Mukoki and I will both break trail." As they set off David found his first opportunity to see the real Northland in action--the clean, sinuous movement of the men ahead of him, the splendid eagerness with which the long, wolfish line of beasts stretched forth in their traces and followed in the snow-shoe trail.
There was something imposing about it all, something that struck deep within him and roused strange thoughts.

This that he saw was not the mere labour of man and beast; it was not the humdrum toil of life, not the daily slaving of living creatures for existence--for food, and drink, and a sleeping place.

It had risen above that.

He had seen ships and castles rise up from heaps of steel and stone; achievements of science and the handiwork of genius had interested and sometimes amazed him, but never had he looked upon physical effort that thrilled him as did this that he was looking upon now.

There was almost the spirit of the epic about it.