ng it, by the methods they've found
effective. They are working for the Present; we of the new generation
want to work for the Future. It's a fair division. Somebody's got to
attend to them both."

"Well, that's what I say!" cried Amy. "If they wouldn't waste and slash
and leave good material in the woods--"

Bob smiled whimsically.

"A lumberman doesn't like to leave things in the woods," said he. "If
somebody will pay for the tops and the needles, he'll sell them; if
there's a market for cull lumber, he'll supply it; and if somebody will
create a demand for knotholes, _he'll invent some way of getting them
out_! You see I'm a lumberman myself."

"Why don't you log with some reference to the future, then?" demanded
Amy.

"Because it doesn't pay," stated Bob deliberately.

"Pay!" cried Amy.

"Yes," said Bob mildly. "Why not? The lumberman fulfills a commercial
function, like any one else; why shouldn't he be allowed freely a
commercial reward? You can't lead a commercial class by ideals that
absolutely conflict with commercial motives. If you want to introduce
your ideals among lumbermen, you want to educate them; and in order to
educate them you must fix it so your ideals don't actually spell _loss!_
Rearrange the scheme of taxation, for one thing. Get your ideas of fire
protection and conservation on a practical basis. It's all very well to
talk about how nice it would be to chop up all the waste tops and pile
them like cordwood, and to scrape together the twigs and needles and
burn them. It would certainly be neat and effective. But can't you get
some scheme that would be just as effective, but not so neat? It's the
difference between a yacht and a lumber schooner. We can't expect
everybody to turn right in and sacrifice themselves to be
philanthropists because the spirit of the age tells them they ought to
be. We've got to make it so easy to do things right that anybody at all
decent will be ashamed not to. Then we've got to wait for the spirit of
the people to grow to new things. It's coming, but it's not here yet."

California John, who had listened with the closest attention, slapped
his knee.

"Good sense," said he.

"But you can educate people, can't you?" asked Amy, a trifle subdued and
puzzled by these practical considerations.

"Some people can," agreed Thorne, speaking up, "and they're doing it.
But Mr. Orde is right; it's only the spirit of the people that can bring
about new things. We thin