Page:Hugh Pendexter--The young timber-cruisers.djvu/176

 For when ye start to come down ye’ve got an entirely different mountain. Instead of having it open on the sides and the black growth or ledges ahead, to show the slope of the ridge, you have it all open in front and on the sides and ye only know ye are going down. And ye’d prob’ly find yerself on the other side of the mountain when ye reached the foot. Look behind ye and tell me where we come from?”

Stanley did as directed and confidently pointed in the wrong direction. It was difficult for Bub to make him believe he was mistaken.

While Bub was climbing a tree Abner volunteered the information that the townships in this particular range were designated by letters or figures or names. “This is Jim, town 3, Range 1,” he said. “Hi, Bub, what do ye see?”

“There’s an old burn down to the northeast, just a sea of grey birch and poplar.”

“That’s right,” mused Abner, studying the map. “Come down and we’ll see if we can’t start in here.”

In what seemed to Stanley to be an exceedingly short space of time Bub gave a whoop and Abner in joining him, explained over his shoulder, “He’s found the monument.”

This boundary marking Stanley learned was