He did not attempt to reason about them.

The knowledge was borne in upon him instinctively.
He rose, by and by, and, for he was hungry, limped on to the sleeping-shanty of the construction gang.

It was built of logs and roofed with rough cedar shingles hand-split on the spot.

The sun beat hot upon them, and they diffused a faint aromatic fragrance, refreshing as the scent of vinegar, into the long, unfloored room, which certainly needed something of the kind.

It reeked with stale tobacco-smoke, the smell of cookery, and the odors of frowsy clothes.
A row of bunks, filled with spruce twigs and old brown blankets, ran down one side of it, a very rude table down the other, and a double row of men with bronzed faces, in dusty garments, sat about the latter, eating voraciously.