Companion
Character Role Analysis
The Boys at the Camp
The strongest emotion you get from the protagonist is the brotherly camaraderie he feels for the boys at the camp. The fact that the narrator keeps repeating "the boys" shows that the man has a brotherly connection with these figures and will be very pumped to see them if he ever makes it there. He pushes on against the cold in order to reach them, and even though it's clear that he wants the warm fire and hot meal that's waiting for him, the story strongly suggests that he pushes on mostly for the sake of seeing his friends.