Kenton. Born in
Virginia in 1755, he had grown to young manhood, rough and uncultivated,
and with little evidence of having been raised in a civilized community.
At the age of sixteen, he had a desperate affray with a neighbor named
William Veach, during which he caught Veach around the body, whirled him
into the air, and dashed him to the ground with such violence, that he
thought he had broken his neck. Not daring to return home or to linger
in the neighborhood, for fear his crime would be discovered and he
himself arrested and hanged, he plunged into the wilderness and made his
way westward over the mountains, changing his name to Simon Butler.

The two or three years following were spent by him in roaming along the
Ohio valley, sometimes alone, sometimes with two or three companions,
and always surrounded by danger. On one occasion, his camp was surprised
by Indians, and he and his companion were forced to flee for their
lives without weapons of any kind, and with no clothing but their
shirts. For six days and nights, they wandered without fire or food,
suffering from the cold, for it was the dead of winter, and so torn and
lacerated that on the last two days they covered only six miles, most of
it on hands and knees. Staggering and crawling forward, they came out at
last upon the Ohio river, and by good fortune fell in with a
hunting-party and were saved.

Kenton's life was full of just such incidents. Daniel Boone found in him
a most valuable ally, incapable of fear and with a knowledge of
woodcraft surpassed only by Boone himself. Kenton was inside Boone's
fort whenever it was in danger, and on one occasion saved Boone's life.
Let us tell the story, for it is typical of the border warfare in which
both Boone and Kenton were so expert.

One morning, having loaded their guns for a hunt, Kenton and two
companions were standing in the gate of Fort Boone, when two men, who
were driving in some horses from a near-by field, were fired upon by
Indians. They fled toward the fort, the Indians after them, and one of
them was overtaken and killed and was being scalped, when Kenton and his
companions ran up, killed one of the Indians and pursued the others to
the edge of the clearing. Boone, meanwhile, had heard the firing, and
came hurrying out with reinforcements, only, a moment later, to be cut
off from the fort by a strong body of savages. There was nothing to do
but to cut their way back through them, and in the charg