nny.

"P'rhaps they will; but there ain't nowhere else to go to."

"Why not run away as fast as we can?"

"We kin run, but I reckon bullets will travel faster 'n we kin."

Ethan went up a ladder to the top of the hay-mow, and Fanny followed
him. He carried up with him a small hay-fork, with which he went
vigorously to work in burrowing out a hole in the hay. Fanny assisted
him with her hands, and in a few moments they had made an aperture deep
enough to accommodate them. This hiding-place had been made in the back
part of the mow, next to the side of the barn, where there were wide
cracks between the boards, through which they could receive air enough
to prevent them from being stifled.

"Now, you get in, Fanny, and I'll fix the hay so I kin tumble it all
down on top on us, and bury us up."

"Suppose they should set the barn afire," suggested Fanny.

"Then they will; we must take our chances, such as they be. We hain't
got much chance nohow."

Fanny stepped down into the hole; Ethan followed her, and pulled the
mass of hay over so that it fell upon them. They were four or five feet
below the surface of the hay.

"I would rather be killed by a bullet than burned to death in the
fire," said Fanny, with a shudder, when her companion had adjusted the
hay so as to afford them the best possible means of concealment.

"P'rhaps they wouldn't kill you with a bullet. Them redskins is awful
creeturs. They might hack you all to pieces with their knives and
tomahawks," whispered Ethan.

"It's horrible!" added Fanny, quivering with emotion.

"I've hearn tell that there was some trouble with the redskins up on to
the reserves; and I knowed sunthin' had happened when I see them two
hosses. I was kind o' skeery when the varmints rid up to the house."

"Do you suppose they have killed my uncle?" asked Fanny, sick at heart.

"I s'pose they hev," answered Ethan, gloomily. "I reckon we'd better
keep still, and not say nothin'. Some o' the redskins may be lookin'
for us. They're pesky cunnin'."

This was good advice, and Fanny needed no persuasion to induce her to
follow it. Through the cracks in the side of the barn she could see a
few houses of the settlement; and through these apertures came also the
hideous sounds which denoted the progress of the massacre. Great piles
of curling smoke were rising from the burning buildings of the devoted
settlers, and the work of murder and pillage still continued, as the
relentless sa