Page:Harold Titus--Timber.djvu/157

Rh "I scarcely understand myself, Marcia. I don't want to make money. I would like to have money, but I've lost all interest in starting out to make a fortune as a first objective—"

"No one wants money; they want what it will buy."

"Not even that," shaking his head. "I—I'd like to do a little something for a lot of people. I'd like to be of a little service, I think. I'd like to put my mind and body and what little money I may be able to get from my father behind an idea which is going to count for many people—not just for me. I'd like to put in the best years of my life—just doing that."

"Go on; you're becoming interesting," with a tinge of irony.

"You see, I have my chance to do that in this forest, this pine. I've written you about it. You won't understand if I try to tell you all, but I'll say just this: it's an adventure in putting back into the hands of men the forests that men took away. I told you about Thad Parker's wife—you've seen this country. My father helped make the Jim Harrises and the Thad Parkers possible; he helped lay waste to this country and did nothing to put back what he had taken.

"I used to believe that my father's fortune was something for me to use. I never considered the fact that the devastation which made that fortune worked a hardship on any one else. I've come to understand that now, and I've come to think that maybe the job before me is to undo some of the damage my father did; to put back some of the things he took away. He wouldn't understand that, of course. It would make him furious. No matter; he won't have to know, but I'm going to ask him