hob with the fish."

"And does the state pay you for doing this work?"

"Certainly. Pays me well, too."

"Tell me how I could-----" began Charley.

But the ranger interrupted him. "I can't tell you another thing now," he
said. "I must be moving. You never can tell when some careless fisherman
will set the forest on fire. The fact is I ought to be at headquarters
with the other rangers. The chief keeps us pretty close to the office
during the fire season, so as to have a fire crew at hand to respond
instantly to an alarm. But we have had such difficulty in securing fire
patrols this spring that some of us rangers have to do patrol duty. This
piece of timber you are in is the most valuable part of this entire
forest. It is virgin pine. It would cut close to 100,000 feet to the acre.
There is very little timber left in all Pennsylvania as fine as this. A
good part of it has already been burned. We are keeping close watch on
what is left. You never can tell when or where fires will start and we
want to grab them at the first possible minute. So I must shake a leg."

"How do you grab a fire?" demanded Charley. "Please tell us. Maybe we
could help put one out some day if we knew how."

The ranger laughed. "You're a persistent Indian," he said, "and I'm glad
you like the forest."

"Like it!" exclaimed Charley. "I love it."