ut, heedless of
warning and of danger. In running this risk, three or four men were shot
by the Indians, and one boy was carried off to an Indian village and
burned at the stake. A woman also was captured.

You will be interested in the thrilling experience of another woman. Her
name was Kate Sherrill. She was tall and beautiful, graceful and gentle in
manner, and, as we shall see, not lacking courage.

One day, taking a pitcher to get water from the river, she had ventured
some distance from the fort, when Indians dashed out of the forest and
sprang toward her. Seeing her danger, she darted swiftly back, with her
bloodthirsty foes close at her heels.

It was a race for life, and she knew it. There was not time to reach the
gate; so she ran the shortest way to the fort, caught hold of the top of
the pickets, and, by an almost superhuman effort sprung over to the other
side. She did not fall to the ground as she expected, but into the arms of
John Sevier, for he was standing at a loophole close by, and caught her.
He had witnessed her danger and helped her to escape by shooting the
Indian closest in the chase. A romance is connected with this, for we are
told that John Sevier, who was then a young widower of thirty-one, married
Kate Sherrill during the siege.

Although the Indian braves were eager for the scalps of the Watauga
settlers, they failed to capture the fort and finally went away, just as
they did from the neighboring settlements. For a while, but only for a
while, the pioneers were left free from Indian ravages.

SEVIER A HERO AMONG THE TENNESSEE SETTLERS

In spite of the danger, however, daring men kept coming to join the
pioneers at the Watauga settlements. Sevier continued to be a leading man
in that backwoods region, and when, some years later, Robertson, as you
remember, left Watauga to go to the Cumberland valley, Sevier became the
most prominent man in the colony.

He was so prosperous that he could surround himself with much comfort. He
built a rambling, one-story house on the Nolichucky Creek, a branch of the
French Broad River. It was the largest in the settlement and was noted for
the lavish entertainments given there, for Sevier was the same generous
host as of old. His house consisted of two groups of rooms connected by a
covered porch. Sevier with his family lived in one of the groups, and
housed his guests in the other. There were large verandas and huge
fireplaces, in which, during col