ers rather than his heart,
how to tell when the animal had sustained a mortal hurt from the way it
leaped and the white of its tail. He even made progress in the difficult
art of still hunting, where the man matches his senses against those of
the creatures of the forest,--and sometimes wins. He soon knew better
than to cut the animal's throat, and learned from Hines that a single
stab at a certain point of the chest was much better for the purposes of
bleeding. And, what is more, he learned not to over-shoot down hill.

Besides these things Jackson taught him many other, minor, details of
woodcraft. Soon the young man could interpret the thousands of signs, so
insignificant in appearance and so important in reality, which tell the
history of the woods. He acquired the knack of winter fishing.

These Sundays were perhaps the most nearly perfect of any of the days of
that winter. In them the young man drew more directly face to face with
the wilderness. He called a truce with the enemy; and in return that
great inscrutable power poured into his heart a portion of her grandeur.
His ambition grew; and, as always with him, his determination became the
greater and the more secret. In proportion as his ideas increased, he
took greater pains to shut them in from expression. For failure in great
things would bring keener disappointment than failure in little.

He was getting just the experience and the knowledge he needed; but that
was about all. His wages were twenty-five dollars a month, which his van
bill would reduce to the double eagle. At the end of the winter he would
have but a little over a hundred dollars to show for his season's work,
and this could mean at most only fifty dollars for Helen. But the future
was his. He saw now more plainly what he had dimly perceived before,
that for the man who buys timber, and logs it well, a sure future is
waiting. And in this camp he was beginning to learn from failure the
conditions of success.

Chapter IX

They finished cutting on section seventeen during Thorpe's second week.
It became necessary to begin on section fourteen, which lay two miles
to the east. In that direction the character of the country changed
somewhat.

The pine there grew thick on isolated "islands" of not more than an acre
or so in extent,--little knolls rising from the level of a marsh. In
ordinary conditions nothing would have been easier than to have ploughed
roads across the frozen surface o