He lived in the town of Brookdale, where he had a family; but he was engaged in the lumber business, and generally spent the winter months in the forests of Maine, with large gangs of loggers, who were employed to cut down trees, and convey them to the banks of the streams, where they were floated down to the mills in the spring freshets.

These forests are far from any settlement, and the lumber-men live in log-huts, in a very independent and care-for-nobody sort of way.

Oscar had often heard his uncle describe their manner of life, and, to him, there was something quite fascinating about it.

He thought he should like the logging business very much--all but the _working_ part of it; he was afraid that would spoil the whole, for his Uncle John always represented it as being pretty hard work.
Oscar had four cousins in Brookdale, the children of his Uncle John, none of whom he had ever seen.

He had many questions to ask about them, in the course of which he expressed a wish that he might visit them.