life that's been given back to me. Yes, this is the life that makes you
take things easy. You don't get fussed out here. The job I had took a
bit of doing, but it was done, and I'm lucky to have my boss see the end
of it."

He smiled benignly upon John Grier. He knew he was valuable to the Grier
organization; he knew that Grier had heard of him under another name.
Now Grier had seen him, and he felt he would like to tell John Grier some
things about the river he ought to know. He waved a hand declining the
cigar offered him by his great chief.

"Thanks, I don't smoke, and I don't drink, and I don't chew; but I eat
--by gosh, I eat! Nothing's so good as good food, except good reading."

"Good reading!" exclaimed John Grier. "Good reading--on the river!"

"Well, it's worked all right, and I read a lot. I get books from
Montreal, from the old library at the University."

"At what University?" struck in the lumber-king. "Oh, Laval! I
wouldn't go to McGill. I wanted to know French, so I went to Laval.
There I came to know Father Labasse. He was a great man, Father Labasse.
He helped me. I was there three years, and then was told I was going to
die. It was Labasse who gave me this tip. He said, 'Go into the woods;
put your teeth into the trees; eat the wild herbs, and don't come back
till you feel well.' Well, I haven't gone back, and I'm not going back."

"What do you do with your wages?" asked the lumber-king.

"I bought land. I've got a farm of four hundred acres twenty miles from