It was war times then, and wages was
good. I was getting forty dollars a
month, and worked like a beaver till
this little affair came off. We went
it work about a mile from the shanty
-Jim Robinson and me--and had
slashed into the pine like all pos
sessed. The boys had been hauling
pretty Ir-ely, for it was early in Jan
Iary, and sleighing was good. Jim
was at work on a big tree about
wenty reds from where I was.
Prett,; soon after he yelled to me,
ais tree Lopped over and fell. It was
is handsome :t piece of timber as
ever you saw, and I watched it as
it fell- rash it went, right into the
branches of an old grub oak, and
hung last there. I never saw a fellow
madder than' Jim was. He tried
every possible way to loosen the pine,
lint coulin't get it off. Finally, we
made up our minds to go for the oak
tree, and in about ten innuites we had
,t cut through so it trembled like
.1 leaf with e--erv stroke of the axe, he
cutting or. one side and I on the other.
When it was almost through, I was
the bigtesL and best chopper, says I
to Jim:
Let m, finish her, Jim. Get out
of the war . and I will ha e heri
through :n half a minute,"
I had been chopping a minute or
vwo whea Jim let loose a screa m that
would have mnade a Injun's blood run
cold. I just had time ý look up and
sec that pine tret ttfmbling down,
when I dropped my axe and run. 1
couldn't have got far when something
soemed to hit my eves, and then
e ,-erything was dark.
