WORK IN A NATIONAL FOREST 



385 



a low sense, but in a high one : it crowds 

 him constantly toward more care, more 

 "business sense," more knowledge of 

 all sorts of new things. Once, when 

 he was young, the ranger liked to fish — 

 he very seldom gets fishing any more ; 

 he even shows the best fishing places to 

 the tourists, and goes off about his 

 business ! 



Two young rangers lately said to me : 

 "Saturday is a legal holiday, but may- 

 be this piece of work should be finished 

 quick, and if you say so, we won't mind 

 putting in Saturday and Sunday before 

 we move camp." 



"But you'd like to take your wives 

 and go back to Chiquito and see the 

 snow peaks and get an inspiration 

 there — and take some trout flies." 



"You bet we would !" 



I love to note how the real rangers 

 of a Forest wear themselves thin and 

 gray every summer. They come and 

 go. eager-eyed, quiet, giving of their 

 best, responding to every call, though it 

 come at night, though it "kills a horse." 

 or "breaks a few ribs," and by the time 

 the first rains come they are the sort 

 of men whom you do not insult by any 

 gush over their heroism. Instead, you 

 sass them extra hard ; you tell them that 

 they sleep too much and eat too often. 

 I was at a fire once where grub was 

 very scarce. We divided up the hard- 

 tack, and labelled each pile "beans," 

 "beef-steak," etc. Said one ranger, with 

 a meditative drawl : "I seen a man eat- 

 ing bacon 'bout a month ago. Any- 

 how he said it was bacon !" 



Into such a land of perennial youth- 

 fulness the youngster comes, and, if 

 he has any future value, is soon swept 

 out of himself by its vast currents. If 

 not, he shudders and so escapes, with 

 terror in his soul, and with a wild pur- 

 suing laughter behind him. 



"I never supposed that a ranger had 

 to cut brush and grub stumps and 

 build fence and work like a nigger." 

 said one of the "greenies." "I thought 

 he just rode around under the trees and 

 made outsiders toe the mark." 



He was a new guard, on trial ; he said 

 this in camp to a group of old boys 

 with whom he had been working. They 



were sorry all over for him ; they looked 

 at him, solemn-eyed, and regretted the 

 cruelties of the Service. "The boss," 

 they said, "just sticks it on us all the 

 time. We are workin' like slaves — 

 guards an' rangers an' everybody. It's 

 plumb wicked the way we're herded 

 here !"' 



The new hand felt comforted, and he 

 ambled innocently on : "That heavy 

 brush tears my clothes, and my back 

 aches, and I burned a shoe, and my 

 socks are full of stickers. Then I fell 

 on the barbed wire when I was stretch- 

 ing it, and cut my nose. I tell you 

 what it is, fellows, if the Lord is good 

 to me, I hope I'll never see another 

 inch of barbed wire as long as I live. 

 If I was only back in Peanutville, where 

 I used to live, I could be eating a plate 

 of ice cream this minute instead of 

 working like a dog and having to wash 

 my own clothes Sundays when I might 

 be hearing the band play in the park." 



"Too bad ! Too bad ! Too bad !" said 

 all the old rangers in chorus, and so it 

 went on till shouts of laughter began 

 to fill that mountain camp and the indig- 

 nant youngster suddenly understood 

 that his point of view had somehow no 

 sympathy. 



But the next day one of the most ef- 

 fective of the rangers in the district 

 asked him as they went up the trail to- 

 gether, "How much of that stuff you 

 was preachin' last night did you mean ? 

 Of course this is hard work ; it has to 

 be. Either leave it mighty pronto, or 

 wrastle with it till you're a man at the 

 garne. I've seen lots of young fellows 

 harden up — some of the best of them 

 came in just as green an' useless as you 

 are. Don't you know you hold us back 

 and waste our time, too, on most any 

 job? But it's the price we have to pay 

 up here to get new men started. I heard 

 the boss say once that a real seasoned 

 ranger that had crossed the line was 

 worth his weight in raw diamonds." 



"Crossed the line?" said the young- 

 ster. "What do you mean by that?" 



"Well, the boss says that when a 

 fellow isn't workin' for the pay, or for 

 promotion, and is puttin' in all there is 

 in him. and is married to the work, and 



