in "The Forest Runners,"
"The Keepers of the Trail," "The Eyes of the Woods," "The Free Rangers,"
"The Riflemen of the Ohio," and "The Scouts of the Valley." All the
eight volumes deal with the fortunes and adventures of two boys, Henry
Ware and Paul Cotter, and their friends Shif'less Sol Hyde, Silent Tom
Ross and Long Jim Hart, in the early days of Kentucky. The action moves
over a wide area, from New Orleans in the South to Lake Superior in the
North, and from the Great Plains in the West to the land of the Iroquois
in the East.

It has been the aim of the author to present a picture of frontier life,
and to show the immense hardships and dangers endured by our people, as
they passed through the wilderness from ocean to ocean. So much of it
occurred in the shadow of the forest, and so much more of it was taken
as a matter of course that we, their descendants, are likely to forget
the magnitude of their achievement. The conquest of the North American
continent at a vast expense of life and suffering is in reality one of
the world's great epics.

The author has sought to verify every statement that touches upon
historical events. He has read or examined nearly all the books and
pamphlets and many of the magazine articles formerly in the Astor and
Lenox, now in the New York Public Library, dealing with Indian wars and
customs. In numerous cases, narratives written by observers and
participants have been available. He believes that all the border
battles are described correctly, and the Indian songs, dances and
customs are taken from the relations of witnesses.

But the great mass of material dealing with the frontier furnishes
another striking illustration of the old saying that truth is stranger
than fiction. No Indian story has ever told of danger and escape more
marvelous than those that happened hundreds of times. The Indian
character, as revealed in numerous accounts, is also a complex and
interesting study. The same Indian was capable of noble actions and of
unparalleled cruelty. As a forest warrior he has never been excelled. In
the woods, fighting according to his ancient methods, he was the equal
alike of Frenchman, Englishman and American, and often their superior.
Many of the Indian chiefs were great men. They had the minds of
statesmen and generals, and they prolonged, for generations, a fight
that was doomed, from the beginning.

We lost more people in our Indian wars than in all the others combined,
e