etty good. Next day I went
wanderin' 'round with the foreman and the Boss. I tell you I was afraid
to get very far away from 'em, for I'd be sure to get lost; the bush is
that thick that you can't see your own length ahead of you. That night,
when the Boss and me and the foreman was in the shanty they call the
office, after supper, we heard a most awful row. 'What's that?' says
the Boss. 'O, that's nothin',' says the foreman; 'the boys is havin' a
little fun, I guess.' He didn't say anything, but went on talkin', but
in a little while the row got worse, and we heard poundin' and smashin'.
'Do you allow that sort of thing?' says the Boss. 'Well,' he says,
'Guess the boys got some whiskey last night. I generally let 'em alone.'
'Well,' says the Boss, quiet-like, 'I think you'd better go in and
stop it.' 'Not if I know myself,' says the foreman, 'I ain't ordered my
funeral yet.' 'Well, we'll go in and see, anyway,' says the Boss. I tell
you I was kind o' scared, but I thought I might as well go along. When
we got into the sleepin' shanty there was a couple of fellers with
hand-spikes breakin' up the benches and knockin' things around most
terrible. 'Say, boys,' yelled the foreman, and then he began to swear
most awful. They didn't seem to pay much attention, but kept on knockin'
around and swearin'. 'Come, now,' says the foreman, kind o' coaxin'
like, 'this ain't no way to act. Get down and behave yourselves.' But
still they didn't pay no attention. Then the Boss walked up to the
biggest one, and when he got quite close to 'em they all got still
lookin' on. 'I'll take that hand-spike,' says the Boss. 'Help yourself,'
says the man swingin' it up. I don't know what happened, it was done
so quick, but before you could count three that feller was on his knees
bleedin' like a pig and the hand-spike was out of the door, and the Boss
walks up to the other feller and says, 'Put that hand-spike outside.' He
begun to swear. 'Put it out,' says the Boss, quiet-like, and the feller
backs up and throws his hand-spike out. And the Boss up and speaks and
says, 'Look here, men, I don't want to interfere with nobody, and won't
while he behaves himself, but there ain't goin' to be any row like that
in this camp. Say, you ought to have seen 'em! They sat like the gang
used to in the night school, and then he turned and walked out and we
all follered him. I guess they ain't used to that sort of thing in this
camp. I heard the men talkin' next da