r thought that some Americans were born with bad manners, some
achieved bad manners, and others had bad manners thrust upon them.
Impoliteness was nothing new to him, since he had been in America. It
was indigenous. Personally, he didn't mind what sort of people he met,
but he seemed to be aware that a new element had come to Black Rock
which was to make disquietude for Jonathan K. McGuire and difficulty for
himself. And yet too there was a modicum of safety, perhaps, in the
presence of these new arrivals, for it had been clear from his
employer's demeanor that the terrors of the night had passed with the
coming of the day.

He commented on this to Shad Wells, who informed him that night was
always the old man's bad time.

"Seems sort o' like he's skeered o' the dark. 'Tain't nateral. 'Fraid o'
ghosts, they say," he laughed.

"Well," said Peter, "we've got our orders. And the thing he fears isn't
a ghost. It's human."

"Sure?"

"Yes. And since he's more afraid after dark he has probably had his
warning. But we're not to take any chances."

Having given his new orders to Jesse, who was to be in charge during
their absence, they struck into the woods upon the other side of the
Creek for the appraisal of a part of the strip known as the "Upper
Reserve." From an attitude of suspicion and sneering contempt Peter's
companion had changed to one of indifference. The unfailing good humor
of the new superintendent had done something to prepare the ground for
an endurable relation between them. Like Beth Cameron Shad had sneered
at the word "forester." He was the average lumberman, only interested in
the cutting down of trees for the market--the commercial aspect of the
business--heedless of the future, indifferent to the dangers of
deforestation. Peter tried to explain to him that forestry actually
means using the forest as the farmer uses his land, cutting out the
mature and overripe trees and giving the seedlings beneath more light
that they may furnish the succeeding crop of timber. He knew that the
man was intelligent enough, and explained as well as he could from such
statistics as he could recall how soon the natural resources of the
country would be exhausted under the existing indifference.

"Quite a bit of wood here, Mister--enough for my job," said Shad.

But after a while Peter began to make him understand and showed him what
trees should be marked for cutting and why. They came to a burned patch
of at least