"Could I sail upon a log?" asked Marco.

"No," replied the millman; "you'd roll off."

"How did you learn to do it?" asked Marco.

"Oh, I learned when I was a boy," replied the millman.

"Did you roll off when you were learning?" asked Marco.

"Yes," said the man. "I've been off the log into the water many a time."

"And how did you get out again?" said Marco.

"Oh, I could swim," he replied; "and as soon as I came up, I would
paddle back to the log, and climb up upon it. Once, however, I came very
near being drowned."

"How was it?" said Marco.

"Why, I was on the upper side of a boom"----

"A boom?" said Marco, "what is that?"

"A boom!" repeated the millman; "don't you know what a boom is? It is a
place to catch logs. They go to some cove or eddy, where the water is
pretty still, and chain logs together, end to end, so as to form a long
line on the lower side of the eddy, and then along up the middle of the
river a little way, so as to enclose a space to catch the logs."

"What do they fasten the boom to?" asked Marco.

"Why, the lower end," said the millman, "is fastened to the shore, by
means of a very strong post, or an iron staple set into the rocks. The
other end, which is out in the middle of the stream, is fastened to some
island, if there is one, or, if not, to a pier built up from the
bottom."

"Well," said Marco, "tell on about your getting in."

"The boom was full of logs, and I was upon the upper side of it, at work
with some other men. I was on a log trying to find the mark, and I fell
in."

"What made you fall off?" asked Marco.

"I don't know," replied the millman. "I was not much use to logs then. I
was trying to find the mark."

"What mark?" asked Marco.

"The owner's mark," said the millman. "The owners all mark their logs,
when they get them out in the winter, and then we separate or sort them
in the booms. Sometimes the mark is on the under side of the log, and so
we have to turn it over in the water to find it."

While all this conversation had been going on, the millman had been
moving about over the water with the various logs, Marco accompanying
him, and keeping as near to him as possible, walking along the shore,
and sometimes on the logs which were resting by one end on the shore. As
the millman was describing the system of marking the logs, he was
sailing along very near to Marco, and he immediately began to turn the
log over under him, saying--

"For instance, lo