hat seems to have been common
to most of the stations of that period--which was, that the spring,
supplying the inmates with water, had not been enclosed within the
pickets. The reader can at once imagine the misery that must have ensued
from this cause, in case of their being suddenly assaulted by a superior
enemy, and the siege protracted to any considerable length of time.

Within this fort, on their return from captivity, Mrs. Younker and Ella
had taken up their abode, to remain until another cabin should be
erected, or it should be thought safe for them to live again in a more
exposed manner. Isaac had straightway repaired to his father-in-law's,
to behold again the idol of his heart, and pour into her ear his grief
for the loss of his father and friend, and receive her sympathy for his
affliction in return. The disastrous affair which had called him and his
companions so suddenly from a scene of festivity to one of mourning--the
loss of so many valuable neighbors, and the result of the expedition
in pursuit of the enemy--created at the time no little excitement
throughout the frontiers, and caused some of the more timid to resort
to the nearest stations for security. But as time wore on, and as
nothing serious happened during the fall and winter, confidence and
courage gradually became restored; and the affair was almost forgotten,
save by the friends and relatives of the deceased and those particularly
concerned in it.

Spring, however, revived the alarm of the settlers, by the reappearance
of the enemy in all quarters, and the outrages they committed, as before
mentioned; so that but very few persons ventured to remain without the
walls of a fort; and these, such of them as were fortunate enough to
escape death or captivity, were fain to seek refuge therein before the
close of summer.

Immediately on the receipt of the alarming intelligence of Estill's
defeat, Isaac, his wife, and the family of his father-in-law, Wilson,
repaired to Bryan's Station, and joined Mrs. Younker and Ella, who had
meantime remained there in security.

[Footnote 18: McKee and Elliot.]

CHAPTER XV.

OLD CHARACTERS AND NEW.

It was toward night of a hot sultry day in the month of August, that
Ella Barnwell was seated by the door of a cabin, within the walls of
Bryan's Station, gazing forth, with what seemed a vacant stare, upon a
group of individuals, who were standing near the center of the common
before spoken of, eng