arly exciting."

"Why not? What more excitement do you want than a forest fire! Isn't
that big enough for you?"

"The fire would be all right," answered the older boy, "but it's the
watching and waiting for it that would get me."

"You can't expect to have adventures every minute anywhere," said
Wilbur, "but even so, you're not standing on one spot like a sailor in a
crow's nest, waiting for something to happen; you're in the saddle,
riding from point to point all day long, sometimes when there is a
trail and sometimes when there isn't, out in the real woods, not in
poky, stuffy city streets. You know, Fred, I can't stand the city; I
always feel as if I couldn't breathe."

"All right, Wilbur," said the other, "it's your own lookout, I suppose.
Me for the city, though."

Just then, and before Fred could make any further reply, a hand was laid
on Wilbur's shoulder, and the lad, looking around, found the Chief
Forester walking beside them.

"Trying to make converts already, Loyle?" he asked with a smile, nodding
pleasantly to the lad's companion.

"I was trying to, sir," answered the boy, "but I don't believe Fred
would ever make one of us."

The Chief Forester restrained all outward trace of amusement at the
lad's unconscious coupling of the head of the service and the newest and
youngest assistant, and, turning to the older boy, said questioningly:

"Why not, Fred?"

"I was just saying to Wilbur, sir," he replied in a stolid manner, "that
a Forest Guard's life didn't sound particularly exciting. It might be
all right when a fire came along, but I should think that it would be
pretty dull waiting for it, week after week."

"Not exciting enough?" The boys were nearly taken off their feet by the
energy of the speaker. "Not when every corner you turn may show you
smoke on the horizon? Not when every morning finds you at a different
part of the forest and you can't get there quick enough to convince
yourself that everything is all right? Not when you plunge down ravines,
thread your way through and over fallen timber, and make up time by a
sharp gallop wherever there's a clearing, knowing that every cabin you
pass is depending for its safety on your care? And then that is only a
small part of the work. If you can't find excitement enough in that, you
can't find it in anything."

"Yes--" began Fred dubiously, but the Chief Forester continued:

"And as for the responsibility! I tell you, the forest is the place