Game grew scarce about them and the hunters went far westward in search of the buffalo.
Henry was with the party that traveled farthest toward the setting sun, and it was long before they returned.

Winter was at its height and when they came out of the forest into the waving open stretches which are the Great Plains all things were hidden by the snow.
Henry from the summit of a little hill saw before him an expanse as mighty as the sea, and like it in many of its aspects.

They told him that it rolled away to the westward, no man knew how far, as none of them had ever come to the end of it.

In summer it was covered with life.
Here grew thick grass and wild flowers and the buffalo passed in millions.
It inspired in Henry a certain awe and yet by its very vagueness and immensity it attracted.

Just as he had wished to explore the secrets of the forest he would like now to tread the Great Plains and find what they held.
They turned toward the southwest in search of buffalo and were caught in a great storm of wind and hail.