e's sparks,
and that the Poquette woods were the center of the great West Branch
timber growth.

The counsel for the incorporators said that his clients realized this
danger, and anticipated that this objection, a potent one, would
be made. They were willing to show their liberal intent by binding
themselves to run their trains only in rainy or "lowery" weather, or
when the ground was damp. In times of dangerous drought they would
suspend operations.

"The Rainy-Day Railroad," as it was nicknamed immediately, excited
considerable hilarity at the state-house and in the newspapers.

The matter was fought out with much animation. The counsel for the
railway made much of the fact that these timber owners had fought
the very reasonable state tax that had been imposed on their vast and
valuable holdings. He drew attention to the needs of the sportsman
class, that was spending much money in the state each year, and declared
that unless they were treated with some courtesy and generosity, they
would go into New Brunswick.

But those deepest in the secrets of the very vigorous legislative fray
knew that the timber-land owners feared more results than they advanced
in their arguments against the charter.

For some years there had been rumors that extensive capital was ready
to tap a certain big railway and afford a shorter cut to the sea. Such
a cut-off would mean opening great tracts of woodland to the steam
horse--and where the steam horse goes there go settlers. The timberland
owners had found that settlers do not wait for clear titles, but squat
and burn and plant until evicted, and eviction by course of law means
expense and damage.

To be sure, the Poquette Carry line appeared on the surface to be so
innocent that to allege against it the great whispered scheme seemed
ridiculous. Therefore the counsel of the timber barons did not bring out
in the committee-room hearings all they suspected, for fear that they
would be laughed at.

So the Poquette Carry Road got what it asked for at last, the opposition
daring to put forward only its slight pretexts. But the timber interests
retired growling bitterly, and angrily apprehensive. They could not
understand that big men are sometimes actuated by whims. Here they saw
the controllers of the great P. K. & R. system behind this insignificant
project in the north woods. They gave these shrewd railroad men no
credit for ingenuousness. And the resolve that was thereupon made at