Everybodys Chance | Page 7

exclaimed:
"You're a fine fellow to think of marrying, aren't you? You've not
chopped a stroke since I left you. I had better have offered this wood to
a better man, even if I had been obliged to look for one not in love. I
suppose you would like me to do all the work for you, after giving you
the trees-- eh?"
Charley's face turned scarlet; he seized his axe and began to make chips
fly rapidly. Champ also attacked a tree, and for a few moments no
sound was heard but that of the axes upon the tree-trunks. Soon
Charley wanted to stop, for he was unaccustomed to the work, and his
hands had begun to blister, but after what Champ had said the young
man was resolved to suffer anything rather than remain under the cruel
imputation of being willing that Champ should earn the money on
which the younger man should wed Luce Grew. Suddenly, however, to
his great relief, Champ's tree fell, and the axeman stood aside for a
moment.
"I covet your strength," exclaimed Charley; "and I'm going to have it,
or something like it, if hard work will get it for me. A man who is to
marry Luce Grew should have as much muscle as heart."
"Talk is cheap," responded Champ. After this there was nothing for
Charley to do but attack his tree again. Soon, however, the blisters in
his right hand began to break, and the pain was very like torture, so he
laid down his axe and began to blow upon the palms of his hands.
Champ approached him, took his hand roughly and looked at it. Then
he looked inquiringly into Charley's face, and said:
"You're more of a man than I thought you. You can't go on with such a
hand. Wait a moment."
He went to a hollow tree, and drew from it a pair of old leather gloves

and a small bottle of oil.
"Here; put some of this on your hands, and put these gloves on. Once in
a while I'm afflicted in the same way, after I've been out of axe practice
a little while. Give the oil a few minutes in which to get in its work."
Champ returned to his tree, lopping off the boughs as if they were twigs,
cutting them into four-foot lengths and tossing them aside; then he cut
the trunk itself into four-foot lengths. Charley looked on in admiration,
but while the giant looked about for another foeman worthy of his steel
the younger man exclaimed:
"What a magnificent specimen of manhood you are! It is a man like
you whom Luce should marry. I suppose, however, she knows her own
mind."
"Whether she does-- or no--" said Champ, speaking between the strokes
of his axe, "her mind is-- the only one she can go by-- for the present."
Then he stopped a moment and said, "Can't you possibly talk of
something else? You ought to be thinking and talking about how much
you will do in a day, and asking who is most likely to buy the wood
and pay quickest, and where you can best put your money at interest as
fast as you collect it. Talking about a girl never helped a man to marry
her; 'tis work-- nothing else-- that makes a man worthy of the love he
pretends to bear a woman."
"I guess you're right, Champ," sighed Charley, addressing himself once
more to work, "but I wish I knew where you got so much sense. I won't
ask you any more about it, as it seemed to worry you a few minutes ago,
but whoever the girl is that you're fond of, why, she's going to be the
happiest woman alive."
"Umph, I hope so, but-- I shan't believe it-- until I-- see it."
"Come, now, old fellow, you shouldn't distrust yourself in that stupid
manner. 'Faint heart never won fair lady'-- keep that saying close in
mind. Why, it was the most daring thing in the world-- my proposing to
Luce; I had everything against me, and I knew it; I took my chances,

though, and you know what came to pass. If you would only see
yourself as you are, and as everybody else sees you, and as the girl
herself can't help seeing, and--"
"Will you be quiet?" exclaimed Champ, suddenly turning with a
threatening face and with his axe still uplifted.
"No, I won't," replied the younger man, with a calm but determined
face. "You've done me a great favor this morning, and I want to do you
one in return. You may think that I want to pry into your affairs, but I
don't. I want to tell you, though, what the lecturer told all of us last