With his mighty strength he could hold steady one end of a log until the team could haul the other into its place.
The stump-pulling was always attended with more or less interest and excitement.

Stumps, as well as logs, have their ways, and it takes a long experience to understand the ways of stumps.
In stump-hauling, young Aleck McGregor was an expert.

He rarely failed to detect the weak side of a stump.

He knew his team, and what was of far greater importance, his team knew him.

They were partly of French-Canadian stock, not as large as Farquhar McNaughton's big, fat blacks, but "as full of spirit as a bottle of whisky," as Aleck himself would say.