till Quonab called him to breakfast.



Chapter 6. Skookum Accepts Rolf at Last

Rolf expected that Micky would soon hear of his hiding place and
come within a few days, backed by a constable, to claim his
runaway ward. But a week went by and Quonab, passing through
Myanos, learned, first, that Rolf had been seen tramping
northward on the road to Dumpling Pond, and was now supposed to
be back in Redding; second, that Micky Kittering was lodged in
jail under charge of horse-stealing and would certainly get a
long sentence; third, that his wife had gone back to her own
folks at Norwalk, and the house was held by strangers.

All other doors were closed now, and each day that drifted by
made it the more clear that Rolf and Quonab were to continue
together. What boy would not exult at the thought of it? Here
was freedom from a brutal tyranny that was crushing out his young
life; here was a dream of the wild world coming true, with
gratification of all the hunter instincts that he had held in his
heart for years, and nurtured in that single, ragged volume of
"Robinson Crusoe." The plunge was not a plunge, except it be one
when an eagle, pinion-bound, is freed and springs from a cliff of
the mountain to ride the mountain wind.

The memory of that fateful cooning day was deep and lasting.
Never afterward did smell of coon fail to bring it back; in spite
of the many evil incidents it was a smell of joy.