As they approached the deeps of the forest where the swamp lay, Solomon Hyde, the so called shiftless one, and wholly undeserving of the name, was young again.
"I've got a fine little home for us, Sol," said Henry.

"Best we've had since that time we spent a winter on the island in the lake.

This is littler, but it's harder to find.

It'll be a fine thing to know you're sleeping safe and sound with five hundred Iroquois warriors only a few miles away." "Then it'll suit me mighty well," said Shif'less Sol, grinning broadly.
"That's jest the place fur a lazy man like your humble servant, which is me." They reached the stepping stones, and Henry paused a moment.
"Do you feel steady enough, Sol, to jump from stone to stone ?" he asked.
"I'm feelin' so good I could fly ef I had to," he replied.

"Jest you jump on, Henry, an' fur every jump you take you'll find me only one jump behind you!" Henry, without further ado, sprang from one stone to another, and behind him, stone for stone, came the shiftless one.