e outlying cabins of the settlement.

The forts were built as centrally as possible in the scattered
settlements. They consisted of cabins, blockhouses, and stockades.
A range of cabins often formed one side of a fort. The walls on the
outside were ten or twelve feet high with roofs sloping inward. The
blockhouses built at the angles of the fort projected two feet or so
beyond the outer walls of the cabins and stockades, and were fitted with
portholes for the watchers and the marksmen. The entrance to the fort
was a large folding gate of thick slabs. It was always on the side
nearest the spring. The whole structure of the fort was bullet-proof
and was erected without an iron nail or spike. In the border wars these
forts withstood all attacks. The savages, having proved that they could
not storm them, generally laid siege and waited for thirst to compel a
sortie. But the crafty besieger was as often outwitted by the equally
cunning defender. Some daring soul, with silent feet and perhaps with
naked body painted in Indian fashion, would drop from the wall under
cover of the night, pass among the foemen to the spring, and return to
the fort with water.

Into the pioneer's phrase-making the Indian influence penetrated so
that he named seasons for his foe. So thoroughly has the term "Indian
Summer," now to us redolent of charm, become disassociated from its
origins that it gives us a shock to be reminded that to these Back
Country folk the balmy days following on the cold snap meant the season
when the red men would come back for a last murderous raid on the
settlements before winter should seal up the land. The "Powwowing Days"
were the mellow days in the latter part of February, when the red men in
council made their medicine and learned of their redder gods whether or
no they should take the warpath when the sap pulsed the trees into
leaf. Even the children at their play acknowledged the red-skinned
schoolmaster, for their chief games were a training in his woodcraft
and in the use of his weapons. Tomahawk-throwing was a favorite sport
because of its gruesome practical purposes. The boys must learn to gauge
the tomahawk's revolutions by the distance of the throw so as to bury
the blade in its objective. Swift running and high jumping through the
brush and fallen timber were sports that taught agility in escape. The
boys learned to shoot accurately the long rifles of their time, with
a log or a forked stick for a rest, an