. Perkins."

"No, thanks be to the Lord for it all, I was able to keep out by running
away, when the battle begun, or rather a little before. I had hard work
to get clear; thanks to the Lord, I managed to do it."

"Where's your family?"

"Wall, now, thar's where I've ben specially favored again. You know that
there are three of us--myself, Mrs. Perkins, and Master George
Washington Perkins, aged four years, so I had my hands full in looking
after them; but the second Mrs. Perkins is a remarkable woman, and
possesses an exceedingly powerful mind--an exceedingly powerful mind,
beyond all question. I must give her the credit for the able management
of this enterprise, for she deserves more credit than I. You know how
brave a man I am by nature, and how I have a natural hankering for gore.
Wall, that yearning to be killing some one made me furious to plunge
head first into the battle when it began raging down the valley, and I
started seventeen times--yes, seventeen times--to go in to do or die, I
didn't care which, but Mrs. Perkins had her eagle eye on me, and every
time I made a rush, she rushed also, and caught me by the coat-tails,
and nothing short of an earthquake could have persuaded her to let go.
Wall, to make that story short, she prevailed, and kept me out of the
struggle, thanks be to the Lord for all that."

"But how did you manage to keep clear of the Indians?"

"There it was her planning again. She called to mind a spot in the woods
not far away, where, when she was a sweet little girl, she used to play
hide-and-whoop with her playmates, and where she was always able to
secure a hiding that baffled the skill of her young friends, and
straightway it occurred to her that there was the very spot in which to
take refuge, and there we went."

"Any trouble in getting there?"

"Nothing to speak of," replied the farmer, in his lofty way. "Of course
the Tories and Indians tried to head us off, but I had a gun, and the
strength of my good right arm, and more than all that, I had Mrs.
Perkins as my second in command, and where was the use of any one trying
to break such a combination as that? We were bound to prevail, and we
never allowed ourselves to be turned aside by any trifles, and we
reached the refuge in safety, and there we are staying, and expect to
stay till things quiet down again."

"But how did you manage for food?" asked Jo, desirous of testing the
accuracy of the Mohawk's judgment when he declare