"
I answered him with a face as serious as his own that I would do my very
best.
So I was still bound to my idling occupation after all, and wandered up
and down the river as before with my boat-hook and my rations. For my own
satisfaction I cleared away bigger and bigger jams unaided, sang to myself
as if I were a whole gang, and worked hard enough for many men; also I
carried the new instructions to Grindhusen, and frightened him properly.
But then came the rain.
And now the sticks went dancing down through channel and rapids, like
huge, pale serpents hurrying, hurrying on, now head, now tail in air.
Easy days these for my engineer!
For myself, I was ill at ease in the town and in my lodging there. I had a
little room to myself, but one could hear every sound in the place, and
there was little rest or comfort. Moreover, I found myself outdone in
everything by the young lumbermen who lodged there.
I patroled the river-bank regularly those days, though there was little or
nothing for me to do there.
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