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!’ 
