ent majesty. It
drew upon his patriotism. Remembering how the timber of his own state had
been slashed and burned, he began to feel a sense of personal
responsibility. He had but to ride into it a few miles in order to
appreciate in some degree its grandeur, considered merely as the source
of a hundred swift streams, whose waters enriched the valleys lying
below.

He bought a horse of his own--although Berrie insisted upon his retaining
Pete--and sent for a saddle of the army type, and from sheer desire to
keep entirely clear of the cowboy equipment procured puttees like those
worn by cavalry officers, and when he presented himself completely
uniformed, he looked not unlike a slender, young lieutenant of the
cavalry on field duty, and in Berrie's eyes was wondrous alluring.

He took quarters at the hotel, but spent a larger part of each day in
Berrie's company--a fact which was duly reported to Clifford Belden.
Hardly a day passed without his taking at least one meal at the
Supervisor's home.

As he met the rangers one by one, he perceived by their outfits, as well
as by their speech, that they were sharply divided upon old lines and
new. The experts, the men of college training, were quite ready to be
known as Uncle Sam's men. They held a pride in their duties, a respect
for their superiors, and an understanding of the governmental policy
which gave them dignity and a quiet authority. They were less policemen
than trusted agents of a federal department. Nevertheless, there was much
to admire in the older men, who possessed a self-reliance, a knowledge of
nature, and a certain rough grace which made them interesting companions,
and rendered them effective teachers of camping and trailing, and while
they were secretly a little contemptuous of the "schoolboys"; they were
all quite ready to ask for expert aid when knotty problems arose. It was
no longer a question of grazing, it was a question of lumbering and
reforestration.

Nash, who took an almost brotherly interest in his apprentice,
warningly said: "You want to go well clothed and well shod. You'll have
to meet all kinds of weather. Every man in the service, I don't care
what his technical job is, should be schooled in taking care of himself
in the forest and on the trail. I often meet surveyors and civil
engineers--experts--who are helpless as children in camp, and when I
want them to go into the hills and do field work, they are almost
useless. The old-style r