Once they came to a river, too deep to wade, but all of them, except the schoolmaster, promptly took off their clothing and swam it.
"My age and my calling forbid my doing as the rest of you do," said the schoolmaster, "and I think I shall stick to my horse." He rode the biggest of the pack horses, and when the strong animal began to swim, Mr.Pennypacker thrust out his legs until they were almost parallel with the animal's neck, and reached the opposite bank, untouched by a drop of water.

No one begrudged him his dry and unlabored passage; in fact they thought it right, because a schoolmaster was mightily respected in the early settlements of Kentucky and they would have regarded it as unbecoming to his dignity to have stripped, and swum the river as they did.
Henry and Paul in their secret hearts did not envy the schoolmaster.
They thought he had too great a weight of dignity to maintain and they enjoyed cleaving the clear current with their bare bodies.

What! be deprived of the wilderness pleasures! Not they! The two boys did not remount, after the passage of the river, but, fresh and full of life, walked on with the others at a pace so swift that the miles dropped rapidly behind them.

They were passing, too, through a country rarely trodden even by the red men; Henry knew it by the great quantities of game they saw; the deer seemed to look from every thicket, now and then a magnificent elk went crashing by, once a bear lumbered away, and twice small groups of buffalo were stampeded in the glades and rushed off, snorting through the undergrowth.
"They say that far to the westward on plains that seem to have no end those animals are to be seen in millions," said Mr.Pennypacker.
"It's so, I've heard it from the Indians," confirmed Ross the guide.
They stopped a little while before sundown, and as the game was so plentiful all around them, Ross said he would shoot a deer in order to save their dried meat and other provisions.
"You come with me, while the others are making the camp," he said to Henry.
The boy flushed with pride and gratification, and, taking his rifle, plunged at once into the forest with the guide.

But he said nothing, knowing that silence would recommend him to Ross far more than words, and took care to bring down his moccasined feet without sound.