place!" he cried.

The old hunter smiled at his enthusiasm.

"Let's see the tent," he said, and was about to leap from his horse when
the hunter called him.

"I reckon, son," he said, "there's somethin' you're forgettin'."

"What's that?" said Wilbur.

"Horses come first," said Rifle-Eye. "It's nigh dinner-time now. Where's
the corral?"

But Wilbur's spirits were not to be dampened by any check.

"Is there a corral?" he said. "How bully! Oh, yes, I remember now Mr.
Merritt said there was. Where is it, Rifle-Eye? Say, this is a jim-dandy
of a camp!"

A few steps further they came to the corral, a pretty little meadow in a
clearing, and in the far corner of it the stream which trickled from the
spring near the house. Wilbur unsaddled with a whoop and turned the
horses in the corral, then hurried back to the camp. The old hunter,
thinking perhaps that the boy would rather have the feeling of doing it
all himself for the first time, had not gone near the tent. There was a
small outer tent, which was little more than a strip of canvas thrown
over a horizontal pole and shielding a rough fireplace for rainy
weather, and within was the little dwelling-tent, with a cot, and even a
tiny table. On the ground was Wilbur's pack, containing all the things
he had sent up when he had broken his journey to go to the Double Bar
J ranch, and there, upon the bed, all spread out in the fullness of its
glory, was a brand-new Stars and Stripes. For a moment the boy's breath
was taken away, then, with a dash, he rushed for it, and fairly danced
out to the flagpole, where he fastened it and ran it to the truck,
shouting as he did so. His friend, entering into the boy's feelings,
solemnly raised his hat, as the flag settled at the peak and waved in
the wind. Wilbur, turning, saw the old scout saluting, and with stirring
patriotism, saluted, too.

"And now," said the old hunter. "I'll get dinner."

"That you'll not," said Wilbur indignantly. "I guess this is my house,
and you're to be my first guest."

[Illustration: WILBUR'S OWN CAMP.

His first photograph; taken the day the Supervisor dropped in to see
him.

_Photograph by U. S. Forest Service._]

CHAPTER VIII

DOWNING A GIANT LUMBERJACK

"I don't believe," said Wilbur the next morning as they rode along the
trail that led to the nearest of his "lookout points," "that any king or
emperor ever had as fine a palace as this one."

The comparison was a just one. Th