He had built him cabins, like other lonely
settlers, and planted cornfields, from which he had been driven, time
after time, by the evil Shawnees, incurring frequent perils and
hardships; which, with the persecutions he endured from his more warlike
and intolerant neighbours, gradually drove him into the forest to seek a
precarious subsistence from the spoils of the chase. As to his past life,
and the causes that had made him a dweller of the wilderness, he betrayed
so little inclination to satisfy the young man's curiosity, that Roland
dropped the subject entirely, not however without suspecting, that the
imputations Bruce had cast upon his character might have had some
foundation in truth.

But while conning these things over in his mind, on a sudden the soldier
stepped from the dark forest into a broad opening, canopied only by the
sky, sweeping like a road through the wood, in which it was lost behind
him; while, in front, it sank abruptly into a deep hollow or gulf, in
which was heard the sullen rush of an impetuous river.

CHAPTER XIII.

The roar of the moving flood, for such, by its noise, it seemed, as they
descended the river-bank, to which Nathan had so skilfully conducted
them, awoke in Roland's bosom a feeling of dismay.

"Fear not," said the guide, to whom he imparted his doubts of the safety
of the ford; "there is more danger in one single skulking Shawnee than
ten thousand such sputtering brooks. Verily, the ford is good enough,
though deep and rough; and if the water should soil thee young women's
garments a little, thee should remember it will not make so ugly a stain
as the bood-mark of a scalping-savage."

"Lead on," said Pardon Dodge, with unexpected spirit; "I am not one of
them 'ere fellers as fears a big river; and my hoss is a dreadful fine
swimmer."

"In that case," said Nathan, "if thee consents to the same; I will
get up behind thee, and so pass over dry-shod; for the feel of wet
leather-breeches is quite uncomfortable."

This proposal, being reasonable enough, was readily acceded to, and
Nathan was in the act of climbing to the crupper of Dodge's horse, when
little Peter began to manifest a prudent desire to pass the ford dry-shod
also, by pawing at his master's heels, and beseeching his notice with
sundry low but expressive whinings. Such, at least, was the
interpretation which Roland, who perceived the animal's motions, was
inclined to put upon them. He was, therefore, not a