D'Ri and I

through a little valley thick with timber and rock-bound on the north. There were four families within a mile of us, all comfortably settled in small log houses. For tempo

and berries for the table-a thing easy enough to do in that land of plenty. When the logs were cut and hewn I went away, horseba

log to its place, and grew noisier quaffing the odorous red rum, that had a mighty good look to me, although

floors to walk on, and that luxury D'ri called a "pyaz," although it was not more than a mere shelf with a roof over it. We chinked t

. We felled the trees in long, bushy windrows, heaping them up with brush and small wood when the chopping was over. That done,

on the land of our neighbors, my time counting half, for I was sturdy and could swing the axe to a line,

rip into hot ashes. Often deer's tallow, bear's grease, or raccoon's oil served for shortening, and the leaves of the wild raspberry for tea. Our neighbors went to mill at Canton-a journey of five days, going and coming, with an ox-team,

followed a long conference in which my father had a part. They all agreed to turn to, after snowfall, on the river-land, cut a raft of timber, and send it to Montreal in the spring. Our things had come, including D'ri's fiddle, so that we had chairs and bedsteads and

, and, as be drew the bow, his big foot began to pat the floor a good pace away. His chin lifted, his fingers flew, his bow quickened, the notes seemed to w

f the fiddle warmed and limbered him from toe to finger. He was over-modest, making light of his skill if he ever spoke of it, and had no ear for a compliment. While our elders were dancing, I and others of my age were playing games in the kitchen-kissing-games with a rush and tumble in them, puss-in-the-corner, hunt-the-squirrel, and the like.

the oth-er on the bag; As the wheel goes round, he cries out, "Grab!" Oh, ain't you a lit-tle bit a-shamed o' this, Oh, ain't

ww.lilypond.org) rendition of this

olhouse, not quite a mile away, where I found more fun than learning. After two years

gth of a giant, and no man I knew tried ever to cope with him. By the middle of May we began rolling in for the raft. As soon as th

ks in it, where we ate and slept and told stories. Lying on the platform, there was a large flat stone that held our fires for both cooking and comfort. D'ri called me in the dusk of the early morning, the first night out, and said we were near the Sault. I got up, rubbed my eyes, and felt a mighty thrill as I heard the roar of the great rapids and the creaking withes, and felt the lift of the sp

shouting down at me-"kind uv a twis

r, and then D'ri put his hands to his mouth and hai

inued, laughing as he spoke. "Never see nothin' jump 'n' kick 'n'

ed felt hat was tipped sideways. His boots and trousers were quarrelling over that

ms terrible still. Hain't a breath uv air stirr

en a shower of pine needles came slowly down, scattering over us and hitting the timber with a

g upward. "Things don't seem t' me t' be actin' eg

re heaping higher, pulsing with light, roaring with thunder. What seemed to be a flock of pigeons rose suddenly above the far forest, and th

I shouted, p

harply, raising his

like that of a great wagon

'ri. "Looks es ef he wus plungin' 'em through

ming rapidly. They had a

f on the world," my

hammers hard

His lips were moving, but I could hear nothing he said. Then he lay flat, pulling me down. Above and around were all the noises that ever came to the ear of man-the beating of drums, the bellowing of cattle, the crash of falling trees, the shriek of women, the rattle of machinery, the roar of waters, the crack of rifles, the blowing of trumpets, the braying of asses, and sounds the like of which I have never heard and pray God I may not hear again, one and then another dominating the mighty chorus. Behind us, in the gloom, I could see, or thought I could see, the reeling mass of green ploughing the water, like a ship with chains of gold flashing over bulwarks of fire. In a moment something happened of which I have never had any definite notion. I f

?" said he, li

swered. "Wh

Jes' woke up. Been a-layin' h

not,"

pains or aches no

s a little

ade a light with his flint

ard," said he, and then I sa

r the withes they 'd '

little house, and the logs

xclaimed, rising to his knees

e of the splintered platfo

as he began to kindle a fire,

out ten feet long and probably half as high. The logs had crashed throu

as he broke a piece

I ans

olf. They 's some bread 'n' ven'son ther

, and through its shattered window on the farther wall I could see between the heaped logs a glow of sunlit water. I handed our axe through a break in the wall, and then D'ri cut away some of the base

in' on us," said he. "They 're wi

e water's edge, after an hour of crawling an

aid D'ri, "an' s

the edge of the water. The sun was shining clear, and the air was still. Limbs of trees, bits of torn cloth, a broken hay-rake, fragments of wool, a wagon-wheel, and two dead sheep were scattered along the sh

h word. "It's cut a swath wider 'n this river. Don't b'lieve

her sections of the raf