 Book 1, Chapter 9 of the Crossing by Winston Churchill. This Leaver Vox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 9 on the Wilderness Trail. And now we had our hands upon the latch, and God alone knew what was behind the gate. Oil with a certainty, but our lives had known it. Death for chance, but death had been near to all of us, and his presence did not frighten. As we climbed towards the gap, I recalled with strange aptness a quaint saying of my fathers that Kentucky was the garden of Eden, and that men were being justly punished with blood for their presumption. As if to crown that judgment, the day was dark and lowering, with showers of rain from time to time. And when we spoke, Polly Ann and I, it was in quispers. The trace was very narrow, with Daniel Boone's blazes, two years old upon the trees, but the way was not oversteep. Cumberland Mountain was as silent and deserted as when the first man had known it. Alas for the vanity of human pre-sage, we gained the top and entered unmolested. No Eden suddenly dazzled our eye. No splendor burst upon it. Nothing told us, as we halted in our weariness, that we had reached the promised land. The mist weighed heavily on the evergreens of the slopes and hid the ridges, and we passed that night in cold discomfort. It was the first of many without a fire. The next day brought us to the Cumberland, tawny and swollen from the rains. And here we had to stop to fell trees to make a raft on which to ferry over our packs. We bound the logs together with great vines, and as we worked, my imagination painted for me many a red face peering from the bushes on the father's shore. And when we got into the river and were caught and spun by the hurrying stream, I hearkened for a shot from the father bank. While Polly Ann and I were scrambling to get the raft landed, Tom and Weldon swam over with the horses. And so we lay the second night dolefully in the rain. But not so much as a whipper escaped from Polly Ann. I have often told her since that the sores trial she had was the guard she kept on her tongue. A hardship indeed for one of Irish inheritance. Many a pull had she lightened for us by a flash of humor. The next morning the sun relented and the wine of his dawn was wine indeed to our flagging hopes. Going down the wash at the river's brink, I heard a movement in the cane and stood frozen and staring until a great bearded head, black as tar, was thrust between the stalks and looked at me with blinking red eyes. The next step revealed the hump of the beast and the next his tasseled tail lashing his dirty brown quarters. I did not tarry longer but ran to tell Tom. He made bold to risk a shot and light a fire and thus we had buffalo meat for some days after. We were still in the mountains. The trail led down the river for a bit through the worst of cane breaks and every now and again we stopped while Tom and Weldon scouted. Once the Roan mayor made a dash through the break and though Polly Ann burst through one way to hit her off and eye another, we reached the bank of Richland Creek in time to see her nose and the top of her pack above the brown water. There was nothing for it but to swim after her which I did and caught her quietly feeding in the cane on the other side by great good fortune the other horse bore the powder. Drat you Nancy said Polly Ann to the mayor as she handed me my clothes. I'd sooner carry the pack myself and be bothered with you. Hush said I the redskins will get us. Polly Ann regarded me scornfully as I stood bedraggled before her. Redskins she cried nonsense I reckon it's all talk about redskins but we had scarce caught up air we saw Tom standing rigid with his hand raised. Before him on a mound bared of cane where the charred remains of a fire the sight of them transformed well then his eyes glared again even as when we had first seen him curses escaped under his breath and he would have darted into the cane had not Tom seized him sternly by the shoulder. As for me my heart hammered against my ribs and I grew sick with listening. It was at that instant that my admiration for Tom Nechesney burst bounds and that I got some real inkling of what woodcraft might be. Stepping silently between the tree trunks his eyes bent on the leafy loam he found a footprint here and another there and suddenly he went into the cane with a sign to us to remain. It seemed an age before he returned then he began to rake the ashes and suddenly bending down seized something in them the broken bowl of an Indian pipe. Johnny's he said I reckon so it was at length the beseeching in Polly Ann's eyes that he answered. A war party tracks three days old they took Poplar to take Poplar was our backwards expression for embarking in a canoe the dugouts being fashioned from the great Poplar trees. I did not reflect then as I have since and often how great was the knowledge and resource Tom practiced to that day. Our feeling for him Polly Ann's and mine fell little short of worship. In company they let ease in the forest he became silent and masterful. An unerring woodsman capable of meeting the Indian on his own footing and strangest thought of all he and many I could name who went into Kentucky had escaped by a kind of strange fate being born in the north of Ireland. This was so of Andrew Jackson himself. The rest of the day he led us in silence down the trace his eye alert to penetrate every corner of the forest his hand near the trigger of his long decker. I followed in boylike imitation searching every thicket for alien form and color and the earning for statue and responsibility. As for poor Weldon he would strive for hours at a time with eyes fixed ahead a wild figure ragged and fringed and we knew that the soul within him was torn with thoughts of his dead wife and of his child in captivity. Again when the trance left him he was an addition to our little party not to be despised. At dark Polly Ann I carried the packs across a creek on a fallen tree she taking one end and I the other. We camped there where the loam was trampled and torn back countless herds of bison and had only parched corn in the remains of a buffalo steak for supper as the meal was moldy from its wetting and running low. When Weldon had gone a little distance up the creek to scout Tom relented from the sternness which his vigilance imposed and came and sat down on a log beside Polly Ann and me. It is a hard journey little girl he said adding her I reckon I done wrong to fetch you. I can see him now in the twilight settled down over the wilderness his honest face red and freckled but a glow with the tenderness that had hidden during the day one big hand in folding hers and the other on my shoulder. Hard Davey said Polly Ann he's fair tired of us already Davey take me back. Hush Polly Ann he answered delighted at her railery but I have a word to say to you if we come on to the redskins you and Davey make for the cane as hard as you can kill her keep out of sight as hard as we can kill her exclaimed Polly Ann indignantly I reckon not Tom Machestney Davey taught me to shoot long ago before you made up your mind to come back from Kentucky. Tom chuckled so Davey taught you to shoot he said and checked himself he ain't such a bad one with a pistol and he patted me but I'll allow you better hunt kipper just the same and if they catch you Polly Ann just you go along and pretend to be happy and tear off a snatch of your address now and then if you get a chance it wouldn't take me but a little time to run into Harwoodstown or a boom station from here and fetch a party to follow you. Two days went by two days of strain and sunlight and of watching and fitful sleep in darkness but the wilderness trail was deserted here and there a lean to silent remnant of the year gone by spoke of the little bands of immigrants which had once made their way so cheerfully to the new country again it was a child's doll the rags of it beaten by the weather to a rusty hue every hour that we progressed seemed to justify the sagacity and boldness of Tom's plan nor did it appear to have entered a painted skull that a white man would have the hardiness to try the trail this year there were neither signs nor sounds save nature's own the hoot of the wood owl the distant bark of a mountain wolf the horror of a partridge as she left her brood at length we could stand no more the repression that silence and watching put upon us and when a rotten bank gave way and flung Polly Ann and the sorrow mare into a creek even Weldon smiled as we pulled her bedraggled and laughing from the muddy water this was after we had ferried the rock castle river our trace rose and fell over height and valley until we knew that we were come to a wonderland at last we stood one evening on a spur as the setting sun flooded the natural part below us with a crystal light and striking a tall sycamore turned its green to gold we were now on the hills once the water ran down to nourish the fat land and i could scarce believe that the garden spot on which our eyes feasted could be the scene of the blood and suffering of which we had heard here at last was the fairyland of my childhood the country beyond the blue wall we went down the river that led into it with awe as though we were trespassers against god himself as though he had made it too beautiful and too fruitful for the toilers of this earth and you who read this and hundred years hints may not believe the marvels of it to the pioneer and in particular to one born in bread and the scanty hard soil of the mountains nature had made it for her park and scented it with her own perfumes giant trees which had watched generations come and go some of which may have had been saplings when the norman came to england grew in groves the gnarled and twisted oak and that god sinned to the settlers the sugar maple the coffee tree with its grouping buds the mulberry the cherry and the plum the sassafras and the pawpaw the poplar in the sycamore slender maidens of the forest garbed in vaneer colors eye and that resplendent bernette with the white flowers the magnolia and all underneath in the green shade enamels banks which the birds themselves sought to rival at length one afternoon we came to the grove of wild apple trees so lovingly spoken of by immigrants as the crab orchard and where formerly they had delighted to linger the plain nearby was flecked with the brown backs of feeding buffalo but we dared not stop and pressed on to find a camp in the forest as we walked in the filtered sunlight we had a great fright polyanne and i shrill discordant cries suddenly burst from the branches above us and a flock of strange green birds flecked with red flew over our heads even tom intent upon the trail turned and laughed at polyanne as she stood clutching me shucks said he they're only periquets we made our camp in a little dell where there was short green grass by the brookside and a steep banks overgrown with brambles on either hand tom knew the place and declared that we were within 30 miles of the station a giant oak had blown down across the water and cutting off a few branches of this we spread our blankets under it on the turf tethering our faithful beast and cutting a quantity of peevine for their night's food we lay down to sleep tom taking the first watch i had the second for tom trusted me now and glorying in that trust i was alert and vigilant a shy moon peeked at me between the trees and was fantastically reflected in the water the creek rippled over the limestone and an elk screamed in the forest far beyond when at length i had called welden to take the third watch i lay down with a sense of peace sued by the sweet odors of the night i awoke suddenly i had been dreaming of nick temple and temple bow and my father coming back to me there with a great gash in the shoulder like welden's i lay for a moment dazed by the transition staring through the gray light then i stood up the soft standing and snorting of the horses in my ears the sorrow mare had her nose high her tail twitching but there was no other sound in the leafy wilderness with a bound of returning sense i looked for welden he had fallen asleep on the bank above his body dropped across the trunk of the oak i leaped on the trunk and made my way along it stepping over him until i reached and hid myself in the great roots of the tree on the bank above the cold shiver of the dawn was in my body as i waited and listened should i wait tom the vast forest was silent and yet in its shadowy depths my imagination drew moving forms i hesitated the light grew the bowls of the trees came out one by one through the purple the tangled mass down the creek took on a shade of green and the faint breath came from the southward the sorrow mare sniffed it and stamped then silence again along silence could it be that the cane moved in the thicket or had my eyes deceived me i stared so hard that it seemed to rustle all over perhaps some deer were feeding there for it was no unusual thing when we rose in the morning to hear the whistle of a startled doe near our camping ground i was thoroughly frightened now and yet i had the speculative scotch mind the thicket was some 150 yards above and on the flooded lands of end if there were indians in it they could not see the sleeping forms of our party under it because of a bend in the stream they might have seen me though i had kept very still in the twisted roots of the oak and now i was cracked if indians were there they could determine our position well enough by the occasional stamping and snorting of the horses and this made my fear more probable for i had heard that horses and cattle often warned pioneers of the presence of redskins another thing if they were a small party they would probably seek to surprise us by coming out of the cane into the creek bed above the bend and stalk down the creek if a large band they would surround and overpower us i drew the conclusion that it must be a small party if a party at all and i would have given a shot in the arm to be able to see over the banks of the creek finally i decided to awake tom it was no easy matter to get down to where he was without being seen by eyes and the king i clung to the under branches of the oak finally reached the shelving bank and slid down slowly i touched him on the shoulder he awoke with a stark and by instinct seized the rifle lying beside him what is it baby he whispered i told him what had happened and my survives he glanced then at the restless horses and nodded pointing up at the sleeping figure of welden and full sight on the log the indians must have seen him tom picked up the spare rifle baby he said you stay here beside polyam behind the oak you can shoot with a rest but don't shoot said he earnestly for god's sake don't shoot unless you're sure to kill i nodded for a moment he looked at the face of polyam sleeping peacefully and the fierce light faded from his eyes he brushed her on the cheek and she awoke and smiled at him trustfully lovingly he put his finger to his lips stay with baby he said turning to me he added when you wake welden wake him easy so he put his hand in mine and gradually tightened it wake him that way and he won't jump polyam asked no questions she looked at tom and her soul was in her face she seized the pistol from the blanket then we watched him creeping down the creek on his belly close to the bank next we moved behind the fallen tree and i put my hand in welden's he woke with a sigh started but we drew him down behind the log presently he climbed cautiously up the bank and took station in the muddy roots of the tree then we waited watching tom with a prayer in our hearts those who have not felt it know not the fearfulness of waiting for an indian attack at last tom reached the bend in the bank beside some red bud bushes and there he stayed a level shaft of light shot through the forest the birds twittering awoke a great hawk soared high in the blue over our heads an hour passed i had sighted the rifle among the yellow leaves of the fallen oak and hundred times but polyam looked not once to the right or left her eyes and her prayers followed the form of her husband then like the cracking of a great drover's whip a shot rang out in the stillness and my hands tightened over the rifle stock a piece of bark struck me in the face and the dead leaf fluttered to the ground almost instantly there was another shot and a blue wisp of smoke rose from the red bud bushes where tom was the horses witted there was a rustle in the cane and silence welden bent over my god he whispered horse me he hit one tom hit one i felt polyam's hand on my face divi dear she said are you hurt no said i dazed and wondering why welden had not been shot long ago as he slumbered i was burning to climb the bank and ask him whether he had seen the indian fall again there was silence a silence even more awful than before the sun crept higher the magic of his rays turning the creek from black to crystal and the birds began to sing again and still there was no sign of the treacherous enemy that lurked about us could tom get back i glanced at polyam the same question was written in her yearning eyes staring at the spot where the gray of his hunting shirt showed through the bushes at the bend suddenly her hand tightened online the hunting shirt was gone after that in the intervals when my terror left me i tried to speculate upon the plan of the savages their own numbers could not be great and yet they must have known from our trace how few we were scanning the ground i noted that the forest was fairly clean of undergrowth on both sides of us below the stream ran straight but there were growths of cane and briars looking up i saw welden paced about it was the obvious move but where had tom gone next to my eye was caught by a little run fringed with bushes that curved around the cane near the bend i traced its course unconsciously bit by bit until it reached the edge of a bank not 50 feet away all at once my breath left me through the tangle of bramble stins at the mouth of the run above naked brown shoulders there glared at me hideously streaked with red a face had my fancy lied i stared again until my eyes were blurred now tortured by doubt now so completely convinced that my fingers almost released the trigger for i had thrown the sights into line over the tree i know not to this day whether i shot from determination or nervousness my shoulder bruised by the kick the smoke like a veil before my face it was some moments ere i knew that the air was full of whistling bullets and then the gun was torn from my hands and i saw paulie ann ramming in a new charge to pistol david she cried one torture was over another on crack after crack sounded from the forest from here and there and everywhere it seemed and with a song that like a hurtling insect ran the scale of notes the bullets buried themselves in the trunk of our oak with a chug once in a while i heard welden's answering shot but i remembered my promise to tom not to waste powder unless i were sure the agony was the breathing space we had while they crept nearer then we thought of tom and i dared not glance at paulie ann for fear that the sight of her face would unnerve me then a longing to kill seized me a longing so strange and fierce that i could scarce be still i know now that it comes in battle to all men and with intensity to the hunted and it explained to me more clearly what followed i fairly prayed for the sight of a painted form and time after time my fancy tricked me into the notion that i had one and even as i searched the brambles at the top of the run a puff of smoke rose out of them a bullet burying itself in the roots near welden who fired in return i say that i have some notion of what possessed the man for he was crazed with passion at fighting the race which had so cruelly wronged him hara struck i saw him swing down from the bank splashed through the water with raised tomahawk and gained the top of the run in less time than it takes me to write these words he had dragged a hideous naked warrior out of the brambles and with an avalanche of crumbling earth they slid into the waters of the creek polyan and i stared transfixed at the fearful fight that followed nor can i give any adequate description of it welden had struck through the brambles but the savage had taken the blow on his gun barrel and broken the handle of the tomahawk and it was man to man as they rolled in the shallow water locked in a death embrace neither might reach for his knife neither was able to hold the other down welden's curses surcharged with hatred the indians straining silently saying for a gas for a guttural note the white a bearded madman the savage a devil with a glistening paint strict body his features now agonized as his muscles strained and cracked now lighted with a diabolical joy but the pent up rage of months gave the white man strength polyan and i were powerless for fear shooting welden and gazed absorbed at the fiendish scene with our eyes not to be withdrawn the tree trunk shook a long bronze arm reached out from above and the painted face glowered at us from the very roots where welden had lain that moment i took to be my last and in it i seemed to taste all eternity i heard but faintly a noise beyond it was the shock of the heavy indian falling on polyan and me as we cowered under the trunk and even then there was an instant that we stood gazing at him as at a worm writhing in the clay it was she who fired the pistol and made the great hole in his head and so he twitched and died after that a confusion of shots war hoops a vision of two naked forms flying from tree to tree towards the cane and then god be praised tom's voice shouting polyan polyan before she had reached the top of the bank tom had her in his arms and a dozen tall gray figures leaped the six feet into the stream and stopped my own eyes turned with airs to see the body of poor welden lying face downward in the water but beyond it a tragedy awaited me defiant immovable save for the heating of his naked chest the savage who had killed him stood erect with folded arms facing us the smoke cleared away from a gleaning rifle barrel and the brave staggered and fell and died as silent as he stood his feathers making ripples in the stream it was cold-blooded if you like but war in those days was to the death and knew no mercy the tall back woodman who had shot him waited across the stream and in the twinkling of an eye seized the scalplock and ran it round with his knife holding up the bleeding trophy with a shout staggering to my feet i stretched myself but i had been cramped so long that i tottered and what i've fallen had not tom's hand steadied me Davey he cried thank god little Davey the varmints didn't get you and you tom i answered looking up at him bewildered with happiness they was nearer though i suspicion when i went off he said and looked at me curiously jack the little devil he said affectionately and his voice trembled he took care of polyanne alwarant he carried me to the top of the bank where we were surrounded by the whole band of back woodsmen that he did cried polyanne and fetched a red skin yonder as clean as you could have done it tom little devil exclaimed tom again i looked up burning with this praise from tom for i had never thought of praise nor anything save his happiness and polyanne's i looked up and my eyes were caught in hell with a strange fascination by fearless blue ones that gazed down into them i gave you but a poor description of the owner of these blue eyes for personal magnetism springs not from one feature or another he was a young man perhaps five and twenty as i now know age woodsman clad square built sun reddened his hair might have been orange in one light and sand colored in another with a boy's sense of such things i knew that the other woodsmen were waiting for him to speak for they glanced at him expectably you had a near call mr mitchesney said he had linked fortunate for you we were after this van shot some of it to pieces yesterday morning he paused looking at tom with that quality of tribute which comes naturally to a leader of men by god he said i didn't think you'd try it my word is good colonel clark answered tom simply young colonel clark glanced at the light figure of polyanne he seemed a man a few words for he did not add to his praise of tom's achievement by complimenting her as captain seavier had done in fact he said nothing more but leaped down the bank and strode into the water with the body of welden lay and dragged it out himself we gathered around it silently and two great tears rolled down polyanne's cheeks as she parted the hair with tenderness and loosened the clenched hands nor did any of the tall woodsmen speak poor welden the tragedy of his life and death was the tragedy of kentucky herself they buried him by the water side where he had fallen but there was little time for mourning on the border the burial finished the kentuckians splashed across the creek and one of them stooping with a shout at the mouth of the run lifted out of the brambles a painted body with grouping head and feathers trailing hey mac he cried here's a sculpt for you it's davies exclaimed polyanne from the top of the bank davie shot that one hurrah for davie cried a huge strapping back woodsmen who stood beside her and the others laughingly took up the shout hurrah for davie bring him over cowan the giant threw me on his shoulder as though i had been a fox leaped down and took the stream in two strides i little thought how often he was to carry me in the days to come but i felt a great awe at the strength of him as i stared into his rough features and his veined and weathered skin he stood me down beside the indian's body smiled as he whipped my hunting knife from my belt and said now davie take the sculpt nothing loath i seized the indian by the long scalplock while my big friend guided my hand and the mid laughter and cheers i cut off my first trophy of war nor did i have any other feeling than fierce hatred of the race which had killed my father those who have known armies in their discipline will find it difficult to understand the leadership of the border such leadership was granted only to those whose force and individuality compelled men to obey them i had my first glimpse of it that day this colonel clark to whom com delivered mr robertson's letter was for chats the youngest man in the company that had rescued us saving only a slim lad of 17 whom i noticed and ended and whose name was james ray colonel clark so i was told by my friend cowin held that title in kentucky by reason of his prowess clark had been standing quietly on the bank while i had scalped my first red skin then he called tom machestney to him and questioned him closely about our journey the signs we had seen and finally the news in the watoga settlements while this was going on the others gathered around them what now asked cowin when he had finished back to harvardstown answered the colonel shortly there was a brief silence followed by a horse murmur from a thick-set man at the edge of the crowd who shouldered his way to the center of it we set out to hunt a fight and my pluck is to clean up we ain't finished him yet the man had a deep hoarse voice that was a piece with his roughness i reckon this band ain't going to harry the station anymore megary tried cowin by jove what did we come out for we'll take the trail with me there were some who answered him and straightway they began to quarrel among themselves filling the woods with a babble of forces while i stood listening to these disputes with a boy's awe of a man's quarrel what was my astonishment to feel a hand on my shoulder it was colonel clark's and he was not paying the least attention to the dispute baby said he you look as if you could make a fire yes sir i answered ghastly well said he make one i lighted a piece of punk with the flint and wrapping it up in some dry brush soon had a blaze started looking up i caught his eye on me again mrs mccessney said colonel clark to polyan you look as if you could make a johnny cake have you any meal that i have cried polyan though it's fair moldy davie run and fetch it i ran to the pack on the sorrow mare when i returned mr clark said that seems a handy boy mrs mccessney handy cried polyan i reckon he's more than handy didn't he save my life twice on our way out here and how was that said the colonel run and fetch some water davie said polyan and straightway launched forth into a vivid description of my exploits as she mixed the meal may she went so far as to tell how she came by me the young colonel listened gravely though with a glean now and then in his blue eyes leaning on his long rifle he paid no manner of attention to the angry voices nearby which conduct to me was little short of the marvelous now davie said he had linked the rest of your history there's little of it sir i answered i was born in yadkin county lived alone with my father who was a scotchman he hated a man named cameron took me to charlestown and left me with some kind of his who had a place called temple bow and went off to fight cameron and the cherries there i gulped he was killed at Cherokee forward and and i ran away from temple bow and found polyan this time i caught something of surprise on the colonel's face by thunder davie said he but you have a clean gift or brief narrative where did you learn it my father was a gentleman once and taught me to speak and read i answered as i brought a flat piece of limestone for polyan's baking and what would you like best to be when you grow up davie he asked six feet said i so promptly that he laughed faith said polyan looking at me comically he may be many things but i'll warrant he'll never be that i have often thought sense that young mr park showed much of the wisdom of the famous king of israel on that day polyan cooked a piece of deer which one of the woodsmen had with him and the quarrel died of itself when we sat down to this and the johnny cake by noon we had taken up the trace for harridstown marching with scouts ahead and behind mr clark walked mostly alone seemingly wrapped in thought at times he had short talks with different men oftenest i noticed with pride with tom machestani and more than once when he halted he called me to him my answers to his questions seeming to amuse him indeed i became a kind of pet with the pack woodsman cowling off and flinging me to his shoulders as he swung along the pack was taken from the sorrow mare and divided among the party and polyan made to ride that we might move the faster it must have been the next afternoon about four that the rough stockade of harridstown greeted our eyes as we stole cautiously to the edge of the forest and the sight of no roofs and spires could have been more welcomed than that of those logs and cabins brawling in the midsummer sun at a little distance from the fort a silent testimony of siege the stumpy clear fields were overgrown with weeds tall and rank the corn choked nearer the stockade where the keepers of the fort might venture out at times a more orderly grove met the eye it was young james ray whom colonel clark single to creep with our message to the gates at six when the smoke was rising from the stone chimneys behind the palisades ray came back to say that all was well then we went forward quickly hands waved a welcome above the logs the great wooden gates swung open and at last we had reached the haven for which we had suffered so much mangy dogs barked at our feet men and women ran forward joffily to seize our hands and greet us and so we came to can tucky in chapter nine book one chapter ten of the crossing by winston church hill this lever box recording is in the public domain chapter 10 harrods town the old forts like harrods town and booms burrow and logans at st alseps had long since passed away it is many many years since i lived through that summer of siege at harrods town the horrors of it are faded and dim the discomforts lost to a boy thrilled with a new experience i've read in my old age the books of travelers in kentucky english and french who wrote much of squawor and strife and sin and little of those qualities that go to the conquest of an empire and the making of the people the chance my own pages may be colored by gratitude and love for the pioneers amongst whom i found myself and thankfulness to god that we had reached them alive i know not how many had been cooped up in the little fort since the early spring awaiting the chance to go back to their weed choked clearings the fort at harrods town was like a hundred others i have seen since but sufficiently surprising to me then imagine a great parallelogram made of log cabin set end to end their common outside wall being the wall of the fort and loop hold at the four corners of the parallelogram the cabins jetted out with ports in the angle in order to give a flanking fire in case the savages reached the palisade and then there were huge log gates with watchtowers on either side where centuries set day and night scanning the forest line within the fort was a big common dotted with forest trees where such cattle as had been saved browsed on the scanty grass there had been but one scrawny horse before our arrival in the centers how shall i describe them as they crowded around us inside the gate some stared at us with shallow faces and eyes brightened by the fever yet others had the red glow of help many of the men were rough beards unkempt and yellow weather worn hunting shirts often stained with blood the barefooted women wore sunbonnets and loose home spun gowns some of linen made from metals while the children swarmed here and there and everywhere in any costume that chance had given them all seemingly talking at once they plied us with question after question of the trace the watoga settlements the news and the cariblinas and how the war went a lad is it this one said an irish horse near me and a woman the deer helped us and who would have thought to see a woman come over the mountain this year where'd you find them bill cowan near the crab orchard and the lad killed and sculpted a six foot brave the saint save us and what'll it be his name davie said my friend he said davie sure his name say killed a giant too and is he come along also said another his shy blue eyes and stiff blonde hair gave him a strange appearance and a hunting shirt it's to him who'll be you talking about polson is it king davie you mean there was a roar of laughter and this was my introduction to terrence mccann and swen polson the fort being crowded we were put into a cabin with terrence and cowan and cowan's wife a tall gaunt woman with a sharp tongue and a kind heart and her four brats all hug them smug together as cowan said and that night we sucked upon dried buffalo meat and boiled metal tops four of such was the fair in harridstown that summer tom mccessney kept his faith one other man was to keep his faith with the little community george rogers clark and i soon learned that trustworthiness is held in greater esteem in a border community than anywhere else of course the love of the frontier was in the grain of these men but what did they come back to me day after day with the sun rise over the forest and beat down upon the little enclosure in which we were pinned the row of cabins leaning against the stockade marked the boundaries of our diminutive world beyond them invisible lurked a relentless foe within the greater souls alone were calm and the man's worth was set down to a hair's breath some were always to be found squatting on their doorsteps cursing the hour which had seen them depart for this land some wrestled and fought on the common for a fist fight with a fair field and no favor was a favorite amusement of the backwardsman my big friend cowan was the champion of these and often of an evening the whole of the inhabitants would gather near the spring to see him fight those who had the courage to stand up to him his muscles were like hickory wood and i have known a man insensible for a quarter of an hour after one of his blows strangely enough he never fought in anger and was the first to spring for a gourd of water after the fight was over but tom nitchesney was the best wrestler of the lot and he could make a wider leap than any other man inherits town tom's reputation did not end there for he became one of the two breadwinners of the station i would better have said meat winner woe be to the unconscious who lulled by a week of fancied security ventured out into the disheveled field for little food in the early days of the siege man after man had gone forth for game never to return until tom came one only had been successful that lad of 17 whose achievements were the envy of my boyish soul james ray he slept in the cabin next to cowans and long before the dawn had revealed the forest line had been want to steal out of the gates on the one scrawny horse the indians had left them gained the salt river and to make his way fits through the water to some distant place where the listening savages could not hear his shot and now tom took his turn often did i sit with poly and till midnight in the sentry tower straining my ears for the owl's hoot that warned us of his coming sometimes he was empty-handed but sometimes a deer hung limp and black across his saddle or a pair of turkeys swung from his shoulder are you darlin said terence to poly and tisha husband and james is the jewels of the fort sure i never loved me father as i do them i would have given kingdoms in those days to have been 17 and james ray when he was in the fort i dogged his footsteps and listened with a painful yearning to the stories of his escapes from the roving bands and as many a character is watered in its growth by hero worship so my own grew firmer in the contemplation of ray's resourcefulness my strange life had far removed me from lads of my own age and he took a fancy to me perhaps because of the very persistence of my devotion to him i cleaned his gun filled his powder flask and ran to do his every bidding i used in the hot summer days to lie under the elm tree and listen to the settlers talk about a man named hinderson who had bought a great part of kentucky from the indians and had gone out with boon to found boonsboro some two years before they spoke of much which i did not understand concerning the discalternates by virginia of these claims speculating as to whether hinderson's grants were good for some of them held these grants and others virginia grants a fruitful source of quarrel between them some spoke to of washington and his ragged soldiers going up and down the old colonies and fighting for a freedom which there seemed little chance of getting but their anger seemed to blaze most fiercely when they spoke of the mysterious british general named hamilton whom they called a hair buyer and who from his stronghold in the north country across the great ohio sent down these hordes of savages to harry us i learned to hate hamilton with the rest and pictured him with a visage of a fiend we laid at his door every outrage that had happened at the three stations and put upon him the blood of those who have been carried off to torture in the indian villages of the northern forests and when amidst great excitement a spent runner would arrive from boomsboro or st ossoff's and beg mr clark for a squad it was commonly with the first breath that came into his body that he cursed hamilton so the summer wore away while we lived from hand to mouth on such scanty fairs the two of them shot and what we could venture to gather in the unkempt fields near the gates a winter of famine lurked ahead and men were goaded near to madness at the thought of clearings made and corn planted in the spring within reach of their hands as it were and they might not harvest it at length when a fortnight had passed and tom and ray had gone forth day after day without sight or fresh sign of indians the weight lifted from our hearts there were many things that might yet be planted and come to maturity before the late kentucky frosts the pressure within the fort like a flood opened the gates of it despite the sturdily disapproving figure of a young man who stood silent under the sentry box leaning on his decade he was colonel george rogers clark commander in chief of the backwardsman of kentucky whose power was reinforced by that strange thing called an education it was this no doubt gave him command of words when he chose to use them it appears that mr clark had not yet received the title of colonel the rebelled command baith said terence as we passed him to the fine man he is and the gentleman born wasn't it him gathered the convention here in harrods town last year that chose him and another to go to the virginia legislator and him but a lad you might say the devil fly away with his caution sure the redskins is as ployer as a singornum to the wells and chilling bad says to them and so the first day the gates were opened we went into the fields a little way and the next day a little father they had once seemed to me an unexplored and forbidden country as i searched them with my eyes from the sentry boxes and yet i felt ashamed to go with polyanne and mrs cowan and the women while james ray and tom set with the guard of men between us and the forest line like a child on a holiday polyanne ran hither and thither among the stalks her black hair flying and a song on her lips soon we'll be having a little home of her own baby she cried tom has a place chose on a know by the river and the land is rich with hickory and paul paul i reckon we may be going there next week caution being born into me with all the strength of a vice i said nothing whereupon she seized me in her strong hands and shook me you little lamp said she while the women paused in their work to laugh at us the boy is right polyanne said mrs haran and he's got more sense than most of the men in the fort oh that he has the gulf mrs cowan put in i me fiercely while she gave one of her own offsprings a slap that sent him spinning whatever polyanne might have said would have been to the point but it was lost for just then the sound of a shock came down the wind and half a score of women stampeded through the stalks carrying me down like a reed before them when i staggered to my feet polyanne and mrs cowan and mrs haran were standing alone for there was little fear in those three shocks said mrs cowan i reckon it's that gem ray shooting at a mark and she began to pick nettles again demon is a shy critter remark swen polson coming up i had a shrewd notion that he had run with the others women mrs cowan fairly roared women tell us how you went in march with the boys to fight the varmints at the sugar orchard swen we all laughed for we loved him nonetheless his little blue eyes were perfectly solemn as he answered these send you fight indians admit your tongue mrs cowan then we have no more troubles land that came in cried she i reckon i can do more harm with it than you with a gun there were many such false alarms in the bright days following and never a bullet sped from the shadow of the forest each day we went farther afield and each night troop merrily in through the gates with hopes of homes and clearings rising in our hearts until the motionless figure of the young virginian met our eye it was then that man began to scoff at him behind his back though some spoke with sufficient backwoods bluntness to his face and yet he gave no sign of anger or impatience not so the other leaders no sooner did the danger seem past than bitter stripes spring up within the walls even the two captains were mortal enemies one was harrid a tall spare dark-haired man of great endurance a type of the best that conquered the land for the nation that other was Hugh McGarry of whom i have spoken coarse and brutal if you like but fearless and a leader of men with all a certain sunday morning i remember broke with a cloud flecked sky and as we were preparing to go afield with such plows as could be got together we were to sow turnips the loud sounds of a quarrel came from the elm at the spring with one accord men and women and children flocked thither and as we ran we heard McGarry's voice above the rest worming my way boy like through the crowd i came upon McGarry and harrid glaring at each other in the center of it i jove there's no devil if i'll stand back from my clearing and waste the rest of the summer for the fears of a pack of the cowards i'll take a posse and march to shone these springs this day and see any man a fair fight that tries to stop me and who's in command here demanded harrid i am for one said me gary with an oath and my corn's on the ear i'll tell back long enough i tell you and i'll starve this winter for you nor anyone else harrid turned where's clark he said to bulman clark roared McGarry clark be damned you'd think he was a woman he strode up to harrid until their faces almost touched and his voice shook with the intensity of his anger bad god you nor clark nor anyone else will stop me i say he swung around and faced the people come on boys we'll fetch that corn or another reason why a responding murmur showed that the bulk of them were with him weary of the pent-up life longing for action and starred for a good meal the anger of many of his followers against clark and harrid was nigh as great as his he started roughly to shoulder his way out and whether from accident or design captain harrid slipped in front of him i never knew the thing that followed happened quickly as the catching of my breath i saw my gary powdering his pan and harrid's his and felt the crowd giving back like buffalo all at once the circle had vanished and the two men were standing not five paces apart with their rifles clutched across their bodies each watching cat-like for the other to level it was a cry that startled us and them there was a vision of a woman flying across the common and we saw the dauntless mrs harrod snatching her husband's gun from his resisting hands so she saved his life and the migaries at this point carnal clark was seen coming from the gate when he got to harrod and migary the quarrel blazed up again and now it was between the three of them and clark took harrod's rifle from mrs harrod and held it however it was presently decided that migary should wait one more day before going to his clearing whereupon the gates were opened the picked men going ahead to take station as a guard and soon we were hard at work plowing here and mowing there and in another place putting seed in the ground and we paused now and again to laugh at some sally of terrence mccann's or odd word of swan polsons as the day wore on to afternoon a blue haze harbinger of autumn settled over fourth and forest bees hummed in the air as they searched hither and thither amongst the flowers or shot straight as a bullet for a distant hide but presently a rifle crack and we raised our heads hissed said terrence the boys on watches that warlike we're in there's no red skins to kill they must be wasting good powder on the three i leaped upon a stump and scanned the line of centuries between us and the woods only their heads and shoulders appeared above the rank group i saw them looking from one to another questioningly some shouting words i could not hear then i saw some running and next as i stood there wondering came another crack and then a volley like the noise of a great fire leaking into dry wood and things that were not bees humming round about a distant man in the yellow hunting shirt stumbled and was drowned in the tangle as in water around me men dropped plow handles and women baskets and as we ran our legs grew numb and our bodies cold at a sound which had haunted us in dreams by night the war hoop the deep and guttural sound of it rose and fell with a horrid fierceness an agonized voice was in my ears and i halted ashamed it was polyans davie she cried davie have you seen tom two men dashed by i seized one by the fringe of his shirt and he flung me from my feet the other leaped me as i knelt ronya fools he shouted but we stood still with dirty eyes staring back through the frantic forms for a sight of tom's i'll go back i cried i'll go back for him do you run to the fort for suddenly i seemed to forget my fear nor did even the hideous sounds of the scalp hallow disturbed me before polyan could catch me i had turned and started stumbled i thought on a stump and fallen headlong among the nettles with a stinging pain in my leg staggering to my feet i tried to run on fell again and putting down my hand found it smeared with blood a man came by paused an instant while his eye caught me and ran on again i shall remember his face and name to my dying day but there's no reason to put it down here in a few seconds space as i lay i suffered all the pains of captivity and the death by torture that cry of savage man and hundred times more frightful than savage beast sounding in my ears and plainly nearer now by half the first distance nearer and nearer yet and then i heard my name called i was lifted from the ground and found myself in the life arms of polyan set me down i screamed set me down and must have added some of the curses i had heard in the fort but she clutched me tightly god blessed the memory of those frontier women and flew like a deer toward the gates over her shoulder i glanced back a spare 300 yards away in a ragged line a hundred red devils were bounding after us with feathers flying and mouths open as they yelled again i cried to her to set me down with though her heart beat faster and her breath came shorter she held me the tighter second by second they gained on us relentlessly were we near the fort horse shouts answered the question but they seemed distant too distant the savages were gaining and polyan's breath quicker still she staggered but the brave soul had no thought of faltering i had a sight of a man on a plow horse with dangling harness coming up from somewhere of the man leaping off of ourselves being pitched on the animal's bony back and clinging there at the gallop the man running at the side shots whistled over our heads and here was the brown fort its big gates swung together as we dashed through the narrowing opening then as he lifted us off i knew that the man who had saved us was tom himself the gates closed with a bang and a patter of bullets beat against them like rain through the shouting and confusion came a cry and a voice i knew now pleading now commanding open open for god's sake open it's ray open for ray raise out some were seizing the bar to thrust it back when the heavy figure of migary crushed into the crowd beside it i jove i'll shoot the man that touches it he shouted as he tore them away but the stardust of them went again to it and cursed him and while they fought backward and forward the lads mother mrs ray cried out to them to open in tones to rent their hearts but migary had gained the bar and swore perhaps wisely that he would not sacrifice the station for one man where was ray where was ray indeed it seemed as if no man might live in the hellish storm that raged without the walls as if the very impetus of hate and fury would carry the savages over the stockade to murder us into the turmoil at the gate tain kernel park sending the disputants this way and that to defend the fort migary to command one quarter harrod and bowman another and every man that could be found to a loophole while mrs ray continued to run up and down wringing her hands now facing one man now another some of her words came to me shrilly above the noise he said you he said you oh my god and you were grateful grateful when you were starving he risked his life torn by anxiety for my friend i dragged myself into the nearest cabin and the man was fighting there in the half light at the port the huge figure i knew to be my friend cowans and when he drew back to load i seized his arm shouting ray's name although the man was pattering on the other side of the logs cowan lifted me to the port and there stretched on the ground behind a stump within 20 feet of the walls was james even as i looked the puffs of dust at his side showed that the savages knew his refuge i saw him level in fire and then bill cowan set me down and began to ram in a charge with tremendous energy was there no way to save ray i stood turning this problem in my mind a subconsciously aware of cowans movements of his yells when he thought he had made a shot when polyanne appeared at the doorway darting in she fairly hauled me to the shakedown in the far corner will you bleed to death davie she cried as she slipped off my legging and bent over the wound her eye lighting on a gourd full of water on the punchy in table she tore a strip from her dress and watched them bound me deftly the bullet was in the flesh and gave me no great pain lie there yep she commanded when she had finished someone's under the bed said i for i'd heard a movement in an instant we were down on our knees on the hard dirt floor and there was a man's foot in a moccasin we both grabbed it and pulled bringing to life a person with little blue eyes and stiff blonde hair swan polson exclaimed polyanne giving him an involuntary kick may the devil give you shame swan polson rose to a sitting position and clasped his knees in his hands i have one great fright said he send him into the common with the women in your place mrs. machestny growled cowan who was loading that ham said swan polson leaping to his feet i will stay here and fight i'll pray once again stewing down he searched under the bed pulled out his rifle powdered the pan and flying to the other port fired at that cowan left his post and snatched the rifle from polson's hands year but wasting powder he cried angrily didn't bite him i miss fell under the bed said polson what can i do i had it dig i shouted and seizing the astonished cowan's tomahawk from his belt i said to work furiously chopping at the dirt beneath the log wall dig so that james can get under cowan gave me one look swore a mighty oath and leaping to the port shouted to ray in a thundering voice what we were doing dig roared cowan dig for the love of god we can't hear me the three of us set to work with all our might polson making great holes in the ground at every stroke polyan scraping at the dirt with the gourd two feet below the surface we struck the edge of the lowest log and then it was polson who got into the hole with his hunting knife perspiring muttering to himself working as one possessed with a fury while we scraped out the dirt from under him at length after what seemed an age of staring at his legs the ground caved on him and he would have smothered if we had not dragged him out by the heels sputtering and all powdered brown but there was the daylight under the log again cowan shattered at ray and again but he did not understand it was then the miracle happened i have seen brave men and cowards since and i am as far as ever from distinguishing them before we knew it polson was in the hole once more had wiggled out of it on the other side and was squirming in a hail of bullets towards ray it was a full minute of suspense perhaps two during which the very rifles of the fort were silent though the popping in the weeds was redoubled and then the barrel of a decad was poked through the hole after it came james ray himself and lastly polson and a great shout went out from the loopholes and was taken up by the women in the common when polson had become a hero nor was he willing to lose any of the glamour which was a hero's right as the indians fire slackened he went from cabin to cabin and if its occupants failed to mention the exploit some did fail so to do out of mischief swin would say did you see me save james no i will tell you just how it never leaked out that swin was first of all under the bed for poly han and bill cowan and myself swore to keep the secret but they told how i had thought of digging the hole under the logs a happy circumstance which got me a reputation for wisdom beyond my years there was a certain scotchman at harrods town called macandrew and it was he gave me the nickname tanny dated and i grew to have a sort of precocious fame in the station often captain harrod or bowman or some of the others would pause in their arguments and say greatly what does davie think of it this was not good for a boy and the wonder of it is that it did not make me altogether insupportable one effect it had on me to make me long even more earnestly to be a man the impulse of my reputation led me farther a fortnight of more inactivity followed and then we ventured out into the fields once more but i went with the guard this time not with the women thanks to a whim the men had for humoring me a ride bit he a man all but two feet said parents with more brain and me and bill cowan and pulsing together as a fox knows davie has for the devil's bill sure he can smell them the same as you and me can see the red paint on their faces i reckon that's true said bill cowan with salinity and so he carried me off at length the cattle were turned out to browse greedily through the clearing while we lay in the woods by the forest and listened to the sound of their bells but when they strayed too far i was often sent to drive them back once when this happened i followed them to the shade of the edge of the woods for it was noon and the sun beat down fiercely and there i set for some time watching them as they lashed their sides with their tails and pawed the ground for experience is a good master whether or not the flies were all that troubled them i could not tell and no sounds saved the tinkle of their bells broke the noonday stillness making a circle i drove them back toward the fort much troubled in mind i told cowan that he laughed and said it was the flies yet i was not satisfied and finally i stole back again to the place where i found them i set a long time hidden at the edge of the forest listening until my imagination tricked me into hearing those clauses which i feared and yet long for trembling i stole a little father into the shade of the woods and then a little father still the leaves rustled in the summer's breeze patches of sunlight flickered on the mold the birds twittered and the squirrels scolded the chipmunk frightened to be as he flew chattering along a log and yet i went on i came to the creek as it flowed silently in the shade stepped in and made my way slowly down it i know not how far walking in the water my eye alerted to every movement about me at length i stopped and caught my breath before me in a glade opening out under the great trees what seemed a myriad of forked sticks were piled against one another three by three and it struck me all in a heap that i had come upon a great encampment but the skeletons of the pyramid tents alone remained where were the skins was the camp deserted for a while i stared through the briar leaves then i took a venture pushed on and found myself in the midst of the place it must have held near a thousand warriors all about me were gray heaps of ashes and bones of deer and elk and buffalo scattered some picked clean some with the meat and hide sticking to them impelled by a strong fascination i went hither and thither until a sound brought me to a stand the echoing crack of a distant rifle on the heels of it came another then several together and a faint shouting boar on the light wind terrorized i sought for shelter a pile of brush underlain by ashes was by and i crept into that the sounds continued but seemed to come no nearer and my courage returning i got out again and rend wildly through the camp towards the briars on the creek expecting every minute to be tumbled headlong by a bullet and when i reached the briars what between patting and the thumping of my heart i could for a few moments hear nothing then i ran on again up the creek heedless of cover stumbling over logs and trailing vines when all at once a dozen bronze forms glided with the speed of deer across my path ahead they splashed over the creek and were gone bewildered with fear i dropped under a fallen tree shouts were in my ears and the noise of men running i stood up and there not 20 paces away was colonel clark himself rushing toward me he halted with a cry raised his rifle and dropped it at the site of my queer little figure covered with ashes my god he cried it stayed he they crossed the creek i shouted pointing the way they crossed the creek some 12 of them i he said staring at me and by this time the rest of the guard were come up they too stared with different exclamations on their lips cowan and bowman and tom nitchesney and terrence mccann in front and there's a great camp below i went on deserted where a thousand men have been a camp deserted said part quickly yes i said yes but he had already started forward and seized me by the arm lead on he cried show it to us he went ahead with me traveling so fast that i must need run to keep up and fairly lifting me over the logs but when we came inside of the place he darted forward alone and went through it like a hound on the trail the others followed him crying out at the size of the place and poking among the ashes at length they all took up the trail for a way down the creek presently carc called a halt i reckon they've made for the ohio he said and at this judgment from him the guard gave a cheer that might almost have been heard in the fields around the fort the terror that had hovered over us all that long summer was lifted at last you may be sure that cowan carried me back to the station to think it was davie that found him he cried again and again to think it was davie found it and wasn't it me that said he could smell the divils said terrence as he circled around us in a mimic war dance and twin from the fort they saw us coming across the fields they opened the gates in astonishment and on hearing the news gave themselves over to the wildest rejoicing for the backwards men were children of nature deal cowan ran for the fiddle which he had carried so carefully over the mountain and that night we had jigs and reels on the common while the big fellow played billy of the wild woods and jump juba with all his might and the pine knots threw their fitful red light on the wild scenes of merriment i must have cut a queer little figure as i sat between cowan and tom watching the dance for presently colonel clark came up to us laughing in his quiet way davie said he there's another great man here who would like to see you and led me away wondering i went with him toward the gate burning all over with pride at his attention and beside a torch there a broad-shouldered figure was standing at sight of whom i had a start of remembrance you know who that is davie said current clark it's daniel boone said i by thunder said clark i believe the boy is a wizard while mr boone's broad mouth was creased into a smile and there was a trace of astonishment too it is kindly i mr boone came to my father's cabin on the adkin once i said he taught me to skin a deer i that i did exclaimed mr boone and i said you'd make a woodsman sometime mr boone it seemed had come over from boonesborough to consult with colonel clark on certain matters and had but just arrived but so modest was he that he would not let it be known that he was in the station for fear interrupting the pleasure he was much the same as i had known him only grown older and his reputation now increased to vastness he and clark sat on a doorlog talking for a long time on kentucky matters the strength of the forts the prospect of new settlers that autumn of the british policy and finally of a journey which colonel clark was soon to make back to virginia across the mountains they seemed not to mind my presence at length colonel clark turned to me with that quiet jocos way he had when relaxed davie said he will see how much of a general you are what would you do if a scoundrel named hamilton far away at Detroit was riding all the redskins he could find north of the Ohio to come down and scalp your men i'd go for hamilton i answered by god exclaimed clark striking mr boon on the knee that's what i do end of chapter 10 book one chapter 11 of the crossing by winston church hill this labor voucher recording is in the public domain chapter 11 fragmentary mr boons visit lasted but a day i was a great deal with colonel clark in the few weeks that followed before his departure for virginia he held himself a little aloof as a leader should from the captains in the station without seeming to offend them but he had a fancy for james ray and for me and he often took me into the woods with him by day and talked with me of an evening i'm going away to virginia davie he said will you not go with me we'll see williamsburg and come back in the spring and i'll have you a little rifle made my look must have been wistful i can't leave polyanne and tom i answered well he said i like that faith to your friends is a big equipment for life but why are you going i asked because i love kentucky best of all things in the world he answered smiling and what are you going to do i insisted ah he said that i can't tell even to you to catch hamilton i ventured at random he looked at me clearly would you go along davie said he laughing now would you take tom among the first answered colonel clark hardly we were seated under the elm near the spring and at that instant i saw tom coming toward us i jumped up thinking to please him by this intelligence when colonel clark pulled me down again davie said he almost roughly i thought remember that we have been joking do you understand joking you have a tongue in your mouth but since enough in your head i believe to hold it he turned to tom machestney this is a queer lad you brought us said he's a little devil agreed tom well that had become a formula with him it was all very mysterious to me and i lay awake many a night with curiosity trying to solve a puzzle that was none of my business and one day to cap the matter two woodsmen arrived at harrods town with clothes frayed and bodies lean from a long journey not one of the hundred questions with which they were beset would they answer nor say where they had been or why say that they had carried out certain orders of clark who was locked up with them in a cabin for several hours the first of october the day of colonel clark's departure dawned crisp and clear he was to take with him the disheartened and the coward the weaklings who loved neither work nor exposure nor danger and before he set out of the gate he made a little speech to the assembled people my friends he said you know me i put the interest of kentucky before my own last year when i left to represent her at williamsburg there were some who said i would desert her it was for her sake i made that journey suffered the torches of hell from skull feet was near to dying in the mountains it was for her sake that i impertuned the governor and counsel for powder and lead and when they refused it i said to them gentlemen a country that is not worth defending is not worth claiming at these words the settlers gave a great shout waving their coombskin hats in the air i that you did cried bill cowan and got the ammunition i made that journey for her sake i say colonel clark continued and even so i'm making this one i pray you trust me and god bless and keep you while i'm gone he did not forget to speak to me as he walked between our lines and told me to be a good boy and that he would see me in the spring some of the women shed tears as he passed through the gate and many of us climbed to century box and cabin roof that we might see the last of the little company winding its way across the fields a motley company it was a refuse of the station headed by its cherished captain so they started back over the weary road that led to that now far away land of civilization and safety during the balmy indian summer when the sharper lines of nature are softened by the haze some came to us from across the mountains to make up for the deserters from time to time a little group would straggle to the gates of the station weary and foot sore but overjoyed at the sight of white faces again the fathers walking ahead with watchful eyes the women and older children driving the horses and the babies slung to the pack and hickory with his nay some of our best citizens came to kentucky swinging to the tail of a patient animal the indians were still abroad and in small war parties darted hither and thither with incredible swiftness and at night we would gather at the fire around our new immigrants to listen to the stories they had to tell familiar stories to all of us sometimes it had been the gobble of a wild turkey that had lured to danger again a wood owl had cried strangely in the night winter came and passed somehow i cannot dwell here on the tediousness of it and the one bright spot it is left in my memory concerns polyan did man woman or child fall sick it was polyan who nursed them she had by nature the god-given gift of healing knew by heart all the simple remedies that backwood's lore had inherited from the north of ireland or borrowed from the indians her sympathy and loving kindness did more than these her never tiring and ever cheerful watchfulness she was deaf too was polyan and spun from metal bark many a cut of lemon that could scarce be told from flax before the sap began to run again in the maples there was not a soul in harrowedstown who did not love her and i truly believe that most of them would have risked their lives to do her bidding then came the sugaring the warm days and the freezing nights with the earth stares in her sleep and the taps drip from red sunrise to red sunset old and young went to the camps the women and the children boiling and graining the squads of men posted in guards round about and after that the days flew so quickly that it seemed as if the woods had burst suddenly into white flower and it was spring again and then a joy to be long remembered i went on a hunting trip with tom and callan and three others for the kentucky tumbles between its darkly wooded cliffs and other wonders of that strange land i saw then for the first time great licks trampled down for acres by the wild herds where the saltwater oozes out of the hoof prints on the edge of one of these licks we paused and stared breathless at giant bones sticking here and there in the black mud and the great skulls of fearful beasts half embedded this was called the big bone lick and some travelers that went before us had made their tents with the thighs of these monsters of a past age a danger past is off a danger forgotten man went out to build the homes of which they had dreamed through the long winter axes rang amidst the white dogwoods and the crabs and red buds and there were riotous log raisings and the clearings but i think the building of tom's house was the most joyous occasion of all for none in the settlement would men work more willingly than for him and polyanne the cabin went up as if by magic it stood on a rise upon the banks of the river and a grove of oaks and hickories with a big persimmon tree in front of the door it was in the shade of this tree that polyanne set watching tom and me through the mild spring days as we barked the roof and none ever felt greater joy and pride in a home than she we had our first supper on a wide punch in under the persimmon tree on the few pewter plates we had fetched across the mountain the blue smoke from our own hearth rising in the valley until the cold night air spread it out in a line above us while the horses grazed at the river's edge after that we went to plowing an occupation which tom fancied but little for he loved the life of a hunter best of all but there was corn to be raised and fodder for the horses and a truck patch to be cleared near the house one day a great event happened and after the manner of many great events it began in mystery leaping on the rome mayor i was riding like mad for harridstown to fetch mrs callan and she when she heard the summons abandoned a turkey on the spit pitched her brats out of the door seized the mayor and dashing through the gates of a gallop left me to make my way back afoot senting a sensation i hurried along the woody trace at a dog trot and when i came inside of the cabin there was mrs callan sitting on the step holding in her long but motherly arms something bundled up in nettle linen while tom stood sheepishly by staring at it shucks mrs callan was saying loudly i reckon you're as little used today as swin polson stand in there on one foot yanker me just grinning at it like a fool in your own doing have you forgot how to talk tom grinned the moor but was saved the effort of a reply by a loud noise from the bundle here's another cried mrs callan to me you needn't act as if it was an animal faith yourself was like that once all red and crinkled but i warned you didn't have the heft and she lifted it judiciously a grand baby attacking tom again and you know more worthy to be his father than davie here then i heard a voice calling me and pushing past mrs callan i ran into the cabin polian lay on the log bedstead and as she turned to mine a face radiant with a happiness i had not imagined oh davie have you seen him have you seen little tom davie i reckon i'll never be so happy again fetch him here mrs callan mrs callan with a glance of contempt at tom and me put the bundle tenderly down on the coarse brown sheet beside her poor little tom only the first fortnight of his existence was spent in peace i have a pathetic memory of it all of our little home of our hopes for it of our days of labor and nights of planning to make it complete and then one morning when the three of us were turning over the black loam in the patch while the baby slept peacefully in the shade a sound came to our ears that made us pause and listen with bated breath it was the sound of many guns muffled in the distant forest with a cry poly and flew to the hickory cradle under the tree tom sprang for the rifle that was never far from his side while with the kind of instinct i ran to catch the span sold horses by the river in silence and sorrow we fled through the tall cane nor dared to take one last look at the cabin or the fields lying black in the spring sunlight the shots had ceased but ere we had reached the little clearing the can had made they began again though as distant as before tom went ahead while i led the mare and poly and clutched the child to her breast but when we came inside of the fort across the clearings the gates were closed there was nothing to do but cower in the thicket listening while the battle went on afar poly and trying to steal the cries of the child lest they should bring death upon us at length the shooting ceased stillness reigned then came a faint hello and out of the forest beyond us a man rode waving his hat at the fort after him came others the gates opened and we rushed pal mel across the fields to safety the indians had shot at a party shelling corn at captain bowman's plantation and killed two while the others had taken refuge in the crib tired at from every break james ray had ridden to harrods town for sucker and the savages had been beaten off but only the foolhardy returned to their clearings now we were on the edge of another dreaded summer of siege the prospect of banishment from the homes we could almost see staring us in the face and the labors of the spring lost again there was better talk within the gates that night and many declared angrily that colonel clark had abandoned us but i remembered what he had said and had faith in him it was that very night too i sat with cowan who had duty in one of the sentry boxes and we heard a voice calling softly under us fearing treachery cowan cried out for a sign then the answer came back loudly to open to a runner with a message from colonel clark to captain harrod cowan let the man in while i ran for the captain and in five minutes it seemed as if every man and woman and child in the fort were awake and crowding around the man by the gates their eager faces written by the smoking pine nuts where was clark what had he been doing had he deserted them deserted he cried the runner and swore a great oath wasn't clark even then on the ohio racing a great army with authority from the commonwealth of virginia to rid them of the red scourge and would they desert him or would they be men and bring from harrod's town the company he asked for then captain harrod read the letter asking him to raise the company and before day had dawned they were ready for the word to march ready to leave cabin and clearing and wife and child trusting in clark's judgment for time and place never were volunteers mustered more quickly than in that cool april night by the gates of harrod's town station and will fetch davie along for luck cried cowan catching sight of me beside him sure we'll be wanting a drummer barry said macan and so they enrolled me end of chapter 11