He sat a long time whispering and looking
eagerly for game to right and left. He was still a boy. One could
see evidences of age only in his white hair and beard and wrinkled
brow. He retained the little tufts in front of his ears, and lately had
grown a silver crescent of thin and silky hair that circled his throat
under a bare chin. Young as I was I had no keener relish for a
holiday than he. At noon we halted beside a brook and unhitched
our horses. Then we caught some fish, built a fire and cooked
them, and brewed our tea. At sunset we halted at Tuley Pond,
looking along its reedy margin, under purple tamaracks, for deer.
There was a great silence, here in the deep of the woods, and Tip
Taylor's axe, while he peeled the bark for our camp, seemed to fill
the wilderness with echoes. It was after dark when the shanty was
covered and we lay on its fragrant mow of balsam and hemlock.
The great logs that we had rolled in front of our shanty were set
afire and shortly supper was cooking.
Gerald had stood the journey well.
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