And the boys
won't be in jail any longer than it takes to get a wire to Daly to
bail them out. Smoke up, and don't bother."
They filled their pipes and settled down to an enjoyment of the
situation. Ordinarily from very early in the morning until very
late at night the riverman is busy every instant at his dangerous
and absorbing work. Those affairs which do not immediately concern
his task--as the swiftness of rapids, the state of flood, the curves
of streams, the height of water, the obstructions of channels, the
quantities of logs--pass by the outer fringe of his consciousness,
if indeed they reach him at all. Thus, often he works all day up to
his waist in a current bearing the rotten ice of the first break-up,
or endures the drenching of an early spring rain, or battles the
rigours of a belated snow with apparent indifference. You or I
would be exceedingly uncomfortable; would require an effort of
fortitude to make the plunge. Yet these men, absorbed in the mighty
problems of their task, have little attention to spare to such
things. The cold, the wet, the discomfort, the hunger, the
weariness, all pass as shadows on the background. In like manner
the softer moods of the spring rarely penetrate through the
concentration of faculties on the work.
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