He told himself over and over again that if it were not for his mother, he would not care if he should never see his home again.

He was cheerful and happy when he was away from it, but it almost always happened that as soon as he crossed the threshold something transpired to make him miserable and gloomy.

His conversation with Dan had confirmed a suspicion that had been lurking in his mind ever since the pointer disappeared.

He had all the while held to the belief that Dan knew where the dog was, and Dan might as well have confessed it, for his face and his actions constantly betrayed him.

David believed, too, that his father had not left the country, as a good many people in the settlement seemed to think, but that he was hiding in the woods somewhere in the immediate neighborhood.