26 REDWOOD LUMBERING. 



way and camps, to some locality where timber is abundant. 

 Here, then, he discovers that he has overreached the mark, 

 and is like an old maid who has refused one offer for her 

 hand better than the last during her youthful period, and 

 finally is left alone in her glory without a bid. This obsti- 

 nacy does not necessarily cause a total loss of his property by 

 any means ; for after the sackcloth and ashes period of his 

 mourning over his too grasping ambition, he settles down to 

 the work of preparing a way to become a lumber merchant 

 in a certain degree on his own responsibility. He thought- 

 fully canvasses the situation, and says to himself : '' On this 

 1 60 acres I have twelve million, sixteen million, perhaps 

 twenty million, feet of timber "-board measure. 



The old logging roads to the shipping point are still 

 left. The grades and curves could not be removed by the 

 millman when he left the district. The solitary owner has 

 these marks of improvement as a basis to work himself again 

 up the ladder of fortune. At a nominal expense he adds two 

 more horses to the span he has acquired by working for wag- 

 es in his patient days, and by which, of late years, he prob- 

 ably made a scant living doing odd bits of hauling. With 

 his four-in-hand, a strong wagon, harness to match, and his 

 inherent strong will, he is prepared to do battle against the 

 monster redwoods on his own account. A shake-maker, 

 perhaps, in addition a tie, post, and picket splitter, is engaged 

 to work up the timber, and thereby supply his team with 

 freight. He acts as proprietor, teamster, and commission 

 merchant at one and the same time, and so disposes of his 

 truck to the highest bidder at the nearest railroad station or 



