"especially in a woman's
hackney." In terms of endearment that showed he had not sunk the lover
in the husband, he spoke of his delight at being again in the house
where he had for the first time seen her loved face, "from which happy
moment he dated the hour of all his bliss," and besought her not to
trouble herself too much about him, quoting to her Solomon's account of
a good wife, as reminding him always of her; and he ended by commending
her to the peculiar care of Heaven. It was a letter that it was an honor
to a true man to have written; such a letter as the best of women and
wives might be proud to have received. Yet in the middle of it he
promised to bring a strange trophy to show his tender and God-fearing
spouse. He was speaking of the Indians; how they had murdered men,
women, and children near-by, and how they had been beaten back; and he
added: "I have now the scalp of one who was killed eight or nine miles
from my house about three weeks ago. The first time I go up I shall take
it along to let you see it." Evidently it was as natural for him to
bring home to his wife and children the scalp of a slain Indian as the
skin of a slain deer. [Footnote: See Preston's pamphlet on Mrs. Russell,
pp. 11-18.]

The times were hard, and they called for men of flinty fibre. Those of
softer, gentler mould would have failed in the midst of such
surroundings. The iron men of the border had a harsh and terrible task
allotted them; and though they did it roughly, they did it thoroughly
and on the whole well. They may have failed to learn that it is good to
be merciful, but at least they knew that it is still better to be just
and strong and brave; to see clearly one's rights, and to guard them
with a ready hand.

These frontier leaders were generally very jealous of one another. The
ordinary backwoodsmen vied together as hunters, axemen, or wrestlers; as
they rose to leadership their rivalries grew likewise, and the more
ambitious, who desired to become the civil and military chiefs of the
community, were sure to find their interests clash. Thus old Evan Shelby
distrusted Sevier; Arthur Campbell was jealous of both Sevier and Isaac
Shelby; and the two latter bore similar feelings to William Campbell.
When a great crisis occurred all these petty envies were sunk; the
nobler natures of the men came uppermost; and they joined with unselfish
courage, heart and hand, to defend their country in the hour of her
extreme need. But