The underclothing and knit
socks had been purchased at the trading post, but every other article
of clothing, including boots, moccasins and mitts, his mother had
made.
A pair of snow-shoes, a file for sharpening axes, a "wedge" tent of
gray cotton cloth and a sheet iron tent stove about twelve inches
square and eighteen inches long with a few lengths of pipe placed
inside of it were likewise put in readiness. The stove and pipe Bob's
father had manufactured.
No packing was left to be done Sunday, for though there was no church
to go to, the Grays, and for that matter all of the Bay people, were
close observers of the Sabbath, and left no work to be done on that
day that could be done at any other time.
Early on Sunday evening, Dick and Ed and Bill Campbell came over in
their boat from Kenemish, where they had spent the previous night. It
had been a short day for Bob, the shortest it seemed to him he had
ever known, for though he was anxious to be away and try his mettle
with the wilderness, these were the last hours for many long weary
months that he should have at home with his father and mother and
Emily. How the child clung to him! She kept him by her side the
livelong day, and held his hand as though she were afraid that he
would slip away from her.
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