peaks and still pine forests have impressed themselves subtly; so
that when we turn to admire his unconsciously graceful swing, we
seem to hear the ax biting the pine, or the prospector's pick
tapping the rock. And in his eye is the capability of quiet humor,
which is just the quality that the surmounting of many difficulties
will give a man.

Like the nature he has fought until he understands, his disposition
is at once kindly and terrible. Outside the subtleties of his
calling, he sees only red. Relieved of the strenuousness of his
occupation, he turns all the force of the wonderful energies that
have carried him far where other men would have halted, to channels
in which a gentle current makes flood enough. It is the mountain
torrent and the canal. Instead of pleasure, he seeks orgies. He
runs to wild excesses of drinking, fighting, and carousing--which
would frighten most men to sobriety--with a happy, reckless spirit
that carries him beyond the limits of even his extraordinary forces.

This is not the moment to judge him. And yet one cannot help
admiring the magnificently picturesque spectacle of such energies
running riot. The power is still in evidence, though beyond its
proper application.



Chapter II


In the network of streams draining the eastern portion of
Michigan and known as the Saginaw waters, the great firm of