"I
jumped ter dodge the tree, and landed here."

"Why don't you wade ashore?" demanded Tom again, preparing in a
leisurely manner to cast the old man the end of a line he had coiled on
the timber cart.

"Yah!" snarled Toby. "Why don't Miz' Smith keep pigs? Don't ax fool
questions, Tommy, but gimme holt on that rope. I'm afraid ter let go the
branch, for I'll sink, and if I try ter pull myself up by it, the whole
blamed tree'll come down onter me. Ye see how it's toppling?"

It was true that the fallen tree was in a very precarious position. When
Toby stirred at all, the small weight he rested on the branch made the
head of the tree dip perilously. And if it did fall the old man would
be thrust into the quagmire by the weight of the branches which overhung
his body.

"Let go of it, Toby!" called Tom, accelerating his motions. "Catch
this!"

He flung the coil with skill and Toby seized it. The rocking tree
groaned and slipped forward a little. Toby gave a yell that could have
been heard much farther than his previous cries.

But Tom sank back on the taut rope and fairly jerked the old man out
of the miry hole. Scrambling on hands and knees, Toby reached firmer
ground, and then the road itself.

Nan uttered a startled exclamation and cowered behind the cart. The
huge tree, groaning and its roots splintering, sagged down and, in
an instant, the spot there the old lumberman had been, was completely
covered by the interlacing branches of the uprooted tree.

"Close squeal, that," remarked Tom, helping the old man to his feet.

Toby stared at them both, wiping the mire from his face as he did so.
He was certainly a scarecrow figure after his submersion in the mud; gut
Nan did not feel like laughing at him. The escape had been too narrow.

"Guess the Almighty sent you just in time, Tom, my boy," said Toby
Vanderwiller. "He must have suthin' more for the old man to do yet,
before he cashes in. And little Sissy, too. Har! Henry Sherwood's son
and Henry Sherwood's niece. Reckon I owe him a good turn," he muttered.

Nan heard this, though Tom did not, and her heart leaped. She hoped that
Toby would feel sufficient gratitude to help Uncle Henry win his case
against Gedney Raffer. But, of course, this was not the time to speak of
it.

When the old lumberman heard about the fire in the sawdust he was quite
as excited as the young folk had been. It was fast growing dark now, but
it was impossible from the narrow road to