United States or Slovakia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
There, just inside, hung the dead body of our neighbor, his face distorted and purple. And, while I stood sobbing with horror, the rector cut him down with the draw-knife which he had come to borrow. Soon after this tragedy, the barn was moved down to the marsh, to be used for storing hay and farm implements.
It was a starlight night, and I could see the bulk of him dimly as he moved about. I rolled out of my blankets and crept noiselessly after him in my stocking feet. He had armed himself with a draw-knife from the tool-locker, and with this he prepared to cut across the throat-halyards I had again rigged to the shears. He felt the halyards with his hands and discovered that I had not made them fast.
A quicker way was to saw out the proper length for runners from an inch, hardwood board, curve the fronts by means of a draw-knife, then connect the runners by braces, and cover with a frame of lighter material. These sleds, when shod at the blacksmith shop with half- curved iron shoes, were things to delight in, and two of them, properly hitched, made a fine "bob."
Their dugout, fashioned by fire and adz and draw-knife from the bole of a gum tree, moved through the water as noiselessly as a swimming mallard, leaving behind it a long, wavy trail on the stilled waters. Jake, the better oarsman sat flat in the stern of the round-bottomed craft, paddling with quick, splashless strokes. Joel, the better shot, was squatted forward.
A huge pile of decoys stood near, of which about two dozen were of wood, such as the Micmac Indian whittles out with his curved waghon, or single-handed draw-knife, in the long winter evenings.
"We'll have a hotel here yet, and supply passengers by the mail-boat with hot dinners." "Sposum me have knife, I help you. Leave waghon home yesterday for hould woman make baskets," said Peter, ruefully. "I guess we shall manage with the axes, although we need a knife like your Indian draw-knife. Reach me a large decoy, and the heaviest of those cod-leads."
This would not do for a draw-knife, so he laid hold of the running part, hove taut, and made fast. Then he prepared to saw across with the draw-knife. "I wouldn't, if I were you," I said quietly. He heard the click of my pistol and laughed. "Hello, Hump," he said. "I knew you were here all the time. You can't fool my ears." "That's a lie, Wolf Larsen," I said, just as quietly as before.
It was dull and very rusty, and he had a vast deal of trouble getting out the fragment of broken handle and shaping a new handle, in which he was greatly helped by a fairly good draw-knife, which I had that very morning found hanging on a peg behind the hay in the loft over the cow-shed. He had quite as much trouble in fitting the handle into the axe-head and in sharpening both edges.
My own brother could not have been more delighted to see me, and he begged me to lend him my rifle to shoot a guanaco for me in the morning. I assured the fellow that if I remained there another day I would lend him the gun, but I had no mind to remain. I gave him a cooper's draw-knife and some other small implements which would be of service in canoe-making, and bade him be off.
This curve should also be marked out with chalk, and should commence a little nearer the end of the log than the curve on the upper side. Shave off the wood to a blunt edge on this curve, at both bow and stern. The rough form of the canoe is now obtained, and by the aid of the draw-knife, or shaving-knife, it can be neatly and smoothly finished. It is then ready to be "dug-out."
Word Of The Day