Young Moll's Peevy

Villate's " drive" of logs liad jamined i at Üie foot of Red Rapids in the very ! throat of the main "pitch," where the Aux Lievres falls over the ledges into the "glut-hole," flfty feet below. A wilder - spectacle I never saw throughout the lumbering región during a space of eight years. The gates of the danis at the foot of all the lakes were up; tho volume of water was immense. Rocks, which in summer stand twcnty feet out of the rapids, wore now under water. ïhe water came pouring down the long incline, black and swift as au arrow, and went over into the pool at one tlmnderous phinge, throwing up n. vast column of mist. Two ledges only, i ated in the very throat of the "pitch," showed above water. These rocks the lumbering company had designed to I blast out the previous autumn, but had been prevented by heay rains. They then stood twenty-seven feet out of ] water. Now their cresta are barely I posed, and the flood washes over them I in ita mighty rhythm-motion. In the rapids the wholc stream is compressed to a width of a little more thau seventy yïtrds. A light jam had f ormed that morning at a place about a mile above. This was broken by getting a hanl on it from the i shore with a dog-warp. Thereby several thousand logs were liberated at once, and went down togother into tho r:pids. The older drivers exclaimed that it would make mischief when it started ; but nothing could be done ; it broke and went out with a rush. We, who were ahead, ran on down the lcdges to ee it go through the falls, and we had to run fast to keep up. The instant the logs ntered the rapids they left us behind. We could see them going down, however, end over end, and hear them "boom" against the sunken roeks. Turtlotte and a Welshman named I'infrock were ahead. I heard Turtlotte cali out in French that the logs wore jamming, and saw the butt ends of great sticks fly up, glittering, out of the water. The logs had struck and hung on one of the center rocks, and on the shelving ledges upon the east side. The ends of these largo sticks, three or four feet across, stood flfteen feet or moro out oJ' the water. We ran on, clamberinj from crag to crag, till we carne to a point j looking down on the guft, sixty feet beneath ; and that was about near enough, for the ends of the Jogs flew up almost on a level with our eyes, as they went over, and the spray drenched our faces. The ledges under our feet trembled as if an earthquake were shaking them, and not a word could be heard, even when shouted in the ear. The combined noises were louder than thunder, heavier, deeper. It was a warm forenoon, and the sun shone into therackdazzlingly bright, making a vivid rainbow. It was the hottest, maddest chasm that can woll be imagined ; and to see that brilliant rainbow hanging there so still and motionless amidst all that uproai', gave one a queer sensation. Old man Villate himself, with bis red cap over his ears, came puffing down, shouting at the top of his lungs. We eould see his lips fly. The hitch was betwixt the shelving ledges on the east side and one of the mid-channel rocks. It was not one log thiit had caught, else the weight of the water would have broken it out. It appcared that two large sticks had come down with the ends across each other, and a third log, perhaps several logs, overlying these. When the current sucked them through the rapid, between tho center rock and the sliore ledges, the ontward ends of the crossed logs struck on bth fiides. The warps were brought, and Viliate called for volunteers to go down, or rather be let down, tho ledges and prize oñ the shore ends of the iummed logs with "peevieK." There wero plenty of bold fellows; but every man hesita teel. Murmurs of " certaine mort, " " sur mort," ' ' porte du tombeau, " ' ' porto d'enfer, " arose and wero repeated. " It's a hard world, but I wants to tarry in it a spell longer boss !" siiid one grizzled old Yankee from the Maino rivers, with a sage shake of his long head. We all knew that when the jam started it would go through lite an avidauche. Whoevei was down there would have to go with it - into the glnt-hole. By noon all the crew had corne up. The jam filled the whole river for a third of a mile back from tho Ml, so j pletely that during the af ternoon the west bank gangs crossed on it to the eastide. We lighted our fires on the ledges ; and ! as the evening ad vaneed it was a turesque sight - tho red-shirted drivers camping there and sitting in messes about their coarse fare. All the nest day wc worked with the warps. Nooses weré dropped over the optight ends of the logss at the foot of the jam, and the gang was set to imll on tliem. Later in the day a iiouvy oapstoo was rigged. The hflwseïs broke liko twine. It was impossïble to start a log, bo tremendous was the weight of water and ltdnbei eombined. Next day the jam was mined with powder j)la(;ed in watf-r-tight molassescaeks and ooMieCted with lire at the t ) of the ledges by means of tarred fuses. The blaste blew out splinters freely, but failed to break or dislodge the largo sticks. Villate fumed and Bweated. UnloKs the drive went down to market, not a dollar would be paid to one of u?, so he declafed. "If you want your pay, break tlie jam," was his constant exliortation, enforcod by vigorous curses - and, indeed, we bad been hired on these terms: wages to be paid when the drive reached Montreal - not before. Tliis is a common rule, orusedtobe; the men have tlms a strong interest in the driving. A plan was mooted among the messen the followiüg night to ent out the front loga. The same scheme ha 3 been of ten put in execution. It was argued that by stretchiug a warp-line across tho rapids, from cliiï to cliff, directly over the foot of the jam, a man might be lowered on it, witli an ax, and cut away the logs. A large "basket" - so it was talked - might be swung on the cable. By Mapkening the line, the ax-man could be lowered to the logs, and the instant the sticks cracked under the strokes he could j leap to tho basket and be pulled up out of harm's way, and let the jam go ; through unxler him. The idea gained favor. The following morning the end of one of the seven hundred foot linos was taken across on the jam to the ledges 011 the west bank. Fifty men went ovor with it, to handle it. With a hundred men there was no difficulty in lowering and raising it at will. AVhen drawn tuut, it hung sixty feei above the foot of the jam. One of the JLndian drivers, named Lahmunt, had been at work weaving a basket of aah strip, -and ! as soon as this novel carriage was finiahed and slung 011 the cable, the project was ready for trial. While the project ' was being talked over, several of the j drivers had declared themselves willmg to undertake the feat, but now that the basket was slung, and af ter Beeing it drawn out over the abyss, they vere loss disposed to proffer their services. It needed strong nérvea and a stout heart ! to gaze.into that foaming gulf and not turn dizzy. There was among us a yoimgster whom tho old drivers called " Young Moll'a Peevy. " Young Moll was a halfbreed (French and Indian) girl, or rather womau at this time, of thirty or thirtythrce, and tho mother of this boy. Some of the drivers said that hia rightful ■ ronymic was Skelly; but this was a j rather obscure matter. " Tho Pecvy," as he was half-lmmorously christened, must have been nearly or quite eighteen. Tlie name was said to have come to hina one day in J hood, when a " peevy " was dropped oif a glut into ten or a dozen feet of water. Several of tho drivers were trying to hook it up, but kept missing it. The boy, then eleven or twelve years old, had oome along unobserved. Preseiitly, and without saying a woixl, he dropped off the logs, brought up the peevy and ran away, dripping. The men laughed, and i not knowing his name called him " the boy. " Afterward, when they found out his mother, they named the Tirclrrn "Young Mol] 's Peevy." But liis mother called him Lotte. A stranger would not easily have believed him the child of the fresh young person who had cared for him ; for he was imusually stalwart and bronzed by exposure. Seen J together, they rather resembled lad and laas. I thought so, at least, when first I saw her, coming to fefcch him dry feeting and a clean shirt. She had walked ! twenty miles to briug them, through the wood", following our trai]. And the way ! she kiflsed the young man, aaide, was, or looked to be, rather lover-like thaii maternal. Afterward, on several similar occasions, I was much struck by tho genre picture they made ; the youth had the great black eyes and black curling hair of his mother. The drivers used to chaff tho fellow unceasingly about Young Moll and the care she took of ! him, all of which he bore silently, with a ! troubled, resentful eye ; thougli, I wise, a great noble-hearted boy, ! ous and inclined to jollity. Beally, the rough fellows thought the more of the yonng woman for this motherly affection j ai id wealth of care for her boy. It was in their uncultured faces, all the while ' tongues belied them. The "basket" was slung and ready. The gang on the other side were : ticulating, with random tugs at the line. There was something whimsical in the way the proposers of the project shrank the one behind the other, with assumed bravado and covert glances at each i other's faces. "Ishall have to go myself," Villate j exclaimcd, with his characteristic French oath. "I will go myself, fat as I am !" when bashfully, as if afraid of giving oft'ense, young Lotto said ho would go j " if no better man wanted the job." There was at first muttered " non nons " of a discussion in the crowd, but nobody : claimei the "job," and Villato was but i too glad to get a man to go. In a ] ment the young man had stripped to his i shirt and red drawers, taken his ax and stepped to the basket, but it was found to be insecurely attached; and afterward j several better modes of handling tlie j line were suggested, in all causing a j lay of an hour or two. And now, as if the birds of spring, just flitting past, had carried the word, ! or somo presentiment of evil had found ! its way to the Peevy's mother, she portunely made her appearance. Rad Cates privately touched my elbow and nodded back, up the bank. I then saw young Moll standing partly in the cover of a slirub fir, a hundred yards off, intently watching the gang and the extended warp. Several of the men saw hor, but did not look or notice her after the first glance. "Parbleu! a pity she's Lere I" one said, and they closed in about Lotte to prevent his sceing her. But the woman soon came nearer, going partly around the crowd, keeping aloof. SI ie hada new plaid shawl, gayly colored, phmod closely about her neck, and her long, black, Indian-like cnrls showed bonpath a beaded aoarlet hood. There was an iutently anxious look in her eyes; she appeaied worn and tired. "Tlie Pecvy" was much too tall a man to be shot up i" the crowd. Prosently he espied her, and his eye feil. After a ! time he casually, as it were, made his way back to her. None of us heard what was said. The most instinctively kept their eyes to themselves. The gang on the other side was staring across the chasm. Villate ripped out an oath, and I saw Lotte push the girl aside so roughly that phe caught at a ahrub to save her■■: II. lif! walked straight to the brink of the eliiï. "lamherc," said he. I never saw him look so manly. We knew his cye ; was quick and his hand sure. I had littlci doubt that he would cut the front logs and come up sale. We did not know what the dangsr was till afterward. He stood aprigbi in the "basket," with one hand on the hawser to steady hiuiself, and his ax in the other. At a signal the gang on the west side straightened the line. We paid it out slowly. They drew liim out from the brink of the ledge, till the basket wna directly over the center rock. Then gradually we slackened it, and let him down foot by foot, down under the rainbow, where the hot, mad midst flew up in fierce gusts, bearing tlie strong odor of orushed spruee ftber. He seemed to bear the deafoning roar without confusión, and glanccd about quite coolly,' as it looked. Our attention was given closely to his signáis and to our task, yet I saw Young Muil coming forward, step by step, as the "basket" went doeper and dceper into the gorge, hor eyes riveted on it. She was very pale and her hands were tiglitly cleuched. The drivers cast onii ■ nous glances at her. "I don't half like the looks of the woman !" I heard muttered, and I think the sight of her filled every one with a sense of tho foreboding. As soon as the basket was down to the logs we saw him step out upon them, and thence to the rock. From moment to moment the mist hid him, and transient jets of water, from betwixt the logs, squirted high over his liead. Guardedly ho planted one boot, shod with the sharp corks, vtpon one of the large logs - the one he judged it best to ent away first ; the other restedon the rock. The "basket" he had placed bn his back. We were holding it steady from both banks, ready to pull it up when signaled. Before and beneath him raged the cataract. We saw him raiso his ax and strike it into the log. The b.ight steel flashed in the narrow chasm. At the fourth stroko the great log cracked. He threw tlie ax and clutchcd tho basket. A mighty crash rang up. The jam had started - was moving - gsiiig down - madly si)lintering - thundering into the glnt-holo ! The wet splinters nll along the rapids went up a lmndred fcet itj air. On boih sides the gangs were running backward, hoisting the "basket." It roso twenty foet a second ! A himdred and fifty sti-oiig men pulled with might and main ! As he rose he waved his hand to us. Ah, God ! we were too slow ! It was all done in a trice. One great r.tiek, ending over like a fagot, barely missed the basket. Another longer log, whirling up struck tho warp farthcr out, and hurled him down with it ' The cable was torn from our hands ! Gone like a flash, into the gulf below ! From the one great rough human heart on either bank a groan of pity blended with the : roar. "Too d -n bad I" they cried out in all sincerity, and stood staring. Tnen all eyes turned toward the poor fellow's mother. She had thrown up her hands when the timber swept him down, as if to simt out the sight, then dropped them on a sudden, with a moan. " Cateb her !" some one shouted. Half a dozen standing nearest sprang forward - for she was standing on the very verge of the rocks. Her eyes had fallen on old man Villate. They were like the eyes of one in mortal agony. The blotched and bloated old rum-butt turned his face aside and downward, and thrust out liis hand as if to fight off flamo. For their lives the men durst not lay hold of her. She seemed to waver in soul betwixt grief and fury. A moment af ter, the men gave a loud shout ! She was gone from where she had stood, and the echo of a smotheredshriek - tribute of a woman's heart to death - came to our ears. We sprang to look over. There was a glimpse of the bright shawl whirled amid the foam. " Did she fall ?" some cried out. " Throwed herself down !" said those who saw it. We nover saw trace of either of them. But the jam went out, to tho last log. Two hours later the gangs were following the drive down the stream - on to Montreal ! But the men had tumed sullen. Scarce a laugh or a cheery