8 THE LOG OF A TIMBER CRUISER 
He had never worked before in the Forest Serv- 
ice; but while he did not state this in so many words 
we gathered from his confidences that he was not 
only letter perfect, so to speak, in the réle of cruiser, 
but that anything relative to woods work or camp 
life with which he was unfamiliar would have to be 
a very rare, abstruse, and unimportant something 
indeed. 
I don’t mean to suggest that Wetherby boasted. 
He was perfectly sincere. He just gave us the facts 
about himself as he saw them, in all good faith, and 
while Bert and Bob Moak considered his utter lack 
of reticence on the subject of his own history actu- 
ally unethical, and had no use for him from that 
time forth, the rest of us were considerably im- 
pressed by his revelations. 
Frazer, in particular, made no effort to conceal 
his satisfaction. 
‘‘Wetherby’s got a lot of self-confidence,’’ said 
the chief that night, ‘‘but that’s not a bad quality. 
A few weeks in camp will tone him down, and any- 
way, it’s a secondary matter. As long as he’s on 
to his job we can forgive him the rest. I’m certainly 
glad he’s experienced. Did you notice his build? 
He sure ought to make a crackerjack cruiser!’’ 
‘ This sentiment fairly expressed the opinion of the 
majority and no one at the time attempted to dis- 
pute its accuracy. We turned in with the comfort- 
able conviction that we were, on the whole, a party, 
of rarely well-chosen and efficient young men. 
