Raymond S. Spears

“ If I'd been on the job, you wouldn't have touched anything but big and cull timber around the brim of this valley. You'd have had ten thousand acres of timber growing better all the time. That land would have been worth seventy-five dollars an acre. That would have been three-quarters of a million, with an income of about thirty thousand dollars a year from trimming. The land that was cleared would be worth sixty dollars an acre, the way rich land sells now. ”

“ He determined to plant five thousand acres of orchard, and thus clothe his valley-sides with profitable trees. In three or four years the trees would begin to bear. He thought of writing to the State forester, and asking him to send some plan for planting the hills with woods, for in many places they were washing down and were no good for crops any more.
He mapped out an ambitious scheme, looking ahead for thirty or forty years, till he would certainly be as old as a man had a right to expect to be. ”

“ He met a young woman whose eyes were close together and overhung by black eyebrows; but she was a very pretty girl. She liked him frankly, and he enjoyed her company. She was one of those city girls who know how to please an old man, and how to stir emotions in his heart. ”

“ Well, you can trust Tim Betine to take care of every cent that can be wrung or twisted out of Brown Creek valley, from the standing timber to the small potatoes in the hills of the farms he's going to make out of the cut-over! ”

“ The disturber said nothing to the loggers at work in the chopping, but he shook his head ominously when the foreman remarked:
"Hemlock ain't been stripped off'n the p'ints like this sinst they skinned Pine Crick valley!"
"So I see." The stranger shook his head gravely. "It's a bad job!"
"What? You got the face to stand here an' tell me this is a bad job?" said the foreman, who was Hank Hiber—a man of efficient methods and with a tendency to use his fists on provocation.
"The better it is, the worse it is," the visitor remarked cryptically. ”

“ Lately, he had found that he had lost about ten thousand dollars by not cutting the hardwood stumpage down to inches, instead of two or three feet high from the ground.
"Well, I can't complain none," he decided. "I've figured close, and I'm better off than most men—yes, sir! I've made a heap more'n some would 'a' done!"
Dry weather, it seemed to him, fell with unusual ferocity on his valley. He had never known such a spell of drought. He concluded that it was the cycle of the years. Old men always said that there were years of drought, and then would come years of rain. ”

“ Hiber growled. "A man ain't no chance ag'in' science."
"No, mebbe not in prize-fightin'!" Betine exclaimed quickly; "but them foresters tryin' to tell us that growed right up into the business how to log it! Why, I was chewing spruce gum when he were feeding out of a bottle!"
III So the logging went on. No sooner was the timber down and hauled away, than the clearers came in, burned up the tops and waste, and fired the stumps. Where tall, beautiful trees had been in the summer, stumps remained in the winter, and late spring found first crops put in—beans, potatoes, and oats. ”

“ Farms is good summer jobs, but they ain't much winters."
"Yes—too bad you didn't sort of spread the timber-cutting along, so that you could have winter work for the men, too."
"Oh, well, farm-lands bring the money. Raisin' a lot of cattle, an' we got a creamery and a cheese-factory. Them's paying." ”

“ When the last softwood floated down Brown Creek on the spring flood, the crews turned to the heavy hardwood, and brought it to the saws in countless logs, every one of which made a profit for the owner. The hardwood was carried out on a trolley tramway. The price of lumber had gone up, and Betine was making more money than he had dreamed or hoped.
"I'll be one of them multimillionaire fellers," Betine told himself. "I've done a big job, I have! This here valley 'll be the show-place of the hull country. I'm a workin' it all out 'cordin' to nature. It wa'n't meant to be left into woods ”

“ Anyhow, I've made—"
"Millions, perhaps, but I'm a forester, and that is why I know you are a fool, and will never learn your lesson till it's too late. Good day!"
V Old Tim watched his visitor depart. He was uneasy about what the man had said. The paper in his hand was ominous. It was just as Willfurl had said, a written warning that conditions created by cutting off the timber rendered the valley susceptible to sudden and dangerous floods. It advised tearing down the dam, and substituting a steam-power for it. ”