A THRILLING EXPERIENCE.


Frank was very happy now that the way had been so opportunely opened for
him to take part in the whole round of lumbering operations. He awaited
with impatience the coming of noon and the rush of hungry men to their
hearty dinner, because it was the signal for his release from chore-boy
work and promotion to the more honourable position of assistant-teamster.
The long afternoons out in the cold, crisp air, amid the thud of
well-aimed axes, the crash of falling trees, the shouts of busy men, and
all the other noisy incidents of the war they were waging against the
innocent, defenceless forest, were precisely what his heart had craved so
long, and he felt clearer than ever in his mind that lumbering was the
life for him.

After he had been a week at his new employment, Con Murphy, the big
teamster to whom he had been assigned by the foreman, with the injunction
to "be easy on the lad, and give him plenty of time to get handy," was
heard to say in public,--

"Faith, an' he's a broth of a boy, I can tell you; and I wouldn't give
him for half-a-dozen of those _parlez-vous_ Frenchies like the chap whose
place he took--indade that I wouldn't."

Which, coming to Damase's ears, added further fuel to the fire of
jealousy and hate that was burning within this half-savage creature's
breast. So fierce indeed were Damase's feelings that he could not keep
them concealed, and more than one of the shantymen took occasion to drop
a word of warning into Frank's ear about him.