“Wait here, and I’ll fetch the boy,” he said.
First he threw on some more wood, so that the fire would start afresh. Then, entering he bent over each of his comrades, saying:
“Wake up, and come out; he’s here!”
As Lub started to crawl from under his blanket Phil reached over and picking up the now wideawake little lad he said close to his ear:
“Daddy’s come for you, Kinney; he’s outside here waiting to hug you!”
They all came tumbling out in a bunch, eager to witness the meeting between their little ward and his terrible father.
When Lub saw the man fiercely hugging the little mite, with the child’s arms pressed around his neck, he stood there staring, and Phil heard him say to himself wonderingly:
“And they call that big-hearted man the Terrible Baylay, do they? Well, I guess after all he’s only a bluff, and just the same as any other fellow. Why, honest to goodness I do believe there are real tears rolling down his cheeks right now.”
But Phil knew it was the power of love making this giant as a child.
“You must stay the rest of the night with us,” he told the giant, “and in the morning some of us will go with you to your cabin. We want to meet the mother of the boy, because we’ve got something to propose that will be a blessing to you and to Kinney.”