ared in the
timber.

"That night a party was got together at the fort to pursue the Indians
and rescue the children.

"Well, near the close of the next day the party came upon these Indians,
some forty miles from the fort. They approached the camp cautiously,
coyote-like, 'n' saw that the girls were there.

"'Shoot carefully, now,' said the leader. 'Each man bring down an
Indian, or the children will be killed before we can reach them.'

"They fired upon the Indians, picking out the three who were nearest the
children. Not one of the Indians was hit, but the whole party was
terribly frightened, leaped up, 'n' run like deer. The children were
rescued unharmed 'n' taken back to the fort. You would think them was
pretty hard times, wouldn't ye?

"There was one event that happened at the time about which I have heard
the old folks tell, with staring eyes, and I will never forget it. The
Indians came one night to attack a log-house in which were a man, his
wife, and daughter, named Merrill. They did not wish to burn the cabin,
but to enter it and make captives of the family; so they cut a hole in
the door, with their hatchets, large enough to crawl through one at a
time. They wounded Mr. Merrill outright.

"But Mrs. Merrill was a host in herself. Her only weapon was an axe, and
there never was fought in Kentucky, or anywhere else in the world, I'm
thinkin', such another battle as that.

"The leader of the Indians put his head through the hole in the door and
began to crawl into the room, slowly--slowly--so--"

Mr. Lincoln put out his great arms, and moved his hands mysteriously.

"Well," he continued, "what do you suppose happened? Mrs. Merrill she
dealt that Indian a death-blow on the head with the axe, just like
_that_, and then drew him in slowly, slowly. The Indians without thought
that he had crawled in himself, and another Indian followed him slowly,
slowly. That Indian received his death-blow on the head, and was pulled
in like the first, slowly. Another and another Indian were treated in
the same way, until the dark cabin floor presented an awful scene for
the morning.

"Only one or two were left without. The women felt that they were now
the masters in the contest, and stood looking on what they had done.
There fell a silence over the place. Still, awful still everywhere. What
a silence it was! The two Indians outside listened. Why were their
comrades so still? What had happened? Why was everything so st