inute of the twenty-four hours,"
said Wilbur immediately. "That is," he added after a moment's
calculation, "nearly four and a half billion a day. And then only the
very best portion of the finest wood can be used, and, as I hear, the
big match factories turn out huge quantities of other stuff, like doors
and window sashes, in order to use up the wood which is not of the very
finest quality, such as is needed for matches."

"How do they saw 'em so thin, I wonder?" interposed the Ranger.

"Some of it is sawed both ways," the boy replied. "Some logs are boiled
and then revolved on a lathe which makes a continuous shaving the
thickness of a match, and a lot of matches are paper-pulp, which is
really wood after all. There's no saying, Rifle-Eye," he continued,
laughing, "how many good trees have been cut down to make a light for
your pipe."

The old hunter puffed hard, as the pipe was not well lighted.

"Well," he said, "I guess I'll let the Forest Guards handle it." He
looked across at the boy. "It's up to you," he said, "to keep me goin.'
Got a match?"

[Illustration: MEASURING A FAIR-SIZED TREE.

Lumberman on the scene of felling operations checking up a timber sale.

_Photograph by U. S. Forest Service._]

[Illustration: RUNNING A TELEPHONE LINK.]

[Illustration: RUNNING A TELEPHONE LINK.

Using the poles planted by Nature for annihilating space in sparsely
settled regions.

_Photographs by U. S. Forest Service._]

CHAPTER XI

AMIDST A CATTLE STAMPEDE

Wilbur would have liked greatly to be able to stay at his little tent
home and celebrate the Fourth of July in some quiet fashion, but the
fireworks folly of the professor's party had got on his nerve a little,
and he was not satisfied until he really got into the saddle and was on
his way to a lookout point. Nor was he entirely without reward, for
shortly before noon, as he rode along his accustomed trail, a
half-Indian miner met him and told him he had been waiting to ask him to
dinner. And there, with all the ceremony the little shack could muster,
this simple family had prepared a feast to the only representative of
the United States that lived near them, and Wilbur, boy-like, had to
make a speech, and rode along the trail later in the afternoon, feeling
that he had indeed had a glorious Fourth of July dinner in the Indian's
cabin.

The week following the Supervisor rode up, much to Wilbur's surprise,
who had not expected to see him b