Now that was past.

My dispositions completed, the thing was in the hands of God, and I was free to go my own road.

Mocking-birds and thrushes cried in the thickets, squirrels flirted across the path, and now and then a shy deer fled before us.
There come moments to every man when he is thankful to be alive, and every breath drawn is a delight; so at that hour I praised my Maker for His good earth, and for sparing me to rejoice in it.
Grey had met me with a certain shyness; but as the sun rose and the land grew bright he, too, lost his constraint, and fell into the same happy mood.

Soon we were smiling at each other in the frankest comradeship, we two who but the other day had carried ourselves like game-cocks.

He had forgotten his fine manners and his mincing London voice, and we spoke of the outland country of which he knew nothing, and of the hunting of game of which he knew much, exchanging our different knowledges, and willing to learn from each other.