284 
IIANS THE BENEDICK. 
after all, and I would not intimate an unwarranted 
doubt of the constancy of boyish love. But I must ex¬ 
plain, as far as I can at least, why he was not with us 
when avo first looked at the open water. Just before 
my departure for my April hunt, Hans came to me 
with a long face, asking permission to visit Peteravik : 
“he had no boots, and wanted to lay in a stock of 
Avalrus-hide for soles: he did not need the dogs; he 
would rather walk.” It Avas a long march, but he 
Avas Avell practised in it, and I consented of course. 
Both Petersen and myself gave him commissions to 
execute, and he left us, intending to stop by the way 
at Etah. 
In our labors of the next month Ave missed Hans 
much. He had not yet returned, and the stories of 
him that came to us from Etah Avere the theme of 
much conversation and surmise among us. He had 
certainly called there as he promised, and given to 
Nessark’s Avife an order for a pair of boots, and he 
had then AA r ended his Avay across the big headland to 
Peteravik, Avhere Shang-hu and his pretty daughter 
had their home. This intimation Avas given with 
many an explanatory grin; for Hans Avas a favorite 
Avith all, the fair especially, and, as a match, one of the 
greatest men in the country. It required all my recol¬ 
lections of his “old lo\ T e” to make me suspend my 
judgment; for the boots came, as if to confirm the 
scandal. I never failed in my efforts aftenvard to find 
his Avhereabouts, and went out of our Avay to interro¬ 
gate this and that settlement; for, independent of every 
