lever that operated the mechanism. In a moment more the
bridge came into alignment with a clang. The team, tossing their heads
impatiently, moved forward.

On the other side of the bridge was no more town; but instead, great
lumber yards, and along the river a string of mills with many
smokestacks.

The road-bed at this point changed abruptly to sawdust, springy and
odorous with the sweet new smell of pine that now perfumed all the air.
To the left Bobby could see the shipyards and the skeleton of a vessel
well under way. From it came the irregular _Block!_ _Block!_ _Block!_ of
mallets; and it swarmed with the little, black, ant-like figures of men.

Mr. Orde drove rapidly and silently between the shipyards and the rows
and rows of lumber piles, arranged in streets and alleys like an
untenanted city. Overhead ran tramways on which dwelt cars and great
black and bay horses. The wild exultant shriek of the circular saw rang
out. White plumes of steam shot up against the intense blue of the sky.
Beyond the piles of lumber Bobby could make out the topmasts of more
ships, from which floated the pointed hollow "tell-tales" affected by
the lake schooners of those days as pennants. At the end of the lumber
piles the road turned sharp to the right. It passed in turn the small
building which Bobby knew to be another delightful office, and the huge
cavernous mill with its shrieks and clangs, its blazing, winking eyes
beneath and its long incline up which the dripping, sullen logs crept in
unending procession to their final disposition. And then came the
"booms" or pens, in which the logs floated like a patterned brown
carpet. Men with pike poles were working there; and even at a distance
Bobby caught the dip and rise, and the flash of white water as the
rivermen ran here and there over the unstable footing.

Next were more lumber yards and more mills, for five miles or so, until
at last they emerged into an open, flat country, divided by the
old-fashioned snake fences; dotted with blackened stumps of the
long-vanished forest; eaten by sloughs and bayous from the river. The
sawdust ceased. Bobby leaned out to watch with fascinated interest the
sand, divided by the tire, flowing back in a beautiful curved V to cover
the wheel-rim.

As far as the eye could reach were marshes grown with wild rice and
cat-tails. Occasionally one of these bayous would send an arm in to
cross the road. Then Bobby was delighted, for that meant a floa