标记）于；（使）符合；（使）吻合 | |
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vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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shanties
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| n.简陋的小木屋( shanty的名词复数 )；铁皮棚屋；船工号子；船歌 | |
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punctuated
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| v.（在文字中）加标点符号，加标点( punctuate的过去式和过去分词 )；不时打断某事物 | |
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rambling
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| adj.[建]凌乱的，杂乱的 | |
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neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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shingles
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| n.带状疱疹；（布满海边的）小圆石( shingle的名词复数 )；屋顶板；木瓦（板）；墙面板 | |
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stump
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| n.残株，烟蒂，讲演台；v.砍断，蹒跚而走 | |
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interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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picket
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| n.纠察队；警戒哨；v.设置纠察线；布置警卫 | |
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pickets
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| 罢工纠察员( picket的名词复数 ) | |
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memorandum
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| n.备忘录，便笺 | |
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forefinger
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| n.食指 | |
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scrutiny
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| n.详细检查，仔细观察 | |
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penetrate
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| v.透(渗)入；刺入，刺穿；洞察，了解 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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49
beckoning
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| adj.引诱人的，令人心动的v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的现在分词 ) | |
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50
tally
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| n.计数器，记分，一致，测量；vt.计算，记录，使一致；vi.计算，记分，一致 | |
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nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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strand
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| vt.使（船）搁浅，使（某人）困于（某地） | |
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glazing
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| n.玻璃装配业；玻璃窗；上釉；上光v.装玻璃( glaze的现在分词 )；上釉于，上光；（目光）变得呆滞无神 | |
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memoranda
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| n. 备忘录, 便条 名词memorandum的复数形式 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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hovering
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| 鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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racing
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| n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的 | |
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capability
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| n.能力；才能；(pl)可发展的能力或特性等 | |
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sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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blenched
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| v.（因惊吓而）退缩，惊悸( blench的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）变白，（使）变苍白 | |
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concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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surmise
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| v./n.猜想，推测 | |
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skilful
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| (=skillful)adj.灵巧的，熟练的 | |
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carving
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| n.雕刻品，雕花 | |
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dingy
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| adj.昏暗的，肮脏的 | |
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spikes
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| n.穗( spike的名词复数 )；跑鞋；（防滑）鞋钉；尖状物v.加烈酒于( spike的第三人称单数 )；偷偷地给某人的饮料加入（更多）酒精（ 或药物）；把尖状物钉入；打乱某人的计划 | |
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frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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grandeur
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| n.伟大，崇高，宏伟，庄严，豪华 | |
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