s
beauty shone in the moonlight! The trees silvered with mist stood in
long rows, and the friendly boughs and leaves, moving before the wind,
never ceased to sing their friendly song to him.

Deep peace came over him. Lying on his side and soothed by the forest
and flowing water his eyelids drooped of their own accord. Presently he
slept, breathing deeply and regularly, and drawing the fresh air into
his veins. But he awoke before daylight and reentered the village and
his father's house without being seen by anyone. To the questions of his
parents he said that he had slept well, and he ate his breakfast with an
appetite that he had not known since he came within the palisade.

The news that Henry and Paul had brought of the great invasion
threatened by an allied Indian and British force disturbed Wareville.
Yet the settlers felt much safer when they learned that the redoubtable
George Rogers Clark intended a counterstroke. More than twenty of the
most stalwart colonists volunteered to go to Louisville and join Clark
for the blow. Henry told his father that he and Paul would return with
them.

"I suppose it is your nature," said Mr. Ware, "but do you not think,
Henry, that you have already suffered enough hardship and danger for the
sake of the border?"

"No, Father, I do not," replied Henry. "Not as long as hardship and
danger are to be suffered. And I know, too, that it is my nature. I
shall live all my life in the forest."

Mr. Ware said nothing more. He knew that words were useless. That
question had been threshed out between them long ago. But he gave him an
affectionate farewell, and, a week after their arrival in Wareville,
Henry and Paul departed again for the North, the whole population of
Wareville waving them good-by as they embarked upon the river.

But the two youths were far from being alone. A score of strong men,
mostly young, were with them in four boats, and they carried an ample
supply of arms and ammunition. Mr. Pennypacker wanted to go back with
them, but he was dissuaded from undertaking the task.

"Perhaps it is best that I stay in Wareville," he said regretfully. "I
am really a man of peace and not of war, although war has looked for me
more than once."

Their boats now had oars instead of paddles, and with the current in
their favor they moved rapidly toward the north. They also had a
favoring breeze behind them and Henry and Paul, who were in the first
boat, felt their hearts swell wi