“Until Mame’s appearance on the scene, Jake had reigned without a rival. Now it was quite different. The hands, though as respectful as ever, seemed strangely forgetful of his presence at times; and with Ben, when Mame was by, his place had become secondary, and all his eager affection seemed to go as a matter of course. Ordinarily Jake would have liked well to make a playmate of Mame; but as it was—never!
“The whole party had got aboard, and the raft was shoved off into the current. In the middle of the structure stood a rough, temporary shanty of hemlock slabs, with an elbow of rusted stovepipe projecting through the roof. Within this shelter the cook presided, and two or three bunks gave accommodation for part of the gang. The others, including of course Mame and her father, looked to more luxurious sleeping quarters in the settlements along shore.
“Mame was enchanted with her surroundings,—with the shores slipping smoothly past, with the ripples washing up between the logs, with the dashes of spray over the windward edges of the raft, with the steersmen tugging on the great sweeps, and last, but by no means least, with the wide sheets of glossy gingerbread which the cook in his little house was producing for her particular gratification.
“She had never before experienced the delight of a raft voyage. She skipped from side to side on her swift but unsteady little feet, and all hands were kept anxiously alert to prevent her from falling into the water.
“Several times she made playful advances to the big dog, throwing herself down on the logs beside him, and scattering her yellow curls over his black and crinkly coat; but Jake, after a reluctant wagging of his tail, as if to indicate that his action was based on principle, and not on any ill-will toward herself, invariably got up and made a reserved withdrawal to some remoter corner of the raft. Thériault noticed this, as he had done on previous occasions, and it seemed to vex him.
“‘I don’t see what Jake’s got agin the child that he won’t let her play with him,’ he remarked half-crossly.
“‘Oh, I guess it’s ’cause he ain’t no ways used ter children, an’ he’s kinder afeared o’ breakin’ her,’ Ben Smithers responded laughingly.
“Jake had caught the irritation in the boss’s tone, and had vaguely comprehended it. Upon the boss his resentment was tending to concentrate itself. He could harbor no real ill-feeling toward the child, but upon Luke Thériault he seemed to lay the whole blame for his dethronement.
“Toward noon the breeze died down, and the heat grew fierce. The yellow-pink gum began to soften and trickle on the sunny sides of the logs, and great fragrant beads of balsam to ooze out from every axe-wound. The gang clustered, as far as possible, under the insufficient shade of the cook-house, in loosely sprawling attitudes,—hats off and shirt-bosoms thrown wide open. Jake got down on the lowermost tier of logs, and lay panting in a couple of inches of water, surrounded by floating bits of bark and iridescent patches of balsam scum.
“As for Mame, her pink frock by this time was pretty well bedraggled, and frock and hands alike smeared and blackened with balsam. Her sturdy little copper-toed boots were water-soaked. The heat had a suppressing effect even upon her, and she spent much of the time in Ben’s lap in the shade of the cook-house; but now and then she would rouse herself to renewed excursions, and torment the raftsmen’s weather-beaten breasts with fresh alarms.