Indiana said they might be engaged with war among some hostile tribes, or had gone to other hunting grounds.

The winter was unusually mild, and it was long before it set in.

Yet the spring following was tardy, and later than usual.

It was the latter end of May before vegetation had made any very decided progress.
The little loghouse presented a neat and comfortable appearance, both within and without.

Indiana had woven a handsome mat of bass bark for the floor; Louis and Hector had furnished it with very decent seats and a table, rough, but still very respectably constructed, considering their only tools were a tomahawk, a knife, and wooden wedges for splitting the wood into slabs.