Firewood in the canal

We worked for about 2 weeks, 7:00am to 6:00pm everyday, gathering what we needed in the woods. My dad estimated that we had collected enough firewood for a lorry-load and sticks for a good twine-climbing support, therefore prepared to move them out of the woods.

He cut some long pieces of raw rattan which were twinning round the trunks of huge trees. We carried the logs, the sticks and rattan on shoulder and moved them out. It took us about 1 1/2 days, we were slow because my father was a very easy going man, when I felt tired or bored I would wander away to catch fish or snails in the streams or to look at the trees or to study the insects.He did not bother me and went on to do the task on his own, and would take a rest himself now and then.

Outside the woods was a canal which led to the trunk road where a lorry could access. We lined up the logs side by side along the bank of the canal. The logs were of equal length and formed a very neat line. Father laid the rattan on top then used nails to string the logs up to form a raft-like structure. He nailed 3 strings of rattan on each log, 1 on each end and 1 in the middle. It looked solid, or so it might seem.

When done, we slowly slided the "raft" of logs into the canal. And it floated! I started to understand why father discarded the hard wood because it would sink in the water. He nailed one long piece of rattan to the head of the "raft" and guided it down the canal when it started to drift downstream. My job was to use a long pole to push the body of the long snake-like raft away from the bank, so that it would not get stuck in the mud bank.

After about an hour travelling down the canal, the head of the raft was caught in the mud bank at a bend. Father tried to jerk it free using the rattan, the rattan suddenly snapped. The body of the long "snake" started to curl, with all my might I tried to straighten it but in vain. You can not imagine the power of the water until you tried to go against it. If the raft were left to hit the bank, the rattan would snap or the nails would be dislodged. That would be a mess, we would have to start all over again to restring the logs.(Raw rattan are brittle, they are tough and resilient only when dried.)

I could not bear to watch the expression of despair on father's face, so jumped into the water to pull the head of the raft free. Then with one hand pulling the raft and swam with the other hand as quickly as possible to straighten the body of raft. Father who was stunned seeing me jumped, recovered quickly and used the pole to keep the body of the raft straight. I remained in the water and led the raft along until we reached our destination- the trunk road.

Father who was silent until now, spoke to me,"good thing you know how to swim!"
From then on, he would never scold me and my brother for swimming in the canals again, and it was unconventional in our village!