Before he had been many weeks a ranger, Charley was as valuable a man in
many ways as the forester had under him. All Charley lacked to make him
perhaps the very best man was wider experience; and this was coming to him
daily. Furthermore, Charley was fortunate enough to have learned, through
his schooling, that although experience is the best teacher, he is a fool
who learns only through his own experience. All the information in all the
books that Charley had ever studied was the result of experience--somebody
else's experience. And he had early grasped the fact that to learn through
the experience of others is to save time and difficulty. So now he
supplemented his own experiences by much reading and study at night and by
the discussion of forest matters with the more intelligent of his workmen.

New experiences came to him frequently. The forester surveyed and laid
out a road through the forest. Charley helped with the surveying and
learned much about levels and grades and the theory of road making. And
after the road was fairly started, the forester left its completion
largely to Charley. This new road was to lead into the big timber
operation which was shortly to begin in Charley's territory.

Already a great crew had been assembled and much timber had been cut in
Lumley's district. Lumley had to oversee this operation and he was kept
far busier than he liked to be. So Charley saw little of him.

In overseeing the operation in his own tract, Charley would have to select
and mark the trees for cutting, see that they were felled so as to save
the young growths, compel the prompt removal of trees that had fallen
across little saplings that had been bent under them, and make sure the
tops were properly lopped off and either burned where possible or piled so
that they would quickly rot. Then he would have to be particular that the
trees were thrown away from the roads and lines, and that a strip at least