A CHANGE OF PLACES Now came a time which Paul did not wholly understand, but which seemed to him a period of test.

The repulse of the old couple was not permanent.
They came back again and again, inviting him to be their son, and patiently endured all his rebuffs until he began to feel a kind of pity for them.

After that he was always gentle to them, but he remained firm in his resolve that he would not become a savage, either in reality or pretense.
After a week he was allowed to walk in the village and to look upon barbaric life, but he saw not the remotest chance of escape.

The place contained perhaps five hundred souls--men, women, children, and papooses--and at least fifty mangy curs, every one of whom, including the papooses and curs, seemed to Paul to be watching him.

Black eyes followed him everywhere.