They were used to the forest, and in the company of each other they felt neither loneliness nor despair.
"It's good here," said Paul who was a reader and a philosopher.

"I guess a fellow's life looks best to him just after he's thought he was going to lose it, but didn't." "I think that's true," said Henry, glancing toward the far horizon, where the red blur still showed under the twilight.

"But that was just a little too close for fun." But his satisfaction was even deeper than Paul's.

The wilderness and its ways made a stronger appeal to him.

Paul, without Henry, would have felt loneliness and fear, but Henry alone, would have faced the night undaunted.