Homespun Tales

e river, watching the Shapleys' side door, from which Rose might issue at any moment; and at this point in the discu

rivin' the year round," continued Ivory; "and he's the

e'd ought to be extry white," remarked Jed Towle. "You fellers that belonged to the

ick, who shone by comparison with his twin. "I'd kind o' forgot that Pretty Quick Waterman was cousin to Steve," said the under boss; "he never worked with me much, but he wa'n't cut off the same piece o' goods as the

rin'. Logs air jest like mules: there's times when a man can't seem to rip up a jam in good style 'thout a few words that's too strong for the infant classes in Sunday-schools; but a man hed n't ought to tempt Providence. When he's ridin' a log near the f

glancing at Long Abe Dennett (cousin to Short Abe), who lay on his back in the grass, the smoke-wre

im go down. But I did, an' nobody ain't heard me swear sence, though it's ten years ago. I allers said it was rum an' bravadder that killed Pretty Quick Waterman that day. The boys hed n't give him a 'dare' that he hed n't took up. He seemed like he

d, vowin' he would n't move till the logs did, if he stayed there till the crack o' doom. Jest then a great, ponderous log, that hed be'n churnin' up an' down in the falls for a week, got free an' come blunderin' an' thunderin' down-river. Land! it was chock full o' water, an' looked 'bout as big as a church! It come straight along, butt-end foremost, an' struck that jam, full force, so 't every log in it shivered. There was a crack,-the crack o' doom, sure enough, for Pretty Quick,-an' one o' the logs le

Ike Billings co

who had deeply resented Long Dennett's telling of a story which he knew fully as well

, boys!" shouted Jed Towle, and his

t them is the times when my wits work the quickest. I remember once I was smokin' my pipe when a jam broke under me. 'T was a small jam, or what we call a small jam on the Kennebec,-only about three hundred thousand pine logs. The first thing I kn

it drivin'?" i

all skin, bones, an' nerve. The Comp'ny would n't part with me alto

; "why did n't you hang on to it, so

d engineerin' when I was a boy, an' I thought I'd try runnin' on the road a spell, but it did n't suit my constitution. My kidneys ain'

Wiley; hard to fi

'em don't suit my liver, some disagrees with my stomach, and the rest of 'em has vibratio

al stir in the group, for Turrible Wiley, when rhetorical, som

flown, and the work of the afternoon was waiting for them. "You make a chalk-mark where you left off, Mr. Wiley, a

ny is on me, so 't when I git to my journey's end they'll know where I belong and send me back to the Kennebec. Before I'm sawed up I'd like to forgit this t