strange that there should be a
breeze there and not here! 'Thou shall not be afraid for the arrow
that flieth by day,' he thought to himself. 'Well, there are no arrows
in this part of the country any longer, now that they say all the
Indians have left. I wonder, if I saw an English gun pointing at me
out of those bushes, should I be afraid?'

But it was gentle Mrs. Hoxie, with her arm still round her baby
daughter, who kept the stranger's words longest in her heart. 'Shall
dwell in safety by Him,--the Beloved of the Lord,' she repeated to
herself over and over again, 'yet my husband hath feared for me, and
we have both been very fearful for the children. Truly, we have known
the terror by night these last weeks in these unsettled times, even
though our duty was plainly to stay here. Why were we so fearful? we
of little faith. "The Beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by
Him. He shall cover him with His feathers all the day long."'

And then, in her turn, Mrs. Hoxie looked up, as her little daughter
had done, and saw the same three tall feathers creeping above the sill
of the open Meeting-house window frame. For just one moment her heart,
that usually beat so calmly under her grey Quaker robe, seemed to
stand absolutely still. She went white to the lips. Then 'shall dwell
in safety by Him,' the words flashed back to her mind. She looked
across to where her husband sat--an urgent look. He met her eyes, read
them, and followed the direction in which she gazed. Then he, too, saw
the feathers--three, five, seven, nine, sticking up in a row. Another
instant, and a dark-skinned face, an evil face, appeared beneath them,
looking over the sill. The moment most to be dreaded in the lives of
all American settlers--more terrible than any visit from civilised
soldiers--had come suddenly upon the little company of Friends alone
here in the wilderness. An Indian Chief was staring in at their
Meeting-house window, showing his teeth in a cruel grin. In his hand
he held a sheaf of arrows, poisoned arrows, only too ready to fly, and
kill, by day.

All the assembled Friends were aware of his presence by this time, and
were watching the window now, though not one of them moved. Mrs. Hoxie
glanced towards her other little daughter, and saw to her great relief
that Dinah too had fallen asleep, her head against the wooden wall.
Dinah and Susie were the two youngest children in Meeting that
morning. The others were mostly older even th