almost inseparable, and their friendship culminated in Wabi's going to
live in the Drew home. Mrs. Drew was a woman of education and
refinement, and her interest in Wabigoon was almost that of a mother. In
this environment the ragged edges were smoothed away from the Indian
boy's deportment, and his letters to Minnetaki were more and more filled
with enthusiastic descriptions of his new friends. After a little Mrs.
Drew received a grateful letter of thanks from the princess mother at
Wabinosh House, and thus a pleasant correspondence sprang up between the
two.

There were now few lonely hours for the two boys. During the long winter
evenings, when Roderick was through with his day's work and Wabi had
completed his studies, they would sit before the fire and the Indian
youth would describe the glorious life of the vast northern wilderness;
and day by day, and week by week, there steadily developed within Rod's
breast a desire to see and live that life. A thousand plans were made, a
thousand adventures pictured, and the mother would smile and laugh and
plan with them.

But in time the end of it all came, and Wabi went back to the princess
mother, to Minnetaki, and to his forests. There were tears in the boys'
eyes when they parted, and the mother cried for the Indian boy who was
returning to his people. Many of the days that followed were painful to
Roderick Drew. Eight months had bred a new nature in him, and when Wabi
left it was as if a part of his own life had gone with him. Spring came
and passed, and then summer. Every mail from Wabinosh House brought
letters for the Drews, and never did an Indian courier drop a pack at
the Post that did not carry a bundle of letters for Wabigoon.

Then in the early autumn, when September frosts were turning the leaves