The boy did not like to hear them speak of the return, he loved his people and he would serve them always as best he could, but they were prosperous and happy back there in Wareville and did not need him; now the forest beckoned to him, and, speaking to him in a hundred voices, bade him stay.

When he roamed the woods, their majesty and leafy silence appealed to all his senses.

The two vast still rivers threw over him the spell of mystery, and the secret of the greater one, its hidden origin, tantalized him.

Often he gazed northward along its yellow current and wondered if he could not pierce that secret.

Dimly in his mind, formed a plan to follow the yellow stream to its source some day, and again he thrilled with the thought of great adventures and mighty wanderings, where men of his race had never gone before.
Knowledge, too, came to him with an ease and swiftness that filled with surprise experienced foresters like Ross and Sol.