Chapter 5
INTO TRACKLESS WILDS.“I will depart,” he said, “the hour is come,
And in the silence of yon sky I read
My fated message flashing.”
Edwin Arnold.
The next morning Cecil rose early after a sleepless night. On
that day he was to go out from all that was sweet and precious in
life and take the path into the wilderness. At first his heart sank
within him; then his strength of purpose revived, and he was
resolute again.
He must go, and soon. The briefer the parting the briefer the
pang. He had already bidden his friends good-by; his parents were
long since dead; it only remained to part from the old Indian
woman, his nurse in childhood, now his faithful housekeeper and the
only inmate of his home.
He went to the kitchen,—for usually at this hour she was up and
preparing
