ON TOP AGAIN 143 



ready whenever people want 'em, * ' returned Brown. 

 "Of course they ain't no fortune in them right away, 

 but making a livin' isn't hard here, if a man '11 work, 

 an' before long, if the Forest Service keeps timber 

 thieves an' fakers out the way they're doing, they's 

 goin' to be a sight of people comin' in here an' 

 tickled to death to get one hundred and sixty acres 

 of good land just by livin' on it an' workin' it." 



This was all true but I was familiar with the facts 

 that Brown offered. I was more interested just now 

 in Eeed and his history. I could not easily give 

 up my romantic conception of the genial old moun- 

 taineer, despite Brown's matter of fact view of the 

 situation. 



"It may have been his drinking, after all," I mur- 

 mured half to myself, for I had heard that he had 

 formerly been given to the habit in excess. "He 

 probably feels that this is the only safe place for 

 him, the only way after his struggle with rum that 

 he can avoid temptation!" 



"Who, him!" burst out Brown, with a guffaw. 

 "He gits roarin' drunk twice a month regular as 

 clockwork. Most all his vegetable money goes for 

 booze." 



I began to fear that my attitude toward old man 

 Eeed might have to be recast and modelled on fact, 

 after all, instead of fancy. 



