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 renew their camp
there during the cold weather, but autumn, as they intended, was at hand
before they reached it. They were yet a long distance north and west of
their valley when they were threatened by a danger with which they had
not reckoned.
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