o thereafter she watched and waited with a new and confident patience,
comforted and strengthened, not to be shaken in her hope and trust.
And thus for a time we will leave her.

For, meanwhile, how had Dick fared?

CHAPTER VIII.

A Wood's Adventure.

From the night of Peter Many-Names' arrival at the sugar-camp, Dick had
yielded himself utterly to his dreams. Home, duty, Stephanie, all this
had become as a shadow before the wonder and delight which the thought
of freedom held. And when the time came, he had shaken off all ties of
affection, all thoughts of right and gratitude, and had turned north to
the country of his longings. At last, at last, the skies were blue for
him, the airs were fresh for him, the world was wide for him, he could
follow where he would and none should call him back. Of probable
consequences he did not think. The struggle was over, and, though he
knew he had chosen ill instead of good, the knowledge troubled him
little. Was it not enough that the humdrum round of toil lay far
behind him, and that all before and on every side of the land was fair
with spring?

At the time he found it enough--enough to fairly intoxicate him with
delight. In this spirit he began his wanderings, and the days passed
in golden dreams of beauty and of freedom. He followed in utter
content wherever Peter Many-Names chose to lead, caring nothing so that
he might eat and sleep and dream and wander on again, guided by any
stream that ran, any wind that blew. After a while he lost count of
time, lost count of distance, and was still content. Left to himself,
he would have gone on thus indefinitely; but he was held by a keener,
harder intellect than his own.

Peter allowed matters to go on thus for some days. He was
contemptuously fond of Dick, willing to indulge him to a certain
extent. So for nearly two weeks they idled northwards through the
awakening woods, killing for food as they required it, with the Indian
to do all the hard work and bear most of the burdens.

They travelled in irregular zig-zags, choosing the drier ground, and
having a good deal of difficulty owing to streams swollen with melting
snow to angry little rivers. But Dick only saw the choke-cherry's
white tassels trailing in the water, the white drifts clearing from the
hollows and showing all the tender tangled green beneath, the delicate
green mist that showed upon the birch-boughs, and the young leaves that
reddened the tw