Civilization in the Wilderness
A Tale of Adventure on the American Frontier
Read Chapters One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen, Twenty, Twenty-One, Twenty-Two, Twenty-Three, Twenty-Four, Twenty-Five, Twenty-Six, Twenty-Seven, and Twenty-Eight.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
They returned to little fanfare. Tired and footsore, they found themselves late one afternoon on a small road heading east. They stayed on the road and within an hour passed a farm. A short, bearded farmer was in the process of mending the split-rail fence running along the edge of his property, and he barely glanced at the gaunt white man and his Wampanoag companion as they traveled along the empty stretch of road. They passed more farms before nightfall, and occasionally they met a man walking along the road. But these meetings were few enough, and the anticlimax of their return to civilization felt hollow to Robert, who had expected some gladness or at least relief.