noon
_ Photographs by U. S. Forest Service . _ -RSB- Wilbur would have liked greatly to be able to stay at his little tent home and celebrate the Fourth of July in some quiet fashion , but the fireworks folly of the professor 's party had got on his nerve a little , and he was not satisfied until he really got into the saddle and was on his way to a lookout point . Nor was he entirely without reward , for shortly before noon , as he rode along his accustomed trail , a half-Indian miner met him and told him he had been waiting to ask him to dinner . And there , with all the ceremony the little shack could muster , this simple family had prepared a feast to the only representative of the United States that lived near them , and Wilbur , boy-like , had to make a speech , and rode along the trail later in the afternoon , feeling that he had indeed had a glorious Fourth of July dinner in the Indian 's cabin . The week following the Supervisor rode up , much to Wilbur 's surprise , who had not expected to see him back in that part of the forest so soon . But Merritt , who indeed was anxious to get away , by his conversation showed that he was awaiting the arrival and conveyance of a trainload of machinery for the establishment of a large pulp-mill on the Kern River .