The Boy With the U. S. Foresters

THE GIANTS OF THE FOREST AND THE MEN WHO SAFEGUARD THEM. Photography by U. S. Forest Service.
With Thirty-eight Illustrations from Photographs taken by the U. S. Forest Service
BOSTON
LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.
1910
Much of the wilderness is yet but little trod. Great stretches of virgin forest still remain within whose dim recesses nothing is changed since the days the Indians dwelt in them. The mystery and the adventure are not sped, the grandeur and the companionship still pulse among the glades, the call of the wild is an unceasing cry, and to that call the boy responds.
But if this impulse to return to the shelter of the wilds be still so strong, how greatly more intense does it become when we awaken to the fact that the forest needs our help even more than we need its sense of freedom. When we perceive that the fate of these great belts of untamed wilderness lies in the hands of a small group of men whose mastery is absolute, when first we realize that national benefits—great almost beyond the believing—are intrusted to these men, surely Desire and Duty leap to grip hands and pledge themselves to the service of the forests of our land. To breathe the magnificent spaces of the West, to reveal the wealth and beauty of our great primeval woods, to acclaim the worth of the men who administer them, and to show splendid possibilities to a lad of grit and initiative is the aim and purpose of
THE AUTHOR.
Hey, Wilbur, where are you headed for?
The boy addressed, who had just come through the swing-doors of an office building in Washington, did not slacken his pace on hearing the question, but called back over his shoulder:
To the forest, of course. Come along, Fred.