Drawing near to the Sapi village on his return, Jack first came upon a
group of children picking wild strawberries in the meadow, who fled
screaming in advance of him into the compound. There, every task was
dropped, and every dark face turned toward him. Fairly startled out of
their affectation of stolidity, they streamed toward him from under the
sun shelters and from out of the tepees with cries of astonishment.
Jack was not deceived by the apparent warmth of their welcome; they
were not glad to see him, only amazed that he should have come back at
all.
He pulled up his horse in the centre of the square, and remembering the
last time he had addressed them, looked them over with a kind of grim
scorn. Just now he was unable to feel any of the kindness for these
feather-brained children of the woods that Mary had. He knew the value
of scant speech with them, and he made them wait for his announcement.