He made a wide circuit, and, coming back, lighted a little fire on which he warmed the tea in the pot that he had taken from the village on an earlier night.  Then, under the insistence of Tayoga, Robert drank a quantity that amounted to three cups, and soon fell into a deep sleep, from which he awoke the next day with an appetite so sharp that he felt able to bite a big piece out of a tree.

“I think I’ll go hunt a buffalo, kill him and eat him whole,” he said in a large, round voice.

“If so Dagaeoga will have to roam far,” said Tayoga sedately.  “The buffalo is not found east of the Alleghanies, as you well know.”

“Of course I know it, but what are time and distance to a Samson like me?  I say I will go forth and slay a buffalo, unless I am fed at once and in enormous quantities.”

“Would a haunch of venison and a gallon of samp help Dagaeoga a little?”

“Yes, a little, they’d serve as appetizers for something real and substantial to come.”

“Then if you feel so strong and are charged so full of ambition you can help cook breakfast.  You have had an easy time, Dagaeoga, but life henceforth will not be all eating and sleeping.”

They had a big and pleasant breakfast together and Robert rejoiced in his new vigor.  It was wonderful to be so strong after having been so weak, it was like life after death, and he was eager to start at once.

“It is a good thing to have been ill,” he said, “because then you know how fine it is to be well.”

“But we will not depart before tomorrow,” said the Onondaga decisively.

“And why?”

“Because you have lived long enough in the wilderness, Dagaeoga, to know that one must always fight the weather.  Look into the west, and you will see a little cloud moving up from the horizon.  It does not amount to much at present, but it contains the seed of great things.  It has been sent by the Rain God, and it will not do yet for Dagaeoga, despite his new strength, to travel in the rain.”

Robert became anxious as he watched the little cloud, which seemed to swell as he looked at it, and which soon assumed an angry hue.  He knew that Tayoga had told the truth.  Coming out of his fever it would be a terrible risk for him to become drenched.

“We will make a shelter such as we can in the dip where we built the fire,” said Tayoga, “and now you can use your new strength as much as you will in wielding a tomahawk.”

They cut small saplings with utmost speed and speedily accomplished one of the most difficult tasks of the border, making a rude brush shelter which with the aid of their blankets would protect them from the storm.  By the time they had finished, the little cloud which had been at first a mere signal had grown so prodigiously that it covered the whole heavens, and the day became almost as dark as twilight.  The lightning began to flash in great, blazing strokes, and the thunder was so nearly continuous that the earth kept up an incessant jarring.  Then the rain poured heavily and Robert saw Tayoga’s wisdom.  Although the shelter and his blanket kept the rain from him he felt cold in the damp, and shivered as if with a chill.