Arming themselves, therefore, with clubs and sharp stones, they started around the Swamp, intending to travel by day and at night to steal upon the camp of the Lali and take the child by some artifice. They kept along the border of the Swamp, and where it was not too deep to wade, cut across its waters. The danger of neither wild beasts nor serpents terrified them. They were together, and were fixed on one purpose. Koree was willing to die with his Sosee, and Sosee believed she was in no danger with her Koree. So with resignation or confidence they marched on, heedless of a plunging alligator or swinging python which occasionally disturbed the stillness of the Swamp. Occasionally they stopped to gather mussels or climb after nuts; for they did not think it necessary to take provisions with them. The supplies of scouts and armies in those days were light—they foraged on the country. They marched without chart or compass, and yet rarely missed their way; for they had learned to guide themselves by the sun and the lay of the land. If occasionally, in the thick of the forest, they could not get their bearings, they emerged from the swamp to look at the mountains with whose ranges they were familiar. It was not easy for primitive man to get lost, and it did not much matter if he was lost. Wherever he placed his foot he was at home, carrying his citizenship with him. Everywhere around were his possessions—the ungathered fruits and fish and game. Everywhere were his friends—the chance baboon or man that he might meet. Only recently, with the association which we mentioned, had there sprung up attachments for individuals. Before that their love was for the race, and anyone represented that race about equally well, as in the case of dogs. Even since they had come to associate, their attachments were not permanent; and they relied much on chance-comers for their society. Should they, therefore, be lost, they would not feel that they were among strangers, any more than that they were away from home. “If we do not find Orlee will we go back?” asked Koree. “We will not go back till we find her,” replied Sosee. “We could live nicely in this forest,” said he; “there is plenty of food, and we need no company.” “When we find Orlee,” she replied, “we will have company.” “Two is company,” said he, “and when we find her and take her to her mother, shall we not come here to live?” “Let us first find her,” she persisted; “we can then decide what to do next.” “There is nothing that we can lack here,” mused Koree; “a forest and a swamp include all human desires;” and then, after a pause, he added, “and Sosee.” “And Orlee,” interposed Sosee. “Love in a cottage” was long antedated by “love in a forest.” A sycamore tree was cottage enough for our first parents. “O! O! O! O!” ejaculated Sosee, too frightened to say more, as she suddenly ran up a tree. “Oo! Oo! Oo! Oo!” shrieked Koree, as he ran up another tree.