Necessity had become his grim master, and the following week he was going to work.

As the boy described the situation to his Indian friend, his mother "had fought to the last ditch to keep him in school, but now his time was up." Wabi seized upon the white youth as an oasis in a vast desert.

After a little the two became 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.