hich had remained numb to the call of
industry. Down the yellow and turgid path of swollen waters each
spring went huge rafted masses of logs manned by brawny fellows who at
other times never saw the world that lay "down below." Hastily reared
shacks rose on the floating timber islands and bonfires glowed redly.
The crews sang wild songs and strummed ancient tunes on banjo and
"dulcimore." They fortified themselves against the bite of the chill
night air from the jugs which they never forgot. Sometimes they flared
into passion and fought to the death, but oftener they caroused
good-naturedly as they watched the world flatten and the rivers broaden
to the lowlands. After the "tide" took them there was no putting into
harbor, no turning back. They were as much at the mercy of the
onsweeping waters as is a man who clings to driftwood.

Rafting on the "spring-tide" called out the wilder and more venturesome
element; but even that differed vastly from the present situation. It
differed just as riding a spirited horse does from trusting oneself,
without stirrup leather or bridle rein, to the pell-mell vagaries of a
frenzied runaway.

"Ye says Alexander aims ter ride one of them rafts, ef hit gets carried
out o' thar?" inquired a tall young man, whose eyes were reckless and
dissipated, as a wearied kinsman stumbled into a cabin and threw
himself down limply in a chair.

The tall young man was accounted handsome in a crude, back-country way
and fancied himself the devil of a fellow with the ladies. "Wa'al," he
drawled, "I reckon ef a gal kin undertake hit, I hain't none more
timorous then what she air." And to that frankly spoken sentiment he
added an inward after-word. "Folks 'lows thet she hain't got no time
o' day fer men--but when we ends up this hyar trip, I'll know more
erbout thet fer myself." He turned and began making his rough
preparations for the voyage.

And as Jase Mallows rose to the bait of that unusual call, so others
like him rose and each of them was a man conspicuous for recklessness
and wildness among a people where these qualities do not elicit comment
until they become extreme.

An hour or two later Brent, eying the fresh arrivals, frowned a bit
dubiously as he compared them with the human beavers who had moiled
there through the night. It was, he reflected, as though the sheep had
gone and the goats had come in their stead.

Then as the newcomers fell to their task of throwing up roug