This he found a mile further on, near some dwarf willows on the bank of a half-dry stream.

Of his various efforts to prepare his first meal, the fire was the most successful; the coffee was somewhat too substantially thick, and the bacon and herring lacked definiteness of quality from having been cooked in the same vessel.
In this boyish picnic he missed Susy, and recalled, perhaps a little bitterly, her coldness at parting.

But the novelty of his situation, the brilliant sunshine and sense of freedom, and the road already awakening to dusty life with passing teams, dismissed everything but the future from his mind.

Readjusting his pack, he stepped on cheerily.

At noon he was overtaken by a teamster, who in return for a match to light his pipe gave him a lift of a dozen miles.