es been awaiting
their coming.

Now arrived on the scene the "swampers" and cross-cut men, swarming over
the prostrate tree like ants over a piece of sugar. Some of them cut off
limbs; others, with axes and crowbars, began to pry away great slabs of
bark; still others, with much precaution of shovel, wedge and axe
against jamming, commenced the slow and laborious undertaking of sawing
apart the logs.

But most interesting and complicated of all were the further processes
of handling the great logs after they had been peeled and sawed.

The ends of steel cables were dragged by a horse to the prostrate tree,
where they were made fast by means of chains and hooks. Then the puffing
and snorting donkey engine near the chute tightened the cable. The log
stirred, moved, plunged its great blunt nose forward, ploughing up the
soil. Small trees and bushes it overrode. But sooner or later it
collided head on, with a large tree, a stump, or a boulder. The cable
strained. Men shouted or waved their arms in signal. The donkey engine
ceased coughing. Then the horse pulled the end of the log free. Behind
it was left a deep trough, a half cylinder scooped from the soil.

At the chutes the logs were laid end to end, like a train of cars. A
more powerful cable, endless, running to the mill and back again, here
took up the burden. At a certain point it was broken by two great hooks.
One of these, the one in advance, the men imbedded in the rear log of
the train. The other was dragged behind. Away from the chutes ten feet
the returning cable snapped through rude pulleys. The train of logs
moved forward slowly and steadily, sliding on the greased ways.

On the knoll the donkey engine coughed and snorted as it heaved the
mighty timbers from the woods. The drag of the logs was sometimes
heavier than the engine, so it had to be anchored by other cables to
strong trees. Between these opposing forces--the inertia of the rooted
and the fallen--it leaped and trembled. At its throttle, underneath a
canopy knocked together of rough boards, the engineer stood, ready from
one instant to another to shut off, speed up, or slow down, according to
the demands of an ever-changing exigence. His was a nervous job, and he
earned his repose.

At the rear of the boiler a boy of eighteen toiled with an axe, chopping
into appropriate lengths the dead wood brought in for fuel. Next year it
would be possible to utilize old tops for this purpose, but now they