He, too, had the feeling that these boys and girls were to be the men and women who would hold the future of the West in their hands, and he intended that they should be fit.

There were statesmen and generals among those red-faced boys on the benches, and the wives and mothers of others among the red-faced girls who sat near them, and he tried to teach them their duty as the heirs of a wilderness, soon to be the home of a great race.
Among his favorite pupils was Paul who had not Henry's eye and hand in the forest, but who loved books and the knowledge of men.

He could follow the devious lines of history when Henry would much rather have been following the devious trail of a deer.

Nevertheless, Henry persisted, borne up by the emulation of his comrade, and the knowledge that it was his last winter in school..