nge my jumbled thoughts I helped
drive the horses into a small inclosure, well stockaded, and watched the
boys coming through the clearing to drive the cattle into their stalls in
several hollow sycamores. These natural shelters, once the openings were
enlarged and protected with bars, made excellent pens for the domestic
animals and fowls. I was still thinking about Patsy Dale and the time when
her young life touched mine when the cabin doors were barred and it was
time to sleep.

CHAPTER III

OVER THE MOUNTAINS

When I opened my eyes a young man was surveying the clearing through a
chink above the door. This morning vigilance was customary in every cabin
along the frontier and revealed the settler's realization of the ever
present danger. No wonder those first men grew to hate the dark forest and
the cover it afforded the red raiders. A reconnaissance made through a
peephole could at the best satisfy one that no stump in the clearing
concealed an Indian.

It was with this unsatisfactory guarantee that the settler unbarred his
door. He could never be sure that the fringe of the woods was not alive
with the enemy. And yet young men fell in love and amorously sought their
mates, and were married, and their neighbors made merry, and children were
born. And always across the clearing lay the shadow of the tomahawk.

Now that I am older and the blood runs colder, and the frontier is pushed
beyond the mountains, I often wonder what our town swains would do if they
had to risk their scalps each time a sweetheart was visited!

The man at the door dropped back to the puncheon floor, announcing: "All
clear at my end."

A companion at the other end of the cabin made a similar report, and the
door was opened. Two of the men, with their rifles ready, stepped outside
and swiftly swung their gaze along the edge of the forest. The early
morning mists obscured the vision somewhat. A bell tinkled just within the
undergrowth. Instantly the fellows outside dropped behind stumps, while we
inside removed the plugs from loopholes.

"All the cattle is in," murmured a youth to me, so young his first beard
had barely sprouted. "Injun trick to git us out there."

Several minutes passed, then Davis loudly called from the fort:

"It's all right! Hodge's critter wa'n't fetched in last night."

Even as he spoke the cow emerged from the bushes.

Smoke began issuing from the cabin chimneys and the women came from the
fort to warm