"
This time he bowed gravely. "Thank you, monsieur. I have not been
blind to the way you have spared me hardship, but when I said that I
would do whatever you would teach me, I meant it. I think that I shall
make a good woodsman in time."
But I laughed. "You wash yourself too much ever to make a good
woodsman," I told him, and I set him to measuring the meal for our
supper, for indeed his hands were well kept, and it was pleasant to see
him handle the food.
CHAPTER X
I WAKE A SLEEPER
What enchantment came upon the weather for the next week I do not know.
May is often somewhat sour of visage, but now she smiled from dawn till
starlight. We paddled and hunted and slept, well fed and fire-warmed.
It was more like junketing than business, and we were as amiable as
fat-bellied puppies. Even the Englishman looked content. We left him
in camp when we went to hunt, and on our return he had a boiling pot
and hot coals ready for our venison. I saw that he had won favor with
the men. Yet he kept aloof from all of us, as he had promised.
This had gone on for a week, when one day, after we had placed the
Englishman on guard and were tramping back into the timber to see what
our eyes and muskets could find, Pierre pointed to a bent tree.
Pages:
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120