had been
protected by the mother dove's body.

"Little turtle-dove," said Charley, "I take off my hat to you. When
anybody tells me about a deed of heroism hereafter, I'll tell them about
you and how you hovered over your young ones while the flames were slowly
roasting you. I'm certainly glad I got here when I did. You would have
been burned in another five minutes and your little ones with you."

Charley started back to the line of flames again. "If a turtle-dove can do
a thing like that," he muttered to himself, "you're a poor thing if you
can't face a little blaze like this."

He cut a new bush, once more fell on the fire, and never ceased his
efforts until not a single blaze lighted the forest. Then he stepped
inside the burned area and made his way completely around the edge of it.
The ashes were hot and Charley knew that they might scorch the leather in
his shoes. But he also knew there would be no rattlesnakes where the fire
had burned. When Charley came to the stump again, he turned his
flash-light on its top. The dove had returned and was once more hovering
over her little ones.

When he was certain that the fire was absolutely extinguished, Charley
made his way through the dark forest to his tent and made his nightly
report. It gave him great happiness to be able to report that the fire was
extinguished and that once more all was well in the forest.

Mr. Marlin had sent out to Charley a package of books that dealt with
various phases of work in the forest. Night after night, by the light of
candles, Charley sat in his tent studying his texts. He found them
fascinating. Here in the forest, where every day he could see illustrated
the truth of what he had read the night before, he learned, with
unbelievable rapidity. Whenever he came to anything in his texts that he
did not understand, he made a note of it. Sometimes at night he got Lew on
the wireless and through him questioned the forester. He did not want to
bother the government wireless men except in case of necessity.

Two or three times a week the forester came out to see Charley and to keep
an eye on this, his finest stand of timber. From time to time he brought
supplies and more books. Indeed Charley's capacity to acquire what was in
the books astonished the forester. He knew that Charley understood because
of his intelligent questions and his increasingly intelligent practices;
for, without orders to do it, Charley was voluntarily doing many of