dren drew an axe from the corner
of the cottage and cut off the head of the Indian, while her little
daughter shut the door. The savages soon appeared, and applied their
tomahawks to the door. An old rusty gun-barrel, without a lock, lay in
the corner, which the mother put through a small crevice, and the
savages perceiving it, fled. In the meantime the alarm spread through
the neighborhood; the armed men collected immediately and pursued the
savages into the wilderness. Thus Providence, by means of this negro,
saved the whole of the poor family from destruction."

The heroism of Mrs. Merrill is worthy of being perpetuated, not only as
a wonderful achievement, but as illustrative of the nature of this
dreadful warfare. Mr. Merrill, with his wife, little son and daughter,
occupied a remote cabin in Nelson County, Kentucky. On the 24th of
December, 1791, he was alarmed by the barking of his dog. Opening the
door to ascertain the cause, he was instantly fired upon by seven or
eight Indians who had crept near the house secreting themselves behind
stumps and trees. Two bullets struck him, fracturing the bones both of
his leg and of his arm. The savages, with hideous yells, then rushed for
the door.

Mrs. Merrill had but just time to close and bolt it when the savages
plunged against it and hewed it with their tomahawks. Every dwelling was
at that time a fortress whose log walls were bullet proof. But for the
terrible wounds which Mr. Merrill had received, he would with his rifle
shooting through loop-holes, soon have put the savages to flight. They,
emboldened by the supposition that he was killed, cut away at the door
till they had opened a hole sufficiently large to crawl through. One of
the savages attempted to enter. He had got nearly in when Mrs. Merrill
cleft his skull with an ax, and he fell lifeless upon the floor.
Another, supposing that he had safely effected an entrance, followed him
and encountered the same fate. Four more of the savages were in this way
despatched, when the others, suspecting that all was not right, climbed
upon the roof and two of them endeavored to descend through the
chimney. The noise they made directed the attention of the inmates of
the cabin to the new danger.

There was a gentle fire burning upon the hearth. Mr. Merrill, with much
presence of mind, directed his son, while his wife guarded the opening
of the door with her ax, to empty the contents of a feather bed upon the
fire. The de