He was wholly unconscious that he looked like a bantam crowing to a group of larger and more sleepy fowls, but the Frenchmen perceived the likeness.
As the months wore on he did them good.

They needed waking up, those men who lounged at the station, and he had some influence in that direction; not much, of course, but every traveller has some influence, and his was of a lively, and, on the whole, of a beneficial sort.

The men brought forth a mood to greet him which was more in correspondence with his own.
When winter came the weather was very bleak; deep snow was all around.
Gilby disliked the closeness of the hotel, which was sealed to the outer air.
'Whew!' he would say, 'you fellows, let us do something to keep ourselves warm.' And after much exercise of his will, which was strong, he actually had the younger men all jumping with him from a wood pile near the platform to see who could jump farthest.

He was not very young himself; he was about thirty, and rather bald; the men who were with him were much younger, but he thought nothing of that.

He led them on, and incited them to feats much greater than his own, with boisterous challenges and loud bravos.