142 THE LOG OF A TIMBER CRUISER 



so, to get very lonely. Then arter a while I found 

 I'd forgot how to be. 



" Course I like to see people once in a while, to 

 kind of git my tongue loosed up; but when they're 

 gone I don't never miss them none." 



Despite this assurance I suspected a hidden trag- 

 edy, some old romance, beneath the Hermit's blithe 

 exterior, to account more fully for his voluntary and 

 continued exile here on the very top of the dark 

 mountains. 



I hinted as much later to Brown, who knew old 

 man Reed well, but he scouted the idea. 



"He jest lives up here because he likes it. He 

 struck a good thing and helt onto it. They hain't 

 nothin' else he could make such a good livin' out'n. 



"That's one thing your National Forest is doin'," 

 reflectively added the packer, who in general, more 

 to irritate us if possible than for any other reason, 

 affected to look with scepticism upon the value of 

 Service work. "I gotta say you're givin' the reel 

 settler a chance. Of course ole man Reed was here 

 long before the Forest was a Guv'ment affair, but 

 they 's plenty more places like his homesteaded under 

 Forest Service reg'lations, an' better than his ranch 

 was when he come here." 



"There are over two hundred areas listed now on 

 the Gila, ' ' I put in, ' ' as land suitable for agriculture 

 and open to settlement under the act of June 11, 

 1906." 



"Yes, an' they's a good many hundred more 



