The Lumberjack Sky PilotWhittles, Thomas D. (Thomas Davis)
History
The Lumberjack Sky Pilot
Whittles, Thomas D. (Thomas Davis)
Church work with loggers -- Minnesota; Higgins, Francis Edmund, 1865-1915; Presbyterian Church -- Clergy -- Biography
During the night the howling of the timber wolves awakened the
missionary and in the dark circle around him he could see the fireballs
of their eyes, while their voices were distinct and near. Arising, the
missionary replenished the fire, and when it broke into a cheery blaze
the howling of the disappointed wolves grew fainter until the silence
of the forest again took up its interrupted reign.
Early the next morning the minister was on his way and soon arrived at
the village of Little Forks, where he conducted the first religious
service ever held in that place.
On another occasion, when passing from one distant camp to another,
Mr. Higgins was overtaken by a severe snowstorm and in a few minutes
all sense of direction was lost in the raging blizzard. The dog team
wandered from the beaten path into the muskeg and in the swamp they
were compelled to spend most of the day. Toward evening the worst of
the blizzard had passed and he was able to complete his long and weary
journey.
After supper Mr. Higgins went to the barn to feed his dog team, but to
his astonishment the dogs refused all food. He had driven them hard and
long, so when they refused to eat he naturally thought it was due to
overwork and reproached himself for being thoughtless of his friends.
Later he went to them again, but they would not touch a morsel of
food. With a sore heart the preacher retired to his bed, but his rest
was disturbed with dreams of the overdriven dogs. He arose early, and
when going towards the barn met the proprietor, whose face was red with
anger.
"Is them blank dogs yours?" asked the angry man.
"They are," said the missionary, wondering if the man was going to add
to the reproach by telling him that the dogs were dead.
"Then pay for the pork that the brutes chewed up while you were at
supper last night. The hungry cannibals swiped half a hog and ate it. I
ain't got nothin' but eggs and salt meat to give the boarders today."
While the enraged hotel keeper was narrating his tale of woe a load of
anxiety passed from the preacher's mind and before, the proprietor had
finished he found his auditor laughing with hearty spirit. Mr. Higgins
paid for the meal of the "hungry cannibals," but he remarked in telling
it:
"I did not object, for it was the only time I was ever asked to pay
their board, and I assure you they earned it while we were trying to
find our way in the blizzard."
Snow storms come up suddenly, and when the wind whirls the sheet of
fallen flakes, all points of the compass are soon lost even to the well
tried woodsman. The description of a blizzard may form an interesting
page in fiction, but the experience adds to gray hairs and unending
memory.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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