FOREST LIFE. 107 



ous loads wliich had been taken to the well-stowed landing. 

 Wearied with the frequency of his travels on the same road for 

 the same purpose, this last load was anticipated with no ordina- 

 ry interest ; and when the tree was loaded, he seemed to con- 

 template it with profound satisfaction. " This," said he, " is my 

 last load." For the last time the team was placed in order, to 

 drag from its bed the tree of a hundred summers. Onward it 

 moved at the signal given, and he was soon lost to view in the 

 frequent windings of the forest road. It was nearly sundown, 

 and, had it not been for closing up the winter's work that day, 

 the hauling would have been deferred until next mornmg. 



The usual preparations for our evening camp-fire had been, 

 made, and the thick shadows of evening had been gathering for 

 an hour, and yet he did not come. Again and again some one 

 of the crew would step out to listen if he could catch the jin- 

 gling of the chains as they were hauled along ; but nothing broke 

 upon the ear in the stillness of the early night. Unwilling longer 

 to resist the solicitude entertained for his safety, several of us 

 started with a lantern for the landing. We continued to pass 

 on, every moment expecting to hear or meet him, until the land- 

 ing was finally reached. There, quietly chewing the cud, the 

 oxen were standing, unconscious of the cause that detained them, 

 or that for the last time they had heard the well-known voice of 

 their devoted master. Hastening along, we found the load prop- 

 erly rolled off the sled, but heavens ! what a sight greeted 

 our almost unbelieving vision ! There lay the poor fellow be- 

 neath that terrible pressure. A log was resting across his crushed 

 body. He was dead. From appearances, we judged that, after 

 having knocked out the " fid," which united the chain that bound 

 the load, the log rolled suddenly upon him. Thus, without a mo- 

 ment's warning, he ceased in the same instant to work and live. 

 It proved, indeed, his " last load." 



To contemplate the sameness of the labor in passing to and fro 



