woods
began to swarm with game. It was the most plentiful season that the
oldest man could recall, there was no hunter so lazy and so dull that he
could not find the buffalo and the deer.

Then the band, with the spirit of irresponsible wandering upon it, took
down its lodges and traveled slowly into the north farther and farther
from the little settlement away down in Kentucky. There was peace among
the tribes and they could go as they chose. They came at last to the
shores of a mighty lake, Superior, and here when Henry looked out upon
an expanse of water, as limitless to the eyes as the sea, he felt the
same thrill of awe that had passed through his veins when the Great
Plains lay outspread before him. As it was now midsummer and the forests
crackled in the heat they lingered long by the deep cool waters of the
lake. Here white traders, Frenchmen speaking a tongue unknown to Henry,
came to them with rifles, ammunition and bright-colored blankets to
trade for furs. More than one of them saw and admired the tall powerful
young warrior with the singularly watchful eyes but not one of them knew
that under his paint and tan he was whiter than themselves; instead they
took him to be the wildest of the wild.

Henry's heart had throbbed a little at the first sight of them, but it
was only for a moment, then it beat as steadily as ever; white like
himself they might be, but they were of an alien race; their speech was
not his speech, their ways not his ways and he turned from them. He was
glad when they were gone.

Toward the end of summer they went south again and wandered idly through
pleasant places. It was still a full season with wild fruits hanging
from the trees and game everywhere. There had been no sickness in the
little tribe and they basked in physical content. It was now a careless
easy life with the stimulus of wandering and hunting and all the old
primeval instincts in Henry, made stronger by habit, were gratified. He
fell easily into the ways of his friends; when there was nothing to do
he could sit for hours looking at the forests and the streams and the
sunshine, letting his soul steep in the glory of it all. To his other
qualities he now added that of illimitable patience. He could wait for
what he wished as the Eskimo sits for days at the air hole until the
seal appears.

In their devious wanderings they kept a general course toward the valley
in which they had passed the first winter, intending to ren