Once the winter had taken a backward step -- spring found it easy
to turn retreat into panic and rout; and the ten days Quonab stayed
away were days of revolutionary change. For in them semi-winter
gave place to smiling spring, with all the snow-drifts gone,
except perhaps in the shadiest hollows of the woods.
It was a bright morning, and a happy one for Rolf, when he heard
the Indian's short "Ho," outside, and a minute later had Skookum
dancing and leaping about him. On Hoag the effect was quite
different. He was well enough to be up, to hobble about painfully
on a stick; to be exceedingly fault-finding, and to eat three
hearty meals a day; but the moment the Indian appeared, he withdrew
into himself, and became silent and uneasy. Before an hour passed,
he again presented the furs, the gun, the canoe, and the traps to Rolf,
on condition that he should get him out to his folks.
All three were glad to set out that very day on the outward trip
to Lyons Falls.
Down Little Moose River to Little Moose Lake and on to South
Branch of Moose, then by the Main Moose, was their way. The
streams were flush; there was plenty of water, and this
fortunately reduced the number of carries; for Hoag could not
walk and would not hobble.
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