ow?"

"Thank you, yes," said Garry. "But you said you did other things. Mind
telling us what they are? We are not inquisitive, only this is something
new to us."

"Sure I don't mind. Sometimes I pick yarbs. There's a powerful lot of
them in the woods, like sassafras root and checkerberry and things like
that. I sell these to the same druggists that buy my gum. Then sometimes
I guide parties. In the wintertime I trap. And sometimes in the spring,
I work on the log drive on the river. There's lots of things a man can
do to make a living in these woods, if he only knows enough. And it
beats working in a store or something all hollow. You're never sick, and
mainly you are your own boss, without anyone to tell you when to work
and what to work at," concluded the old gum hunter.

For the benefit of our readers who may not be acquainted with Yankee
dialect, yarbs is the native's way of saying herbs.

The boys were much interested in the old man's various occupations. They
had no idea that a man could do so many different and profitable things
in the wilds of the great forests.

"What you boys aim to do while you are camping?" inquired the newcomer,
as he ate his late lunch. "You won't find a powerful lot of shooting as
there ain't much now that the law is off. Course you can get some good
fishing if you follow that brook that is fed by the spring you get your
water from for about three miles. There's a place there where a couple
of old trees lay across the brook, blown down in some big storm, I
expect, and there are some noble trout there. If I had had time today,
I'd have gone down there and caught a couple for my meal, instead of
taking your bacon."

"You were perfectly welcome to it, and anytime you are around here drop
right in and help yourself. You'll always find a plenty," said Garry
cordially.

"That's the right spirit to show in the woods, young feller," and the
gum hunter slouched off to the spring to draw some water to wash the
dishes after his meal. He came back with the water, and pouring a small
quantity of it in the greasy frying pan, put it on the coals. The dish
and his knife and fork, he scrubbed first with a handful of earth, and
in a short time they were clean of the grease of the bacon. All that
needed to be done was to rinse them out. By this time the water in the
frying pan had come to a boil, and pouring it out, the pan was found to
be nearly free of the grease. An application of earth, and a ri