"He's an awful smart driver for one that don't foiler drivin' the
year round," continued Ivory; "and he's the awfullest
clean-spoken, soft-spoken feller I ever see."

"There's be'n two black sheep in his family a'ready, an' Steve
kind o' feels as if he'd ought to be extry white," remarked Jed
Towle. "You fellers that belonged to the old drive remember
Pretty Quick Waterman well enough? Steve's mother brought him
up."

Yes; most of them remembered the Waterman twins, Stephen's
cousins, now both dead,--Slow Waterman, so moderate in his
steps and actions that you had to fix a landmark somewhere near
him to see if he moved; and Pretty Quick, who shone by comparison
with his twin.

"I'd kind o' forgot that Pretty Quick Waterman was cousin to
Steve," said the under boss; "he never worked with me much, but
he wa'n't cut off the same piece o' goods as the other Watermans.
Great hemlock! but he kep' a cussin' dictionary, Pretty Quick
did! Whenever he heard any new words he must 'a' writ 'em down,
an' then studied 'em all up in the winter-time, to use in the
spring drive."

"Swearin''s a habit that hed ought to be practiced with turrible
caution," observed old Mr. Wiley, when the drivers had finished
luncheon and taken out their pipes. "There's three kinds o'
swearin',--plain swearin', profane swearin', an' blasphemious
swearin'. Logs air jest like mules: there's times when a man
can't seem to rip up a jam in good style 'thout a few words