324 THE CAROLINA MOUNTAINS 
dreadful object behind. The noise of the shouting 
was deafening. 
Thus had the great log been coaxed and driven, 
held back and drawn forth, out of the roadless forest. 
At last it was pulled up a gentle slope and on a level 
space came to rest alongside a group of others like 
it — to have its bark removed and await its turn at 
the portable sawmill that stood a few rods away. The 
logs are never barked in the forest; the men say 
they would be killed getting them out unless the 
bark was on to keep the logs from slipping. 
On the platform of the mill a log had just been 
rolled ; it was placed against the saw, it seemed to the 
imagination to shiver, then a long, piercing shriek 
rent the air, and a slab dropped from its side, the 
first step in the process of converting a tree into a 
pile of boards. These boards are placed in what 
seems light loads on rude wagons, before each wagon 
a line of oxen is attached, and over the rough roads 
the load is drawn, sometimes many miles, to the 
nearest railway station. Thus does the forest inflict 
its penalty of pain, and thus has the world been 
supplied with wood from the stricken giants of the 
beautiful, devastated forests of the Southern moun- 
tains. 
