Experience had taught me much and I found far less work in prying up and sliding this log than I had expended on the first. In a short time I had it beside its fellow on the beach, and when I at last ceased my labors to prepare my midday meal only two logs remained upon the bank.
I was very tired, for I had worked ceaselessly since early morning, but I had accomplished a great deal and felt that I had earned a few hours’ rest. It was a pleasant afternoon, warm and balmy, with a soft, blue haze half-veiling the distant woods and hills, and had I possessed the necessities of life and a canoe I would have been glad to spend many days camping on the borders of the lovely forest lake. As I rested, lying upon the mossy bank and gazing off across the sparkling water, I was attracted by a slight rustle near at hand, and, turning my head, saw a graceful deer step forth from the ferns. For a moment the splendid creature stood, suspiciously sniffing the air, and then, scenting no danger, trotted to the water’s edge and plunged into the lake.
Straight toward the opposite side he swam, his antlers, ears, and nose alone showing above the rippling surface of the water, and a long, silvery wake trailing behind him. How I envied his powers of swimming and how I longed for a means to slay him, for my admiration of his beauty and grace was as nothing compared with my longing for broiled venison and for some tough buckskin with which to cover my poor, blistered, bruised feet. Perhaps, I thought, I might devise some trap with which to capture a deer, or by finding a runway I might noose one, and I sighed to think how I was compelled to suffer and to win a bare existence although surrounded by game which would furnish me with innumerable comforts.
But if I was to complete my raft it was high time I resumed my labors. Arising regretfully, for my rest upon the moss was delightful, I tramped through the woods to the two remaining logs.
Presently I had pried one of the logs from behind some projecting stumps and, having placed branches beneath it to hold it up, I dropped my lever and started back to secure some pieces of wood I had used as rollers. In doing this I stepped upon the other log, my foot slipped, I fell crashing backward, my arm knocked the props from under the log, and with a thud it dropped, pinning my foot beneath it.