All the others followed him. "It must be one of the lumbermen," said
Erik's father. "They often get hurt in the log jams."

He was right. When they reached the riverbank they found several men
trying to drive some logs out into the current, so as to release a man
who had slipped and was pinned against a rock.

The bed of the river was rilled with rocks, over which the water was
rushing with great force, in just such a torrent as may be found on
nearly all the rivers of northern Sweden. Starting from the melting snow
on the mountains, these rivers flow rapidly down to the sea, and every
summer millions of logs go sailing down the streams to the sawmills along
the eastern coast.

Thousands of these logs are thrown into the water to drift down to the
sea by themselves; but on some of the slower rivers the logs are made
up into rafts which are guided down the stream by men who live on the
raft during its journey.

It was one of the log-drivers who had been caught while he was trying to
push the logs out into the channel; and now his leg was broken.

"We can take him to Gellivare in one of our kärra," said Lieutenant
Ekman, when, with the help of Erik and his father, the man had finally
been rescued and carried ashore.

Accordingly, he was lifted into the cart with Erik, while Gerda snuggled
into the seat between Birger and her father; and the journey over the
rough woodland road was made as carefully as possible.