The trees were dark and tall about him and loomed overhead against the starlit sky, and the broad high moon threw a thick tracery of shadows on the dusty white road where the horses stood.

Only the rhythmic flow of the broad, swift river, with the occasional uneasy movement of the horses under their creaking harnesses or the dull noise of the shouting men within the shanty, was to be heard.
John nestled down into the robes and took to dreaming of the lovely lady he had seen, and wondered if, when he became a man, he should have a wife like her.

He was awakened by Frank, who was rousing him to serve a purpose of his own.

John was ten and Frank fifteen; he rubbed his sleepy eyes and rose under orders.
"Say, Johnny, what d'yeh s'pose them fellers are doen' in there?
You said Steve was goin' to lick Lime, you did.

It don't sound much like it in there.