The boy sat on a pile of slabs for a few minutes, resting, and watching the glowing splendor of sunset as reflected in the waters of the stream at his feet.

At length he started up and was about to go to the house, where, as he had decided, his very first act would be to ask Elta's forgiveness.

The house stood some distance from the river-bank, and was hidden from it by the trees of a young apple orchard.

As Winn rose to his feet and cast a lingering glance at the wonderful beauty of the water, he noticed a familiar black object floating amid its splendor of crimsons and gold.
"I wonder how that log got out of the boom ?" he said, half aloud.
"Why, there's another--and another! The boom must be broken." Yes, the boom of logs, chained together end to end and stretched completely across the creek to hold in check the thousands of saw-logs that filled the stream farther than the eye could see, had parted near the opposite bank.

The end thus loosened had swung down-stream a little way, and there caught on a snag formed of a huge, half-submerged root.