And while he was at it, Orde kept his men busy and
satisfied. Your white-water birler is not an easy citizen to
handle. Yet never once did the boss appear hurried or flustered.
Always he wandered about, his hands in his pockets, chewing a twig,
his round, wind-reddened face puckered humorously, his blue eyes
twinkling, his square, burly form lazily relaxed. He seemed to meet
his men almost solely on the plane of good-natured chaffing. Yet
the work was done, and done efficiently, and Orde was the man
responsible.
The drive of which Orde had charge was to be delivered at the booms
of Morrison and Daly, a mile or so above the city of Redding.
Redding was a thriving place of about thirty thousand inhabitants,
situated on a long rapids some forty miles from Lake Michigan. The
water-power developed from the rapids explained Redding's existence.
Most of the logs floated down the river were carried through to the
village at the lake coast, where, strung up the river for eight or
ten miles, stood a dozen or so big saw-mills, with concomitant
booms, yards, and wharves. Morrison and Daly, however, had built a
saw and planing mill at Redding, where they supplied most of the
local trade and that of the surrounding country-side.
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