y at the banking grounds when we
begin to haul. Now we ain't got all the time there is, so you want to
keep the boys at it pretty well."

Dyer twisted the little points of his mustache. "All right, sir," said
he with his smile so inscrutably insolent that Radway never saw the
insolence at all. He thought this a poor year for a man in Radway's
position to spend Christmas with his family, but it was none of his
business.

"Do as much as you can in the marsh, Dyer," went on the jobber. "I don't
believe it's really necessary to lay off any more there on account of
the weather. We've simply got to get that job in before the big snows."

"All right, sir," repeated Dyer.

The scaler did what he considered his duty. All day long he tramped back
and forth from one gang of men to the other, keeping a sharp eye on the
details of the work. His practical experience was sufficient to solve
readily such problems of broken tackle, extra expedients, or facility
which the days brought forth. The fact that in him was vested the power
to discharge kept the men at work.

Dyer was in the habit of starting for the marsh an hour or so after
sunrise. The crew, of course, were at work by daylight. Dyer heard them
often through his doze, just as he heard the chore-boy come in to build
the fire and fill the water pail afresh. After a time the fire, built of
kerosene and pitchy jack pine, would get so hot that in self-defense he
would arise and dress. Then he would breakfast leisurely.

Thus he incurred the enmity of the cook and cookee. Those individuals
have to prepare food three times a day for a half hundred heavy eaters;
besides which, on sleigh-haul, they are supposed to serve a breakfast
at three o'clock for the loaders and a variety of lunches up to midnight
for the sprinkler men. As a consequence, they resent infractions of the
little system they may have been able to introduce.

Now the business of a foreman is to be up as soon as anybody. He does
none of the work himself, but he must see that somebody else does
it, and does it well. For this he needs actual experience at the work
itself, but above all zeal and constant presence. He must know how a
thing ought to be done, and he must be on hand unexpectedly to see how
its accomplishment is progressing. Dyer should have been out of bed at
first horn-blow.

One morning he slept until nearly ten o'clock. It was inexplicable!
He hurried from his bunk, made a hasty toilet, and started