w it's done so as to help the forest, not to hurt
it, and that if the big trees weren't cut down the young ones couldn't
get sunlight and wouldn't have a chance to grow. But still one hates to
see a big tree go."

"It isn't that way at all, at all," said the lumberman. "There's some
that does their best work livin', and there's some that does it dead. A
man does it livin' and a tree does it dead. But what a tree does after
it's dead depends on what kind of a chance it's had when it's been
livin'. Sure ye've been to the schools when all the girls and some of
the boys gets into white dresses, the girls I mean, and sings songs, and
gives speeches and class poems and other contraptions, and graduates."

"I have," said Wilbur, "and not so long ago at that."

"And so have I," answered the lumberman. "Sure, me own little Kathleen
was graduated just a month ago from high school. Well, cuttin' down a
tree is like its graduation. It's been livin' and growin' and gettin'
big and strong and makin' up into good timber. Now its schoolin' in the
forest is over, it's goin' out into the world, to be made useful in some
kind of way, and in goin' it makes room for more."

"You don't take kindly to the 'Oh, Woodman, spare that tree' ideal?"
smiled Wilbur.

"I do not. But I'd spare it, all right, until there were other young
trees growin' near it to take its place in time. 'Tis the biggest part
of the work is cuttin' down the trees that make the best timber."

When they were settled drinking hot tea and eating some trout that the
party had with them, the Supervisor turned to Wilbur.

"McGinnis is a good man," he began, smiling as the Irishman with
pantomime returned the compliment by drinking his health in a pannikin
of tea, "but he's so built that he can't see straight. If you introduce
McGinnis to a girl he'll want to estimate how many feet she'd make board
measure."

He dodged a pine cone which the Irishman threw at him.

"How about Aileen?" he said.

"I'll take that back," said Merritt; "Mrs. McGinnis hasn't gone to
diameter growth. But," he continued, "she's good on clear length and has
a fine crown."

By which Wilbur readily understood that the lumberman's wife was slight,
well-built, and neat, and with heavy hair. The lumberman, mollified by
the tribute, returned to his dinner, and the Supervisor continued:

"McGinnis told you that cutting down the best trees available for timber
is the most important part of forest wor