174 RIVER LIFE. 



"homeward bound," after a three or nine months' cruise, and 

 within one day's sail of port, relaxation and pastimes only are 

 thought and talked of. 



The mine of song and story is opened, and the rarest speci- 

 mens of match songs and " stretched" stories are coined and made 

 current by the members of the different crews. The " smartest 

 team," "chopper," "barker," "the largest tree," "the biggest 

 log," " the greatest day's work," bear or moose story, the merits 

 of crews, teamsters, "bosses," cooks, and swampers, falls and rap- 

 ids, streams and rivers, all, all come up as themes of converse, 

 song, and story. There is less hurrying in the morning now than 

 in the former part of the driving ; let the water rise or fall, it is 

 all the same thing at this point, for the driver has reached the 

 ample channel of the river, where neither falls or rapids occur. 

 A day, and the work is consummated — 'tis done I The crews 

 are disbanded : they disperse, some to their homes and farms ; 

 some to idleness and recreation ; some to hire in the mills to saw 

 the logs thus run ; others to take rafts of boards to the head of 

 tide navigation, where hundreds of vessels are in waiting to dis- 

 tribute the precious results of the lumberman's toil to the thou- 

 sand ports of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, where the sound of 

 saws, planes, and hammers of a million house-wrights, cabinet- 

 makers, carpenters, coopers, and jobbers make the air vocal with 

 the music of cheerful labor, giving bread to the millions, wealth 

 to thousands, and comfort and convenience to all. 



For this branch of human industry we set up a claim, in point 

 of ra7ik, not yet awarded to it by the world. We claim for it 

 greater prominence as a source of wealth — greater respect on the 

 ground of the talent and skill concentrated by the prime opera- 

 tors — greater deference for it as a business — for the endurance, 

 energy, and courage of the thousands of hardy freemen who en- 

 gage in it, and greater interest from the amount of substantial ro- 

 mance and adventure in the "Life amonjr the Lofrffers." 



