“There’d be a big smash of some kind, but as I don’t know what the kind would be I’m not going to talk about it.  Besides, I can see that you’re making game of me, Tayoga.  I’ve lived long enough with Indians to know that they love their joke.”

“We are much like other people.  I think perhaps that in all this great world, on all the continents and islands, people, whether white or red, brown or black, are the same.”

“Not a doubt of it.  Now, stop your philosophizing and go to sleep.”

“I will obey you, Dagaeoga,” said Tayoga, and in a minute he was fast asleep.

Robert watched his four hours through and then awakened the Onondaga, who was sentinel until day.  When they talked they spoke only in whispers lest they wake Willet, whose slumbers were so deep that he never stirred.  At daybreak Tayoga roused Robert, but the hunter still slept, his gigantic bulk disposed at ease upon his blanket.  Then the two lads seized him by either shoulder and shook him violently.

“Awake!  Awake, Great Bear!” Tayoga chanted in his ear.  “Do you think you have gone into a cave for winter quarters?  Lo, you have slept now, like the animal for which you take your name!  We knew you were exhausted, and that your eyes ached for darkness and oblivion, but we did not know it would take two nights and a day to bring back your wakefulness.  Dagaeoga and I were your true friends.  We watched over you while you slept out your mighty sleep and kept away from you the bears and panthers that would have devoured you when you knew it not.  They came more than once to look at you, and truly the Great Bear is so large that he would have made breakfast, dinner and supper for the hungriest bear or panther that ever roamed the woods.”

Willet sat up, sleep still heavy on his eyelids, and, for a moment or two, looked dazed.

“What do you mean, you young rascals?” he asked.  “You don’t say that I’ve been sleeping here two nights and a day?”

“Of course you have,” replied Robert, “and I’ve never seen anybody sleep so hard, either.  Look under your blanket and see how your body has actually bored a hole into the ground.”

Then Willet began to laugh.

“I see, it’s a joke,” he said, “though I don’t mind.  You’re good lads, but it was your duty to have awakened me in the night and let me take my part in the watch.”

“You were very tired,” said Robert, “and we took pity on you.  Moreover, the enemy is all about us, and we knew that the watch must be of the best.  Tayoga felt that at such a time he could trust me alone, and I felt with equal force that I could trust him alone.  We could not put our lives in the hands of a mere beginner.”

Willet laughed again, and in the utmost good humor.

“As I repeat, you’re sprightly lads,” he said, “and I don’t mind a jest that all three of us can enjoy.  Now, for breakfast, and, truth to say, we must take it cold.  It will not do to light another fire.”