ying the women's linsey
petticoats and bare feet, for now that it was warm weather many dispensed
with any foot-covering. In turn the women were openly examining the
texture and style of her town gown, and shrilly calling on one another to
come and admire her soft leather boots.

I did not see Dale, and Davis informed me he was inspecting the fort. As
Ward was not in sight I assumed he, too, was at the fort. Making my way to
the window, I caught Patsy's eye and handed her her lost moccasin.

She stared at the moccasin in bewilderment, but what with the newness of
her experience and the voluble praise of the women and the open-eyed
admiration of the men, she was finely excited. She forgot to ask where I
found the moccasin or how I happened to be there. She was in the act of
giving me a smile and a nod when Mrs. Davis tugged her to the
right-about.

Realizing it was useless to strive for the girl's attention until the
neighbors returned to their cabins, I walked to the fort, leading my
horse. Hughes was there ahead of me and stood with a group of sullen-faced
men who were being addressed by Ericus Dale.

"I say there ain't going to be any war," he cried as I took a position
behind him. "The Indians don't want war. They want trade. Take a pack of
goods on your horse and walk into a Shawnee village and see how quick
they'll quit the war-post to buy red paint and cloth.

"Open a keg of New England rum among the Mingos and see how quick they'll
drop their axes and hunt for tin dippers. Take blankets and beads to the
Wyandots and watch them hang up white wampum. Take----"

"Oh, that's all fool talk!" thundered Hughes crowding forward and staring
angrily into the trader's deep-set eyes. "You can't lead a pack-hoss fifty
miles from this creek without losing your hair, neighbor."

"I can! I will!" wrathfully replied Dale. "I've traded for years with the
Indians. I never yet went to them with a gun in my hand. If ever I need
protection, they'll protect me. They are my friends. This war is all
wrong. You can have it if you insist. But if you'd rather have trade, then
you needn't build any more forts west of the Alleghanies."

Hughes laughed hoarsely and called out to the silent settlers:

"What do you fellers say to all this twaddle? Any of you believe it?"

Uncle Dick, whom I had left whetting his knife on the stones of the Davis
fireplace, gave a cackling laugh and answered:

"Believe it? No! But it's fun to hear him s