Silent, thoughtful, and compelled by circumstances to live a hard life, he was nevertheless young with all the freshness of youth.

Obed saw, and he felt a deep sympathy for this lad who had wrapped himself like a younger brother around his heart.
"Just you wait, Ned," he said, "until we reach our own people across the Rio Grande.

Then we'll have lots of friends and they'll be friends all the stronger, because you will be the first to bring them news of the treacherous attack that is to be made upon them." "If we get there in time," said Ned, "and, Obed, I am beginning to believe that we will get there in time." They passed for hunters, and that night they slept in the village, where they received kindness, and departed again the next morning on the long, long journey that always led to the north..