He could not face the thought of taking up the old life again.

He had been uprooted too suddenly and ruthlessly.

The spell of the forest was gone.

Sometimes he felt that he never wished to look upon waving trees again.
As they partook of the well-cooked supper which Fritz had provided, and afterwards sat smoking their pipes beside the fire, whilst the wind moaned and sighed round the corners of the shed, and whispered through the trees around the clearing, he told these strangers the whole history of his life, and how it had seemed to be suddenly cut in half a week ago, whilst the last half already began to look and feel to him longer than the first.
There was no lack of sympathy and interest in the faces of his hearers.

When they heard how a Frenchman had been with the Indians upon their raid, Fritz smote the ground heavily with his open hand, exclaiming: "That is what we heard as we journeyed onward; that is the rumour that reached us even in the far south.