human
He's coming! Somebody's coming! he shouted.
gpt
There's a little boat pushing off from that other shore.
human
I'm so glad you can climb. One can see so much more from the tree-tops; and, oh! there is so much, so much to find out all the time! Isn't there?
gpt
Yes. Decidedly. One of the things I'd like to find out first is who you are and how you came here. If you're willing.
human
Of course, I don't want to be impertinently curious. It only seems so strange to find such educated people buried here in the north woods. I don't see how you live here. I--I----
gpt
You are curious, all the same, and so am I. Let's tell each other all about everything and then we'll start straight without the bother of stopping as we go along. Do sit down and I'll begin.
human
Ready.
gpt
There's so little, I shan't be long. My dear mother was Cecily Dutton, my Uncle Hugh's twin. My father was Philip Romeyn, uncle's closest friend. They were almost more than brothers to each other, always; though uncle was a student and, young as he was, a professor at Columbia. Papa was a business man, a banker, or a cashier in a bank. He wasn't rich, but mamma and uncle had money. From the time they were boys uncle and papa were fond of the woods. They were great hunters, then, and spent all the time they could get up here in northern Maine. After the marriage mamma begged to come with them, and it was her money bought this island, and the land along the shore of this lake as far as we can see from here. Much farther, too, of course, because the trees hide things. They built this log cabin and it cost a great, great deal to do it. They had to bring the workmen so far, but it was finished at last, and everything was brought up here to make it--just as you see.
human
What an ideal existence!
gpt
Was it? I don't know much about ideals, though uncle talks of them sometimes. It was real, that's all. They were very, very happy. They loved each other so dearly. Angelique came from Canada to keep the house and she says my mother was the sweetest woman she ever saw. Oh! I wish--I wish I could have seen her! Or that I might remember her. I'll show you her portrait. It hangs in my own room.
human
Did she die?
gpt
Yes. When I was a year old. My father had passed away before that, and my mother was broken-hearted. Even for uncle and me she could not bear to live. It was my father's wish that we should come up here to stay, and Uncle Hugh left everything and came. I was to be reared 'in the wilderness, where nothing evil comes,' was what both my parents said. So I have been, and--that's all.