mething terrible was
coming."

"I guess you would not like to try the Indian remedy more than once,"
replied his mother; "but if you think it is so pleasant to take,
perhaps your father will give you a taste of it, one of these days, if
you do not behave better than you have done of late."

"Did you ever get frightened by the Indians, grandmother?" inquired
Ralph.

"No," replied the old lady; "there were plenty of them around, when I
was a little girl, but they had got to be quite civil, and we were not
afraid of them. I wish I could remember all the stories my mother used
to tell me about them--they were plenty and troublesome, too, in her
day. I recollect one fight that took place in our neighborhood, when
she was young. One evening, a man who was returning from another
settlement, happened to discover a party of Indians, making their way
very quietly up the river in their canoes, towards our little village.
He watched their movements as narrowly as possible, but was careful not
to let them see or hear him. When they got within about half a mile of
the settlement, they pulled their canoes ashore, and concealed them
among the bushes. They meant to creep along very slowly and slily, the
rest of the way, and then fall suddenly upon the whites, and murder and
plunder them before they could know what the matter was. But the man
who discovered them hurried on to the settlement, and gave the alarm.
Ten men was all he could muster, for there were but a few families in
the town. These men armed themselves, and by the time they were ready
for action, the Indians had already begun their work of plunder.

"But the Indians were not cunning enough for the white folks, that
time. The settlers formed themselves into two parties--one of seven
and one of three men. The three men went down very cautiously to the
Indian's landing-place, and after cutting slits in their bark canoes,
they hid themselves, and awaited the result. While they were doing
this, the other party made such a furious and sudden attack upon the
enemy, that the Indians thought they were assailed by a force far
superior to their own, and so they fled as fast as they could. When
they reached the landing-place, they jumped pell-mell into their
canoes, and pushed out into the stream. Now they thought they would
soon be out of the reach of harm; but, to their astonishment, the
canoes began to fill with water, and were entirely unmanageable. The
three men