t-bridge
through the cracks of which the water spurted up in jets at each impact
of the horses' hoofs. On either hand the bayou, but a plank's thickness
below the level of the float-bridge, filmed with green weeds and the
bright scum of water, not too stagnant, offered surprises to the
watchful eye. One could see many mud-turtles floating lazily, feet
outstretched in poise; and bullfrogs and little frogs; and, in the clear
places, trim and self-sufficient mud hens. From the reeds at the edges
flapped small green herons and thunder pumpers. And at last----

"Oh, look, papa!" cried Bobby excited and awed. "There's a snap'n'
turtle!"

Indeed, there he was in plain sight, the boys' monster of the marshes,
fully two feet in diameter, his rough shell streaming with long green
grasses, his wicked black eyes staring, his hooked, powerful jaws set in
a grim curve. If once those jaws clamped--so said the boys--nothing
could loose them but the sound of thunder, not even cutting off the
head.

Ten of the twelve miles to the booms had already been passed. The horses
continued to step out freely, making nothing of the light fabric they
drew after them. Duke, the white of his coat soiled and muddied by
frequent and grateful plunges, loped alongside, his pink tongue hanging
from one corner of his mouth, and a seraphic expression on his
countenance. Occasionally he rolled his eyes up at his masters in sheer
enjoyment of the expedition.

"Papa," asked Bobby suddenly, "what makes you have the booms so far
away? Why don't you have them down by the bridge?"

Mr. Orde glanced down at his son. The boy looked very little and very
childish, with his freckled, dull red cheeks, his dot of a nose, and his
wide gray eyes. The man was about to make some stop-gap reply. He
checked himself.

"It's this way Bobby," he explained carefully. "The logs are cut 'way up
the river--ever so far--and then they float down the river. Now,
everybody has logs in the river--Mr. Proctor and Mr. Heinzman and Mr.
Welton and lots of people, and they're all mixed up together. When they
get down to the mills where they are to be sawed up into boards, the
logs belonging to the different owners have to be sorted out. Papa's
company is paid by all the others to do the floating down stream and the
sorting out. The sorting out is done in the booms; and we put the booms
up stream from the mills because it is easier to float the logs, after
they have been sorted, down th