reassuring.

I stood my ground and stared him in the face, till I could see nothing
but wind-blown yellow, and strange, brutal eyes. Then he advanced a
little nearer. Whereupon I also raised my hand with a gesture like
his own, and demanded loudly where I was, what was this place, and who
was he. His very ears pricked forward, he listened so intently. He
came nearer yet, then stayed, tossed his head into the air, whirled
the long leather thong he carried above his head, and, signing to me
to follow, set off with so swift and easy a stride as would soon have
carried him out of sight, had he not turned and perceived how slowly I
could follow him.

He slackened his pace then, and, thus running, we came in sight at
length of what appeared to be a vast wooden shed, or barn, with one
rude chimney, and surrounded by a thick fence, or stockade, many feet
high and apparently of immense strength and stability.

In the gateway of this fence stood the master of these solitudes, his
eyes fixed strangely on my coming with an intense, I had almost said
incredulous, interest. Nor did he cease so to regard me, while the
creature that had conducted me thither, told, I suppose, where he had
found me, and poured out with childish zeal his own amazement and
delight. By this time, too, his voice had begun to lose its first
strangeness, and to take a meaning for me. And I was presently fully
persuaded he spoke a kind of English, and that not unpleasingly, with
a liquid, shrill, voluminous ease. His master listened patiently
awhile, but at last bade his servant be silent, and himself addressed
me.

"I am informed, Yahoo," he said with peculiar deliberation, "that you
have been borne down into my meadows by the river, and fetched out
thence by my servant. Be aware, then, that all these lands from
horizon to horizon are mine and my people's. I desire no tidings of
what follies may be beyond my boundaries, no aid, and no amity. I
admit no trespasser here and will bear with none. It appears, however,
that your life has passed beyond your own keeping: I may not,
therefore, refuse you shelter and food, and to have you conducted in
safety beyond my borders. Have the courtesy, then, to keep within
shelter of these walls till the night be over. Else"--he gazed out
across the verdant undulations--"else, Yahoo, I have no power to
protect you."

He turned once more, and regarded me with a lofty yet tender
recognition, as if, little though his spee