He had loved
the forest--NOW he worshipped it. In its vast silence he still
possessed Melisse. It whispered to him still of her old love, of their
days and years of happiness, and with his forest he lived these days
over and over again, and when he slept with his forest he dreamed of
them.
Nearly a month passed before he reached Oxford House and found the
sweet-faced girl whom Thornton loved. He did as Thornton had asked,
and went on--into the north and east. He had no mission now, except to
roam in his forests. He went down the Hayes, getting his few supplies
at Indian camps, and stopped at last, with the beginning of spring,
far up on the Cutaway. Here he built himself a camp and lived for a
time, setting dead-falls for bear. Then he struck north again, and
still east--keeping always away from Lac Bain. When the first chill
winds of the bay brought warning of winter down to him he was filled
for a time with a longing to strike north--and WEST, to go once more
back to his Barren Lands. But, instead, he went south, and so it came
to pass that a year after he had left Lac Bain he built himself a
cabin deep in the forest of God's River, fifty miles from Oxford
House, and trapped once more for the company. He had not forgotten his
promise to Thornton, and at Oxford House left word where he could be
found if the man from civilization should return.
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