A good spade made of white oak, with its edge hardened by roasting it brown, was his first necessity, and after two days of digging he had the cabin with its annex buried up to "the eyes" in fresh, clean earth.
A stock of new, dry wood for wet weather helped to show how much too small the cabin was; and now the heavier work was done, and Rolf had plenty of time to think.
Which of us that has been left alone in the wilderness does not remember the sensations of the first day! The feeling of self-dependency, not unmixed with unrestraint; the ending of civilized thought; the total reversion to the primitive; the nearness of the wood-folk; a sense of intimacy; a recurrent feeling of awe at the silent inexorability of all around; and a sweet pervading sense of mastery in the very freedom.
These were among the feelings that swept in waves through Rolf, and when the first night came, he found such comfort--yes, he had to confess it--in the company of the helpless little dog whose bed was by his own.
But these were sensations that come not often; in the four days and nights that he was alone they lost all force.
The hunter proverb about "strange beasts when you have no gun" was amply illustrated now that Quonab had gone with their only firearm.

The second night before turning in (he slept in the shanty now), he was taking a last look at the stars, when a large, dark form glided among the tree trunks between him and the shimmering lake; stopped, gazed at him, then silently disappeared along the shore.

No wonder that he kept the shanty door closed that night, and next morning when he studied the sandy ridges he read plainly that his night visitor had been not a lynx or a fox, but a prowling cougar or panther.
On the third morning as he went forth in the still early dawn he heard a snort, and looking toward the spruce woods, was amazed to see towering up, statuesque, almost grotesque, with its mulish ears and antediluvian horns, a large bull moose.
Rolf was no coward, but the sight of that monster so close to him set his scalp a-prickling.

He felt so helpless without any firearms.

He stepped into the cabin, took down his bow and arrows, then gave a contemptuous "Humph; all right for partridge and squirrels, but give me a rifle for the woods!" He went out again; there was the moose standing as before.