Chapter I: Preface

Much of the wilderness is yet but little trod. Great stretches of virgin forest still remain within whose dim recesses nothing is changed since the days the Indians dwelt in them. The mystery and the adventure are not sped, the grandeur and the companionship still pulse among the glades, the "call of the wild" is an unceasing cry, and to that call the boy responds.

But if this impulse to return to the shelter of the wilds be still so strong, how greatly more intense does it become when we awaken to the fact that the forest needs our help even more than we need its sense of freedom. When we perceive that the fate of these great belts of untamed wilderness lies in the hands of a small group of men whose mastery is absolute, when first we realize that national benefits--great almost beyond the believing--are intrusted to these men, surely Desire and Duty leap to grip hands and pledge themselves to the service of the forests of our land. To breathe the magnificent spaces of the West, to reveal the wealth and beauty of our great primeval woods, to acclaim the worth of the men who administer them, and to show splendid possibilities to a lad of grit and initiative is the aim and purpose of

THE AUTHOR.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I ENTERING THE SERVICE

CHAPTER II PUTTING A STOP TO GUN-PLAY

CHAPTER III THE FIGHT IN THE COULEE

CHAPTER IV PICKING A LIVELY BRONCHO

CHAPTER V A TUSSLE WITH A WILD-CAT

CHAPTER VI IN THE HEART OF THE FOREST

CHAPTER VII WILBUR IN HIS OWN CAMP

CHAPTER VIII DOWNING A GIANT LUMBERJACK

CHAPTER IX A HARD FOE TO CONQUER

CHAPTER X A FOURTH OF JULY PERIL

CHAPTER XI AMIDST A CATTLE STAMPEDE

CHAPTER XII ALMOST TRAMPLED TO DEATH

CHAPTER XIII HOW THE FOREST WON A GREAT DOCTOR

CHAPTER XIV A ROLLING CLOUD OF SMOKE

CHAPTER XV THE FOREST ABLAZE