He believed that Peter possessed not only a brain and super-instinct, but also a very positive reasoning power which he was helping to develop.

And the process was one that fascinated him.

When he was not sleeping, or traveling, or teaching Peter he was usually reading the wonderful little red volumes of history which he had purloined from the mail sledge up near the Barren Lands.

He knew their contents nearly by heart.

His favorites were the life-stories of Napoleon, Margaret of Anjou, and Peter the Great, and always when he compared his own troubles with the difficulties and tragedies over which these people had triumphed he felt a new courage and inspiration, and faced the world with better cheer.