[Illustration: F. E. Higgins, The Sky Pilot]
DR. GRENFELL'S PARISH: A Tract in Description of the Deep Sea Mission Work
GOING DOWN PROM JERUSALEM: The Narrative of a Journey Net $1.50
EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF: A Book of Short Stories 1.50
THE CRUISE OF THE 'SHINING LIGHT': A Novel of the Sea 1.50
THE ADVENTURES OF BILLY TOPSAIL: A Story for Boys
THE WAY OF THE SEA: A Book of Short Stories
THE SOUL OF THE STREET: A Book of Short Stories
Chapter Page I. HELL BENT 1 II. THE PILOT OF SOULS 4 III. IN THE SNAKE-ROOM 8 IV. THE CLOTH IN QUEER PLACES 11 V. JACK IN CAMP 20 VI. "TO THE TALL TIMBER!" 25 VII. ROBBING THE BLIND 32 VIII. TOUCHING PITCH 43 IX. IN SPITE OF LAUGHTER 54 X. THE VOICE OF THE LORD 57 XI. FIST-PLAY 65 XII. MAKING THE GRADE 72 XIII. STRAIGHT FROM THE SHOULDER 78 XIV. THE SHOE ON THE OTHER FOOT 85 XV. CAUSE AND EFFECT 97 XVI. THE WAGES OF SACRIFICE 109
What this book contains was learned by the writer in the course of two visits with Mr. Higgins in the Minnesota woods--one in the lumber-camps and lumber-towns at midwinter, and again at the time of the drive. Upon both occasions Mr. Higgins was accompanied by his devoted and admirable friend, the Rev. Thomas D. Whittles, to whose suggestions and leading he responded with many a tale of his experiences, some of which are here related. Mr. Whittles was at the same time good enough to permit the writer to draw whatever information might seem necessary from a more extended description of Mr. Higgins's work, called _The Lumber-jack's Sky Pilot_, which he had written.
Twenty thousand of the thirty thousand lumber-jacks and river-pigs of the Minnesota woods are hilariously in pursuit of their own ruin for lack of something better to do in town. They are not nice, enlightened men, of course; the debauch is the traditional diversion--the theme of all the brave tales to which the youngsters of the bunk-houses listen in the lantern-light and dwell upon after dark. The lumber-jacks proceed thus--being fellows of big strength in every physical way--to the uttermost of filth and savagery and fellowship with every abomination. It is done with shouting and laughter and that large good-humor which is bedfellow with the bloodiest brawling, and it has for a bit, no doubt, its amiable aspect; but the merry shouters are presently become like Jimmie the Beast, that low, notorious brute, who, emerging drunk and hungry from a Deer River saloon, robbed a bulldog of his bone and gnawed it himself--or like Damned Soul Jenkins, who goes moaning into the forest, after the spree in town, conceiving himself condemned to roast forever in hell, without hope, nor even the ease which his mother's prayers might win from a compassionate God.