It was good fun to watch that chopping, and see the chips fly. Susie found herself becoming more and more deeply interested, as the wide notches sank farther and farther into the ma.s.sive trunks of the two trees her uncle and Vosh Stebbins were working on. Vosh chopped for dear life; but, in spite of all he could do, the deacon had his tree down first. It was a tall, n.o.ble-looking tree. There were no branches near the ground, but there was a fine broad crown of them away up there where the sun could get at them in summer. It seemed almost a pity to destroy a forest-king like that, but at last it began to totter and lean.
"O Pen! it"s coming."
"Don"t shut your eyes, Susie: keep "em open, and see it come."
Susie did try; but when that tall, majestic trunk seemed to throw out its great arms, and give the matter up, she could not look any longer, and she put her head down. Then she heard a tremendous dull, crashing sound, and her eyes came open to see a cloud of light snow rising from the spot on which the forest-king had fallen.
"Isn"t it splendid!"
"Yes, Pen, it"s wonderful."
"Vosh"s tree is almost ready. There! it"s going to go."
Vosh had not been as careful as Deacon Farnham in aiming the fall of his tree, for it went down into the arms of a smaller one, crashing and breaking through them; and the sharp, snapping sound of the crushed branches went far and wide through the silence of the snowy forest.
Pen said nothing, and Susie was conscious of a sort of still feeling, as if she had no further remarks to make just then.
CHAPTER III.
THE RABBIT-HUNT.
Deacon Farnham was fond of chopping down trees; but he had not brought a big sleigh into the woods that morning, with two yoke of oxen, merely to have them stand still in the snow while he did some chopping. Such fires as he kept up at the farmhouse called for liberal supplies; and so Susie was to have an opportunity to see a load of logs put on.
She and Pen had to get out of the sleigh, and then she expressed her wonder if her uncle and Vosh would be strong enough to lift those huge "back-log" pieces into it:--
"They never can do it, Pen, not in all the world."
"Lift "em! Of course they won"t. I"ll show you how they do it: it"s dreadful easy, soon as you know how."
It would hardly have been as easy for Pen and Susie as it seemed to be for Vosh and the deacon.
They took all the side-stakes out of the sleigh, on the side towards the wood-pile; and they put down, with one end of each on the sleigh, and the other end in the snow, a pair of long, strong pieces of wood that Vosh called "skids:" that made an inclined plane, and it was nothing but good hard work to roll the logs up, and into their places on the sleigh.
They made a tier all over the sleigh-bottom, and then the lighter logs were piled on them in regular order, till the load was finished off on top with a heap of bark and brushwood.
"That"ll crackle good when it burns," said Vosh. "I like brush on a fire: don"t you?"
Susie said she did; and she probably told the truth, for she was beginning to think she liked every thing in the country, even in winter.
"Now, Pen," said Vosh, "if you and Susie"ll climb up, we"ll set out for home with this load."
"Isn"t your father coming, Pen?"
"No, Susie, I guess he won"t."
"Will he stay here and chop trees all alone?"
"He says he likes it, and he isn"t a bit afraid of being alone. There"s a man at the house to help Vosh when we get there. Now, Susie, we must climb."
There was fun in that, but Pen was up first.
"Is your dress caught, Susie?--Vosh, help Susie: she"s caught on a splinter."
"I"ll help her."
"No, you needn"t. There, it isn"t torn much.--Now, Pen, do you think the oxen can pull such a load as this?"
"Of course they can."
In a minute or so more, Susie began to have new ideas about the management of oxen, and how strong they were, and how wonderfully willing. They seemed to know exactly what to do, with a little help from Vosh and his long whip. When all was ready, and they bowed their horns, and strained against their yokes with their powerful necks, it seemed as if they could have moved any thing in the world.
One long strain, a creaking sound, and then a sudden giving-way and starting, and the snow began to crunch, crunch, beneath the wide, smooth runners of the sleigh. Vosh walked beside his team, and drove it away around in a semicircle, carefully avoiding trees and stumps, until he and his load were once more in the road, and on their way home.
"Hark!" exclaimed Susie just then. "Was that the report of a gun, or was it the sound of another tree falling?"
"Guess it was a gun," said Vosh. "It"s one of the boys shooting at something. Plenty of game, if they can hit it."
If they had been listening with any kind of attention, they might have heard a similar sound before, although the place where the boys were was at some distance from what Vosh called "the clearing."
Corry and Porter had pushed on after Ponto as best they could; but he had not stirred up for them any game in the thick, gloomy forest.
"No rabbits here," said Porter.
"Sometimes there are a few," said Corry; "but this isn"t the place.
We"re most there now: we"d better load up."
"The guns,--aren"t they loaded?"
"No. We never leave a charge in. Father says a gun"s always safe when it"s empty."
Corry put the b.u.t.t of his gun on the ground while he spoke, and Porter watched him narrowly.
"That"s his powder-flask," he said to himself. "I might have known that much. The powder goes in first: of course it does."
He had never loaded a gun in all his life, and his experience with the axe had made him feel a little cautious. Still he tried to make quick work of it; and, when Corry began to push down a wad of paper after the powder, his city cousin did the same thing, only he was a little behindhand, and he put in a much bigger wad of paper.
"How he does ram it! So will I," Porter remarked.
"Don"t put too many shot into that gun. I"ll measure "em for you. You"ll know next time. It scatters too much if you overcharge it."
Porter was wondering at that very moment how many shot he had better put in, or whether he should try the big shot from one side of his shot-pouch, or the smaller shot from the other.
"What are the big ones for?" he asked, when he saw Corry choose the smaller size.
"Buckshot? Oh! you can kill almost any thing with buckshot,--deer, or even bear."