By noon I had cleared a few small jams, and marked down a big one. Then I
had my meal, with a drink of water from the river. A bit of a rest, and I
went on again, on till the evening. Then I came upon a big jam, where a
man was already at work among the logs. This was the man I had been told
to look out for. I did not go straight up to him at first, but stopped to
look at him. He worked very cautiously, as if in terror of his life; he
was even afraid of getting his feet wet. It amused me to watch him for a
little. The least chance of being carried out into the stream on a
loosened log was enough to make him shift at once. At last I went up close
and looked at him--why ... yes, it was my old friend, Grindhusen.
Grindhusen, that I had worked with as a young man at Skreia--my partner in
the digging of a certain well six years before.
And now to meet him here.
We gave each other greeting, and sat down on the logs to talk, asking and
answering questions for an hour or more. Then it was too late to get any
more done that day.
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