My uncle’s first day in the city of New York, with all its wonders, kept him traveling from one sight to another, and he finally wandered down to one of the great wharves on the river front. Looking around, he spied a group of men standing around an anchor, weighing from four to five tons. Judging from their actions, they were in a quandary as to what they should do to solve their problem of moving the anchor.
Walking up to the group, Uncle Duncan said, ‘Boys, what seems to be the trouble?’ An interference of this kind with this type of men would, under ordinary circumstances, bring a sharp retort, but my uncle’s size and appearance prompted an honest answer.
‘We have an anchor here that weighs four tons or more, and we want to put it aboard that vessel. As the boat is due to sail in three hours and we have no derrick to load the anchor, we do not know how to manage the job.’ Sneeringly, the man added, ‘I suppose, Big Boy, that you think that you can load it alone.’
Paying not the least heed to them and looking out through his eyelashes which were at least an inch in length,
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Uncle Duncan strode through the group. He pushed the men out of his way as if they were so many children, and walked up to the anchor. He stooped over and raised one of the points as if gaging the weight of the anchor. Then, he straightened up to his full height, and gazed around as if alone. He removed his great frieze coat and his coarse, hand crocheted ox hair shirt, made from the hair of the long haired cattle of the mountains of Scotland. The sight that met the eyes of those men, was one hard to believe.
Boys, my uncle had a form of herculean size, with a creeping of muscles over his powerful back and arms, showing through a thick tangle of hair. The upper part of his body was bare to the waist and a belt, four inches wide, made of boar’s hide, circled his body at the waist, supporting a pair of corduroy trousers. A pair of brogans, heavily studded with Swedish nails encased his feet.
He settled to his task, first getting down on his knees, then inch by inch, he began moving the huge burden up towards his shoulders. The muscles on his back and shoulders stood out like whipcords and his neck showed the tremendous strain, as he steered the anchor to his back.
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