"
Perhaps this might be; but Nan was dreadfully sorry,
nevertheless, that Uncle Henry had this trouble with Mr. Gedney
Raffer. The girl feared that there had been something besides
"letting off steam" in the challenge her uncle had thrown down to
his enemy, or to the men that enemy could hire to attack him.
The timber sledges soon began to drift back, for some of the logs
had been cut before the big storm, and had only to be broken out
of the drifts and rolled upon the sleds with the aid of the men's
canthooks. It was a mystery at first to Nan how they could get
three huge logs, some of them three feet in diameter at the butt,
on to the sled; two at the bottom and one rolled upon them, all
being fastened securely with the timber-chain and hook.
How the horses strained in their collars to start the mighty
load! But once started, the runners slipped along easily enough,
even through the deep snow, packing the compressible stuff in one
passage as hard as ice. Nan followed in this narrow track to the
very bank of the river where the logs were heaped in long
windrows, ready to be launched into the stream when the waters
should rise at the time of the spring freshet.
Tom managed his team alone, and unloaded alone, too.
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