IN A FISHING COUNTRY 



of another who showed distress to his own 

 huge load. 



Broad-chested, lean in the flank, some- 

 thing over six feet in height and weighing 

 but 190 pounds, his arm made no display 

 of brawn ; but the muscles were living steel, 

 responding with swift precision to every 

 call. The most touch-and-go situation, the 

 uttermost demand, never seemed to exhaust 

 the limit of his answering effort. Those 

 who travelled in his company took their 

 lesson in humility, for they encountered the 

 pith of two men behind his paddle. The 

 smaller and swifter Rice Lake canoe was 

 proud to keep abreast of his heavily load- 

 ed bark,- — he smoking the while, very easy 

 and nonchalant, turning his eyes lazily to 

 this side and that, like one out for an airing 

 and bound nowhere in particular. 



Your good ax-man is expected to fell, 

 trim, chop to length and pile two cords of 



birch a day. N did his three and a 



half cords, kept it up for a week, and had 

 enough winter daylight left to aid an old 

 man in completing his tale. What he 

 accomplished by a neat half-arm stroke 

 took another's full swing and the weight 

 of his body. There was always the grace 

 of exact proportion to the work in hand. 

 202 



