WORK ON A NATIONAL FOREST 



401 



times when they may be helped in some 

 degree. For the most part the Service 

 owes to its faithful servants neither 

 praise nor blame, but comprehension." 



The officer reached up to his desk 

 and took down a journal. He turned 

 slowly back some six months and found 

 an entry. "There," he said to his wife. 

 "That was my entire report on Jim'- 

 case." 



It read : "I have seen a good deal 

 of Jim Blank lately. He is a fine, big 

 fellow, with ambitions, and I find that 

 he wants to take up timber work. This 

 will especially suit his make-up. and he 

 goes into it from the bottom, at his 

 own request, for he feels that he Is 

 needed there more than in grazing. 

 This case is therefore closed with a 

 good, long credit-mark for Jim, and 

 absolutely nothing official against him." 



The officer's wife cried out in dis- 

 may: "Dear me! Was tliat all you 

 said ? Why, your notes on that case 

 would have made a book. Nobody will 

 ever know what you did for Jim." 



"You and I know," said the officer, 

 very soberly, seeing as he spoke a 

 ranger's cabin near a saw-mill ; a 

 ranger's wife and baby ; the ranger him- 

 self, a busy, happy, effective man whose 

 sincere love for the forest had been 

 strengthened by an all-containing lead- 

 ership. 



"Do 3'OU remember the story," he 

 asked her, "the story about the 

 Promethean fire ? It is said that the 

 Titan who so loved earth stole that 

 fire and brought it across blue spaces in 

 a fennel stalk ! Evidently that was not 

 material fire — it was that spiritual flame, 

 a spark of which in each earth-born 

 man makes him one with the gods 

 themselves. Underneath all the differ- 

 ences of temperament, of education, of 

 surroundings, that to which we must 

 ever speak is that spark which Prome- 

 theus carried in the fennel stalk and 

 set in all hearts forever." 



He put his arm about his wife's waist 

 and they went off into the garden and 

 gathered roses together. .Vnd I think 

 he told her more than I have written 

 here, for when they came back tears 

 and laughter were mingled in his eyes, 



and laughter and tears were in hers. 



But after they sat down he said : 



"Now, you must remember that this 

 is the way of it : Every single item in 

 a report may be true, and yet the things 

 left out, the unseen facts, the relations 

 of the several parts, the putting to- 

 gether, may all be so wrong that the 

 sum-total becomes absolutely false. You 

 can make a mosaic of precious stones 

 on the very Tomb of the Prophet in 

 sentences that blaspheme the throne of 

 Allah. 



"Yes," he continued, more to him- 

 self than to her, "we should be able 

 to rejoice in all healthy differences of 

 temperament, in all the divine problems 

 of the personal ecjuation. All good and 

 earnest men know their own short- 

 comings better than we can tell them ; 

 it is enough that we with larger com- 

 prehension cheerfully analyze these 

 shortcomings, and as cheerfully accept 

 what cannot be helped. 



"There was once one who walked by 

 Gennesaret, and there he found rude 

 fishermeii, and somehow changed them 

 into the mighty apostles of a new re- 

 ligion, without changing their temper a- 

 nients, without stupidly violating any 

 of those higher spiritual laws of a per- 

 fect understanding. Therefore, their 

 souls blossomed like roses set in new 

 soil, under new planets." 



Again the silence fell between them, 

 as they looked out over mountains and 

 forests. 



"There is," he said, "a far greater 

 virtue than mere loyalty, so often, and 

 so lightly on our lips. It gathers all 

 virtues together and explains them to 

 themselves. Not yet has it had a name ; 

 no pantheon holds its marble imper- 

 sonation. And still, since men began to 

 be, their secret prayers have gone forth 

 all unconsciously, age after age, for 

 the gift in even small degree of this 

 crown of all virtues. It is that by which 

 the Master dealt with His fishermen : 

 it is that by which we must deal with 

 our rangers. Its name, in those higher 

 places where it rules, is Comprehen- 

 sion; mercy, truth, justice, imagination, 

 and all the divinities are its advisers— 

 but ever it casts the deciding vote." 



