Page:Hugh Pendexter--The young timber-cruisers.djvu/68

 spruce logs was necessary to scale a thousand feet?”

Stanley shook his head and looked blank.

“It wouldn’t have hurt you to have asked,” suggested Bub, his eyes twinkling.

“Well, I ask now,” humbly said Stanley.

Bub threw out his chest importantly and carelessly explained, “From ten to a dozen. In the old days it wouldn’t take more’n half of that number. Did you know a fir looks like a spruce, only has a smoother bark and when growing shows a little lighter shade of green? I thought so. Did you know a pine’ll stand more heat than any other tree up here and will live when other trees are killed by fire? Dear! dear! Did you know a spruce takes about seventy-five years to get a six-inch diameter at breast height? And that if not cut down will live two or three hundred years?”

“I know none of these things,” sadly replied Stanley.

“I’ll give you an easy one,” kindly encouraged Bub. “We had a boom break on the lake yesterday. Now which would you prefer, to have a boom of logs break on a calm day or a windy day?”

“On a calm day,” promptly answered Stanley, recovering some of his composure.