imber. Raising the
case upon three rollers, which I had prepared for the purpose, we
easily slid it out of the house on a track of boards.

"Now, Mr. Jackson, if you will let Morgan help me, we will move this
box down to the river," said I, when it was ready.

"But you want half a dozen men," added he.

"No, sir. Let all the rest of the men take down the house. We can do
this alone. It is a long job, and we must have it moving at once."

"Just as you say, Phil," laughed the officer.

The distance to the river was about eighty rods. The forest was open
enough, the greater part of the way, to permit the passage of the box,
and only near the river should we be obliged to cut away the young
trees. We demolished the old shanty, and taking half a dozen of the
boards, laid down a track towards the river. The ground was nearly
level for a short distance, and we used levers to propel the box
forward. As fast as one roller ran out in the rear, we placed it
forward, and thus managed to keep both ends of the box up all the time.

"Why couldn't we move the house without taking it to pieces, Phil?"
said the lieutenant, laughing, as he watched the operation.

"We could, sir, if the trees were not in the way. It would be more work
to cut a track through the woods wide enough for the house than to take
it to pieces and put it together."

"Do you really think you could move the house, without taking it to
pieces, if the trees were not in the way?"

"I know I could."

"You have a good deal of confidence in yourself."

"I was brought up in the woods, where we have to do our own thinking."

"How would you take it down the river?"

"There are hundreds of cotton-wood sticks, from forty to sixty feet
long, on the shore. We could make a raft of them, that would keep the
building right side up."

"But, after your raft got started, how could you stop it, and haul it
in at the mouth of Fish River? The current here is not less than four
miles an hour."

"That would be the greatest difficulty about the job. I should have
some sweeps on the raft, and a dozen men could crowd it over against
the north shore, where we could send a couple of ropes on shore, and
check it by catching a turn around the trees."

"Very likely you would do it, Phil; but it's lucky we haven't the job
on our hands."

"I wish we had, for I should enjoy the fun, if I were boss of the job."

We continued to roll the box on its way down to the river, carrying t