"For one thing, you can be good and proud over the way you've kept the timber thieves out of this lease, and the trust your father has in you.

You can be proud that you've never even once disappointed him or failed in what he believed you could do.

You can be proud over the way everyone speaks of you with trust and honor, and about how brave of heart and strong of body you are I heard a big man say a few days ago that the Limberlost was full of disagreeable things--positive dangers, unhealthful as it could be, and that since the memory of the first settlers it has been a rendezvous for runaways, thieves, and murderers.

This swamp is named for a man that was lost here and wandered around 'til he starved.

That man I was talking with said he wouldn't take your job for a thousand dollars a month--in fact, he said he wouldn't have it for any money, and you've never missed a day or lost a tree.