When he was five years of age Skipper Ed began his lessons, coming over to Abel Zachariah's cabin as often as possible, for the purpose, and now and again he would take Bobby to his own cabin to stop a day or two with him and Jimmy.
He supplied Bobby with the books he needed, and Bobby studied hard and learned quickly, and was fascinated with the work, for Skipper Ed had the rare faculty of making study appear a pleasant game, and it was a game which Bobby loved to play.
There was little else, indeed, to occupy his attention during long winter evenings--no streets to play in, no parties, no theaters--and he made more rapid progress than he probably would have made had he attended school in civilization, for Skipper Ed was a good tutor and Jimmy, who was already quite a scholar, was also of great help to Bobby in preparing lessons.
And as Bobby grew and developed, Abel, on his part, taught him to be keenly alert, patient, self-reliant and resourceful--qualities that every successful hunter and wilderness dweller must possess.
He learned first with the miniature whip that Abel made him, and later with Abel's own long dog whip, to wield the long lash with precision.

He and Jimmy would practice for hours at a time clipping a small bit of ice no larger than an egg from a hummock thirty feet away.
He played with the young puppies and trained them to haul him on his small sledge, and he would shout to them proudly, as large as life--and just as Abel did when he drove the big team--"_Hu-it!"_ when he wanted them to start; "_Ah!"_ when he wanted them to stop; "_Ouk! Ouk! Ouk_!" when he wanted them to turn to the right; "_Ra! Ra! Ra!"_ for a turn to the left; "_Ok-su-it!"_ when he wished them to hurry; and with his whip he enforced his commands.
He learned to shoot his bow and arrow, and to wield the harpoon and spear.

Abel once fashioned for him, from a block of wood, a very good imitation of a small seal, and Bobby and Jimmy had unending sport casting their harpoons at it, and presently they became so expert that seldom did they fail to make a "killing" strike.
When he was old enough Bobby learned to make his hunting implements himself.

Here, indeed, was required patience, perseverance, and resourcefulness, for his only tools were his knife and his ax, and his only material such as the wilderness produced; and to gain Abel's praise, which was his high ambition, he must needs do his work with care and niceness.

And thus Bobby was learning to be a man and a hunter.
Bobby was still a very young lad when Abel began to teach him the signs of the wilderness and the ways of the wild things that lived in the woods.