or a day's pay. The fact is, young man,
that far from profiteering on that lumber, I am selling it at a smaller
profit than I ever sold any lumber before in my life. Some lumber I am
handling at a loss. But in these critical days, with factories closing
everywhere, and men by the thousands being thrown out of work, the best
thing a man can do, either for himself or for his country, is to keep
business moving. That's why I am selling lumber without profit."

Charley was suddenly abashed. "I'm awfully sorry I called you a
profiteer," he said humbly. "I beg your pardon."

"It's all right, young man," said the lumber dealer, a smile once more
lighting up his face. "You are too young to understand how critical the
business situation really is. But be careful in future how you call people
names."

"I certainly will," agreed Charley. "But I'd like to know this. Who <i>is</i>
profiteering in lumber? Who is responsible for such terrible prices?"

"Well, there <i>has</i> been profiteering in lumber, as in everything else. But
there is a real reason why the price of lumber is so high, and that is the
scarcity of timber."

"Scarcity!" cried Charley incredulously. "Why, the forests are full of
timber."

"And what is it like?" demanded the lumber dealer. "Go out to the forests
and look at it. There's nothing but little poles that will scarcely make
six-inch boards. We don't produce one-fourth of the lumber we use in this
state, and we are using wood ten times as fast as our forests are growing
it."

"I thought Pennsylvania was a great lumbering state," protested Lew.

"For a good many years it led the nation in the production of lumber,
young man, but now it ranks twentieth among the states. If only fire could
be kept out of the forests, we might some day raise our own timber again.
But the lumbermen chopped down the big trees and fire has destroyed the
little ones and even burned the forest soil so that nothing grows in it
again. We have not only destroyed our forests, but we have so injured the
land that new trees do not grow to take the place of those we cut."

The two boys stared at the lumberman in amazement. "Where <i>do</i> we get our
lumber from?" demanded Lew.

"Practically all of it comes from the South. That's one reason lumber
costs so much here. The people of Pennsylvania pay $25,000,000 a year in
freight charges on the lumber they use. That's one of the reasons those
cedar boards you were looking at cost so m