soms of May. Do you
wonder that they loved their new home?

At first the cattle and horses were always driven into the fort at night.
Later, however, every settler had a cabin in his own clearing, where he
lived with his family and took care of his own stock. But even then in
time of great danger all went to the fort, driving their animals inside
its walls. This fort, with the outlying cabins, made the first permanent
settlement in Kentucky.

Boone was a man you would have liked to know. Even the Indians admired
him. He was tall and slender, with muscles of iron, and so healthy and
strong that he could endure great hardship. Though quiet and serious, his
courage never shrank in the face of danger, and men believed in him
because he believed in himself, while at the same time his kind heart and
tender sympathy won him lasting friendships. These vigorous and sterling
qualities commanded respect everywhere.

As a rule he wore the Indian garb of fur cap, fringed hunting-shirt,
moccasins and leggings, all made from the skins of wild animals he had
taken. This dress best suited the wilderness life.

Of course, this life in a new country would not be without its exciting
adventures. One day, some months after Boone's family had come to
Boonesborough, Boone's daughter, with two girl friends, was on the river
floating in a boat near the bank. Suddenly five Indians darted out of the
woods, seized the three girls, and hurried away with them. In their flight
the Indians observed the eldest of the girls breaking twigs and dropping
them in their trail. They threatened to tomahawk her unless she stopped
it. But, watching her chance, from time to time she tore off strips of her
dress and dropped them as a clew for those she knew would come to rescue
them.

When the capture became known, Boone, accompanied by the three lovers of
the captured maidens and four other men from the fort, started upon the
trail and kept up the pursuit until, early on the second morning, they
discovered the Indians sitting around a fire cooking breakfast. Suddenly
the white men fired a volley, killing two of the Indians and frightening
the others so badly that they beat a hasty retreat without harming the
girls.

Another exciting experience, which nearly caused the settlement to lose
its leader, came about through the settlers' need of salt. We can get salt
so easily that it is hard to imagine the difficulty which those settlers,
living far back from th