“Meaning that terror of a poacher, Baylay?” said Ethan.
“Yes,” Phil continued, “but until we rub up against the man ourselves, and can testify to some of his awful ways, perhaps we’d better go slow about calling him all those names, boys. He may be a rough man, but what more could you expect up here in this wilderness? All loggers are of that stripe. For one I’m going to form my opinion of this Baylay more from how he treats his family, than from his relations to game laws he considers unjust, or other rough men who meet him on the level of give and take.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a whole lot of good sense in that policy, Phil,” assented Lub, for it agreed with his ideas exactly.
“But he does seem to have gotten a terrible bad reputation around these districts you’ll admit?” ventured Ethan.
“There may be two sides to every story,” Phil told him; “and so far we’ve heard only one. I’d like to know just what that kid over yonder thinks of Baylay; then I’d have a better pointer to the true character of the man than I could get from outside talk. He’s a fighter, as nearly all these loggers are. He has licked lots of other scrappers in his time, and you couldn’t expect them to say nice things about Baylay. So let’s hold off a bit, and not condemn him unheard.”
Even Ethan admitted that such a course was nothing more than fair.
“We’ll wait then,” continued Phil, “till the time comes when we can see into his home, and find out if he’s a big brute there or not. Yes, that’s the way to learn the truth; surface indications don’t amount to much. You’ve got to scratch a man on the back and find out what he does when he’s alone, or with his own family, to learn his real nature.”
Though the boys may not have known it there was a deal of sound philosophy in what Phil was advancing; and if more people would carry it out there might be less misunderstandings and suffering in this world.
Some time later on they began to feel sleepy themselves, and Lub was the first one to crawl under his covers. Ethan helped him get settled, for the fat chum had to be unusually careful, so as not to awaken his little blanket-mate, who was apparently sleeping soundly.
The night wore on.