“Well,” said John, “if we could have Alex and Moise, there’s nothing in the world I’d like better than just that trip.”
“That’s the way I feel, too,” added Jesse. “But now we’re done with this trip. When you stop to think about it, we’ve been quite a little way from home, haven’t we?”
“I feel as though I’d been gone a year,” said John.
“And now it’s all over,” added Rob, “and we’re really going back to our own country, I feel as if it would be a year from here to home.”
Jesse remained silent for a time. “Do you know what I am thinking about now? It’s about our ‘lob-stick’ tree that our men trimmed up for us. We’ll put one on every river we ever run. What do you say to that?”
“No,” replied Rob, “we can’t do that for ourselves—that has to be voted to us by others, and only if we deserve it. I’ll tell you what—let’s do our best to deserve it first!”
The others of the Young Alaskans agreed to this very cheerfully, and thus they turned happily toward home.