The timber-jacks were cutting way back beyond the road that ran past the clearing, and the twins had every opportunity to get down to the river without being seen. Even the road that had been cut from the forest to the river was now abandoned by the teamsters, for they had cut a new road some miles the other side of the old one and had it paved with logs to keep the wheels of the low truck from sinking into the soft thawing earth.
It took the twins some hours to gain the river-side, for the walking was troublesome. In some places where the ice and snow still clung to the exposed knolls, it was slippery, but in others, where the thaw had melted the frost and poured its waters into the glades, they had to skirt the pools or go through them. Consequently, by the time they reached the river, they were tired and wet to the knees.
"Ah! here we are at last!" cried Dot, as she sat down to rest.
"Come up on this tall heap of logs," said Don, scrambling up to the top of a twenty foot pier.
The children sat there looking all about the country with delight. The air was warm enough to be comfortable, and the river looked wonderful with the swift current pouring down the center and huge blocks of ice floating up against the banks or being whirled into the stream by suction of the current.
"Great, isn"t it!" exclaimed Don.
"Yes, but I wouldn"t want to be on one of those cakes of ice," shivered Dot.
"Neither would anyone!"
"I"ll tell you what I would like to play," said Dot.
"What?" asked Don.
"I"d play I was one of the river-men with a peavie an" I"d try to push the logs down in the river," said Dot, looking down at some logs lying halfway in the water.
"How could we manage--let me see! We could get out on that raft and stand on that to push the logs out," suggested Don.
"Sure! We"ll pull the raft up to the bank by the chains, an" then push her out again with our peavies."
So the two scrambled down from the logs and hunted about for two long sticks that would answer for the peavies the timber-jacks used. After finding two desirable poles, the twins ran down to the river to pull in the raft.
This was not quite so easy as it would seem, for the logs were water-soaked after a long winter in the water, but after a long tiresome haul they brought the raft near enough to board it by climbing out over a huge cake of ice.
"But we can"t reach the logs from here!" cried Dot, finding that they were on the other side of the ice-cake.
"We"ll have to shove that iceberg out into the river," said Don, looking about for the best channel to work through.
"Let"s push our raft up behind it and then we can push the ice easier,"
advised Dot.
This was sensible, so both children pushed their peavies into some smaller ice floes and managed to move the ponderous raft into a position so the large ice-floe could be moved. The ice was thick and the weight of it made it sink down low in the water, but after many breathless efforts it was moved out of the way far enough to permit the twins to work the raft in closer to sh.o.r.e. Here they met with a new difficulty, for the logs were still clinging to the ground with frost and were not to be coaxed into the water.
"If we only had cant-hooks so we could yank them in!" sighed Dot.
"Guess I"ll have to jump ash.o.r.e and try to tip one of those top logs down," said Don, looking up at the pile they had sat upon.
"Pooh! you can"t budge them a mite! It takes two men with hooks to pull them out," said Dot.
Nevertheless, Don made up his mind to get _one_ log in the river at any cost. He couldn"t stand the thought of being defeated by an inanimate log.
He found that, the large ice-floe being out of the pathway to sh.o.r.e, he would have to jump from one small cake to another and follow the bank of the river until he reached a small land-jetty about fifty feet down stream.
This he did while Dot watched him breathlessly, expecting every moment to see the ice sink and slide him into the stream.
Don reached the bank in safety and then ran back toward the place where the raft was anch.o.r.ed. Before he reached the place, however, he stopped and looked with interest at some attraction on the bank. Dot saw him stop but could not see what it was as the logs all along the edge of the river hid the object from view.
After a few minutes, he ran on to the narrow landing where they had boarded the raft.
"Say, Dot, there are lots of logs lying almost in the water down there by that crooked tree. If we could move that raft down there we could have lots of fun floating them out to the current," said Don.
"That"s easy to say--move the raft! How can you move anything that"s chained as this is?" asked Dot, disgustedly.
"I don"t know! Let me think!"
Don crawled in under the tier of logs to the place down at the edge of the river where the chain of the raft ran ash.o.r.e. He pulled the chain up as it lay slack in the water and found that the loop on sh.o.r.e was thrown about a low stump of pine that was left sticking out of the bank, almost hidden by the high pile of logs over it.
"Ha! if I can haul the raft in a few feet, while you push with your stick, I can lift this chain off of the stump," called Don, showing Dot how the raft was fastened.
Dot began pushing and Don pulled until the heavy raft floated in sh.o.r.e far enough for Don to drag the chain off the stump.
The raft, released from its moorings, moved slightly out toward the former position, the chain slipping into the water and dragging behind.
Don was satisfied with the result of his idea and ran down to the spot where the logs could be readily edged into the water if the small ice floes were out of the way. He pushed and worked at the ice until a clear pathway of water lay before the logs. Those in the edge of the water, were easily shoved out, but the others were too heavy to budge.
"Hi, there! Dot, shall I bring out the lunch for the raft?" called Don, as he bethought him of going back to Dot.
"Yes, an" hurry up, "cause I think this raft is movin" some toward the river!" replied Dot, anxiously.
"Ah, naw, she ain"t! She"s only swirling about a bit in the motion of the water!" said Don.
He ran and got the lunch and then tried to jump from one cake of ice to another just as he did when he went ash.o.r.e. But he found that going ash.o.r.e against the current was much easier than going out with the current, for every cake of ice he jumped upon shot out from under his feet with the river current.
As he was halfway over, he had to continue or leave Dot alone on the raft. That was entirely out of his plans, so he used his pole to push himself over as near to the large ice-floe as possible. The cake of ice he was on was small enough to be submerged every time Don pushed his pole against anything, and by the time he was able to jump on the large ice-floe his feet and legs were soaking wet again. Once up on the large floe, Don felt relieved for a fear had a.s.sailed him when he found he couldn"t jump the small cakes.
"Push the raft over to me--I can"t make this floe budge!" called Don.
So Dot shoved the pole against a ma.s.s of ice and moved the raft over toward Don"s floe. As soon as he could jump, he came on the raft and the two felt better for being together.
"I"m hungry, aren"t you?" said Don, taking the lunch from his pockets.
"Yes; let"s have lunch now, and play river-men after," returned Dot.
As they sat munching the lunch the motion of the wavelets under the raft, dancing it up and down, made them laugh.
The ice-floe stuck close to them after Don jumped from it, and they never noticed that the floe and raft were slowly floating out from sh.o.r.e.
A sudden jar of the raft against another huge ice-floe that came down stream made them take notice of their greater distance from sh.o.r.e.
"Gee! Dot, we have floated out more"n ten feet from the bank!" said Don, looking about doubtfully.
"So we have! We"d better pole back again," said Dot.
Without another word, both children tried to pole back, but they were working against the current that had begun to take hold of the ice-floe and raft.