WANTON WASTE. 203 



wanton waste of timber which has laid bare many 

 sections of the country. Inducements have been held 

 out to prairie settlers to plant trees on their farms ; 

 but for one tree planted there, a thousand have been 

 cut elsewhere." 



"This coon has lived fifty years," said Jake, "an' 

 never did he see a settler plant a tree. I don't b'lieve 

 it's in the critter to do it. No ! A settler has but one 

 idee in his brain-box, an' that is that every tree's a 

 rattlesnake standin' on his tail ; and the more o' em he 

 chops the more he's pleased." 



" I am afraid, Jake," said Pierre, " that you are right. 

 Wholesale waste is their rule. At a meeting in con- 

 nection with the lumber trade not long ago in Chicago, 

 it was stated that at the present rate of destruction the 

 forests in the United States would be cleared out in 

 about twenty years." 



" Wai, I dunno about that," replied Jake. " I knows 

 o' many a mile o' woods whur no lumberman's axe has 

 chopped a tree yit ; an' better 'n that, thur ain't a crick 

 'ud float a grasshopper 'ithin a hunderd miles. Ontil 

 they gits thur all-fired railways into them diggins, 

 thur '11 be elber-room for a hunt. I ain't skeert wi' the 

 thorts that the game an' woods won't last my time; 

 but I guess I kin smell the end o' it for all that wuss 

 luck !" 



" The settlers won't reach where we are now for a 

 good while, anyhow," observed Gaultier ; " and I 

 heartily hope they'll never come half-way. What a 



