ening in the forest where, for any unknown cause,
the trees had disappeared, and where the thick turf alone opposed
the hoe. They often had neither oxen nor plows. Thus these
widely-scattered spots upon the hill-sides and the margins of distant
streams were eagerly sought for, and thus these lonely settlers were
exposed, utterly defenseless, to the savage foe.

The following scene, which occurred in a remote section of the country
at a later period, will illustrate the horrible nature of this Indian
warfare. Far away in the wilderness, a man had erected his log hut
upon a small meadow, which had opened itself in the midst of a
gigantic forest. The man's family consisted of himself, his wife, and
several children, the eldest of whom was a daughter fifteen years of
age. At midnight, the loud barking of his dog alarmed him. He stepped
to the door to see what he could discover, and instantly there was a
report of several muskets, and he fell upon the floor of his hut
pierced with bullets, and with a broken leg and arm. The Indians,
surrounding the house, now with frightful yells rushed to the door.
The mother, frantic with terror, her children screaming around her,
and her husband groaning and weltering in his blood, barred the door
and seized an axe. The savages, with their hatchets, soon cut a hole
through the door, and one of them crowded in. The heroic mother, with
one blow of the axe, cleft his head to the shoulder, and he dropped
dead upon the floor. Another of the assailants, supposing, in the
darkness, that he had made good his entrance, followed him. He also
fell by another well-directed stroke. Thus four were slain before the
Indians discovered their mistake.

They then clambered upon the house, and were soon heard descending
through the capacious flue of the chimney. The wife still stood with
the axe to guard the door. The father, bleeding and fainting, called
upon one of the little children to roll the feather bed upon the fire.
The burning feathers emitted such a suffocating smoke and smell that
the Indians were almost smothered, and they tumbled down upon the
embers. At the same moment, another one attempted to enter the door.
The wounded husband and father had sufficient strength left to seize a
billet of wood and dispatch the half-smothered Indians. But the mother
was now so exhausted with terror and fatigue that her strength failed
her, and she struck a feeble blow, which wounded, but did not kill her
adv