He heard indistinctly the barking of dogs, and the chatter of old squaws scolding, but he paid little heed to them because he felt now the sudden rush of a terrible despair.
The Ohio had been the great wall between Paul and his kind, and with the steady march northward, through the forests and over the little prairies, still another wall, equally great, had been reared.

It seemed to Paul that Henry and Shif'less Sol and his other friends could never reach him here, and whatever fate the Shawnees had in store for him, it would be a hard one.

Wild life he liked in its due proportion, but he had no wish to become a wild man all his days.

He wanted to see the settlements grow and prosper, and become the basis of a mighty civilization.

This was what appealed to him most.