etimes made gave him the
best of chances for following his bent. The heath lay as an open
book before him, and he studied it with delight. He found the traces
of the old forests, and noted their extent. Occasionally the pickaxe
uncovered peat deposits of unsuspected depth and value. Sometimes
the line led across the lean fields, and damages had to be discussed
and assessed. He learned the point of view of the heath farmer,
sympathized with his struggles, and gained his confidence. Best of
all, he found a man of his own mind, a lawyer by the name of
Morville, himself a descendant of the exiled Huguenots. It is not a
little curious that when the way was cleared for the Heath Society's
great work, in its formal organization with M. Mourier-Petersen, a
large landowner, as their associate in its management, the three men
who for a quarter of a century planned the work and marked out the
groove in which it was to run were all of that strong stock which is
by no means the most common in Denmark.

With his lawyer friend Captain Dalgas tramped the heath far and wide
for ten years. Then their talks had matured a plan. Dalgas wrote to
the Copenhagen newspapers that the heath could be reclaimed, and
suggested that it should be done by the State. They laughed at him.
"Nothing better could have happened," he said in after years, "for
it made us turn to the people themselves, and that was the road to
success, though we did not know it." In the spring of 1866 a hundred
men, little and big landowners most of them, met at his call, and
organized the Heath Society[1] with the object of reclaiming the
moor. Dalgas became its managing director.

[Footnote 1: Danske Hedeselskab.]

To restore to the treeless waste its forest growth was the
fundamental idea, for until that was done nothing but the heather
could grow there. The west wind would not let it. But the heath
farmer shook his head. It would cost too much, and give too little
back. What he needed was water and marl. Could the captain help them
to these?--that was another matter. The little streams that found
their way into the heath and lost it there, dire need had taught
them to turn to use in their fields; not a drop escaped. But the
river that ran between deep banks was beyond their reach. Could he
show them how to harness that? Dalgas saw their point. "We are
working, not for the dead soil, but for the living men who find
homes upon it," he told his associates, and tree plantin