The remaining time of George's stay at Greenway Court sped on rapidly—too fast for Lord Fairfax, who realized every day how close the boy had got to his heart.
As for Lance, a real friendship had grown up between him and George, and the old soldier thought with keen regret of the impending departure.
Black Bear had remained at Greenway until his wound was well on the way to recovery, but, as Lance said, "an Injun can walk on a broken leg and climb a tree with a broken arm," so that when Black Bear considered himself recovered a white man would have thought his cure scarcely begun.
Lord Fairfax found out that the Indian was the son of Tanacharison, one of the few chiefs who were friendly to the English and unfriendly to the French. On finding this out the Earl sent for Black Bear and had a long talk with him. With most Indians the idea of sparing an enemy seemed the extreme of folly; but Black Bear was of superior intelligence, and it had dawned upon him long before that the white men knew more than the red men about most things. And when he himself became the object of kindness, when he recalled George's remembering to give him water in his agony, and Lance's endeavors to cure his wound, the Indian's hard but not ignoble heart was touched. His father was reported among the wisest of the chiefs, and he had warned his tribe against taking either the French or the English side, as it was not their quarrel. Lord Fairfax found that in Black Bear, an uneducated savage who could neither read nor write, he had a man of strong natural intelligence, and one worth conciliating. He came to Greenway Court with blood and fire in his heart, and he left it peaceably inclined, and anxious for the friendship of the whits men. On the eve of his departure he said to George:
"White brother, if ever you are in the Indian land and want help, call on Black Bear, or Tanacharison, the great chief who dwells on the other side of the mountains where the two rivers come together, and you will be heard as quickly as the doe hears the bleat of her young."
Next morning Black Bear had disappeared, and was no more seen.
The time came, about the middle of December, when George left Greenway Court for Mount Vernon. It was in a mild spell of weather, and advantage had to be taken of it to make the journey, as the roads were likely to be impassable later in the season. He was to travel on horse-back, Billy following him on a mule and carrying the portmanteau.
The night before he left he had a long conversation with Lord Fairfax in the library. The Earl gently hinted at a wish that George might remain with him always, and that ample provision would be made for him in that event; but George, with tact and gratitude, evaded the point. He felt a powerful attachment towards Lord Fairfax, but he had no mind to be anybody's son except his father's and his mother's son. The Earl's last words on parting with him that night were:
"I desire you to promise me that, in any emergency of any kind—and there will be many in your life—you will call on me as your friend if not your father."
George answered, with gratitude in his heart, "I will gladly promise that, my lord; and it is great encouragement to me to feel that I have such a friend."