once frightened him. With the return of spring and the terror of its inhabitants gone, he develops an interest in the wildlife of the swamp. He is touched by the beauty he sees, and both frustration at his ignorance and curiosity about all he sees lead him, with McLean's help, to purchase several books on natural history. McLean is touched by Freckles' love of nature and urges him to collect specimens, although he warns him against ever killing a bird. Freckles creates a "room" in the swamp, where he has transplanted the most unusual plant specimens he can find. After a year in the swamp, his hard work and faithfulness lead McLean to bet skeptics a thousand dollars (the value of a single tree among the most valuable) that they can't show him a fresh stump from a tree stolen under Freckles' watch, a wager that threatens to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Freckles gets an opportunity to prove his capabilities as a guard when Wessner, a recently fired lumberman, comes upon Freckles on his rounds and offers him five hundred dollars to look the other way while Black Jack's gang of thieves steals a prime tree next to the trail. After initially playing dumb to gain information, Freckles puts his gun and stick aside and fights Wessner using only his one fist. He wins, although severely pummeled, and drives Wessner from the swamp. McLean finds him and takes him back to the Duncans over his protests. The boy warns him about the imperiled tree and McLean arranges to have his own crew remove it immediately. The next afternoon, while he is reading in his room in the swamp, recovering from his beating and taking refuge from the heat of the day, a lovely girl about sixteen years of age appears looking for him. Freckles instantly falls in love with her for her courage as much as her beauty, as she is not afraid of rattlesnakes. The girl's name is never given, but she has come to the swamp with a local photographer known as the Bird Woman and has become lost. Freckles doctors a cut she received on the arm looking for him to lead her out of the swamp, conducts her back to her carriage, and dubs her "the Swamp Angel." He is pleased when the Angel tells him that she and the Bird Woman encountered McLean on the