204 THE LOG OF A TIMBER CRUISER 



hearts and prospective wives individually and col- 

 lectively: Here's luck!" 



Mr. Wetherby's ready estimate and acceptance 

 of the situation made the hit of the evening. 



And as we laughed and cheered and touched 

 glasses and sipped the Chink 's wine, we felt the 

 toast no empty form but a true symbol of our 

 thoughts and feelings. We saw the Service and its 

 loyal friends in that moment not as an abstract idea 

 or a romantic ideal, a thing to make pretty speeches 

 over, but as a living, working, hoping, striving body 

 filled with a single spirit, as a whole of human beings 

 composed like ourselves of good and of evil; as 

 thousands of companions, known and unknown, 

 scattered throughout the land, north and south, east 

 and west, whether officers or in the ranks, whether 

 young or old, whether in district or in camp or in the 

 midst of towns and great cities or like ourselves 

 "a-working on Reconnaissance ! " 



