and back again for him. They're as loyal as soldiers to the flag.
They're a mighty self-sufficient, independent lot, these lumberjacks,
and that goes for most everybody knocking about in this
country,--loggers, prospectors, miners, settlers, and all. If you're
what they term 'all right,' you can do anything, and they'll back you
up. If you go to putting on airs and trying to assert yourself as a
superior being, they'll go out of their way to hand you packages of
trouble."

"I see," she observed thoughtfully. "One's compelled by circumstances to
practice democracy."

"Something like that," he responded carelessly and went on eating his
supper.

"Don't you think we could make this place a lot more homelike, Charlie?"
she ventured, when they were back in their own quarters. "I suppose it
suits a man who only uses it as a place to sleep, but it's bare as a
barn."

"It takes money to make a place cosy," Benton returned. "And I haven't
had it to spend on knickknacks."

"Fiddlesticks!" she laughed. "A comfortable chair or two and curtains
and pictures aren't knickknacks, as you call them. The cost wouldn't
amount to anything."

Benton stuffed the bowl of a pipe and lighted it before he essayed
reply.