Many were the prizes that fell to his steady aim and eye, chief among
them the deer, the bear and the buffalo.
His fame in the village grew fast, and it would be hiding the fact to
deny that he enjoyed it. The wild rough life with its limitless range
over time and space appealed to every instinct in him, and his new fame
as a tireless and skillful hunter was very sweet to him. He thought of
his people and Wareville, it is true, but he consoled himself again with
the belief that they were well and he would return to them when the
chance came, and then he plunged all the deeper and with all the more
zest into his new life which had so many fascinations. At Wareville
there were certain bounds which he must respect, certain weights which
he must carry, but here he was free from both.
Meanwhile his body thrived at a prodigious rate. One could almost see
him grow. There was not a warrior in the village who was as strong as
he, and already he surpassed them all in endurance; none was so fleet of
foot nor so tireless. His face and hair darkened in the wind and sun,
his last vestige of civilized garb had disappeared long ago, and he was
clothed wholly in deerskin.
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