“Y’see, mam,” he went on easily.  “I guess I could talk quite a piece on this thing, but maybe you won’t fancy my dope.  Skandinavia’s been badly spoilt by the cut in the Shagaunty Valley.  You’ve seen it all.  Guess you’ve come right through.  Well, that being so, you’ll understand the Shagaunty cut’s been far above average.  Now we’re down to average.  That’s all.  That’s how the Skandinavia’s been spoilt.”

He thrust his cap back from his forehead.  It was a movement of irritation.  Then he produced a plug of tobacco from his hip-pocket, and bit off a chew.

“I’ve been twenty odd years lumbering,” he went on a moment later.  “I’ve lumbered most every forest in Ontario and Quebec.  There ain’t more’n one bunch of plums like the Shagaunty.  Mostly the forest’s full of the sort of stuff we’re handling here.  These forests are average and I’d like to say to the Skandinavia, ‘you’ve got to figger results on the average.’  We’re cutting down to the minimum because we’ve got to, to feed the booms right.  Well, that’s goin’ on if I know my job.  There’s patch stuff better.  I daresay there’s new ground on our limits liable to hand us Shagaunty stuff.  But that’s just as I say, patch stuff, an’ not average.  If they want Shagaunty quality right through let ’em get out and get limits up on Labrador.  I reckon there’s a hundred years cutting up there that ’ud leave Shagaunty a bunch of weed grass.  They say the folks out on the coast are worried to death there’s so much stuff, an’ so big, an’ good, an’ soft, an’ long-fibred.  The jacks out that way are up to the neck in a hell of a good time, sure.  I get it they’ve time to sleep half the year, it’s so easy.  Well, it ain’t that way here.  We’ve no time singing hymns around this lay-out.  It’s hell, here, keeping the darn booms fed.  Speakin’ for my outfit I’d say they’re a pretty bright lot of boys.  What a feller can do they can do, I guess.  But there are times I get mighty sick chasing to get even the minimum.  An’ it’s all the time kick.  The Skandinavia seems to have got a grouch about now you couldn’t beat with a tank of rye whisky.  You’ve seen it all as far as I can show you, mam, and I’d be glad to know if you’re satisfied I’ve done the things you want.  If I have, and you feel good about it, I’d be thankful if you’d report the way we’re workin’ this camp.  And if you’ve a spare moment to talk other things, you might say that the boys of my camp are mighty hard put to get the stuff, and they’re as tough a gang of jacks as ever heard tell of the dog’s life of the forest.”

The man spoke with the fluency of real protest.  He somehow felt he was on his defence in the presence of this woman representative of his employers.  This girl was not there enduring the discomforts of the forests for amusement.  She came with authority, and she seemed to possess great understanding.  Arden Laval knew his own value.  His record was one of long service with his company.  Furthermore, his outfit was trusted with the pioneering work of the forest where judgment and enterprise, and great experience were needed.  He felt it was the moment to talk, and to talk straight to this woman with the red hair who had invaded his domain.  So he gave full rope to his feelings.