"Wait till I have known you a few more days; then we will see."
"But I shall already be nearly gone by then," he protested. "I am only here such a short time."
"Perhaps some day you will come again."
"Ah! Again!" He sounded unutterable things, as though upon that word hung his whole fate. Anything might happen to him before they met again.
"I have a secret," he said; "I want to tell it you."
"Are you sure you can trust me?"
"When I have told you it, you can tell anybody."
"Then it can't be much of a secret."
"Oh! You think?" He opened his big childish eyes at her and nodded his head solemnly. "This secret has been with me thousands and thousands of miles. Every time I shot off my gun, every day I went 'tramp, tramp' through the forest walking on snakes, every time I fought for my life I had this secret of mine to live with."
"You had better not tell it then; it may lose its interest."