Trees Are Where You Find Them - Arthur Dekker Savage

0:00Trees are where you find them. This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libravox.org, recording by Barry Eads. Trees are where you find them, by Arthur Decker Savage. You might say the trouble started at the Ivy, which is a moving picture house in Cape Junction, being built like a big quonset. It's the only show in these parts, and most of us old timers up here in the timber country of Southwest Oregon have got into the habit of going to see a picture on Saturday nights before we head for a tavern. But I don't think Old Doc Yoris, who was there with Lou and Rusty in me, had been to more than two or three shows in his life. Doc is kind of sensitive about his appearance, on account of his small eyes and big nose and ears, and since gold mining gave way to logging and lumber mills, without ciders drifting into the country,

1:00Doc has taken to stain on his homestead, a way back up a long deer creek, near the boundary of the Saskayew National Forest. It's gotten so he'll come to Cape Junction only after dark, and even then he wears dark glasses so strangers won't notice him too much. I couldn't see anything funny about the picture when Doc started laughing, but I figured it's a man's own business when he wants to laugh, so I didn't say anything. The show was one of these scientific things, and when Doc began to cackle, it was showing some men getting out of a rocket ship on Mars and running over to look at some trees. Rusty, whose top choker center in our logging outfit, was trying to see Doc's point. He can snare logs with a hunk of steel cable faster than anyone I know, but he's never had much schooling. He turned to Doc, I don't get it Doc, he said, what's the deal? Doc kept chuckling. It's them trees, he said. There's no trees like that on Mars. Oh, said Rusty. I suppose it was just chance that Bert Holden was sitting behind us and heard the talk.

2:06Bert is one of the newcomers. He'd come down from Grant's pass and started a big lumber mill and logging outfit, and was trying to freeze out the little operators. He growled something about keeping quiet. That got Rusty and Lou kind of mad, and Lou turned around and looked at Bert. Lou is even bigger than Bert, and things might have got interesting, but I wanted to see the rest of the picture. I nudged him and asked him if he had a chew. They won't let you smoke in the show, but it's okay to chew, and most of us were in the habit anyway, because there's too much danger of forest fire when you smoke on the job. Doc laughed every time the screen showed trees, and I could hear Bert humping around in his seat like he was irritated. At the end of the show, we drifted over to the Althavern and took a table against the North Wall, behind the pool tables and across from the bar. Doc had put his dark glasses back on, and he sat facing the wall. Not that many people apart from the insider's new doc. He hadn't been very active since the young medical doctor had come to cave junction in 1948, although he never turned down anyone who came for help.

3:16And as far as I knew, he'd never lost a patient unless he was already dead when Doc got there. We were kidding Lou because he was still wearing his tin hat and caulked boots from work. You figuring on starting early in the morning? I asked him. Rusty and Doc laughed. It was a good joke because we rode out to the job in my Jeep, and so we naturally get there at the same time. Then Rusty set up straighter and looked over at the bar. Hey, he said, pops talking to Bert holding. Pop Johnson owns our outfit. He's one of the small operators that guys like Bert are trying to squeeze out. Hope he don't try to rip pop in an old deal, said Lou. Doc tipped up his bottle of beer. In Oregon they don't sell anything but beer in the taverns. Times change, he said. Back in 1900 all they wanted was gold. Now they're trying to take all the trees. It's the big operators like Bert, I said. Little guys like pop can't cut them as fast as they grow.

4:17The companies don't have to receive either except on National Forest Land. That Bert Holden was up to my place a couple weeks ago, said Doc. Darn near caught me skinning out of deer. He better not yap to the game ward and said Rusty. Them laws is for sports and outsiders, not us guys who need the meat. He wanted to buy all my timber, said Doc. Offered me ten dollars a thousand board feet, on the stump. Don't sell, I advised him. If Bert offers that much, almost anyone else will pay twelve. Doc looked at me. I'd never sell my trees, not at any price. I got a hundred and sixty acres of virgin stand and that's the way it's gonna stay. I cut up the windfalls and snags for firewood and that's all. Here comes Pop, said Lou. Pop sat down with us and had a beer. He looked worried. We didn't ask him any questions because we figure a man will talk if he wants to. And if he doesn't, it's his own business. He finally unlimbered.

5:17Bert Holden wants to buy the mill, he said, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand. Buy your mill, said Lou? Hell, his mill is five times as big and he's even got a burner to take care of slashings so he don't have to shut down in the fire season. He just wants the land, said Pop, because it's near the highway. He wants to tear down my setup and build a pulp mill. A pulp mill, if we could have seen Doc's eyes through the glasses, I imagine they'd have been popped open a full half inch. Why, then they'll be cutting down everything but the brush. Pop nodded. Yeah, size of a log don't matter when you make paper, just so it's wood. It seemed as though Doc was talking to himself. They'll strip the land down bare, he mumbled, and the hills will wash away, and the chemicals they use in the mill will kill the fish in the creeks and the Illinois River. That's why they won't let anyone start a pulp mill near Grant's pass, said Pop. Most of the town's money comes from sports who come up to the Rouge River to fish.

6:18Rusty said his jaw. In the winter we need them fish, he said. He was right too. The woods close down in the winter on account of the snow, and if a man can't hunt and fish, he's liable to get kind of hungry. That rocking chair money doesn't stretch very far. I ain't gonna sell, said Pop, but that won't stop Bert Holden, and any place he builds the mill around here will drain into the Illinois. Doc pushed back his chair and stood up to his full height of five foot four. I'm gonna talk to Bert Holden, he said. Rusty stood up to his six foot three. I'll bring him over here, Doc, he said. We're handy to the Q-Rack here, and Lou and Simmons can keep them guys he's with off my back. I stood up and shoved Rusty back down. I'm no taller than he is, but I outweigh him about twenty pounds. I started working in the woods when we still fell trees with axes and misery whips. Crosscut saws to the outsiders. I'll go get him, I said. You're still mad about the show,

7:18and you wouldn't be able to get him this far without messing him up. There won't be no trouble, said Doc. I just want to make him an offer. I went over and told Bert that Doc wanted to talk to him. The three guys with him followed us back to the table. Bert figured he knew what it was all about, and he just stood over Doc and looked down on him. If it's about your timber yours, he said, I'll take it, but I can't pay you more than nine dollars now. Lumber's coming down, and I'm taking a chance even at that. He rocks back and forth on his heels, and looked at pop as though daring him to say different. I still don't want to sell Mr. Holden, said Doc, but I've got better than three million feet on my place, and I'll give it to you if you won't put a pulp mill anywhere in the Illinois Valley. We were all floored at that, but Bert recovered first. He gave a nasty laugh. Not interested, yours. If you want to sell, look me up. Wait, said Doc. A pulp mill will take every tree in the valley.

8:18In a few years, it'll make money too, said Bert flatly. Money ain't everything by a long shot. It won't buy trees and creeks and rain. It'll buy trees to make lumber. Bert was getting mad. I don't want any opposition from you, yours. I've had enough trouble from people who try to hold back progress. If you don't like the way we run things here, you can, hell, you can go back to Mars. It seemed to me that it was just about time to start in. I could have taken Bert easiest, but I knew Rusty would probably swing on him first and get in my way. So I planned to work on the two guys on Bert's right, leaving the one on his left for Lou. I didn't want Pop to get Tangled up in it. I don't generally wait too long after I make up my mind, but then I noticed Rusty reaching out slowly for a cue stick, and I thought maybe I'd better take Bert first, while Rusty got set. I never did see a guy so one way about having something in his hands. But Doc didn't drop out. There ain't nothing but a few scrub trees on Mars,

9:20he said to Bert, looking him square in the eye, and no creeks and no rain. Bert curled his lips arcastically. The hell you say? Is that why you didn't like it there? You could see he was just trying to egg Doc into saying he'd come from Mars, so he could give him the horse laugh. The guys he was with were getting set for a fracas, but they were waiting for Bert to lead off. Doc didn't get caught, but there's gold, he said like he hadn't heard Bert at all, tons of it, lane all over the ground. I guess Bert decided to ride along. Okay, Yoris, he said, tell you what I'll do. For only one ton of Martian gold, I'll agree to drop all plants for a pulp mill, here or anywhere else. In fact, I'll get out of business altogether. Doc moved in like a log falling out of the loading tongs. That's a deal, he said. You ready to go? Bert started to look disgusted, then he smiled. Sure, Mars must be quite a place if you came from there.

10:23Okay, said Doc, you just stand up against the wall Mr. Holden. Bert's smile faded. He figured Doc was trying to maneuver him into a likely position for us, but Doc cleared that up quick. You boys get up and stand aside, he ordered. Get back a ways and give Mr. Holden plenty of room. We didn't like it, but we cleared out from around the table. A bunch from the bar and pool tables, sensing something was up, came drifting over to watch. I could feel tension building up. Now, said Doc, pointing. You just stand right over there Mr. Holden and fold your arms. Bert didn't like the audience, and I guess he figured his plants were backfiring when Doc didn't bluff. You hill happy old coot, he snarled. You'd better go home and sleep it off. I grabbed hold of loose arm and shook my head at rusty. I wasn't going to interfere with Doc now. You're not scared, are you Mr. Holden? Said Doc quietly. Just you stand against the wall and take it easy.

11:23It won't hurt a bit. Bert Holden was plenty tough for an outsider, and a hard-headed businessman to boot, but he'd never run into a customer like Doc before. You could see him trying to make up his mind on how to handle this thing. He glanced around quicker the crowd, and I could tell he decided to play it out to where Doc would have to draw in his horns. He actually grinned for the effect it would have on everybody watching. All right, yours, he said. He backed up against the wall and folded his arms. But had you better stand up here with me? I ain't going, said Doc. I don't like Mars, but you won't have no trouble getting your gold. There's nuggets the size of your fist laying all over the dry riverbeds. I hate to be nosy, said Bert, playing to the crowd, but how are you going to get me there? With his head, of course, blurted Rusty before I could stop him, just like he cures you when you're sick. Doc had pulled Rusty through two or three bad kid sicknesses,

12:23and a lot of the rest of us, too. Yep, said Doc. A man don't need one of them rocket things to get between here and Mars. Fact is, I never seen one. Bert looked at the ceiling like he was a martyr, then back at Doc. Well, yours, he said in a tone that meant he was just about through hearing him. I'm waiting. Can you send me there or can't you? The start of a nasty smile was beginning to show at the corners of his mouth. Sure, said Doc. He slumped down in his chair and cupped his hands lightly around his dark glasses. I noticed his fingers trembling a little against his forehead. The lights dim, flickered and went out, and we waited for the bartender to put in a new fuse. The power around here doesn't go haywire except in the winter when trees fall across the lines. A small fight started over in a corner. When the lights came back on, Doc and Pop started for the door, and Lou and Rusty and I followed. Bert's buddies were looking kind of puzzled, and a few old timers were moving over to watch the fight.

13:25The rest were heading back to the bar. Rusty piled into the Jeep with Doc and me. When you're going to bring him back, Doc, he asked when we started moving. Don't know, said Doc. He took off his glasses to watch me shift gears. He's been after me for a long time to teach him how to drive. It only works on a man once. The end. End of trees are where you find them.