and your husband and daughter to return at once with me. I will leave a
couple of my men here with your garrison, and in the morning will come
out with a strong party and three or four bullock drays to fetch in all
your portable property. They can make another trip for your potatoes and
such of your crops as can be got in. After the sharp lesson the natives
have had here they are not likely to venture in this neighbourhood again
for some time; and, indeed, now that they find that the whole settlement
is aroused and on its guard I doubt whether we shall hear anything more
of them at present, and possibly you may, when matters settle down
again, find your house just as it is left."

Mr. and Mrs. Renshaw agreed to the plan proposed, and in a quarter of an
hour the party started, leaving The Glade under the protection of the
garrison of eight men. The night passed off quietly, and at daybreak all
set to work to get up the potatoes and to cut down the crops that were
sufficiently ripe. At nine o'clock the waggons arrived, and the
furniture and stores were loaded up. By twelve o'clock next day the work
in the fields was completed and the waggons again loaded. The house was
then locked up and the whole party proceeded to the settlement. They
found on their arrival that a strong stockade had been erected near Mr.
Mitford's house, and that rough tents and huts had been got up there for
the use of the settlers; the whole of the animals belonging to the
various farmers on the river had been driven into the stockaded
inclosure behind the house.

Here it was decided that all the settlers should remain until help
arrived from Wellington or Napier, but in the meantime five and twenty
of the younger men were enrolled as a volunteer corps; a Mr. Purcell,
who had served for some years as an officer in the army, being
unanimously elected in command. There still remained enough men capable
of bearing arms to defend the stockade in case of attack during the
absence of the corps. Wilfrid and the two Allens were among those who
enrolled themselves. Mr. Atherton said that he fully intended to
accompany them if possible upon any expedition they might make, but that
he should not become a member of the corps.

"You may have long marches," he said, "through the bush, or may, when
the reinforcements arrive, be called upon to make an expedition into the
hill country to punish the natives. I could not possibly keep up with
you during a heavy day's