LISTER'S DISSATISFACTION Soon after his return from Winnipeg, Lister stood one evening by a length of track planned to cut out an awkward curve.

The new line ran into a muskeg that sucked down brush and logs and the loads of numerous gravel trains.

Angry foremen declared one could not fill up the bog, and Lister knew the heads of the construction office grumbled about the delay.

He was tired, for he had been strenuously occupied since morning, but could not persuade himself that the work had made much progress.
Small trees lay in tangled rows about the fresh gravel; farther back, the standing bush ran in a broken line against the fading light.

In front, thin mist drifted across the muskeg where slender trunks rose from the quaking mud.