716 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



"THE FACT TUAT EVEKY IXSOLVKXT SETTLER WAS A LIABILITY DID NOT ENTElt 



INTO THEIR CONSIDERATION." 



was on his activities that the low hopes of the little group 

 of stranded men were hinged and Rube had become pecu- 

 liarly unsatisfactory in his actions. He started out on his 

 new job with all the old vigor he had had when Blueberry 

 was a good town, but somehow he was losing his push. 

 He failed to enthuse now over land sales as he had in the 

 beginning. He spent a lot of time with the stray dudes 

 who came to stay at the boarding house and fish the 

 Blueberry or shoot partridges or try for some of the 

 few deer left in the valley. He dealt in fur in the winter 

 time. He seemed to be worried whenever a slash fire 

 ran over the country, even when no settler's buildings 

 were in danger. 



Another two years, and it was five since the mill fell 

 silent. Rube had sold a good many forties those first 

 three years ; in the fourth he sold fewer, in the fifth, 

 scarcely any at all. It made the boys uneasy. Things 

 were getting no better in a hurry. Hoskins, the grocer, 

 had accounts that ran into thousands on his books from 

 these new settlers and instead of blaming it on the early 

 September frost of this year or 

 the five rainless weeks of the 

 summer before, he somehow 

 blamed it on Rube. 



So, with Bisbee and Corbin 

 and Mclntyre. They could 

 do a lot of agreeing in an 

 evening by a stove, those four. 

 li Rube would only get busy 

 and sell more forties and 

 bring in more families there 

 would be a better chance of 

 making a go of the town, they 

 argued. The fact that every 

 insolvent settler was a liability 

 did not enter their considera- 

 tion. 



One night they framed a 

 letter to the Company, com- 

 plaining about Rube, who was 

 then off somewhere with a 

 few men and a team or two 



fighting a slash fire that was 

 simply clearing the land. And 

 that spring, instead of staying 

 on the job, he had been roam- 

 ing around over the state look- 

 ing at other sections, watching 

 Dther lumber towns that had 

 had the props knocked from 

 under them. He had been 

 :aught reading books about 

 fishing and hunting, too, when 

 he should have been hustling. 

 "He'll probably be buying 

 one of these-here new gas 

 wagons pretty soon, so's he 

 can travel more," opined Mel. 

 They made the letter pretty 

 strong, trying to convince the Comixiny that it owed the 

 region something and them something and itself some- 

 thing. Back came a three-line letter referring them to 

 R. Pottle, their Land Agent, and stating that they were 

 forwarding the complaint to Mr. Pottle. 



Of course, the boys didn't feel quite right about that. 

 Rube was one of them, even if he was getting queer. 

 They didn't want to hurt him, they decided. But the 

 next morning when they saw him sj^end two hours getting 

 a party of six fishermen established and on their way up 

 the stream for the day while three prospective settlers 

 one of them with his family, too hung around, the boys 

 didn't feel quite so guilty over that letter. . 



A week went on and Rube never batted an eye, but 

 one night when the four, along with Hogan, the black- 

 smith, and the station agent were gathered in Bisbee's 

 clothing store. Pottle came in. / 



" 'Lo, Rube." 

 " 'Lo, boys." 

 "Drivin' dudes today?" 



A DEADLY LAND WITH LITTLE WILD LIFE AND NO BEAUTY.' 



