nd a guide war mere lumber on your hands."

This was a point, however, on which the young soldier, doubly
solicitous on his kinswoman's account, to avoid mistake, was not so
easily satisfied: seeing which, the Kentuckian yielded to his
importunity,--perhaps somewhat ashamed of suffering his guests to depart
entirely alone,--and began to cast about him for some suitable person who
could be prevailed upon to exchange the privilege of fighting Indians for
the inglorious duty of conducting wayfarers through the forest. This was
no easy task, and it was not until he assumed his military authority, as
commander of all the enrolled militia-men in his district, empowered to
make such disposition of his forces as he thought fit, that he succeeded
in compelling the service of one of his reluctant followers, under whose
guidance Roland and his little party soon after set out. Their farewells
were briefly said, the urgent nature of his duties leaving the hospitable
Bruce little opportunity for superfluous speech. He followed them,
however, to the bottom of the hill, grasped Roland by the hand; and doing
the same thing by Edith, as if his conscience smote him for dismissing
her with so little ceremony and such insufficient attendance, he swore
that if any evil happened to her on the road, he would rest neither night
nor day until he had repaired it, or lost his scalp in the effort.

With this characteristic and somewhat ominous farewell, he took his
leave; and the cousins, with their guide and faithful servant, spurred
onwards at a brisk pace, until the open fields of the settlement were
exchanged for the deep and gloomy woodlands.

CHAPTER VII.

The sun shone out clearly and brilliantly, and the tree-tops, from which
the winds had already shaken the rain, rustled freshly to the more
moderate breezes that had succeeded them; and Roland, animated by the
change, by the brisk pace at which he was riding, and by the hope of soon
overtaking his fellow-exiles, met the joyous look of his kinswoman with a
countenance no longer disturbed by care.

And yet there was a solemnity in the scene around them that might have
called for other and more sombre feelings. The forest into which they had
plunged, was of the grand and gloomy character which the fertility of the
soil and the absence of the axe for a thousand years imprint on the
western woodlands, especially in the vicinity of rivers. Oaks, elms, and
walnuts, tulip-trees and beec