The arm-chair was now converted into a table, and supper was soon ready. It was very similar to the meal of which Mr. Davenport and Clinton had already partaken. Uncle Tim’s two boys did not come to the table until the others had risen, as there was not room enough for all. After the boys had finished their supper, Clinton asked them if they would not go down with him to the river. They complied with his request, and as they were on their way, they passed some logs, by the side of which there was an axe, with a remarkably long helve or handle.
“Hullo,” said Clinton, “I guess that axe was made for a giant.”
“No,” said Bill, “the helve has to be long so that the chopper can stand on the log when he cuts, so fashion,” and he jumped upon the log, and gave it two or three blows that made it crack to the centre.
Clinton found the river narrower than he expected, and as the snow had drifted in, there was not much ice to be seen. The boys told him, however, that in the spring the stream was two or three times as wide and deep as it was now, and they described to him its lively appearance in a freshet, when thousands of logs were swept down its swift current, every day, and the jolly drivers were continually passing, to start off those timbers that happened to lodge against the rocks or shores.
“I’m going to be a logger,” said Bill; “they have first-rate times up in the woods, in the winter, and it’s real fun to see them go down the river in the spring.”
“Poh,” said Jim, “I’ll bet you’ll get enough of it in one season. Father says it’s the hardest life a fellow can choose.”
“And what do you mean to be, Jim?” inquired Clinton.
“I want to be a carpenter,” replied Jim, “but father wont get me any tools, nor let me go away to learn the trade. Do you have any tools where you live, Clinton?”
“Yes, lots of them. My father used to be a carpenter, and has got a whole set of tools, and lets me use them as much as I please.”
“O, how I wish I had some tools,” continued Jim. “I mean to ask father to let me go over and see yours some time.”