Raftmates | Page 4

making of a splendid fellow in him,
together with certain traits that might easily prove his ruin."
"Well," replied Mrs. Caspar, in a resigned tone, "perhaps it will do him
good to go away and be alone with you for a while. It is very hard to
realize, though, that my little Winn is sixteen years old and almost a
man. But, John, you won't let him run any risks, or get into any danger,
will you?"

"Not knowingly, my dear, you may rest assured," answered the Major.
But he smiled as he thought how impossible it was to keep boys from
running risks and getting into all sorts of dangerous positions.
So it was decided that Winn should form one of the crew of the Venture
whenever the raft should be ready to start on its long voyage; and ever
since learning tins decision the boy had been in a fever of impatience to
be off. So full was he of anticipations concerning the proposed journey
that he could talk and think of nothing else. Thus, after a month of
tiresome delay, he was in such an uncomfortable frame of mind that it
was a positive trial to have him about the house. For this reason he was
encouraged to spend much of his time aboard the raft, and was even
allowed to eat and sleep there whenever he chose. At length he reached
the point of almost quarrelling with his sister, whom he loved so dearly;
but he had hardly plunged into the woods, after leaving her on the raft,
before he regretted his unkind words and heartily wished them unsaid.
He hesitated and half turned back, but his "pride," as he would have
called it, though it was really nothing but cowardice, was too strong to
permit him to humble himself just yet. So, feeling very unhappy, he
tramped moodily on through the woods, full of bitter thoughts, angry
with himself and all the world. Yet if any one had asked him what it
was all about, he could not have told.
Winn took a long circuit through the silent forest, and by the time he
again reached the river-bank, coming out just above the mill, he had
walked himself tired, but into quite a cheerful frame of mind. The mill
was shut down for the night, its workers had gone home, and not a
sound broke the evening stillness. The boy sat on a pile of slabs for a
few minutes, resting, and watching the glowing splendor of sunset as
reflected in the waters of the stream at his feet. At length he started up
and was about to go to the house, where, as he had decided, his very
first act would be to ask Elta's forgiveness. The house stood some
distance from the river-bank, and was hidden from it by the trees of a
young apple orchard. As Winn rose to his feet and cast a lingering
glance at the wonderful beauty of the water, he noticed a familiar black
object floating amid its splendor of crimsons and gold.

"I wonder how that log got out of the boom?" he said, half aloud. "Why,
there's another--and another! The boom must be broken."
Yes, the boom of logs, chained together end to end and stretched
completely across the creek to hold in check the thousands of saw-logs
that filled the stream farther than the eye could see, had parted near the
opposite bank. The end thus loosened had swung down-stream a little
way, and there caught on a snag formed of a huge, half-submerged root.
It might hold on there indefinitely, or it might get loose at any moment,
swing wide open, and set free the imprisoned wealth of logs behind it.
As it was, they were beginning to slip through the narrow opening, and
those that had attracted Winn's attention were sliding downstream as
stealthily as so many escaped convicts.
The boy's first impulse was to run towards the house, calling his father
and the mill-hands as he went. His second, and the one upon which he
acted, was to mend the broken boom and capture the truant logs
himself. "There is no need of troubling father, and I can do it alone
better than any number of those clumsy mill-hands," he thought.
"Besides, there is no time to spare; for if the boom once lets go of that
snag, we shall lose half the logs behind it."
Thus thinking, Winn ran around the mill and sprang aboard the raft that
lay just below it. Glancing about for a stout rope, his eye lighted on the
line by which the raft was made fast to a tree. "The very thing!" he
exclaimed. "While it's aground here the raft doesn't need a cable any
more than I