one hundred feet wide was kept cleared of brush between the cutting
operations and the remainder of the forest, as a protection against the
spread of fire. Then there would be timber to scale and a hundred other
things to be looked after. To safeguard the state's interests would
require both experience and determination should the timber operators
wish to be tricky. Mr. Marlin intended that Charley, as a reward for the
fine spirit he was showing, should handle the lumber operation in his own
district entirely alone, just as a full-fledged ranger would do. It was
both a high compliment to Charley and a fine reward, for the timber
operation was large, involving great sums of money, and even with the most
careful supervision the state might easily be defrauded of thousands of
dollars.

But Mr. Marlin was far too wise to put Charley in such a position without
adequate training. Personally, therefore, he began to prepare him for the
work. Accompanied by Charley, he went entirely over the operations in
Lumley's territory. He carried a duplicate of the contract under which the
wood was being cut. Together they discussed every phase of the contract,
and the forester showed Charley how each step in the operation should be
carried out; how the trees should be selected and marked, how they should
be felled and trimmed, how the brush should be disposed of, and finally
how the timber should be scaled at the skidways along the highway, whence
the timber was being carted away in huge trucks.

Then he went with Charley into the latter's own district and started him
at the task of selecting and marking the trees for cutting. These had to
be greater than ten inches in diameter, breast-high, and had to be marked.
Crooked trees and wolf trees whose unduly large tops harmed lower growths
were also to be cut. The trees were marked by blazing them at the butt and
breast-high and striking the blazes with a heavy hammer that left the