Reminiscences of Pioneer Life

ed right on, and smiled and frowned and stormed in the same old way; and the whirlpool of this world's affairs went on around and around, and Freck was caught in the whirlpool. He bought cattle and horses and timber lands, and operated the mill, and shipped lumber up river by steamboat. ThJ steamboats would send out the three long "Whoo! Whoo-o! Whoo-o-o!" And the great bell would ring out, "Ding- 'dong! Ding-dong! Ding-dong!" which said: "I'm going to land! I'm going to land! I'm going to land!'' And the little bells over the engines would say: "Slow- up." And the pilot would whirl his wheel and the boat would glide up and poke her nose against the soft bank, and the line would be made fast around a tree, and the gangplanks would be run out; and a line of deckhands would trot out on one plank and back on the other, and soon the deck would be piled with lumber. And the gong over the furnace would say to the firemen: ''Build up your fires." And the great bell would call: "Let go the line. Let go the line. Let go the line.'' And at times the Captain would call: "Freck, come aboard and go up with us." And at times Freck would; step aboard, and in a dreamy haze he would watch the great foam-capped waves roll off down the river, growing smaller; and he would think of the Red Wing, and of nil the years that had come and gone. And while Freck was thus engaged, almost day and night, and in fighting the mosquitos, and shaking with the ague, and taking calomel and quinine, ...