Forest Life and Forest Trees: comprising winter camp-life among the loggers, and wild-wood adventure.: with Descriptions of lumbering operations on the various; rivers of Maine and New BrunswickSpringer, John S.
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Forest Life and Forest Trees: comprising winter camp-life among the loggers, and wild-wood adventure.: with Descriptions of lumbering operations on the various; rivers of Maine and New Brunswick
Springer, John S.
Lumbering -- Maine; Maine -- Description and travel; New Brunswick -- Description and travel; Trees
Every one feels free to sleep, to lounge, or to do whatever he may
choose, with a moderate abatement in behalf of the teamster and cook,
whose duties require some seasonable attention on all mornings.
Breakfast over, each individual disposes of himself as best accords
with inclination or interest. There are a few general duties which
come round every Sabbath, which some, by turns, feel the
responsibility of performing. For instance, every Sabbath it is
customary to replenish the bed with a fresh coat of boughs from the
neighboring evergreens. Of the healthful and invigorating influence of
this practice there is no doubt. Then follow the various little duties
of a personal character. Our red flannel shirts are to be washed and
mended, pants to be patched, mittens and socks to be repaired, boots
to be tapped and greased, &c. Our clumsy fingers, especially if unused
to the needle, make most ludicrous and unwoman-like business of
patching up our torn garments. Letter-writing receives attention on
this day, if at all, with no other than the deacon seat, perhaps, for
a writing-desk, a sheet of soiled paper, ink dried and thick, or pale
from freezing, and a pen made with a jack-knife; letters are dedicated
to a wife, it may be, or to a mother by some dutiful son, or to his
lady-love by some young swamper. There are some recreations to relieve
the monotony of a Sabbath in the wilderness. Sometimes a short
excursion in search of spruce gum; for many a young urchin at home has
had the promise of a good supply of this article, to be furnished on
the return of the campers. Others go in pursuit of timber for
ax-helves. As neither the White Oak nor Walnut grow in the latitude of
Pine forests in the eastern section of Maine, the White Ash, Rock
Maple, Beech and Elm, and sometimes the Hornbeam, are in general use.
Others spend, it may be, a portion of the day in short timber-hunting
excursions. Where the contiguity of encampments allow it, visits are
exchanged among the denizens of the camps.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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