There is nothing more impressive than this rush of a pine top, excepting it be a charge of cavalry or the fall of Niagara.

Old woodsmen sometimes shout aloud with the mere excitement into which it lifts them.
Then the swampers, who had by now finished the travoy road, trimmed the prostrate trunk clear of all protuberances.

It required fairly skillful ax work.

The branches had to be shaved close and clear, and at the same time the trunk must not be gashed.

And often a man was forced to wield his instrument from a constrained position.
The chopped branches and limbs had now to be dragged clear and piled.
While this was being finished, Tom and Hank marked off and sawed the log lengths, paying due attention to the necessity of avoiding knots, forks, and rotten places.