ould make him quit or send him home
at nightfall "with his tail dragging," as the woods boss expressed it.

Donald sported a wondrous set of blisters at the close of that first
day, but after supper he opened them, covered them with adhesive tape,
and went back to work next morning as if nothing had happened. During
those five days, he learned considerable of the art of dropping a tree
exactly where he desired it, and bringing it to earth without
breakage. He rode down to Port Agnew with the woods crew on the last
log-train Saturday night, walked into the mill office, and cashed in
his time-slip for five days' work as a chopper. He had earned two
dollars a day and his board and lodging. His father, who had driven
into town to meet him, came to the window and watched him humorously.

"So that's the way you elect to work it, eh?" he queried. "I told
Daney to pay you my salary when I quit."

"I like to feel that I'm earning my stipend," Donald replied, "so it
pleases me to draw the wages of the job I'm working at. When I'm
thoroughly acquainted with all the jobs in the Tyee Lumber Company, or
at least have a good working knowledge of them, I think I'll be a
better boss."

The Laird took his son's big brown hands in his and looked at the
palms.

"I rather think I like it so," he answered. "A man whose hands have
never bled or whose back has never ached is a poor man to judge a
labor dispute. 'Twould improve you if you were a married man and had
to live on that for a week, less twenty-five cents for your hospital
dues. The choppers pay a dollar a month toward the hospital, and that
covers medical attendance for them and their families."

Donald laughed and flipped a quarter over to the cashier, then turned
and handed ten dollars to a wiry little chopper standing in line.

"I was feeling so good this morning I bet Sandy my week's pay I could
fell a tree quicker than he and with less breakage. He won in a walk,"
he explained to The Laird.

"Come with me," his father ordered, and led him into the office.

From the huge safe he selected a ledger, scanned the index, and opened
it at a certain account headed, "Sandy dough." To Sandy's credit each
month, extending over a period of fifteen years, appeared a credit of
thirty dollars.

"That's what it's costing me to have discovered Sandy," his father
informed him; "but since I had served an apprenticeship as a chopper,
the time required to discover Sandy was less than hal