It was now a careless easy life with the stimulus of wandering and hunting and all the old primeval instincts in Henry, made stronger by habit, were gratified.

He fell easily into the ways of his friends; when there was nothing to do he could sit for hours looking at the forests and the streams and the sunshine, letting his soul steep in the glory of it all.

To his other qualities he now added that of illimitable patience.

He could wait for what he wished as the Eskimo sits for days at the air hole until the seal appears.
In their devious wanderings they kept a general course toward the valley in which they had passed the first winter, intending to renew their camp there during the cold weather, but autumn, as they intended, was at hand before they reached it.

They were yet a long distance north and west of their valley when they were threatened by a danger with which they had not reckoned.