f debatable
land had come to be called, a spirit of ill will and ferocity was
arising again; and settlers who had for years lived in peace and
quietness in their lonely homes had been swooped down upon, scalped,
their houses burnt, their wives and children tomahawked--the raid
being so swift and sudden that defence and resistance had alike
been futile.

What gave an added horror to this sudden change of policy on the
part of the Indians was the growing conviction throughout the
settlement that it was due to the agency of white men.

France, not content with the undisputed possession of Canada, and
of vast tracts of territory in the west and south which she had no
means of populating, was bitterly jealous of the English colony in
the east, and, above all; of any attempts which it might make to
extend its western border.

Fighting there had been already. Humphrey had heard rumours of
disasters to the English arms farther away to the south. He had
heard of Braddock's army having been cut to pieces in its attempt
to reach and capture the French Fort Duquesne, and a vague
uneasiness was penetrating to these scattered settlers, who had
hitherto lived in quietness and peace.

Perhaps had they known more of the spirit of parties beyond their
limited horizon, they would have been more uneasy still. But habit
is an enormous power in a man's life. Humphrey had gone forth into
the forest to kill meat for the family larder three or four days in
the week, in all seasons when the farm work was not specially
pressing. He came back day by day to the low-browed log house, with
its patches of Indian corn and other crops, its pleasant sounds of
life, the welcome from the children, the approval of father and
brother if the day had been successful, and the smiles of the
housewife when he displayed the contents of his bag. It was almost
impossible to remember from day to day that peril from the silent,
mysterious forest threatened them. They had lived there for ten
years unmolested and at peace; who would care to molest them now?

And yet Humphrey, who knew the forest so well--its mysterious,
interminable depths, its trackless, boundless extent, rolling over
hill and valley in endless billows--he knew well how silently, how
suddenly an ambushed foe might approach, spring out from the thick,
tangled shelter to do some murderous deed, and in the maze of giant
timber be at once swallowed up beyond all danger of pursuit.

In the open pla