Crunching, creaking, slapping up and down, moving first to one side and then to the other, the great pine tried to settle down on the roof.
Frank’s reliance was the wedge, for he hoped that this would act as a sort of swinging joint, and once the trunk was severed, and with the pull on the rope applied in the opposite direction, the upper part of the trunk would slide away from the house.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The strokes of the axe fell steadily, each one fairly on top of the one before. The tree creaked and groaned.
Then, of a sudden, with one single blow, well directed, Frank sent the axe through the wood that still acted as an anchor, gave a loud yell to the boys to pull hard, and, with a swing downward, then back up, then down, the tree rocked.
It was a moment of anxiety—but the boys won!
The steady pull on the rope, with the wedges acting away from the house, caused the trunk to settle downward and to slide backward, toward the east—and the lads saw the butt end strike the ground twenty feet away, only the topmost branches of the big pine striking the roof of the house.
The sky in the east cracked open slightly, and the light of the sun came through. Daylight was upon them.
“Fellows, we sure saved the roof of the house!” Frank heaved a sigh of relief when the tree finally settled into place.
“Yes, and there’s the firewood that we have to get out to-day,” laughed Lanky Wallace. “I’ll carry in the two logs over there under the tree, and that’s my part of the work.”