forty-nine in a class o' fifty-five, an' seemed consid'able proud of him; an'
I guess it is the first time he ever stood anywheres but at the foot. I tell
you when these fifty-five new doctors git scattered over the country there'll
be consid'able many folks keepin' house under ground. Dick Bean's goin' to
stop a spell with Rufe an' Steve Waterman. That'll make one more to play in
the river."

"Rufus ain't hardly got his workin' legs on yit," allowed Mr. Wiley, "but
Steve's all right. He's a turrible smart driver, an' turrible reckless, too.
He'll take all the chances there is, though to a man that's lived on the
Kennebec there ain't what can rightly be called any turrible chances on the
Saco."

"He'd better be 'tendin' to his farm," objected Mrs. Wiley.

"His hay is all in," Rose spoke up quickly, "and he only helps on the river
when the farm work is n't pressing. Besides, though it's all play to him, he
earns his two dollars and a half a day."

"He don't keer about the two and a half," said her grandfather. "He jest can't
keep away from the logs. There's some that can't. When I first moved here from
Gard'ner, where the climate never suited me--"


"The climate of any place where you hev regular work never did an' never will
suit you," remarked the old man's wife; but the interruption received no
comment: such mistaken views of his character were too frequent to make any
impression.

"As I was sayin', Rose," he continued, "when we first moved here from