he ejaculated, "that is big! And is there nothing left to
tell about them?" he asked.

The other shook his head.

"Nothing," he answered.

"They were, an' they were not," interjected the old patriarch. "I looked
for the place where I should find him, an' lo, he was gone. They were
eatin' an' drinkin' when the end came, an' they knew it not. Like enough
they had some warnin' which they heeded not, an' their house is left
unto them desolate. An' we go in and possess their land. Young man, come
with us."

Wilbur started.

"Oh, I can't," he said. "I should like to see some of those projects,
but my work is here. But I'm one of you," he added eagerly; "the rivers
that flow down to enrich your desert rise from springs in our mountains,
and all those springs would dry up if the forests were destroyed. And
all the headwaters of the streams are in our care."

"You kind of look after them when they're young," Wilbur's companion
suggested, "that we can use them when the time is ripe."

"That is just it," said Wilbur. Then, turning to the old man, he added:

"I must go back to my patrol," he said, "but when you're down in that
Garden of Eden, where the river is making the world all over again,
you'll remember us once in a while, and the little bit of a stream
that flows out of my corral will always have good wishes for you down
there."

The old man turned in his saddle with great dignity.

"There be vessels to honor," he said gravely, "an' to every one his
gifts. Go back to your forest home an' work, an' take an old man's
wishes that while water runs you may never want for work worth doin',
for friends worth havin', an' at the last a tally you ain't ashamed to
show."

Wilbur raised his hat in salute for reply and reined Kit in until the
party was lost to view. The afternoon was drawing on and the lad had
lost nearly two hours in following the party, and in his chat with the
old patriarch, but he could not but feel that even the momentary glimpse
he had been given of the practical workings of the reclamation work of
the government had gone far to emphasize and render of keener personal
interest all that he had learned at school or heard from the Forest
Service men about the making of a newer world within the New World
itself. And when he remembered that over a quarter of a million
families, within a space of about six years, have made their homes on
what was an absolute desert ten years ago, and that these men and wom