Their faces were neither dignified nor coarse in expression, but wore an aspect of stupid apathy, which formed a striking contrast to the countenance of the young hunter, who seemed an amused spectator of their proceedings.
The youth referred to was very unlike, in many respects, to what we are accustomed to suppose a backwoods hunter should be.

He did not possess that quiet gravity and staid demeanour which often characterize these men.

True, he was tall and strongly made, but no one would have called him stalwart, and his frame indicated grace and agility rather than strength.

But the point about him which rendered him different from his companions was his bounding, irrepressible flow of spirits, strangely coupled with an intense love of solitary wandering in the woods.

None seemed so well fitted for social enjoyment as he; none laughed so heartily, or expressed such glee in his mischief-loving eye; yet for days together he went off alone into the forest, and wandered where his fancy led him, as grave and silent as an Indian warrior.
After all, there was nothing mysterious in this.