e Indians immediately fired,
and Boone's brother fell dead. Daniel Boone turned, levelled his rifle at
the foremost Indian, and brought him down; with a loud yell the party now
rushed toward him. He snatched his brother's rifle, levelled another, and
then ran. The Indians gave chase, but he managed to keep ahead, and even
found time to reload his rifle. He knew that his only chance for escape
was to distance them, and break his trail. He passed the brow of a hill,
jumped into a brook below, waded in it for some distance, and then struck
off at right angles from his old course. Upon looking back he found, to
his sorrow, that he had not succeeded--the Indians were still on his
track. Presently, he came to a grape-vine, and tried his old experiment
at breaking the trail. This was to no purpose, he found the savages still
following him. After travelling some distance farther, upon looking round
he saw the cause of his trouble; the Indians had a dog with them, and
this dog, scenting his track, kept them for ever on his course. His rifle
was loaded--the dog was far ahead of the party--and Boone sent a rifle
ball through him. He now pushed on, doubling his course from time to
time; the Indians lost track of him, and he reached Boonesborough in
safety.

In spite of the continued annoyance of the Indians, the white settlements
had continued to grow, and there were now so many white men in the
country, that in the fall of this year (1780), Kentucky was divided into
the three counties of Jefferson, Fayette, and Lincoln. Our friend, Daniel
Boone, was appointed to command the militia in his county, and William
Pope, and Benjamin Logan, two brave men, were to have the command in
theirs.

The winter of this year soon set in, and it proved a hard one. The
settlers, however, bore it cheerfully, for they were accustomed to
hardships. Hard as it was, too, it proved mild to the next that followed.
The winter of 1781 was long remembered as "the cold winter" in Kentucky.
To make it harder, the Indians, after doing much mischief through the
summer, had destroyed most of the crops the preceding fall, and the
settlers had small supplies of food. But the forest was around them;
Boone and Harrod were among them, and these two men found food enough.
Every day they went out in the winter's storms--every night they came in
laden with deer and buffaloes. The people learned to live on nothing but
meat. Boone and Harrod drove away all thoughts of star