y. Then, indeed, did the spirit of autumn seem to
be outraged. The racket came to be an insult. Always the ear expected
its discontinuance, until finally the persistence ground on the nerves
like the barking of a dog at night. At last it was an indecency, an orgy
of unholy revel, a profanation, a provocative to anger of the
inscrutable woods god. Then stillness again with the abruptness of a
sword-cut.

Always the forest seemed to be the same; and yet somehow in a manner not
to be defined a subtle change was taking place in the wilderness.
Nothing definite could be instanced. Each morning of that Indian summer
the skies were as soft, the sun as grateful, the leaves as gorgeous in
their blazonment, yet each morning an infinitesimal something that had
been there the day before was lacking, and for it an infinitesimal
something had been substituted. The change from hour to hour was not
perceptible; from week to week it was. The stillness grew in portent;
the forest creatures moved more furtively. Like growth, rather than
chemical change; the wilderness was turning to iron. With this hardening
it became more formidable and menacing. No longer aloof in nirvanic
calm, awakened it drew near its enemies, alert, cunning, circumspect,
ready to strike.

Each morning a thin film of ice was to be seen along the edges of the
slack water. Heavy, black frosts whitened the shadows and nipped the
unaccustomed fingers early in the day. The sun was swinging to the
south, lengthening the night hours. Whitefish were running in the river.

These last the man and the girl caught in great numbers, and smoked and
piled on long-legged scaffolds. They were intended as winter food for
the dogs, and would constitute a great part of what would be taken along
when the journey should commence.

Dick began to walk without his crutches, a very little at a time,
grimly, all his old objectless anger returned when the extent of his
disability was thus brought home to him. But always with persistence
came improvement. Each attempt brought its reward in strengthened
muscles, freer joints, greater confidence. At last it could be no longer
doubted that by the Indian's Whitefish Moon he would be as good as ever.
The discovery, by some queer contrariness of the man's disposition, was
avoided as long as possible, and finally but grudgingly admitted. Yet
when at last Dick confessed to himself that his complete recovery was
come, his mood suddenly changed. The o