Winter Woodsmen Around Boston 



there is some real bond of brotherhood and 

 sympathy between us as indeed there must 

 always be between two men who meet in 

 the woods, else they would not have met 

 there. 



He tells me that he is hired by Mr. So- 

 and-so, and has been at work on this "chop- 

 ping" now for two months, daily; always 

 working alone, and lunching by himself 

 in the woods at noon. He has felled and 

 split and piled about thirty cords, and be- 

 gins to experience a distinct pride in this 

 broad amphitheater among the trees, which 

 he has made with his own hands. He is 

 paid by the "job" two dollars for every 

 cord split and piled; and he will average a 

 cord in two days. It is poorly paid work, 

 but then he gets his board and lodging 

 thrown in, and thinks it right that he 

 should be paid by the job, because other- 

 wise he might be tempted to laziness, alone 

 there in the woods. He shows me his ax, 

 proud of its sharpness, and tells me how he 

 uses it to make reasonably sure that the tree 

 shall fall as he wishes. The last few strokes, 

 after the tree begins to crack and sway, 

 are like the knocking away of the blocks 



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