Just before noon a long, high-prowed boat, resembling a fisherman’s dory in its general lines, was seen slowly approaching against the current. This was the bateau. Two broad-shouldered fellows were at the oars, and in the bow was another, pole in hand, prepared to fend off drifting logs. In the stern sat no less a personage than Charley, the cook.
At sight of the boat Ned called a halt in the work, and then the real fun began. The men seized each other in rough sport, until almost the whole crew were wrestling about on the ground.
“This way, Charley; bring it up here,” ordered the foreman.
The cook and his three assistants struggled up the bank with the supplies for a hot dinner. Grouped in a circle on the ground, each man was equipped with a tin plate, a knife, a fork, and a spoon, and a large tin bowl which was speedily filled with hot stew. After that came heaping dishes of hot beans and steaming cups of coffee. Like the others, Ben and the boys ate the outdoor meal with keen relish.
As neither Ed nor George had seen a birling contest, and had no idea what it was like, Ned arranged one for their benefit.
A large log was towed out into fairly deep water in a near-by eddy of the river. Then Jake Grant, the champion of this particular sport, jumped from the bank and landed on the log. He caught his balance and drove the long, nail-like calks of his shoes deep into the bark. His action was intended as a challenge, or “defi,” to any one to jump on the other end and enter the contest.
There was a cry of “Sandy,” and, amid cheers from his comrades, “Sandy” Donaldson accepted the challenge. Moving their feet up and down together, the men whirled the log over and over beneath them. From time to time one or the other would jam his spiked shoes down hard in an endeavor to stop the log and throw his adversary into the water. First one way, then the other, they spun the log faster and faster. The excitement on shore was intense, for each contestant had his partisans. Once Grant lost his balance for a second, and a wild yell went up. It looked as though his long term of championship was about to end. By wonderful agility he saved himself, and another cheer broke forth.
“Toss him, toss him, Jake!” cried Grant’s friends.
“Bump him off, Sandy; you nearly caught him that time!” yelled the partisans of Donaldson.
Then the experience of the champion came to his aid. He worked backward toward the extreme end of the log, and started it spinning as fast as his nimble feet could work. Donaldson kept stride with him, and those on shore waited in breathless suspense for the outcome of what they believed a clever bit of stratagem.