Five Little Starrs in the Canadian Forest Part 9

"What's all this?" asked Mr. Starr, suspicious of the twins' mischief.

"Lil' Doot hang oop there," replied Mike, not knowing how she got there, or that he was leading Don into punishment.

"Don, what _does_ this mean?" insisted Mr. Starr, sternly.

"Well, you see, Daddum, Dot and I know all about engines, so we thought we would help the men clean away these little trees," Don started to explain.

"Yes, and try to see just how much fun and daring you could get out of it!" remarked his father.

When the whole story was told, Don's father reprimanded him severely, and Don promised never to be so venturesome again.

CHAPTER VI

OUTDOOR FUN IN A LUMBER CAMP

SNOW and ice prevailed after the middle of November, and the cold was there to stay for the winter. The roads already cut out had frozen hard before the snow came, and that made easy travelling for the huge sledges that carried the timber from forest to riverside.

The men were now cutting close to the main road, and the walk from camp to cutting was not so tiresome for the ladies and children, and it often happened that they visited the men in the afternoon.

The children had toy hatchets and saws, and they loved to play about the felled trees, chopping off small branches or sawing off rough fragments.

Then, too, it was fine sport to be lifted up on top of a high heap of huge logs and ride down to the river-bank. On the return trip they would sit down on the low braces of the sledge, and the horses would make quick time with no load to pull.

One Sat.u.r.day morning the sun shone so brightly that Mrs. Starr said the children might go with Mike, to play near the cutting, but they must keep a long distance away from the actual work of the men.

The men had come across a dip in the forest which was filled with water, and this water had frozen solid during the past week. The trees had been cut before the ice was hard, and here was offered a nice spot for skating. The children slung their skates over their shoulders and planned hockey games, and tag, and other sports on the ice. When they beheld the pond, however, they soon realized that it would be impossible to play hockey, but tag! Yes, tag would be great fun, as the stumps stuck up through the ice, here and there, and the skater could dodge around these stumps to get away from the one who was "it."

Babs had her tiny shovel and hatchet to play with, and Mike sat down on a log to watch over the children. They shouted, skated and tore at each other for a long time, then wearied of the game and sat down on the log by Mike to hear a story.

Just as Mike finished telling of an adventure, a loaded sledge came down the road and Paul called to the driver.

"Give us a ride?"

"Climb up!" replied the man.

"Room for us all?" asked Meredith.

"'Nodder comin' right behind," replied the driver.

Paul looked and nodded.

"Mete, you and the kids get on this one with Mike, and Vene, Elizabeth and I will get on the next load. We'll all meet down by the river and come back together."

"Let's take our dinner with us and eat it down there. Then we can sit on the logs by the river and come back with the men on the next load,"

suggested Meredith.

"Good idea!" exclaimed Paul. "You get up on this and I'll run for the lunch boxes and get back before the other sleigh gets here."

So the Starr children, with Mike, climbed up and sat upon the logs of the first sledge, and the other children waited for the second load to come in sight.

The sleigh-ride over the rough road to the river was great fun, for often the sleigh would b.u.mp over a huge snow-covered stump or rock, and make the children roll against each other and cling fast to the chains that bound the logs together.

The horses went slowly, for the loads were heavy and the road hard and rough, so the ride of two miles took some time.

The children had visited the roll-ways at the river before, but had never had an opportunity to remain and understand the whole scene.

Arrived at the roll-ways, the men made quick work of unloading the logs from the sledge and rolling them down to the river's edge. In many cases, where the water was shallow, or the ice thick enough, the logs were rolled out a few feet, and piled up in tiers so that when the spring freshet came they would sink down into the water and be the first to float down stream.

In several instances, rafts had been made and floated out a short distance from the sh.o.r.e, and here the timber-men used to fish before the river froze over. These rafts were still there, and the ice between them and the sh.o.r.e was safe.

After the sledges returned to the forest, Meredith suggested that they walk out to the rafts and have their lunch there. The other children greeted the idea with glee and Mike looked carefully about to decide that it was all right.

"Mike get fire, boys take dinner out," advised Mike, as he began picking up kindlings and pieces of wood for a fire.

The children picked up their dinner boxes and started off across the ice. The largest raft held all of them, and soon Mike came over with a huge bundle of wood that he dragged across the ice to the raft.

He deftly prepared a kindling fire and placed a few of the large pine chunks upon it. In a short time the children were as warm as if it were summer time, and the smoke of the wood fire rose straight up in the clear windless air.

They enjoyed the novelty of the raft dinner so much that several loads came and the sledges returned before the children were willing to talk of going back.

"This is dandy ice--wish we could take a skate up and down," ventured Don.

"'Tis fine ice, isn't it?" abetted Meredith, looking up and down the river as far as eye could see.

"Let's! Just one spin around," said Paul.

"Mike won't like it," hinted Lavinia.

"Mike won't care. We are perfectly safe on such thick ice," said Don, looking out of the tail of his eye in Mike's direction.

Mike squatted on the raft smoking his pipe, but he said nothing. He was thinking over the words the children had spoken.

"Mike, guess we'll take a spin over the ice," said Paul.

"Mike no like him--pouf! full of holes of air!" said Mike, making a sound to show the children the danger of air-holes.

"We know an air-hole when we see it--and I can't see any of them around here," replied Paul.

"Besides, we are only going to skate around the raft," said Don.

"Mike no like him, big boys like him, what Mike can do?" said the Indian helplessly, as he shrugged his shoulders.

"Mike, I won't go--neither shall Dot," said Lavinia.

"Oh, but I am, Viney! Don't think that I am going to sit here like a baby when Don is off streaking across the ice or doing the 'outer edge,'" retorted Dot, taking her skates from the bag and unbuckling the heel straps.