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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Big Brother, by George Cary Eggleston
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Big Brother
+       A Story of Indian War
+
+
+Author: George Cary Eggleston
+
+
+
+Release Date: March 18, 2007  [eBook #20849]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BIG BROTHER***
+
+
+E-text prepared by David Garcia, Graeme Mackreth, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) from
+page images generously made available by the Kentuckiana Digital Library
+(http://kdl.kyvl.org/)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
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+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/8/4/20849/20849-h.zip)
+
+
+      Images of the original pages are available through the
+      Kentuckiana Digital Library. See
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+
+
+
+
+
+THE BIG BROTHER
+
+A Story of Indian War
+
+by
+
+GEORGE CARY EGGLESTON
+
+Author of "How to Educate Yourself," Etc.
+
+Illustrated
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE DOG CHARGE.]
+
+
+
+New York
+G. P. Putnam's Sons
+Fourth Avenue and Twenty-Third Street
+1875.
+
+Copyright.
+G. P. Putnam's Sons.
+1875.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+                                                           Page.
+SINQUEFIELD                                                   7
+
+CHAPTER II.
+THE STORMING OF SINQUEFIELD                                  17
+
+CHAPTER III.
+SAM'S LECTURE                                                28
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+SAM FINDS IT NECESSARY TO THINK                              38
+
+CHAPTER V.
+SAM'S FORTRESS                                               46
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+SURPRISED                                                    61
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+CONFUSED                                                     67
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+WEATHERFORD                                                  71
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+WEARY WAITING                                                83
+
+CHAPTER X.
+FIGHTING FIRE                                                93
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+IN THE WILDERNESS                                           104
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+AN ALARM AND A WELCOME                                      118
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+JOE'S PLAN                                                  124
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+THE CANOE FIGHT                                             130
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+THE BOYS ARE DRIVEN OUT OF THE ROOT FORTRESS                143
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+WHERE IS JOE?                                               159
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+A FAMINE                                                    163
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+WHICH ENDS THE STORY                                        173
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+                                                           Page.
+
+THE DOG CHARGE                                    _Frontispiece._
+
+SAM'S PARTY                                                 20
+
+"WE'S DUN LOS'--DAT'S WHA' WE IS"                           40
+
+JUDIE ON THE RAFT                                           49
+
+THE PERILOUS LEAP                                           83
+
+
+
+
+THE BIG BROTHER.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+SINQUEFIELD.
+
+
+In the quiet days of peace and security in which we live it is difficult
+to imagine such a time of excitement as that at which our story opens,
+in the summer of 1813. From the beginning of that year, the Creek
+Indians in Alabama and Mississippi had shown a decided disposition to
+become hostile. In addition to the usual incentives to war which always
+exist where the white settlements border closely upon Indian territory,
+there were several special causes operating to bring about a struggle at
+that time. We were already at war with the British, and British agents
+were very active in stirring up trouble on our frontiers, knowing that
+nothing would so surely weaken the Americans as a general outbreak of
+Indian hostilities. Tecumseh, the great chief, had visited the Creeks,
+too, and had urged them to go on the war path, threatening them, in the
+event of their refusal, with the wrath of the Great Spirit. His appeals
+to their superstition were materially strengthened by the occurrence of
+an earthquake, which singularly enough, he had predicted, threatening
+that when he returned to his home he would stamp his foot and shake
+their houses down. Their own prophets, Francis and Singuista, had
+preached war, too, telling the Indians that their partial adoption of
+civilization, and their relations of friendship with the whites, were
+sorely displeasing to the Great Spirit, who would surely punish them if
+they did not immediately abandon the civilization and butcher the
+pale-faces. Francis predicted, also, that in the coming struggle no
+Indians would be killed, while the whites would be completely
+exterminated. All this was promised on condition that the Indians should
+become complete savages again, quitting all the habits of industry and
+thrift which they had been learning for some years past, and fighting
+mercilessly against all whites, sparing none.
+
+All these things combined to bring on the war, and during the spring
+several raids were made by small bodies of the Indians, in which they
+were pretty severely punished by the whites. Finally a battle was fought
+at Burnt-corn, in July 1813, and this was the signal for the breaking
+out of the most terrible of all Indian wars,--the most terrible, because
+the savages engaged in it had learned from the whites how to fight, and
+because many of their chiefs were educated half-breeds, familiar with
+the country and with all the points of weakness on the part of the
+settlers. Stockade forts were built in various places, and in these the
+settlers took refuge, leaving their fields to grow as they might and
+their houses to be plundered and burned whenever the Indians should
+choose to visit them. The stockades were so built as to enclose several
+acres each, and strong block houses inside, furnished additional
+protection. Into these forts there came men, women, and children, from
+all parts of the country, each bringing as much food as possible, and
+each willing to lend a hand to the common defence and the common
+support.
+
+On the 30th of August, the Indians attacked Fort Mims, one of the
+largest of the stockade stations, and after a desperate battle destroyed
+it, killing all but seventeen of the five hundred and fifty people who
+were living in it. The news of this terrible slaughter quickly spread
+over the country, and everybody knew now that a general war had begun,
+in which the Indians meant to destroy the whites utterly, not sparing
+even the youngest children.
+
+Those who had remained on their farms now flocked in great numbers to
+the forts, and every effort was made to strengthen the defences at all
+points. The men, including all the boys who were large enough to point a
+gun and pull a trigger, were organized into companies and assigned to
+port-holes, in order that each might know where to go to do his part of
+the fighting whenever the Indians should come. Even those of the women
+who knew how to shoot, insisted upon being provided with guns and
+assigned to posts of duty. There was not only no use in flinching, but
+every one of them knew that whenever the fort should be attacked the
+only question to be decided was, "Shall we beat the savages off, or
+shall every man woman and child of us be butchered?" They could not run
+away, for there was nowhere to run, except into the hands of the
+merciless foe. The life of every one of them was involved in the defence
+of the forts, and each was, therefore, anxious to do all he could to
+make the defense a successful one. Their only hope was in desperate
+courage, and, being Americans, their courage was equal to the demand
+made upon it. It was not a civilized war, in which surrenders, and
+exchanges of prisoners, and treaties and flags of truce, or even
+neutrality offered any escape. It was a savage war, in which the Indians
+intended to kill all the whites, old and young, wherever they could find
+them. The people in the forts knew this, and they made their
+arrangements accordingly.
+
+Now if the boys and girls who read this story will get their atlases and
+turn to the map of Alabama, they will find some points, the relative
+positions of which they must remember if they wish to understand fully
+the happenings with which we have to do. Just below the junction of the
+Alabama and Tombigbee rivers, on the east side of the stream, they will
+find the little town of Tensaw, and Fort Mims stood very near that
+place. The peninsula formed by the two rivers above their junction is
+now Clarke County, and almost exactly in its centre stands the village
+of Grove Hill. A mile or two to the north-east stood Fort Sinquefield.
+Fort White was several miles further west, and Fort Glass, afterwards
+called Fort Madison, stood fifteen miles south, at a point about three
+miles south of the present village of Suggsville. On the eastern side of
+the Alabama river is the town of Claiborne, and at a point about three
+miles below Claiborne the principal events of this story occurred. It
+will not hurt you, boys and girls, to learn a little accurate geography,
+by looking up these places before going on with the story, and if I were
+your schoolmaster, instead of your story teller, I should stop here to
+advise you always to look on the map for every town, river, lake,
+mountain or other geographical thing mentioned in any book or paper you
+read. I would advise you, too, if I were your schoolmaster, to add up
+all the figures given in books and newspapers, to see if the writers
+have made any mistakes; and it is a good plan too, to go at once to the
+dictionary when you meet a word you do not quite comprehend, or to the
+encyclopędia or history, or whatever else is handy, whenever you read
+about anything and would like to know more about it. I say I should stop
+here to give you some such advice as this, if I were your schoolmaster.
+As I am not, however, I must go on with my story instead.
+
+Within a mile or two of Fort Sinquefield lived a gentleman named
+Hardwicke. He was a widower with three children. Sam, the oldest of the
+three, was nearly seventeen; Tommy was eleven, and a little girl of
+seven years, named Judith, but called Judie, was the other. Mr.
+Hardwicke was a quiet, studious man, who had come to Alabama from
+Baltimore, not many years before, and since the death of his wife he had
+spent most of his time in his library, which was famous throughout the
+settlement on account of the wonderful number of books it contained.
+There were hardly any schools in Alabama in those days, and Mr.
+Hardwicke, being a man of education and considerable wealth, gave up
+almost the whole of his time to his children, teaching them in doors and
+out, and directing them in their reading. It was understood that Sam
+would be sent north to attend College the next year, and meantime he had
+become a voracious reader. He read all sorts of books, and as he
+remembered and applied the things he learned from them, it was a common
+saying in the country round about, that "Sam Hardwicke knows pretty
+nearly everything." Of course that was not true, but he knew a good deal
+more than most of the men in the country, and better than all, he knew
+how very much there was for him yet to learn. A boy has learned the very
+best lesson of his life when he knows that he really does not know much;
+it is a lesson some people never learn at all. But books were not the
+only things Sam Hardwicke was familiar with. He could ride the worst
+horses in the country and shoot a rifle almost as well as Tandy Walker
+himself, and Tandy, as every reader of history knows, was the most
+famous rifleman, as well as the best guide and most daring scout in the
+whole south-west. Sam had hunted, too, over almost every inch of
+country within twenty miles around, trudging alone sometimes for a week
+or a fortnight before returning, and in this way he had learned to know
+the distances, the directions, and the nature of the country lying
+between different places,--a knowledge worth gaining by anybody, and
+especially valuable to a boy who lived in a frontier settlement. He was
+strong of limb and active as he was strong, and his "book knowledge," as
+the neighbors called it, served him many a good turn in the woods, when
+he was beset by difficulties.
+
+Sam's father was one of the very last of the settlers to go into a fort.
+He remained at home as long as he could, and went to Fort Sinquefield at
+last, only when warned by an Indian who for some reason liked him, that
+he and his children's lives were in imminent danger. That was on the
+first of September, and when the Hardwicke family, black and white, were
+safely within the little fortress, there remained outside only two
+families, namely, those of Abner James and Ransom Kimball, who
+determined to remain one more night at Kimball's house, two miles from
+Sinquefield. That very night the Indians, under Francis the prophet,
+burned the house, killing twelve of the inmates. Five others escaped,
+and one of them, Isham Kimball, who was then a boy of sixteen,
+afterwards became Clerk of Clarke County, where he was still living in
+1857.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE STORMING OF SINQUEFIELD.
+
+
+When the news of the massacre at Kimball's reached Fort Glass, a
+detachment of ten men was sent out to recover the bodies, which they
+brought to Fort Sinquefield for burial. The graves were dug in a little
+valley three or four hundred yards from the fort, and all the people
+went out to attend the funeral. The services had just come to an end
+when the cry of "Indians! Indians!" was raised, and a body of warriors,
+under the prophet Francis, dashed down from behind a hill, upon the
+defenceless people, whose guns were inside the fort. The first impulse
+of every one was to catch up the little children and hasten inside the
+gates, but it was manifestly too late. The Indians were already nearer
+the fort than they, and were running with all their might, brandishing
+their knives and tomahawks, and yelling like demons.
+
+There seemed no way of escape. Sam Hardwicke took little Judie up in his
+arms, and, quick as thought calculated the chances of reaching the fort.
+Clearly the only way in which he could possibly get there, was by
+leaving his little sister to her fate and running for his life. But Sam
+Hardwicke was not the sort of boy to do anything so cowardly as that.
+Abandoning the thought of getting to the fort, he called to Tom to
+follow him, and with Judie in his arms, he ran into a neighboring
+thicket, where the three, with Joe, a black boy of twelve or thirteen
+years who had followed them, concealed themselves in the bushes. Whether
+they had been seen by the Indians or not, they had no way of knowing,
+but their only hope of safety now lay in absolute stillness. They
+crouched down together and kept silence.
+
+"What's we gwine to do here, I wonder," whispered the black boy. "Whar
+mus' we go, Mas Sam?"
+
+Sam did not answer. He was too much absorbed in studying the situation
+to talk or even to listen. The Indians were coming down upon the white
+people from every side, and the only wonder was that Sam's little party
+had managed to find a gap in their line big enough to escape through.
+
+"Be patient, Joe," said little Judie, in the calmest voice possible.
+"Brother Sam will take care of us. Give him time. He always does know
+what to do."
+
+"Be still, Joe," said Sam. "If you talk that Indian'll see us," pointing
+to one not thirty steps distant, though Joe had not yet seen him.
+
+A terrified "ugh!" was all the reply Joe could make.
+
+Meantime the situation of the fort people was terrible. Cut off from the
+gates and unarmed, there seemed to be nothing for them to do except to
+meet death as bravely and calmly as they could. A young man named Isaac
+Harden happened to be near the gates, however, on horseback, and
+accompanied by a pack of about sixty hounds. And this young man, whose
+name has barely crept into a corner of history, was both a hero and a
+military genius, and he did right then and there, a deed as brilliant
+and as heroic as any other in history. Seeing the perilous position of
+the fort people, he raised himself in his stirrups and waving his hat,
+charged the savages _with his pack of dogs_, whooping and yelling after
+the manner of a huntsman, and leading the fierce bloodhounds right into
+the ranks of the infuriated Indians. The dogs being trained to chase and
+seize any living thing upon which their master might set them, attacked
+the Indians furiously, Harden encouraging them and riding down group
+after group of the bewildered savages. Charging right and left with his
+dogs, he succeeded in putting the Indians for a time upon the defensive,
+thus giving the white people time to escape into the fort. When all were
+in except Sam's party and a Mrs. Phillips who was killed, Harden began
+looking about him for a chance to secure his own safety. His impetuosity
+had carried him clear through the Indian ranks, and the savages, having
+beaten the dogs off, turned their attention to the young cavalier who
+had balked them in the very moment of their victory. They were between
+him and the gates, hundreds against one. His dogs were killed or
+scattered, and he saw at a glance that there was little hope for him.
+The woods behind him were full of Indians, and so retreat was
+impossible. Turning his horse's head towards the gates, he plunged spurs
+into his side, and with a pistol in each hand, dashed through the savage
+ranks, firing as he went. Blowing a blast upon his horn to recall those
+of his dogs which were still alive, he escaped on foot into the fort,
+just in time to let the gate shut in the face of the foremost Indian.
+His horse, history tells us, was killed under him, and he had five
+bullet holes through his clothes, but his skin was unbroken.
+
+[Illustration: SAM'S PARTY.]
+
+Francis and his followers were balked but not beaten. Retiring for a few
+minutes behind the hill, they rallied and came again to the assault,
+more furiously than ever. Their savage instincts were thoroughly aroused
+by the unexpected defeat they had sustained in the very moment of their
+victory, and they were determined now to take the fort at any cost.
+Their plan of attack showed the skill of their leader, who was really a
+man of considerable ability in spite of his fanatical belief in his own
+prophetic gifts. He avoided both the errors usually committed by Indian
+leaders in storming fortified places. He refused, on the one hand, to
+let his men waste their powder and their time in desultory firing, and,
+on the other, he decided not to risk everything on the hazard of a
+single assault. His plan was to take the fort by storm, but the storming
+was to be done systematically. Dividing his force into two parts, he
+sent one to the attack, and held the other back in the hope that the
+first would gain a position so near the stockade as to make the assault
+of the second, led by himself, doubly sure of success. The plan was a
+good one, without doubt, and no man was better qualified than Francis to
+carry it out.
+
+When the storming party came, the people in the fort were ready for it.
+Counting out the women and children, their numbers were not large, but
+they were a brave and determined set of men and boys, who knew very well
+in what kind of a struggle they were engaged. They reserved their fire
+until the Indians were within thirty yards of the fort, and then
+delivered it as rapidly as they could, taking care to waste none of it
+by random or careless shooting. The fort consisted, as all the border
+fortifications did, of a simple stockade, inside of which was a
+block-house for the protection of the women and children, and designed
+also as a sort of "last ditch," in which a desperate resistance could be
+made, even after the fort had been carried. The stockade was made of the
+trunks of pine-trees set on end in the ground, close together, but
+pierced at intervals with port-holes, through which the men of the
+garrison could fire. Such a stockade afforded an excellent protection
+against the bullets and the arrows of the Indians, and gave its
+defenders a great advantage over the assailing force, which must, of
+course, be exposed to a galling fire from the men behind the barriers.
+As the stockade was about fifteen feet high, climbing over it was almost
+wholly out of the question, and the only way to take the fort was to
+rush upon it with fence rails, stop up the port-holes immediately in
+front, and keep so close to the stockade as to escape the fire from
+points to the right and left, while engaged in cutting down the timber
+barrier. If the Indians could do this, their superior numbers would
+enable them to rush in through the opening thus made, and then the
+block-house would be the only refuge left to the white people. The
+block-house was a building made of very large timbers, hewed square,
+laid close upon each other and notched to an exact fit at the ends. It
+had but one entrance, and that was near the top. This could be reached
+only by a ladder, and should the Indians gain access to the fort, the
+whites would retire, fighting, to this building, and when all were in,
+the ladder would be drawn in after them. From the port-holes of the
+block-house a fierce fire could be delivered, and as the square timbers
+were not easily set on fire, a body of Indians must be very determined
+indeed, if they succeeded in taking or destroying a block-house. At Fort
+Mims, however, they had done so, burning the house over the heads of the
+inmates.
+
+The reader will understand, from this description of the fort, how
+possible it was for the people within it to withstand a very determined
+attack, and to inflict heavy loss upon the savages, without suffering
+much in their turn. Francis's men charged furiously upon the silent
+stockade, but were sent reeling back as soon as they had come near
+enough for the riflemen within to fire with absolute accuracy of aim.
+Then the second body, under Francis himself, charged, but with no
+better success. A pause followed, and another charge was made just
+before nightfall.
+
+This time some of the savages succeeded in reaching the stockade and
+stopping up some of the port-holes. They cut down a part of the pickets
+too, and had their friends charged again at once, the fort would
+undoubtedly have been carried. As it was, Francis saw fit to draw off
+his men, for the time at least, and retire beyond the hill. What was now
+to be done? The attack had been repulsed, but it might be renewed at any
+moment. The Indians had suffered considerably, while the casualties
+within the fort were limited to the loss of one man and one boy. But the
+obstinate determination of Francis was well known, and it was certain
+that he had not finally abandoned his purpose of taking the little fort.
+He had already demonstrated his ability to carry the place, and it was,
+at the least, likely that he would come again within twenty-four hours,
+probably with a larger force, and should he do so, the little garrison
+was not in condition to repel his attack. To remain in the fort,
+therefore, was certain destruction; but the country was full of savages,
+and to attempt a march to Fort Glass, fifteen miles away, which was the
+nearest available place, the other forts being difficult to reach, was
+felt to be almost equally hazardous. A council was held, and it was
+finally determined that the perilous march to Fort Glass must be
+undertaken at all hazards. Accordingly, not long after nightfall the
+whole garrison, men, women and children, stealthily left the fort and
+silently crept away to the south.
+
+Sam had seen the dog charge and the escape of the whites into the fort.
+
+"What a fool I was!" he exclaimed, "not to stay where I was! We might
+have got in with the rest of them."
+
+"Why can't we go to de fort now, or leastways, as soon as de Injuns goes
+away?" asked Joe.
+
+"They ain't going away," said Sam. "They're going to storm the
+fort,--look, they're coming right here for a starting-point, and 'll be
+on top of us in a minute. Come!--don't make any noise, but follow me.
+Crawl on your hands and knees, and don't raise your heads. Look out for
+sticks. If you break one, the Indians 'll hear it."
+
+"Mas' Sam--dey's Injuns ahead'n us an' a-comin right torge us too. Look
+dar!"
+
+Sam looked, and saw a body of Indians just in front of him coming to
+reinforce the others. He and his friends were cut off between two bodies
+of savages.
+
+"Lie down and be still," he whispered. "It's all we can do--and I'm to
+blame for it all!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+SAM'S LECTURE.
+
+
+The people of the fort made no search for Sam and his companions; not
+because they cared nothing for them, but simply because they believed
+them certainly dead. Mr. Hardwicke, himself, had seen Sam start with
+little Judie towards the fort, before the dog charge was made, and as
+neither the boys nor Judie had ever reached the gates, he had no doubt
+whatever that his three children were slain, as was Mrs. Phillips, the
+only other person who had failed to get inside the stockade. Mr.
+Hardwicke wished to go out in search of their bodies, but was overruled
+by his companions, who, knowing that the savages were still in the
+immediate vicinity, thought it simply a reckless and unnecessary risk,
+to go hunting for the bodies of their friends hundreds of yards away,
+and immediately in front of the place at which the Indians were last
+seen. The idea was abandoned, therefore, and the fort party marched away
+in the darkness of a cloudy night, towards Fort Glass. Leaving them to
+find their way if they can, let us return to Sam and his little band.
+Seeing the Indians coming towards them, they lay down in the high weeds.
+The savages hurrying forward to reinforce their friends, passed within a
+few feet of the young people, but did not see them. The storming of the
+fort then began, and after watching the evolutions of the Indians for
+some time, Sam said:
+
+"We mustn't stay here. Those red skins are working around this way, and 'll
+find us. Crawl on your hands and knees, all of you, and follow me."
+
+"Whar's ye gwine to, Mas' Sam?" asked Joe.
+
+"_Sh, sh_," said Judie. "Don't talk Joe, but do as Brother Sam tells
+you. Don't you know he always knows what's best? Besides, maybe he
+hasn't quite found out where he's going yet, himself."
+
+But Joe was not as confident of Sam's genius for doing the right thing
+as Judie was, and so, after crawling for some distance, he again broke
+silence.
+
+"Miss Judie."
+
+"What do you want, Joe?"
+
+"Does _you_ know whar Mas' Sam's a-takin' us to, an' what he's gwine to
+do when he gits dar?"
+
+"No, of course I don't."
+
+"How you know den, dat he's doin' de bes' thing?"
+
+But the conversation was terminated by a word from Sam, who said, in a
+whisper,
+
+"Joe, I'll tell you _where we're going if you keep talking_."
+
+"Whar, Mas' Sam?"
+
+"Into the hands of the Indians. Keep your mouth shut, if you don't want
+your hair lifted off your head."
+
+As the black boy certainly did not want his hair cut Indian fashion, he
+became silent at once.
+
+When they had travelled in this way until they could no longer hear the
+yells of the Indians and the popping of guns at the fort, Sam called a
+halt. It was now nearly midnight.
+
+"Here is a good place to spend the rest of the night," he said, "and we
+must be as still as we can. We can stay here till to-morrow night, and
+then we must try to get to Fort Glass. It's about twelve or thirteen
+miles from here."
+
+"Le's go on now, Mas' Sam; I'se afear'd to stay here," said the black
+boy.
+
+"We can't," said Sam. "I got scratched in the foot with a stray bullet,
+just as we went into the thicket there at the fort, and I can't walk. I
+am a little faint and must lie down."
+
+At this little Judie, who fairly idolized Sam, and felt perfectly safe
+from Indians and everything else when he was with her, was disposed to
+set up a wail of sorrow and fright. If poor Sam were wounded, he might
+die, she thought, and the thought was too much for her.
+
+Sam soothed her, however, and the poor, tired little girl was soon fast
+asleep in his arms.
+
+"Bring some moss, boys," he said to his companions, "and make a bed for
+Judie here by this log."
+
+When he had laid her down, he drew off his shoe and wrapped the wounded
+foot in some of the long gray moss which hangs in great festoons from
+the trees of that region. Joe, with the true negro genius for sleeping,
+was already snoring at the foot of a tree. Sam quietly called Tom to his
+side.
+
+"Tom," said he, "my foot is bleeding pretty badly, and I can't see till
+morning to do anything for it. I have wrapped it up in moss, stuffing
+the softest parts into the wound, and that may stop it after a while.
+But I may not be able to travel to-morrow night, and if I can't you must
+leave me here and try to find your way to Fort Glass, with Judie. You
+must remember that her life will depend on you, and try to do your duty
+without flinching. Don't try to travel in the daytime. Go on to the
+south as fast as you can of nights, keeping in the woods and thickets,
+and as soon as you see a streak of gray in the sky find a good
+hiding-place and stop. You can get some corn and some sweet potatoes out
+of any field, but you must eat them raw, as it wont do to make a fire.
+Now go to sleep. I may be able to travel myself, but if I shouldn't,
+remember you are a brave man's son, and must do your duty as a
+Hardwicke should." And with that he shook the little fellow's hand.
+
+After a time Tom, overcome by weariness, fell asleep, but Sam remained
+awake all night, trying to staunch the flow of blood from his foot. He
+knew that if he could go on with the others their chance of safety would
+be vastly greater than without him, and so he was disposed to leave no
+effort untried to be in a fit condition to travel the next night. When
+morning came Sam called Tom and Joe, and directed them to examine his
+wound, into which he could not see very well.
+
+"Is the blood of a bright red, as it comes out, or a dark red?" he
+asked.
+
+"Bright," they both said.
+
+"Then it comes from an artery," he replied. "Are you sure it is bright
+red?"
+
+The boys were not quite sure.
+
+"Does it come in a steady stream or in spurts?" he asked.
+
+"It spurts, and stops and spurts again," said Tom.
+
+"It is an artery, then," said Sam. "Look and see if you can find the
+place it comes from."
+
+The boys made a careful examination and at last found the artery, a
+small one, which was cut only about half way across.
+
+"All right," said Sam. "If that's the case, I think I know how to stop
+the blood. Put your finger in, and _break the artery clear in two_".
+
+"O Sam, then you'll bleed to death," said Tom.
+
+"No I won't. Do as I tell you."
+
+"Let me cut it, then. It wont hurt you so much."
+
+"No, no, no," cried Sam, staying his hand. "Don't cut it. Tear it, I
+tell you, and be quick."
+
+Tom tore it, and the blood stopped almost immediately. Sam then bound
+the foot up with strips of cloth torn from his clothing, and as he did
+so said:
+
+"Now I'll tell you both all about this so that you'll know what to do
+another time. If you know only _what_ to do, you may forget; but if you
+know _why_, you'll remember. The blood comes out from the heart to all
+parts of the body in arteries, and when it leaves the heart it is bright
+red, because it is clean and pure. Your heart is a sort of force-pump,
+and every time it beats it forces the blood all over you. The arteries
+fork and branch out in every direction, until they terminate in
+millions of little veins smaller than the finest hairs, and these
+running together make bigger veins, through which the blood is carried
+to the lungs. In the veins it flows steadily, because the _capillary_
+veins, the ones like hairs, are so small that the spurts can't be felt
+beyond them. The blood in the veins is thick and dark, because it has
+taken up all the impurities from the system; but when it gets to the
+lungs your breath takes up all these and carries them off, leaving the
+blood pure again for another round. Now the arteries are long elastic
+tubes, that is to say, they will stretch a little, and fly back again,
+if you pull them, and when one is cut nearly but not quite off, the
+contraction keeps it wide open. If it is cut or torn entirely in two,
+the end draws back, and nine times in ten, if the artery is a small one,
+the drawing back shuts the end up entirely and the blood stops. But it
+is better to tear it than to cut it, because when torn the edges are
+jagged and it shrivels up more. I don't quite understand why, myself,
+but that is what the surgical books say. When anybody is hurt and
+bleeding badly, the first thing to do is to find out whether it is an
+artery or a vein that's cut. If the blood is bright and comes out in
+spurts, it's an artery. If it is dark, and flows steadily, it's a vein.
+If it's an artery and isn't cut quite in two, tear it in two. If that
+don't stop it, you must make a knot in a handkerchief and then press
+your finger above the cut in different places till you find where the
+artery is by the blood stopping. Then put the knot on that place and tie
+the handkerchief around the limb. You can stop a vein in the same way
+and more easily, but if it's a vein you must tie the handkerchief so
+that the cut place will be between it and the heart. You see the blood
+comes from the heart in the arteries, and goes back towards the heart in
+the veins, and so to stop an artery you tie inside, and to stop a vein
+outside of the cut place."
+
+I think it altogether probable that Master Sam would have gone into
+quite a lecture on anatomy and minor surgery, if little Judie had not
+waked up just then complaining of hunger. What he told the boys,
+however, is well worth remembering. He took little Judie on his lap and
+sent the two boys out to find a field of potatoes or corn. When they
+came back all four made a breakfast of raw sweet potatoes, drinking
+water which Tom brought in his wool hat from a creek not very far away.
+Sam grew stronger during the day, and at night the party set out on
+their way to Fort Glass. Sam's foot was not painful, but he was afraid
+of starting the blood again, and so he held it up, walking with a rude
+crutch which he had made during the day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+SAM FINDS IT NECESSARY TO THINK.
+
+
+It was twelve miles from their first encampment to Fort Glass, and if
+Sam had been strong and well, and the way open, they might easily have
+made the journey before morning, by carrying little Judie a part of the
+way. As it was, they had to go through the thickest woods to avoid
+Indians, and must move cautiously all the time, as they could never know
+when they might stumble upon a party of savages around a camp-fire, or
+sleeping under a tree. Those of my readers who live in the far South
+know what thick woods are in that part of the country, but others may
+not. The trees grow as close together as they can, and the underbrush
+chokes up the space between them pretty effectually. Then the great
+vines of various kinds wind themselves in and out until in many places
+they literally stop the way so that a strong man with an axe could not
+go forward a hundred feet in a week. In other places the thick cane
+makes an equally impenetrable barrier, and Sam needed all his knowledge
+of the forest to enable him to work his way southward at night through
+such woods as those. The little party of wanderers sometimes found
+themselves apparently walled in in the pitchy darkness, with no possible
+way out but Sam's instinct, as he called it, which was simply his
+ability to remember the things he had learned, and to put two facts
+together to find out a third, always extricated them. Once they found
+themselves in a swamp, where the water was about eight inches deep. The
+underbrush, canes and vines made it impossible for them to see any great
+distance in any direction.
+
+"Oh, I know we will never get out of here," whined poor little Judie,
+ready to sink down in the water.
+
+"Yes we will, lady bird," said Sam cheerily. "What's the good of having
+a big brother if he can't take care of you? Tell me that, will you?
+Keep your courage up, little girl, I think I know where we are. Let me
+think."
+
+"I know wha' we is. Mas' Sam," said Joe.
+
+"Where, Joe," asked Sam, incredulously.
+
+"We'se dun' los',--dat's wha' we is," replied Joe.
+
+Sam laughed.
+
+"I know more than that," said Tom, "I know _where_ we're lost."
+
+"Wha', Mas' Tom?" cried Joe, eagerly.
+
+"In a swamp," said Tom.
+
+"And I know what swamp," said Sam, "which is better still. This swamp is
+the low grounds of a little creek, and I've been in it before to-night.
+I don't know just which way to go to get out, because I don't know just
+what part of the swamp we're in. But if my foot was well I'd soon find
+out."
+
+"How, Mas' Sam?"
+
+"I'd climb that sweet gum and look for landmarks."
+
+"Lan' marks? what's dem, Mas' Sam? will dey bite?"
+
+"No, Joe, I mean I would look around and find something or other to
+steer by,--a house an open field or something."
+
+"I kin climb, Mas' Sam," replied Joe, "an' I'll be up dat dar tree in
+less'n no time."
+
+[Illustration: "WE 'S DUN LOS'--DATS WHAT WE IS."]
+
+And up the tree he went as nimbly as any squirrel might. As he went up,
+Sam cautioned him to make no noise, and not to shout, but to look around
+carefully, and then to come down and tell what he had seen.
+
+"I see a big openin'," said Joe, when he reached the ground again, "an'
+nigh de middle uv it dey's a big grove, wid a littler one jis' off to de
+left."
+
+"Yes," said Sam, "I thought you'd see that. That's where Watkins's house
+stood: now which way is it?"
+
+"Which-a-way's what, Mas' Sam?"
+
+"The opening with the groves in it."
+
+"I 'clar' I dunno, Mas' Sam."
+
+It had not entered Joe's head to mark the direction, and so he had to
+climb the tree again. In going up and coming down, however, he wound
+around the tree two or three times and was no wiser when he returned to
+the ground than before he began his ascent.
+
+"Look, Joe," said Sam. "Do you see that bright star through the trees?"
+
+"De brightest one, Mas' Sam?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Yes, I sees it."
+
+"Well, climb the tree, and when you get to the top, turn your face
+towards that star. Then see which way the opening is, and remember
+whether it is straight ahead of you, behind you, or to the right or
+left."
+
+Joe went up the tree again and this time managed to bring down the
+information that when he looked at the star the opening was on his left.
+
+With the knowledge of locality and direction thus gained, Sam was not
+long in finding his way to firm ground again, and as soon as he did so
+he selected a hiding-place for the day, as the morning was now at hand.
+
+The next night they had fewer difficulties, the woods through which they
+had to pass being freer from undergrowth than those they had already
+traversed, and when the third morning broke they were within a mile or
+two of Fort Glass. Sam thought at first of pushing on at once to the
+fort, but, seeing "Indian sign" in the shape of some smouldering fires
+near a spring, he abandoned the undertaking until night should come
+again, and hid his little company in the woods. Something to eat was the
+one immediate necessity. They were all nearly famished, and neither corn
+nor sweet potatoes were to be found anywhere in the vicinity. Sam
+directed the boys to bring some rushes from the creek bottoms, and
+peeling these, he and his companions ate the pith, which is slightly
+succulent and in a small degree nourishing. Sam had learned this fact by
+accident while out hunting one day, and Sam took care never to forget
+anything which might be useful. Towards night, when the rushes failed to
+satisfy their hunger, Sam was puzzling himself over the problem of
+getting food, when Tom asked him if he knew the name of a singular tree
+he had seen while out after rushes.
+
+"It has the biggest leaves I ever saw," he said, "and they all grow
+right out of its top. Some of 'em are six feet long, and they've got
+folds in 'em. There ain't any limbs to the tree at all."
+
+"Where did you see that?" asked Sam eagerly.
+
+"Right over there, about a hundred yards."
+
+"Good! It's palmetto. I didn't know there was one this far from the sea
+though. Here, take my big knife and you and Joe go and cut out as much
+as you can of the soft part just where the leaves come out. It's what
+they call palmetto cabbage, and it's very good to eat too, I can tell
+you."
+
+The boys, after receiving minute instructions, went to the palmetto-tree
+and brought away several pounds of the terminal bud. On this the little
+company made a hearty meal, finding the "cabbage," as it is called, a
+well-flavored, juicy and tender kind of white vegetable substance, very
+nourishing and as palatable as cocoanut, which it closely resembles in
+flavor. Storing what was left in their pockets, they began to prepare
+for their night's journey to the fort, which they hoped to reach within
+an hour or two. They were just on the point of starting when a party of
+Indians, under Weatherford, the great half-breed chief, who was the life
+and soul of the war, rode across a neighboring field, and settled
+themselves for supper within a dozen yards of Sam's camp. The sky was
+overcast with clouds, and so night fell even more quickly than it
+usually does in Southern latitudes, where there is almost no twilight
+at all. Sam made his companions lie down at the approach of the savages,
+and as soon as it was fairly dark, the little party crept silently away.
+Before leaving, however, Sam had heard enough of the conversation
+between Weatherford and Peter McQueen, the other great half-breed
+warrior, to know that he could not reach the fort that night. The two
+half-breeds talked most of the time in English, and Sam learned that
+they had a large body of Indians in the vicinity, who were scouring the
+country around Fort Glass. Sam knew enough of Indian warfare to know
+that there would be numerous small parties of savage scouts lurking
+immediately around the fort day and night, for the purpose of picking
+off any daring whites who might venture outside the gates, and
+especially any messenger who might attempt to pass from that to any
+other fortress. He knew, therefore, that for some time to come it would
+be impossible to reach Fort Glass, and penetrating the woods for a
+considerable distance he stopped and sat down on a log, burying his face
+in his hands, and telling his companions not to speak to him, as he
+wanted to think.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+SAM'S FORTRESS.
+
+
+Sam's companions kept perfectly still. Their reverence for Sam had grown
+with every foot of their travels, and their confidence in his ability to
+get out of any difficulty, and ultimately to accomplish his purposes in
+the face of any obstacle, was now quite unbounded. And so, when he told
+them it was impossible to reach the fort and that he wanted to think,
+they patiently awaited the results of his thinking, confident that he
+would presently hit upon precisely the right thing to do.
+
+After a while he raised his head from his hands and said:
+
+"Come on, we must get clear away from here before morning;" but he said
+not a word about where he was going. His course was now nearly
+south-east, and just as the day was breaking he stopped and said:
+
+"There is the river at last. Now let's go to sleep."
+
+They obeyed him unquestioningly, though they had not the faintest idea
+where they were or what river it was which he had seen a little way
+ahead. When Sam waked it was nearly noon, and he ate a little of the
+palmetto cabbage left in his pockets, while the others slept. His face
+was very pale, however, and he sat very still until his companions
+aroused themselves. Then he explained.
+
+"When I found that we could not get to Fort Glass, the question was,
+where should we go? Fort Stoddart is probably surrounded by Indians too,
+and so the only thing to do was to make our way down through the Tensaw
+Country to Mobile; but that is about eighty or a hundred miles away, and
+the fact is I am a little sick from my wound. My foot and leg are all
+swelled up, and I've been having a fever, so that I can't travel much
+further. It seemed to me that the best thing to do, under the
+circumstances, was to find a good hiding-place where it will be easy to
+get something to eat, and to stay there till I get better, or something
+turns up, and so I thought of the Alabama River as the very best place,
+because mussels and things of that kind are better than sweet potatoes,
+and here we are; now the next thing is to find a hiding-place, and I
+think I know where one is. It has a spring by it, too, which is a good
+thing, for drinking this swamp and creek water will make us all sick. I
+was all through here on a camp-hunt once, and I remember a place on the
+other side of the river where two big hollow trees stand right together
+on top of a sort of bluff. About fifty yards further down the river
+there is a spring, just under the bluff. We must find the place if we
+can, to-night, and to do it we must first get across the river. It's so
+low now we can easily wade it, I think, and Judie can be pushed across
+on a log."
+
+As soon as night fell the plan was put into execution. The river was
+extremely low at the time, and Sam was confident that by choosing a wide
+place for their crossing, they could wade the stream easily; but lest
+there might be a channel too deep for that, he fastened four logs
+together with grapevines, and putting Judie on this raft bade the two
+boys tow it over, telling them that if they should find the water too
+deep for wading at any point, they could easily support themselves by
+clinging to the logs. They had no difficulty, however, and were soon on
+the east bank of the stream. Sam's task was a much harder one. The
+current was very rapid and the bottom too soft for the easy use of his
+crutch, while his strength was almost gone. His spirit sustained him,
+however, and after a while he reached the shore. When all were landed,
+the search began for the hiding-place Sam had described. It proved to be
+more than a mile higher up the river, and when they found it, the day
+was breaking. The trees were not hollow, as Sam had supposed. The river
+bank in that place is in three terraces, and the two great trees stood
+almost alone on the second one of these. The sandy soil had been
+gradually washed out from under the great trunks, so that the trees
+proper began about fifteen feet from the ground, the space below being
+occupied by a great net-work of exposed roots, some of them a foot or
+two in thickness, and others varying in size all the way down to mere
+threads. The freshets which had washed the earth away from the roots,
+had piled a great mass of drift-wood against one side of them. Sam made
+a careful examination of the place, and then all went to work. The two
+boys so disposed some of the drift-wood as to make a sort of covered
+passage from the edge of the bank to the two trees whose roots were
+interlaced with each other. Sam cut away some of the roots with his
+jackknife so as to make an entrance, and once inside the circle of outer
+roots, he was not long in making a roomy hiding-place for the whole
+party, immediately under the great trees.
+
+[Illustration: JUDIE ON THE RAFT.]
+
+"We can enlarge our house with our knives whenever we choose," he said,
+"and if we stay here long enough, we must make Judie a room for herself
+under the other tree, with a passage leading from this into it."
+
+Sam said this to avoid saying something which would have alarmed and
+distressed the others. In truth he knew himself to be really ill, and
+believed that he would be much worse before being any better. For this
+reason he knew they must have more room than the present hiding-place
+afforded, and it was his plan to cut another room under the other tree,
+with a very narrow passage between. "Then," thought he, "if the Indians
+find us here, as I am afraid they will, they will find only poor sick
+Sam here in the outer room, and won't think of hunting further." Sam
+thought he was going to die at any rate, and his only care now was to
+save the lives of the others. He had made them gather some mussels at
+the river, and some green corn in a neighboring field, and he now said
+to the two boys, "These things must be cooked. It will not do for you to
+eat them raw any longer. They aren't wholesome that way, and so I've
+been thinking of a plan for cooking them. The spring is down under the
+lower bluff, and a fire down there won't make much smoke above the upper
+banks. We must make one out of drift-wood, but we mustn't use any pine.
+That smokes too much. The fire must be made in the daytime, because at
+night it would be seen too far. You boys must do the cooking, while I
+keep a look-out for Indians, and if any come within sight you can both
+get in here before they discover you, or if they do see you, they can't
+find you after you run away from the fire, and they will look for you
+out in the woods somewhere. Nobody would think of looking here. Now let
+me tell you how to cook the things. I was at a 'clam bake' in New
+England once, and I know how to make these mussels and corn taste well.
+You must dig a sort of fireplace in the sand bank and build your fire in
+there. When it burns away until you have a good bank of coals, you must
+put down on them a layer of the corn, in the shuck, then a layer of
+mussels, then a layer of corn, and finally cover them all up with coals
+and hot ashes, and leave them there for an hour or two, when they will
+be cooked beautifully."
+
+"But Mas' Sam," said Joe.
+
+"Well, what is it, Joe?"
+
+"How's we gwine to git de fire?"
+
+"Well, how do you think, Joe?"
+
+"I 'clare I dunno, Mas' Sam, 'thout you got some flints an' punk in your
+pockets."
+
+"No, I have no flints and no punk, Joe, but I'm going to get you some
+fire when the sun gets straight overhead."
+
+"Is you gwine to git it from de sun, Mas' Sam?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What wid, Mas' Sam?"
+
+"With water, Joe."
+
+"Wid water, Mas' Sam! You'se foolin'. How you gwine to git fire wid
+water, _I'd_ like to know."
+
+"Well, wait and see. I'm not fooling."
+
+To tell the truth, Tom was quite as much at a loss as Joe was, to know
+how Sam could get fire with water; but his confidence in his "big
+brother," as he called Sam, was too perfect to admit of a doubt or a
+question. As for Judie, she would hardly have raised her eyebrows if Sam
+had burned water, or whittled it into dolls' heads before her eyes. She
+believed in Sam absolutely, and supposed, as a matter of course, that he
+knew everything and could do anything he liked. But Joe was not yet
+satisfied that water could be made to assist in the kindling of a fire.
+He said nothing more, however, but carefully watched all of Sam's
+preparations.
+
+That young gentleman began by tearing a strip of cotton cloth from his
+shirt, and picking it to pieces. He then gathered from the drift-wood a
+number of dry sticks, and broke and split them up very fine.
+
+"We must have a few splinters of light-wood," he said; "but after the
+fire is once started, we mustn't put any more pine on."
+
+So saying, he split off a few splinters from a piece of rich heart-pine,
+which Southern people call "light-wood," because the negroes use it
+instead of lamps or candles.
+
+"Come now," said Sam, "its nearly noon, and I think I can get fire for
+you. Go up on top of the drift-pile, Tom, and look out for Indians. If
+you don't see any we can all go down to the spring together long enough
+to start a fire. Then I must come back to Judie, and I'll keep a
+look-out for Indians while you and Joe get the corn on. When you get it
+on, come back here and wait until it has time to cook. Stop a minute,
+Tom. Let's understand each other. If the one on the look-out sees
+Indians, he must let the others know; but it won't do to holler. Let me
+see. Can you whistle like a kildee, Tom?"
+
+"Yes, or like any other bird."
+
+"Can you, Joe?"
+
+"I reckon I _kin_, Mas' Sam," said Joe, who, to prove his powers
+straightway gave a shrill kildee whistle, which nearly deafened them
+all.
+
+"There, that'll do, Joe. Well, let's understand then, that if anyone of
+us sees Indians, he must whistle like a kildee. If the Indians hear it
+they'll think nothing of it."
+
+Tom went to the look-out, and seeing no savages anywhere, returned, and
+the whole party, little Judie excepted, proceeded to the spring. Sam
+then laid his sticks down in a pile, and taking out his watch removed
+the crystal. This he filled with clear water from the spring, and
+holding it over the cotton ravellings, moved it up and down until the
+sunlight, passing through it, gathered itself into a small bright spot
+on the cotton. Joe, eager to see, thrust his head over Sam's shoulder,
+and directly between the glass and the sun.
+
+"Take your head away, Joe, or I'll have to draw the fire right through
+it," said Sam, laughing.
+
+"Mercy, Mas' Sam, don't do dat. I'se 'feard o' your witches' ways,
+anyhow," said Joe, drawing back. The glass was again put in position
+and the spot of bright sunlight reappeared. Presently a little cloud of
+smoke rose, and a moment afterwards, the cotton was fairly afire. It was
+not difficult now to get the light-wood and dry sticks to blazing, and a
+good fire was soon secured.
+
+"Now boys," said Sam, "I'll go back to the drift-pile and keep a
+look-out. If you hear the kildee call, run in as quickly as you can.
+When you get the corn and mussels on, and covered up, come back at
+once."
+
+No Indians showing themselves anywhere in the neighborhood, the boys got
+their dinner on or rather _in_ the fire, and then returned to the root
+cavern to await the completion of the cooking process. When they were
+all safely stowed away in their places, Tom gave voice to the curiosity
+with which he was almost bursting.
+
+"Sam," he said, "how did you do that?"
+
+"How did I do what, Tom?"
+
+"How did you make the sun set the cotton on fire?"
+
+"I don't know whether I can make you understand it or not," said Sam,
+"but I'll try. You know light always goes in straight lines, if left to
+itself, don't you?"
+
+"No, I didn't know that!
+
+"Yes you did, only you never thought of it. If you want to keep light
+out of your eyes, you always put your hand between them and the light,
+because you know the light goes straight and so will not go around your
+hand."
+
+"Yes, that's true, and when I want to make a shadow anywhere, I put
+something right before the light."
+
+"Certainly. Well, the rays of the sun all come to us straight, and side
+by side. They are pretty hot, but not hot enough to set fire to anything
+that way. But if you can gather a good many of these rays together and
+make them all shine on one little spot, they will set fire to whatever
+they fall on. Now a piece of glass or any other thing that you can see
+through easily,--that is, any _transparent_ thing, lets the sunlight
+through it, and if it is flat on both sides, it doesn't change the
+directions of the rays. But if both sides are rounded out, or if one
+side is rounded out and the other side is flat, it turns all the rays a
+little, and brings them right together in a point not far from the
+glass. If the sides are hollowed _in_ instead of bulging out, the rays
+scatter, and if one side bulges out and the other bulges in, as they do
+in a watch crystal, one side scatters and the other side collects the
+rays, and so it is the same as if the glass had been perfectly flat, one
+side undoes the other's work. Now I have no glass which bulges out on
+both sides, and none that bulges out on one side and is flat on the
+other, but my watch crystal bulges out on one side and in on the other.
+But when I filled it with water, the water being as clear as the glass,
+it made it flat on top and bulging underneath, and so it gathered the
+sun's rays together in the light spot you saw, and set fire to the
+cotton."
+
+"Yes, but why did you have to wait till noon?" asked Tom.
+
+"Because the glass must be held right across the rays of light, and as I
+couldn't turn the crystal to either side without spilling the water, I
+had to use it at noon, when the sun was almost exactly overhead, and its
+rays came nearly straight down. If I had had a glass rounded out on both
+sides I could have got fire any time after the sun was well up in the
+sky. Now let me tell you what they call all these different kinds of
+glasses. One that is flat on one side and bulges out on the other is
+called a _convex lens_; if it bulges out on both sides it is a _double
+convex lens_; if it is hollowed in on one side and flat on the other it
+is a _concave lens_; if hollowed in on both sides we call it a _double
+concave lens_; and when it is hollowed in on one side and bulged out on
+the other, as any watch crystal does, it is a _concave convex lens_."
+
+"Where did you learn all that, Sam?" asked Tom.
+
+"I learned part of it with father's spectacles, and part out of a book
+father lent me when I asked him why I couldn't make the bright, hot spot
+with a pair of near-sighted glasses that I found in one of mother's old
+work boxes. You see, when people begin to get old, their eyes flatten a
+little, and so everything they look at seems to be shaved off. They see
+well enough at a distance, but can't see small things close to them."
+
+"Is that the reason pa always looks over his spectacles when he looks at
+me?" asked Judie.
+
+"Yes, little woman. He can't see to read without his glasses, but he
+can see you across the room without them, well enough. Well, to remedy
+this defect, old people wear spectacles with double convex lenses in
+them. But near-sighted people have exactly the opposite trouble. They
+can't see things except by bringing them near their eyes, because their
+eyes are not flat enough, and so their spectacles are made with double
+concave lenses. When I asked father about it, he gave me a book that
+explained it all, and that is where I learned the little I know about
+it."
+
+"The _little_! I'd like to know what you call a good deal," said Tom. "I
+never saw anybody that knew half as much as you do."
+
+"That is only because we live in a new country, Tom, where there are no
+very well educated people, and because you don't know how much there is
+to learn in the world. If these Indians ever get quiet, I hope to learn
+a good deal more every year than I know now. But it's time to see about
+our mussel bake. Run to the look-out, Tom, and then we can all go down
+and bring up the dinner."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+SURPRISED.
+
+
+The baked corn and mussels made a savory dish, or one which would have
+been savory enough but for the absence of salt. The boys knew well
+enough that salt was not to be had, however, and so they made a joke of
+its absence, and even pretended that they did not like their food salted
+at any time. Little Judie was so hungry that she cared very little
+whether food tasted well or not, provided it satisfied her appetite.
+
+The rest and the more wholesome food seemed to restore Sam to something
+like his customary strength during the first ten days of his stay in the
+"root fortress," as he had named their singular dwelling. His wounded
+foot got better, though it was still far from well, and, better than
+all, his fever left him. As he regained strength he began to lay plans
+again. To stay where they were was well enough as a temporary device for
+escaping the savages, but Sam's main purpose now was to get the little
+people under his charge back to civilization somewhere, and then to do
+his part in the war between the Indians and whites. He must first find a
+way to get Tom and Judie and Joe into one of the forts or into some safe
+town, and how to do this was the problem. He was unwilling to take them
+away from their present pretty secure hiding-place until he could decide
+upon some definite plan offering a reasonable prospect of escape. If he
+could have known as much as we now know of the movements of the savages,
+he would have had little difficulty. The larger part of the Indians had
+left the peninsula now forming Clarke County, and crossed to the
+south-eastern shore of the Alabama river,--the side on which Sam's root
+fortress stood, and if he could have known this, he would have made an
+effort to cross the river again and reach Fort Glass. The chief
+difficulty in the way of this undertaking would have been that of
+crossing the river, which was now swollen by recent rains. He knew
+nothing about the matter, however, and as Fort Mims, the first point
+attacked by the savages, was on the south-east side of the river, he
+reasoned that having afterwards crossed to Clarke County the Indians
+would not again cross to the south-east side in any considerable force.
+In this, as we know, he was mistaken, and the error led him into some
+danger, as we shall see. Thinking the matter over, he decided that his
+first plan of a march down through the Tensaw Country to the
+neighborhood of Mobile would be the safest and best thing to undertake.
+He was unwilling, however, to begin it with his companions without
+making a preliminary reconnoissance. Accordingly he explained the plan
+to Tom and Joe, and said:
+
+"I'm going to-night down towards old Fort Mims, to see if the country is
+pretty free from Indians, and to find out what I can about the chance of
+getting away from here. I'll leave you here with Judie, and you must be
+extra careful about exposing yourselves. You've corn and mussels and
+sweet potatoes enough already cooked, to last you a week, and I'll
+probably be back before that; if not you must eat them raw till I do
+come: it won't do to build a fire while I'm away." After giving minute
+directions for their guidance during his absence, Sam put a sweet potato
+in one pocket and an ear of corn in the other, and set out on his
+journey, walking with a stout stick, having discarded his crutch as no
+longer necessary. How far he walked that night, I am unable to say, his
+course being a very circuitous one. The moon rose full, soon after dark,
+and shone so brightly that Sam dared not cross the fields, but skirted
+around them keeping constantly in the woods and the edges of canebrakes.
+The next night and the next he continued his journey, though he found
+the country full of Indians. He saw their "sign" everywhere, and now and
+then saw some of the Indians themselves. The fourth evening found him so
+lame (his foot having swelled and become painful again) that he could
+not possibly go on. He had already gone far enough to discover that the
+country on that side of the river was too full of Indians for him to
+carry his little party safely through it, and so he determined to work
+his way back to the root fortress, and try the other side. Seeing a
+house in a field near by the place in which he had spent the day, he
+resolved to visit it for the purpose of bringing away any article he
+could find which might be useful to him in his effort to provide for his
+little band. In a grove near the house he found a horse,--a young and
+powerful animal, and as he feared his lameness would not permit him to
+reach his root fortress again on foot, he determined to ride the animal
+in spite of the fact that on horseback he would be in much greater
+danger of discovery by the Indians than on foot. The horse had a bridle
+on, and had evidently escaped, probably during a skirmish, from its
+white or red master.
+
+Sam tied him in the grove, and went on to the house, which had been
+sacked and partially burned. Looking around in the moonlight, Sam
+discovered a hatchet, and, in the corner of what had once been a
+store-house, the remains of a barrel of salt. These were two valuable
+discoveries. The hatchet would be of great service to him not only in
+the root fortress but even more in forcing a pathway through the
+canebrakes when he should again cross the river and try to reach one of
+the forts. The salt he must have at any cost, and as he had no bag he
+made one by ripping off the sleeve of his coat and tying its ends with
+strips of bark. He had just filled it, and tied up the ends when,
+hearing a noise, he turned, and saw two Indians within six feet of him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+CONFUSED.
+
+
+The two Indians who had startled Sam, were on the point of entering the
+old dwelling house, and seemingly were unaccompanied by any others. Sam
+happened fortunately to be standing in shadow, and they passed without
+seeing him. But what was he now to do? He was at the back of the house,
+and a high picket fence around the place made it impossible for him to
+escape by the front-way, towards which the savages had gone. Looking
+through the door-way, he saw that the pair had passed through the room
+nearest him and into the adjoining apartment. He knew that other Indians
+were in the neighborhood, and that a dozen of them might wander into the
+enclosure at any moment. Resolving upon a bold manoeuvre, he stepped
+lightly into the rear room of the house, and climbed up inside the wide
+mouthed chimney. Whether the Indians heard him or not he never knew, but
+at any rate he was none too soon in hiding, for he had hardly cleared
+the fireplace in his ascent when four or five savages came into the room
+and began to demolish the few articles of furniture left in the house.
+They had got whiskey somewhere, and having drank freely were even
+noisier than white men get under the influence of strong drink. They
+remained but a short time, when, setting fire again to the half-burned
+house, they left the place yelling as savages only can. Sam escaped as
+soon as he could from his uncomfortable quarters and made his way to the
+grove. Mounting his horse he rode away in the direction of the root
+fortress, keeping in the woods as well as he could and taking every
+precaution to avoid coming suddenly upon savages.
+
+As he rode only at night, the Indians' almost universal habit of
+building camp-fires wherever they stop for the night, helped him to
+avoid them. When morning came he sought a place deep in the forest, when
+he turned his horse loose to graze all day, while he slept at some
+distance from the animal, so that the noise of the beast's stamping and
+browsing might not lead to the discovery of his own whereabouts.
+
+As the evening of the second day of his return came round, Sam found
+himself genuinely sick. His foot and leg were much inflamed, and the
+excitement of the preceding night, together with his continued exposure
+to the drenching dews of the Southern autumn, had brought back his fever
+with increased violence, and a very brief experiment convinced him that
+he could not go further that night. He mounted his horse, but had ridden
+less than a mile when he felt a giddiness coming over him and found it
+necessary to abandon the effort to ride that night. He could hardly see,
+and the pain in his head, neck, back and limbs was excruciating. He
+dismounted and threw himself down on the ground without taking the
+trouble even to separate himself from his horse. The truth is, Sam had
+what they call in South Carolina country fever, a high type of malarial
+fever, which stupefies and benumbs its victim almost as soon as it
+attacks him. The dews in the far South, especially in the fall, are so
+heavy that the water will drip and even stream off the foliage of the
+trees all night, and Sam had been drenched every night during both his
+journeys, having no fire by which to warm himself or dry his clothes.
+Even without this drenching the poisonous exhalations of the swamps and
+woods would doubtless have given him the fever, and as it was he had it
+very severely. He laid down again almost under his horse's feet and fell
+into a sort of stupor. He knew that his fever required treatment, and
+that it would rapidly sap his strength, and the thought came to him:
+What if he should die there and never get back to the tree fortress? He
+was too sick to care for himself, but the thought of little Judie
+haunted his dreams, and he was seized with a semi-delirious impulse to
+remount his horse and ride straight away to the hiding-place in which he
+had left her, regardless of Indians, and of everything else. He dreamed
+a dozen times that he was doing this, and finally, when morning came, he
+forgot all about the danger of travelling by daylight, and mounting his
+horse in a confused, half-delirious way, rode straight out of the woods
+towards the open country, which he had hitherto so carefully avoided.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+WEATHERFORD.
+
+
+The fiercest and most conspicuous leader of the Indians in this war was
+William Weatherford, or the Red Eagle, as the Indians called him. He is
+commonly spoken of in history as a half-breed, but he was in reality
+almost a white man, with just enough of the Indian in his composition to
+add savage emotions to Scotch intellect and Scotch perseverance. His
+father was a Scotchman, and his mother a half-breed Indian Princess. He
+was brought up in the best civilization the border had, his father being
+wealthy. He became very rich himself, and, despite his savage instincts,
+which were always strong, his wealth, in land and slaves, made him a
+conservative. At first he favored a war with the whites, but a calmer
+afterthought led him to desire peace, and when he found that the
+tempest he had helped to stir up would not subside at his bidding, he
+began casting about for a way of escape. He was a man of unquestionable
+genius; a soldier of rare strategic ability; an orator of the truest
+sort, and his courage in danger was simply sublime. Such a man was
+likely to be of great value to the Indians in their approaching war, and
+when they began to suspect his loyalty to the nation, they watched him
+narrowly. Finding it impossible to postpone the war, and not wishing to
+sacrifice his fine property near the Holy Ground, he made a secret
+journey to the residence of his half brother David Tait and his brother
+John Weatherford, who lived among what were known as the "peacefuls,"
+namely, the Indians disposed to remain at peace with the whites in any
+event. His brothers, hearing his story, advised him to bring his
+negroes, horses and movable property generally, together with his
+family, to their plantations, and to remain there, inactive and neutral,
+during the struggle. When he returned to his residence for the purpose
+of doing this, however, he found that the hostile Indians had seized his
+family and his negroes as hostages, and, under the compulsion of their
+threat that they would kill his wife and children if he should dare to
+remain at peace, he joined in the war against the whites, becoming the
+fiercest of all the chieftains. He planned and led the assault upon Fort
+Mims, and was everywhere foremost in all the fighting. When the Creeks
+were utterly routed at the battle of the Holy Ground a month or so after
+the time of which I am writing, General Jackson issued a proclamation
+refusing terms of peace to the chiefs until Weatherford, whom he had
+determined to put to death, should be brought to him, alive or dead.
+Weatherford hearing of this, although he was safe beyond the borders and
+might have easily made his escape to Florida, as his comrade Peter
+McQueen did, rode straightway to Jackson's head-quarters, where he said
+to the commander who had set a price upon his head:--
+
+"I am Weatherford. I have come to ask peace for my people. I am in your
+power. Do with me as you please. I am a soldier. I have done the white
+people all the harm I could. I have fought them and fought them bravely.
+If I yet had an army I would fight and contend to the last. But I have
+none. My people are all gone. I can now do no more than weep over the
+misfortunes of my nation."
+
+Jackson was so impressed with the sublime courage and the dignity of the
+man upon whose head he had set a price, that he treated him at once with
+chivalrous consideration. He told him that the only terms upon which the
+Indians could secure peace were unconditional submission and uniform
+good conduct; but "as for yourself," he said, "if you do not like the
+terms, no advantage shall be taken of your present surrender. You are at
+liberty to depart and resume hostilities when you please. But if you are
+taken then, your life shall pay the forfeit of your crimes."
+
+Weatherford calmly folded his arms and replied; "I desire peace for no
+selfish reasons, but that my nation may be relieved from its sufferings;
+for independent of the other consequences of the war, my people's cattle
+are destroyed and their women and children destitute of provisions. I
+may well be addressed in such language now. There was a time when I had
+a choice and could have answered you. I have none now. Even hope has
+ended. Once I could animate my warriors to battle. But I cannot animate
+the dead. My warriors can no longer hear my voice. Their bones are at
+Talladega, Tallashatche, Emuckfaw and Tohopeka. I have not surrendered
+myself thoughtlessly. While there were chances of success I never left
+my post nor supplicated peace. But my people are gone, and I now ask
+peace for my nation and myself. On the miseries and misfortunes brought
+upon my country, I look back with the deepest sorrow, and wish to avert
+still greater calamities. If I had been left to contend with the Georgia
+army, I would have raised my corn on one bank of the river and fought
+them on the other. But your people have destroyed my nation. General
+Jackson, you are a brave man,--I am another. I do not fear to die. But I
+rely upon your generosity. You will exact no terms of a conquered and
+helpless people but those to which they should accede. Whatever they may
+be it would now be folly and madness to oppose them. If they are
+opposed, you shall find me among the sternest enforcers of obedience.
+Those who would still hold out can only be influenced by a mean spirit
+of revenge. To this they must not and shall not sacrifice the last
+remnant of their country. You have told us what we may do and be safe.
+Yours is a good talk, and my nation ought to listen to it. They _shall_
+listen to it."[1]
+
+[Footnote 1: For these speeches of Weatherford's and for other
+historical details I am indebted to a valuable and interesting book,
+"Romantic Passages in South Western History," by A. B. Mull, Mobile, S.
+H. Goetzsl & Co. publishers, which is now, unfortunately out of print.
+The speeches are well authenticated I believe.]
+
+Jackson was too generous and too brave a man to remain unmoved under
+such a speech from a man who thus placed his own life in jeopardy for
+the sake of his people. He bade the chieftain return home, and promised
+peace to his people, a promise faithfully kept to this day. All this
+however occurred nearly two months after the time of which I write, and
+it is introduced here merely by way of explaining the things which
+happened to Sam on the morning of the rash resumption of his journey.
+
+This man Weatherford, the fiercest enemy the whites had, with a party
+of about twenty-five Indians, bivouacked, the night before, in the edge
+of the woods, and when Sam mounted his horse that morning the Indians
+were lying asleep immediately in his path as he rode blindly out of the
+thicket. The first intimation he had of their presence was a grunt from
+a big savage who lay almost under his horse's feet. Coming to himself in
+an instant, Sam took in the whole situation at a glance, and with the
+rapidity and precision which people who are accustomed to the dangers
+and difficulties of frontier life always acquire, he mentally weighed
+all the facts bearing upon the question of what to do, and decided. He
+saw before him the savages, rising from the ground at sight of him. He
+saw their horses browsing at some little distance from them. He saw a
+rifle, on which hung a powder-horn and a bullet-pouch, standing against
+a bush. He saw that he had already aroused the foe, and that he must
+stand a chase. His first impulse was to turn around and ride back, in
+the direction whence he had come; but in that direction lay the thicket
+through which he could not ride rapidly, and so if he should take that
+course, he would lose the advantage which he hoped to gain from the
+fleetness of his particularly good horse. Besides, in the thicket he
+must of course leave a trail easily followed. Just beyond the group of
+Indians he saw the open fields, and he made up his mind at once that he
+would push his horse into a run, dash right through the camp of the
+savages, pick up the convenient rifle if possible, and reaching the open
+country make all the speed he could. In this he knew he would have an
+advantage, inasmuch as he would get a good many hundred yards away
+before the savages could catch and mount their horses for the purpose of
+pursuing him, and he even hoped that they, seeing how far he was in
+advance of them, would abandon the idea of pursuit altogether. All this
+thinking, and weighing of chances, and deciding was the work of a single
+half second, and the plan, once formed, was executed instantly. Without
+pausing or turning he pushed his horse at a full run through the group
+of savages, receiving a glancing blow from a war club and dodging
+several others as he went. He succeeded in getting possession of the
+rifle which stood by the bush, and reached the field before a gun could
+be aimed at him. It was now his purpose to get so far ahead as to
+discourage pursuit, and with this object in view he continued to urge
+his horse forward at his best speed. This hope was a vain one, as he
+soon discovered. The Indians, infuriated by his boldness, mounted their
+horses and gave chase immediately. Sam had an excellent habit, as we
+know, of keeping his wits about him, and of preparing carefully for
+difficulties likely to come. The first thing to be done was to escape,
+if possible, and so he continued to press his high-spirited colt
+forward, while he debated the probabilities of being overtaken, and
+discussed with himself the resources at his command if the savages
+should come up with him. He was armed now, at any rate, and if running
+should prove of no avail, he could and would sell his life very dearly.
+Indeed the possession of the rifle roused all the spirit of battle there
+was in him, and great as the odds were against him, he was sorely
+tempted to pause long enough to shoot once at least. He remembered Tom
+and Judie and Joe, however, and their dependence upon him for guidance
+and protection, and for their sake more than for his own, suppressed
+the impulse and continued his flight. The Indians were nearly half a
+mile behind him, and, as nearly as he could tell, were not gaining upon
+him very rapidly. His colt seemed equal to a long continued race, and as
+yet showed no sign of faltering or fatigue. The question had now
+resolved itself, Sam thought, into one of endurance. How long the
+Indians would continue a pursuit in which he had the advantage of half a
+mile the start, he had no way of determining, but that his horse's
+endurance was as great at least as their perseverance, he had every
+reason to hope.
+
+Just as he had comforted himself with this thought, a new danger
+assailed him. One of the Indians, it seemed, taking advantage of a
+minute knowledge of the country, had saved a considerable distance by
+riding through a strip of woods and cutting off an angle. When Sam first
+caught sight of him, coming out of the woods, the savage was within a
+dozen yards of him, and evidently gaining upon him at every step. Sam's
+horse was a fleet one, but that of the Indian was apparently a
+thoroughbred, whose speed remained nearly as great after a mile's run
+as at the start. Knowing the Indians' skill in shooting while riding at
+full speed, Sam leaned as far as he could to one side, so that as little
+as possible of his person should be exposed to his pursuer's aim. He
+continued to press his horse too, but the savage gained steadily.
+Finding at last that he must shortly be overtaken, Sam resolved upon a
+bold manoeuvre, by which to kill his foremost pursuer. Seizing the
+hatchet he had brought away from the house, he suddenly stopped his
+horse, and, as the Indian came along-side, aimed a savage blow at his
+head.
+
+"Don't you know me, Sam?" said the Indian in good English, dodging the
+blow. "I'm Weatherford. If I'd wanted to kill you I might have done so a
+dozen times in the last five minutes. You know I don't want to kill
+_you_, though you're the only white man on earth I'd let go. But the
+others will make an end of you if they catch you. Ride on and I'll chase
+you. Turn to the left there and ride to the bluff. I'll follow you.
+There's a gully through the top. Ride down it as far as you can and jump
+your horse over the cliff. It's nearly fifty feet high, and may kill
+you, but it's the only way. The other warriors are coming up and
+they'll kill you sure if you don't jump. Jump, and I'll tell 'em I
+chased you over."
+
+Sam knew Weatherford well, and he knew why the blood-thirsty chief
+wished to spare him if he could, for Sam had rescued Weatherford once
+from an imminent peril at great risk to himself, though the story is too
+long to be told here. Whether or not there is nobleness enough in the
+Indian character to make the savage remember a benefit received, I am
+sure I cannot say, but Weatherford was _three-fourths white_, and with
+all his ferocity in war, history credits him with more than one generous
+impulse like that by which Sam was now profiting. The two rode on,
+Weatherford pretending to be in hot pursuit, shooting occasionally and
+yelling at every leap of his horse. The bluff towards which they rode
+was probably a hundred feet high, and was washed at its base by a deep
+but sluggish creek, on the other side of which lay a densely wooded
+swamp. Through the top of the bluff, however, was a sort of fissure or
+ravine washed by the flow of water during the rainy season, and where it
+terminated the height of its mouth above the stream was not more than
+forty or fifty feet. Down this gully Sam rode furiously, so that his
+horse might not be able to refuse the leap, which was a frightful one.
+Coming to the edge of the precipice with headlong speed, the animal
+could not draw back but plunged over with Sam sitting bolt upright on
+his back. Riding back to the top of the bank Weatherford met his
+warriors.
+
+[Illustration: THE PERILOUS LEAP.]
+
+"Where is he?" asked the foremost.
+
+"His _body_ is down there in the creek. I drove him over the precipice,"
+said the chief with well-feigned delight.[2]
+
+[Footnote 2: This incident of the leap over the precipice is strictly
+historical, else I should never have ventured to print it here.
+Weatherford himself, on the 23d of December, 1813, after the battle of
+Tohopeka, escaped a body of dragoons in a precisely similar manner. A
+still more remarkable leap was that of Major Samuel McCullock, on the 2d
+of September 1777, over a precipice fully 300 feet high near Wheeling,
+West Virginia. He jumped over on horseback, thinking such a death
+preferable to savage torture, but singularly enough, both he and his
+horse escaped unhurt.]
+
+His purpose evidently, was to satisfy the warriors that Sam was
+certainly killed, so that they might pursue him no further. Whether he
+was yet alive or not, Weatherford himself had no means of knowing. The
+last he had seen of him was as he went over the precipice, sitting bolt
+upright on his horse, grasping his rifle and looking straight ahead. He
+heard a splash in the water below, after which everything was still.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+WEARY WAITING.
+
+
+The days seemed very long to Tom and Joe and little Judie after Sam left
+on his journey. They had nothing to do but to sit still in their corners
+among the roots all day, and time always drags very slowly when people
+are doing nothing. Their provisions, as we know, were already
+cooked,--enough of them at least, to last a week, and before Sam left he
+had made them bring more than a bushel of sweet potatoes and all the
+corn they could find which was still soft enough to eat, and store it
+away for use if his return should be delayed in any way. The result was
+that their legs got no stretching, and they became moody, dispirited and
+unhappy before the second day of Sam's absence had come to an end. They
+found doing nothing the hardest and the dullest work they ever had done
+in their lives. Joe managed to sleep most of the time, but Tom was
+nervous, and poor little Judie, without Sam to depend upon, grew
+low-spirited and began to fear all sorts of evil things. Finally Sam's
+week was up and Sam had not appeared. The little people were now fairly
+frightened. What had become of him? they wondered. Had he fallen into
+the hands of the Indians? And if so, what were they to do now? They had
+never before known how dependent they were upon him. Even during his
+absence they had been regulating their lives by his minute instructions,
+and depending upon him for guidance after he should return. But what if
+he should never return? And why hadn't he come already? These thoughts
+were too much for them. Judie sat in her corner brooding over her
+trouble, and crying a little now and then. Joe was simply frightened,
+and his eyes grew bigger and rounder than ever. Tom was sustained in
+part by the thought that the burden of responsibility was now on him,
+and so he suppressed all manifestations of uneasiness, as well as he
+could, and gave himself up to the duty of studying the situation,
+calculating his resources and trying to decide what was the best thing
+to be done if Sam should not come back at all. He hit upon several
+excellent ideas, but made up his mind that before trying to put any of
+them into practice he would wait at least a fortnight longer for Sam's
+return. Their stock of provisions, eaten raw, would last much longer
+than that, and the fields were full of sweet potatoes, wherefore he
+wisely thought it best not to lose any chance of having Sam to do the
+thinking and planning. He was so anxious for his brother's return that
+he spent the greater part of his time on the drift-pile where he had
+built himself a little observatory, so arranged that he could see in
+every direction without the possibility of being seen in his turn.
+
+Sitting there in his look-out, watching for Sam, he had time to think of
+many things. His thinking was not always wise, as a matter of course,
+but for a boy of his age it did very well, certainly, and one day he hit
+upon a really valuable idea.
+
+The way it came about was this. He fell into a reverie, and remembered
+the happy old days at home, and one day in particular, when he was busy
+all day making a little wagon in which to give Judie a ride, and he
+remembered how very short that day seemed, although it was in June. Just
+then it popped into his head to think that there was a reason for
+everything, and that that day had seemed so short only because he had
+been very busy as its hours went by. If he had known what
+"generalization" means, he would have generalized this truth as
+follows:--
+
+"Time passes rapidly with busy people." He did nothing of the kind,
+however. He only thought.
+
+"If poor little Judie had something to keep her busy all the time, she
+wouldn't be so miserable."
+
+And so he cudgelled his brains to invent some plan or other by which to
+set Judie at work and keep her at it all the time.
+
+When he returned to the fortress towards night, he said to the little
+woman; "Judie, I reckon poor Sam's foot is troubling him again, and
+that's the reason he hasn't got back yet. He'll work along slowly and
+get here after a while, but I'm afraid he'll be dreadfully tired and
+sick when he comes. We must have a good soft bed ready for him so that
+he can get a good rest."
+
+To this Judie assented, though in her heart she feared she should never
+see Sam again, as indeed Tom did too, though neither would admit the
+fact to the other.
+
+"Now I've been thinking," said Tom, "that it wont do, if he comes back
+half sick, to let him lie on green moss with all the outside on. Let me
+show you."
+
+And taking a strand of the long moss he scraped the greenish gray
+outside off, leaving a black strand like a horse hair.
+
+"There," he said, "Sam told me once that it's the soft outside part that
+holds water, while the inside is dry almost always. Now why can't we
+scrape the outside off of a great deal of moss and have the dry inside
+ready for Sam to sleep on when he comes back? It'll surprise him and
+he'll be glad too. He never cared for himself much, but he'll be glad to
+see that we care for him."
+
+The plan pleased little Judie wonderfully well. She was always delighted
+to do anything for Sam, and now that she was uneasy about him, and kept
+thinking of him as dead or dying or sick somewhere, and could hardly
+keep her tears back, nothing could have pleased her so well as to work
+for his comfort. Tom and Joe went out after dark, and brought in a large
+lot of moss, and the next morning all went to work, Judie made very
+little progress with her scraping, but she kept steadily at it, and it
+served its purpose in making her less miserable than before. The days
+passed more rapidly to Tom and Joe, too, and the whole party grew more
+cheerful under the influence of work. It was now ten days, however,
+since Sam had gone away, and his non-appearance was really alarming.
+When work stopped for the night, the thought of Sam was uppermost in the
+minds of all three, and for the first time they talked freely of the
+matter.
+
+Tom was disposed to cheer himself by cheering the others, and so he
+explained:
+
+"It's about forty-five miles to where Fort Mims stood, so Sam told me,
+and he said he might go nearly that far, if he didn't see Indians. If he
+went only thirty-five miles it would take him four or five nights; say
+five nights, and five more to come back would make ten. But may be his
+foot got sore, or Indians got in the way, and so it has taken him longer
+than he thought. I don't think we ought to be uneasy even if he should
+stay two weeks in all."
+
+That was all very well as a theory, and true enough too, but Tom was
+uneasy, nevertheless, and so were Joe and Judie. The worst of it was
+that none of them could hide the fact. The eleventh day came, and with
+it came an excitement. Tom was the first to wake, and without waiting
+for the others, he proceeded to make his breakfast off an ear of raw
+corn, which was almost hard enough to grind, and altogether too hard to
+be eaten as green corn at any well-regulated table. Tom ate it, however,
+having nothing better, and when Judie waked he offered her a softer ear,
+which he had carefully selected and laid aside. Judie tried but couldn't
+eat it. She was faint and almost sick, and found it impossible to
+swallow the raw corn.
+
+"Poor little sister," said Tom. "If I had any fire I'd roast a potato
+for you to-day anyhow, but the fire's all out and I can't."
+
+"Mas' Tom!" said Joe, "I'll tell you what! I dun see a heap o' fox
+grapes down dar by de creek, an' I'se gwine to git some for Miss Judie
+quicker'n you kin count ten." And so saying Joe ran first to the
+look-out, to make a preliminary reconnoissance. The boys rarely ever
+left the trees during the daytime, and when they did so they were
+careful first to satisfy themselves that there were no savages in the
+neighborhood. The creek, of which Joe spoke, emptied into the river a
+short distance above the root fortress, and, along its banks was a dense
+mass of undergrowth, which skirted the river below, all the way to the
+drift-pile. Joe had seen the grapes from the look-out, and had planned
+an excursion after them. He could follow the river bank to the creek,
+keeping in the bushes and moving cautiously, and if any Indians should
+appear he could retreat in the same way, without discovery. Tired of raw
+corn and sweet potatoes, the grapes had tempted him sorely, and it only
+needed Judie's longing for a change of diet to induce him, to make this
+foraging expedition.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+FIGHTING FIRE.
+
+
+Before proceeding to relate the incidents which follows, it is necessary
+to explain a little more fully the arrangement of the root fortress and
+the drift-pile. The two trees, which were enormous ones, had originally
+grown as close together as they could, and their roots had interlaced
+beneath the soil. The sand in which they grew having been gradually
+washed away, their great masses of roots were exposed for about fifteen
+feet below the original level of the soil and as they spread out they
+made two circles (one running a foot or two into the other), of about
+twelve or fifteen feet in diameter. Inside of this circle of great
+roots, the roots were mostly small, and the boys had cut them away with
+their knives, leaving just enough of them to stop up all the holes and
+obscure the view from without. The drift-pile, or hammock, as it is
+sometimes called at the South, had been years in forming, being
+drift-wood which had floated down the river during winter and spring
+freshets, and as it had lodged against the trees it lay only on their
+upper side, where it was piled up into a perpendicular wall nearly
+twenty feet high. Thence it stretched away up the river for a hundred
+yards or more. Now the only entrance big enough to admit a person into
+the root fortress was on the side next to the drift, and it opened only
+into an alley-way which the boys had partly found and partly made
+through the drift. This alley-way led past several little aisles running
+out to the right and left for a dozen yards or so,--aisles formed by the
+irregular piling of the logs on top of each other. In the fortress there
+were a dozen places at least, where the big roots were sufficiently wide
+apart to admit a grown man easily, but the boys had left the smaller
+roots which covered these gaps undisturbed, and cut only the one
+entrance. After cutting that on the side next the hammock, they had
+moved some of the drift so as to close up the sides of the entrance and
+make it open only into the alley-way. All this had been done under Sam's
+supervision, and as a result of his prudence and fore thought.
+
+Joe had been gone nearly half an hour when he burst suddenly into the
+chamber in which the others were. His hands were full of the wild
+grapes, but of those he was evidently not thinking. His face was of that
+peculiar hue which black faces assume when if they were white faces they
+would grow pale; and his lips, usually red, were of an ashy brown. His
+eyes were of the shape of saucers, and seemed not much smaller. He
+gasped for breath in an alarming way, and Tom saw that the poor fellow
+was frightened almost out of his wits.
+
+"What's the matter Joe? Tell me quick," said the younger boy.
+
+"O Mas' Tom, we'se dun surrounded. I was jest a-gittin' de grapes when I
+seed a'most a thousand Injuns a-comin,' an' I dun run my life a'most out
+a-gittin' here. Dey did not see me, but I seed dem, an' I tell you dey's
+de biggest Injuns you ever did see. I 'clar dey's mos' as tall as
+trees."
+
+"How many of 'em are there, Joe?" asked Tom standing up.
+
+"I couldn't count 'em e'zactly, Mas' Tom, but I reckon dey's not less'n
+a thousand of 'em,--maybe two thousan' for all I know."
+
+"Where are they, and what were they doing?" asked Tom; but before Joe
+could answer, the voices of the Indians themselves indicated their
+whereabouts, and Tom discerned that they were disagreeably close to his
+elbow.
+
+Seeking a place in which to cook their breakfast the savages had
+selected the corner formed by the root fortress and the drift-pile as a
+proper place for a fire, and were now breaking up sticks with which to
+start one. They were just outside the fortress, and either of the boys
+could have touched them by pushing his arm out between the roots. Tom
+motioned the others to keep absolutely silent, and going a little way
+into the hammock, through the passage way he managed to find a place
+from which he could see the intruders. He soon discovered that Joe's
+account of them was slightly exaggerated in two important particulars.
+They were only ordinary Indians, neither larger nor smaller than grown
+Indians usually are, and instead of a thousand there were but three of
+them in all.
+
+But three fully grown Indians were enough to justify a good deal of
+apprehension, and if they should discover the party in the tree, Tom
+knew very well they would make very short work of their destruction. He
+crept back to the tree therefore and again cautioned Joe and Judie, in a
+whisper, not to speak or make any other noise. Then he returned to his
+place of observation and watched the Indians. They soon made a crackling
+fire and proceeded to broil some game they had killed, this and the
+eating which followed occupied perhaps an hour, during which Tom made
+frequent journeys to the little room, nominally for the purpose of
+cautioning the others to keep still, but really to work off some portion
+of his uneasiness, which was growing with every moment. He was terrified
+at first upon general principles, as any other boy of eleven years old
+would have been. Then he was afraid that the Indians would by some
+accident, lean something against the curtain of small roots between two
+other big trees, and that the curtain might not be strong enough to
+support it, in which event their hiding-place would be discovered at
+once. He was afraid, too, that some slight noise inside the fortress
+might catch the uncommonly quick ears of the Indians.
+
+All these were dangers well worth considering; but now a new, and much
+greater danger began to show itself. The drift was largely composed of
+light wood, and from his hiding-place Tom could see that the fire built
+by the trees had communicated itself to the hammock, and that the flames
+were rapidly spreading. The danger now was that the fire would burn into
+the alley-way and so cut off retreat from the fortress, and if so those
+inside would be burned alive. Quitting his place of observation
+therefore, he established himself as a sentry in the alley-way, having
+determined, if the fire should approach the passage, to take Joe and
+Judie out of the fortress and into one of the aisles near the farther
+edge of the drift-pile. Having begun to plan he saw all the
+possibilities of the case and tried to provide for all. He knew that if
+the wind should drive the flames into the drift the whole pile would be
+destroyed in a very brief time, but in that case, he reasoned, the black
+smoke of the resinous pine would make it impossible for the Indians to
+see very far in that direction, and so he resolved, if the worst came,
+to lead his companions out of the upper end of the hammock, into the
+bushes and so escape to the creek, where he hoped to find a hiding-place
+of some sort. He had got this far in his planning when he heard Judie
+cough, and stepping quickly into the room found it full of smoke. Seeing
+that to stay there was to suffocate, he beckoned his companions to
+follow, and stepping lightly they passed down the alley-way and sat down
+in one of the aisles, behind a great sycamore log which ran across the
+pile. Peeping over this log Tom saw the three Indians shoulder their
+guns and walk away. He ran at once to the look-out, and though the smoke
+almost blinded him he observed all their movements. He wanted them away
+speedily, so that he and Joe might extinguish the fire if that were
+still possible, and as every minute served to increase the difficulty
+and lessen the chances of doing so, the loitering of the savages seemed
+interminable. They stopped first to drink at the spring. Then they
+amused themselves by throwing sticks, and pebbles and shells at a turtle
+which was sunning himself on a log in the stream. Then they stopped to
+examine the track of a turkey or of some animal, in the sand, and it
+really seemed to Tom that they did not mean to go away at all.
+
+All things have an end, however, and even the stay of disagreeable
+visitors cannot last always. The three savages finally disappeared a
+mile down the river, and Tom, after scanning the surrounding country and
+satisfying himself that there were no others in the immediate
+neighborhood, hurried to the place where Joe and Judie were hidden.
+
+"They've gone at least," he said, "and now Joe, we must put this fire
+out, if we can. Judie, you stay here, and if you find the smoke bothers
+you, go further down the alley that way. Don't try to stay if the smoke
+comes."
+
+How to stop the fire was the problem. Fortunately there was very little
+wind, and what there was blew chiefly from up the river. The flames had
+spread over a considerable space, however, and the boys had hardly
+anything with which to work.
+
+They carried water in their hats from the river, which was only a few
+yards away, now that it had risen to the bottom of the second bank.
+This was altogether too slow a way of working, however, and the fire was
+visibly gaining on the boys. But, slow as this process was, it served to
+teach Tom a lesson or rather to remind him of one he had learned and
+forgotten. He found that a hatful of water thrown on the bottom of the
+fire did more good than two hatfuls thrown on top, and he remembered
+that when the soot in the chimney at home caught fire once, his father
+would not allow anybody to pour water down the chimney, but stood
+himself by the fireplace throwing a little water, not up the chimney
+but, on the blazing fire below. This water, turned into steam, went up
+the chimney and soon extinguished the fire there. In the same way Tom
+now discovered that when he threw a hatful of water on a burning log at
+the bottom of the pile it had a perceptible effect all the way to the
+top. Thinking of the chimney fire he remembered also that his father had
+said at the time that a plank laid over the top of a burning chimney, or
+a screen fastened over the fireplace would stop the burning of the soot
+by stopping the air, and so smothering the fire. This suggested a new
+plan of operations for present use. The long gray moss grew in great
+abundance all around the place, and gathering this he dipped it in the
+river and then threw it on top of the fire. A bunch of the moss held
+greatly more water than his hat, and it served also to smother the fire.
+He and Joe repeated the operation, putting some of the moss on top and
+some against the sides of the burning pile of timber. The steam from
+these perceptibly checked the burning, and an hour's work covered the
+fire almost entirely up, so far at least as the exposed side of the
+drift-pile was concerned. But just as they were disposed to congratulate
+themselves upon their success in subduing the flames, they discovered
+that while they had been smothering the fire on one side it had been
+burning freely further in. The openness of the hammock gave free access
+to the air from the other side, and just beyond the line of moss they
+saw a blaze licking its tongue out from below. They were tired out,
+already, and this added discouragement to weariness. Little Judie,
+although the boys had urged her to remain quiet, had been hard at work
+bringing moss to them, insisting upon her right to work as well as
+they. She had discovered too that the sand, just below the surface was
+wet, and that this served almost as good a purpose as the moss itself
+when thrown on the fire. The poor little girl was utterly tired out at
+last, however, and when the fire seemed to be subsiding, she had yielded
+to Tom's entreaties, and going into the drift-pile had laid down to
+rest. Now that all their work promised to accomplish nothing, the boys
+were vexed with themselves for having permitted the frail little girl to
+wear herself out in so fruitless a task. This, with their
+disappointment, served to make them utterly wretched.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+IN THE WILDERNESS.
+
+
+When Sam went over the cliff, he thought of poor little Judie, and Tom
+and Joe, and, for their sake more than his own, took every precaution
+which might give him an additional chance of life. He knew that he
+should fall into the creek, and that the blow, when he struck the water,
+would be a very severe one. If he could keep his horse under him all the
+way, however, the animal and not he would be the chief sufferer. Fearing
+that the horse would hesitate at the cliff, blunder, and throw him a
+somersault, perhaps falling on him, he held the beast's head high and
+urged him forward at full speed, and so, as we have seen, the horse's
+back was almost level as he leaped from the top of the bank. Sam had no
+saddle or stirrups in which to become entangled, and as the horse
+struck the water fairly, the blow was not nearly so severe a shock to
+the boy as he had expected. Both went under the water, but rising again
+in a moment Sam slid off the animal's back, to give the poor fellow a
+better chance of escape by swimming. Striking out boldly Sam reached the
+bank and crawling up looked for his horse. The poor beast was evidently
+too severely hurt to swim with ease, and so he drifted away, Sam running
+along the bank, calling and encouraging him. He struck the shore at
+last, and Sam examining him found that while he was stunned and bruised
+no serious damage had been done.
+
+"Poor fellow," he said, stroking the colt's head, "you cannot serve me
+any further in this swamp, but you saved my life and I'm glad you're not
+killed anyhow."
+
+Then taking the bridle off, he turned the horse loose, to graze and
+browse at will in the dense growth of the swamp.
+
+Sam was feverish still, and very weak, but his anxiety to reach the root
+fortress again was an overmastering impulse. He had lost his bearings in
+the mad chase, and the sky was so overcast that he could make no use of
+the sun as a guide. He knew that his course lay nearly northward, and it
+was his purpose to travel only at night, as before; but unless he could
+get out of the swamp during the day, and ascertain in what direction he
+must travel, he could not go on during the night at all. If it should
+clear off by evening, the pole star would show him his way, but there
+was no promise of a clearing away. He must find the course during the
+day, and he set about it at once, after examining his salt bag which he
+had put around his body, under his shirt, on the night on which he got
+it. The salt was saturated with water, and Sam's first impulse was to
+wring it out; but it occurred to him that the water he should squeeze
+out of it would be salt water, or in other words, that some of the salt
+would come away with the water and be lost. If he let it dry gradually,
+however, all the salt would remain, and he determined to let it dry,
+carrying it, with that in view, over his shoulder. How to find out which
+way was north was the question, and it puzzled him sorely. He knew the
+general course of all the creeks in that part of the country, but as
+they wind about in every direction it was impossible to get any
+information out of the one he was near. It was his habit, when he wanted
+to solve any difficult problem, to sit down and think of it in all its
+bearings, and a very excellent habit that is too. Nearly half our
+blunders, all through life, might be avoided if we would think carefully
+before acting; and nearly half the useful things we know, have been
+found out simply by somebody's thinking. Sam sat down on a log and said
+to himself;--
+
+"Now if there is anything in the woods which always or nearly always
+points in any one direction, I can find it by looking. Then I can find
+out which way it points, by remembering how the woods look around home,
+where I know the points of the compass."
+
+This was an excellent beginning, and Sam straightway began looking for
+something which should guide him. A patch of sunflowers grew by the
+creek, and he had heard that they always turn their heads to the sun,
+but upon examining them, he found some of them turned one way and some
+another, so that they were of no use whatever. Presently he observed
+some beautiful green moss growing at the root and for a good many feet
+up the trunk of a tree, and looking around he saw that the moss at the
+roots of all the trees grew only or chiefly on one side, and that the
+covered side was the same with all of them. Here was a uniform habit of
+vegetation, and Sam knew enough to know that such a habit was not likely
+to be confined to one particular locality. He began thinking of the
+woods around home, and especially of a clump of trees in the yard at his
+father's house, the moss-covered roots of which were Judie's favorite
+playing place. This moss, he remembered, was nearly all on the north
+side of the trees, whose southern roots were bare. All the other mossy
+trees he could remember taught the same lesson, namely, that the green
+moss which grows around the bases of trees, grows chiefly on the north
+side. He had no doubt that the law was a general, if not a universal
+one, and as the mossy trees were very numerous, he had a guide easily
+followed. Striking out northwardly, therefore, he travelled several
+miles before stopping, coming then to a suitable resting-place he lay
+down to gather strength for the night's journey. When night came,
+however, it had been raining for some hours, and in addition to the
+darkness of a rainy night in a swamp, Sam found the soft alluvial soil
+so saturated with water that he sank almost to his knees at every step.
+Finding it impossible to go on he stopped again on the highest and
+dryest piece of ground he could find, and prepared to spend the night
+there. Cutting down a number of thick-leaved bushes he arranged them
+against a fallen tree, as a shelter.
+
+He had been lying down but a short time when he discovered that pretty
+nearly all the rain that fell on his bush roof found its way through in
+great drops from the leaves. It then occurred to him that he had erred
+in placing the bushes with their tops up. This indeed, made them mere
+catchers and conductors of water to the space they covered. Turning
+them, so that their drooping leaves pointed downward, he was not long in
+making a really comfortable shelter, through which very little water
+could find its way.
+
+Towards morning he waked and found himself lying in water. He could see
+nothing in the darkness, but supposed that the rain had in some way made
+a pool where he was lying. On coming out from his tent, however, he
+found matters much worse than he had thought. In whatever direction he
+looked he could see nothing but water, and he knew what the trouble was.
+The rain had been very heavy all along the creek, and the stream having
+very little fall had spread out over the whole surface of the swamp.
+There was nothing to do except wait for daylight, and he climbed upon
+the trunk of the fallen tree to get out of the water while he waited.
+The rain had ceased to fall, and he had therefore no reason to fear any
+great increase in the depth of the surrounding water.
+
+When morning came, Sam found that he was not the only occupant of the
+fallen tree. A fine large opossum had taken refuge in one of the upper
+branches, and Sam used his rifle to good purpose in bringing him down.
+He was still suffering somewhat from the fever, though the excitement of
+his recent ride had done much to relieve him, as anything which occupies
+one's mind is apt to do in fevers of that sort, but he was nevertheless
+extremely hungry, not having tasted food of any kind for nearly two
+days, and having previously lived for a long time, as we know, upon an
+insufficient and not very wholesome diet. He was delighted therefore to
+get a fat young opossum for breakfast. The next thing was to cook it.
+Sam was in no danger here from Indians, who were not likely to be in
+such a swamp at any time, and were certainly not then, when the swamp
+was full of water. He had no objection therefore to a fire, but where
+and how to build one he was at some loss to determine. Looking carefully
+around he discovered that in falling the great sycamore tree on which he
+stood had thrown up a large mound of earth at its roots, as big trees in
+blowing down nearly always do. This mound was well above the water, even
+at its base, and here Sam determined to roast his opossum. He first dug
+a hole in the ground, making it about two feet long, one foot wide and
+eighteen inches deep. This was to be his fireplace and oven. He next
+collected dry bark from the under side of the fallen tree, and by
+breaking off its dead and well-seasoned limbs secured several large
+armfuls of wood. Then taking from his leathern bullet-pouch a piece of
+greased rag, kept there to wrap bullets in before ramming them in the
+barrel, he placed it in the "pan" of his rifle. Does the reader know
+what the "pan" of a rifle is? If not he knows nothing of flintlock guns,
+and I must explain. Before the invention of percussion caps, guns were
+provided with a little groove-shaped trough by the side of the powder
+chamber. From this "pan" as it was called, a little hole led into the
+charge. Over the pan fitted a piece of steel on a hinge, so that it
+could be opened and shut at pleasure. This piece of steel, after
+covering the pan, extended diagonally upward, and its surface was
+roughened like the face of a file. When the rifleman had loaded his gun
+he opened the pan, poured in a little powder and closed it again. In the
+hammer was a piece of flint, and when the trigger was pulled the flint
+came down with great force into the pan, scraping the roughened steel as
+it came, and raising the pan cover on its hinge. It thus deposited a
+shower of sparks in the pan, set fire to the powder there and through it
+to the charge in the gun.
+
+Sam's object was merely to get fire, however,--not to discharge his
+rifle,--wherefore, without reloading it, after shooting the opossum, he
+merely filled the pan with powder, placed the greasy rag in it, and
+cocking the gun pulled the trigger. In a moment the rag was burning, and
+before many minutes had passed, Sam had a good fire burning in and over
+the hole he had dug. He then skinned and dressed the opossum, stopping
+now and then to replenish the fire and to throw all the live coals into
+the hole as they formed. Within an hour the hole was full of burning
+coals, and hot enough, Sam thought, for his purpose. He cut a number of
+green twigs and collected a quantity of the long gray moss. He then
+removed all the fire from the hole, the sides and bottom of which were
+almost red hot, and passing a twig through the opossum, lowered it to
+the middle of the hole, where the twig rested on ledges provided for
+that purpose. This brought the dressed animal into the centre of the
+hole, without permitting it to touch either the sides or the bottom. He
+then laid twigs across the top of the hole, covered them with moss, and
+threw nearly a foot of loose earth over the moss. The sides and bottom
+of the hole, as I have said, were very hot, and Sam's plan was to keep
+the heat in until it should roast the meat thoroughly. That his plan
+was a good one, I know from experience, having roasted more than one
+turkey in that way. It is, in fact, the very best way in which meat of
+any kind can possibly be roasted at all, as it lets none of the flavor
+escape in the form of gases.
+
+Sam waited patiently for an hour, when, opening his earth oven, he found
+his opossum cooked to a rich, crisp brown. He ate a heartier and more
+wholesome breakfast that morning than he had eaten for weeks, and felt
+afterwards altogether better and stronger than before. The breakfast
+would have been an excellent one at any time, as the flesh of the
+opossum tastes almost exactly like that of a suckling pig, but it was
+doubly good to the poor half-famished boy. He stowed away the remains of
+his feast in his coat pockets to be eaten on his way back to the root
+fortress, resolving to kill some other game on the journey, for the use
+of the little garrison there. He was now, as he knew, not more than ten
+or twelve miles from his destination, but it was as yet impossible for
+him to travel. The swamp was full of cypresses, and it is a peculiar
+habit of these trees to turn their roots straight upward for any
+distance, from an inch to many feet, and then to bring them straight
+down again, making what are called cypress knees. These knees are very
+sharp on top, and sometimes stand not more than a foot apart. Being of
+all heights, many of them, as Sam knew, were under water now, and these
+made travelling impossible, even if there had been no quagmires to fall
+into, as there were. After studying the situation, Sam determined to
+remain where he was until the water should subside, and then to travel
+by daylight, at least until he should be out of the swamp and upon high
+ground again. The waters of the creek subsided much more slowly than
+they had risen, and Sam remained at the Sycamore Camp, as he called the
+place, for four days and nights before he thought travelling again
+practicable.
+
+He then resumed his march, beset by many difficulties. The ground was
+muddy everywhere, and impassably so in some places. There were many
+ponds and pools left in the swamp, and these had to be avoided, so that
+night had already come before he found himself fairly out of the swamp
+and on the bank of the river, about two miles below the root fortress.
+He now began to feel all sorts of apprehensions. He had been away
+eleven days, and he could not help imagining a variety of terrible
+things which might have happened to his little band during his absence.
+Presently he saw a great light up the river, and at once the thought
+flashed into his mind that the Indians had discovered and butchered the
+boys and Judie, and were now burning the drift pile.
+
+"I'll hurry on," he said to himself, "and if the Indians are really
+there, it's time for me to take part in this war. I can keep in the
+timber and pick off half a dozen of them there in the fire light. Then
+if they scalp me, I don't care. I'll at least make them suffer for what
+they've done."
+
+A fierce storm was just breaking,--a storm of the violent and heroic
+type seen only in tropical and sub-tropical countries, but Sam thought
+nothing of that. He pushed on almost unconsciously, with no thought
+except that with his rifle, hidden in the darkness, he could wage one
+sharp and terrible battle with the murderers of Judie and Tom and Joe,
+before suffering death at their hands. The lightning struck a tree just
+ahead of him, but he seemed not to observe the fact. He was going into
+battle, and what was a thunderbolt more or less at such a time. The rain
+followed, drenching him instantly, but not dampening his determination
+in the least.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+AN ALARM AND A WELCOME.
+
+
+When Tom and Joe made the disheartening discovery that in spite of all
+their efforts the fire was burning inside the hammock, they felt like
+giving up in despair, and seeking another refuge.
+
+"But then Sam would never find us," said Tom, "even if he gets back. He
+will find this place burned up and think the Indians have killed us all.
+We _must_ put this fire out, Joe, if it takes a week."
+
+And straightway the boys began again, saturating large armfuls of moss
+with water and laying them on top of the drift whenever the blaze showed
+itself. Heart-pine burns rapidly with a great blaze and much smoke, but
+it makes no coals, and a gallon of water will sometimes stop the
+burning of a great log of it, instantly. Every armful of wet moss
+therefore had an immediate and perceptible effect which greatly
+encouraged the boys. They worked hour after hour, not succeeding in
+putting the fire out, indeed, but managing to check it very decidedly,
+and better than all, to keep it away from the trees and from the
+alley-way leading to their hiding-place. Just as night fell, Joe called
+out,
+
+"I say, Mas' Tommy, it's gwine to rain bucketsful."
+
+"I wish it would," said Tom, looking up to the black clouds which as yet
+he had hardly observed at all. Just then a sharp flash followed by a
+sudden peal of thunder almost stunned the boys.
+
+"Dat didn't strike fur from here," said Joe.
+
+"No, it must have hit a tree down the river a little way," said Tom.
+
+The rain followed in torrents, and little Judie came out of her
+hiding-place to beg the boys to come in lest the lightning should strike
+them. They were encouraged by the rain, however, to continue fighting
+the fire, and resumed operations at once.
+
+"Hush!" said Tom presently, "there's Indians about. I heard 'em walking
+in the brush. Run around the hammock quick, and let's hide."
+
+All ran without a moment's hesitation, and secreting themselves in the
+drift awaited results.
+
+Presently they heard footsteps in the alley-way, and the voice of their
+big brother called out.
+
+"Where are all you, little people, and what do do you hide from me for?"
+
+The Indian they had heard was Sam creeping around to see who it was that
+was burning the drift. Seeing the boys and Judie, he walked out of the
+thicket, but before he could get to them they had taken refuge in the
+drift from the supposed danger. Their joy at Sam's return, and Sam's joy
+at finding them safe and well instead of finding Indians dancing around
+their burning dwelling, may be imagined. Tom put his arm around his
+brother's neck, and could say nothing but,
+
+"Dear old Sam," which he said over again every ten seconds during half
+an hour at least. Judie hugged and kissed Sam, and cried over him and
+called him her "dear, best, big brother," and did all sorts of foolish
+things which didn't strike Sam as foolish at all. Joe would sit awhile
+and then get up and dance until he knocked his shins against some of the
+drift, and then set down again, and then get up and dance again,
+grinning with delight, I have no doubt, though it was too dark for
+anybody to see whether he grinned or not.
+
+After a little while Sam went out and returning reported that the rain
+had completely extinguished the fire. They then retired to the root
+fortress which was unhurt, and Sam said he thought they ought to hold
+prayers before going to sleep. Sam prayed rather awkwardly perhaps, but
+he prayed because he felt like thanking the Father who had watched over
+them all in so many dangers, and the awkwardness of such a prayer is a
+matter of no consequence. They all laid down, after prayers, and one
+after another fell asleep.
+
+The next morning a fire was started after the plan Sam had adopted in
+the swamp, and some game which he had killed made a savory breakfast for
+all of them. Judie thought salt, which she now tasted for the first time
+in many weeks, was altogether better than sugar,--an opinion which it
+seems she never before held. After breakfast explanations were in
+order. Sam told the others all about his adventures, and they gave him a
+minute history of their life during his absence. Then Sam explained that
+from the number of savages he had seen on that side of the river, he
+thought the other side must now be comparatively free from them.
+
+"Fort Glass is just twelve miles away from here," he said, "and I mean
+now to go there, just as soon as I get a little rested and feel strong
+enough. The country along this part of the river is very bad to travel
+through, though, since the river rose, as all the creeks are up, and if
+we could get up the river about eight miles, we should be within six
+miles of the fort, with a good country to travel through. We can't get
+there, however, and so it's no use to talk about it. We must just strike
+out from here and make our way across the best way we can."
+
+But clearly Sam was in no condition to travel yet. His fever had come
+back on him that morning, and it was necessary to postpone the journey
+to Fort Glass until he should get better. He went into the woods during
+the day, and shot two squirrels and a wild turkey, but upon his return
+found himself unable to sit up longer. The bed of scraped moss was very
+welcome to the weary and sick boy. The next day he was a little better,
+but the next found him very ill and partly delirious. The boys were
+frightened. They had seen enough of the fevers of that region to know
+that they require immediate and constant treatment, and they had good
+reason to fear that Sam could never recover without medicine and a
+doctor. They ministered to him as well as they could, but they could do
+nothing to check the fever, which was now constant and very high. Sam
+knew hardly anything, and rarely ever spoke at all except to talk
+incoherently in fits of delirium.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+JOE'S PLAN.
+
+
+Sam's illness continued day after day, and the boys were greatly
+troubled. Little Judie remained by her "big brother's" side almost
+constantly, while Tom and Joe provided food, cooked it, and attended to
+the wants of the little community to the very best of their ability.
+They were in the habit too, of retiring now and then, to a secluded spot
+in the drift-pile, to consult and discuss plans of procedure. One day
+Tom went to the rendezvous and found Joe there leaning against a log,
+with his feet on another, and his eyes closed.
+
+"Are you asleep, Joe?" he asked.
+
+"No, Mas' Tom, I'se not asleep," said Joe, "I'se just thinkin'."
+
+"Well, what were you thinking, Joe?"
+
+"I'se been layin' plans, Mas' Tom, an' I's laid one good un anyhow."
+
+"What is it, Joe?"
+
+"Well, you see Mas' Sam ought to have a doctor, an' he's gwine to die if
+he don't, dat's sartain. But dey ain't no doctor here."
+
+Joe said this as if it were a new truth just discovered, that there was
+no doctor there.
+
+"Well, go on, Joe," said Tom, "and tell me your plan, maybe it's a good
+one."
+
+"Course it's a good un. I dun tell you dat fust."
+
+"Well, what is it?"
+
+"Mas' Tom, don't you know Mas' Sam always begins 'way back whar' he's
+been thinkin' an' tells all dat fust so you kin see all de why's and
+wharfores?"
+
+"Yes; but what has that to do with your plan, Joe?"
+
+"Nothin', only dat's de way I'se gwine to 'splain my plan, I'se dun
+begun way back whar I'se dun been thinkin', an' I'se gwine to tell all
+'bout dat fust. Den you'll understan' de whys and wharfores. You mus'n't
+hurry me, Mas' Tom, dat's all."
+
+"All right, tell it your own way, Joe," said Tom, laughing.
+
+"No, I'se gwine to tell it Mas' Sam's way. Well, you see dey ain't no
+doctor here an' we can't git one to come here neither. So we must take
+Mas' Sam to whar' dey is doctors, do you see?"
+
+"That's all very well," said Tom, "but how are we to do that?"
+
+"Now you'se hurryin' me again, Mas' Tom. Dat's just what I'se a-comin'
+to. Mas' Sam said de other mornin' dat if we was up de river about eight
+miles furder, de fort would be only six miles away, an' de country would
+be easy 'nuff to cross. He dun say we couldn't git up de river, but we
+_kin_. You see Mas' Sam was sick, an' dat's de reason he say dat. Now I
+dun bin thinkin' of a way to git up de river. Dey's lots of cane here,
+an' you an' me kin twis' canes one over de other like de splits in a
+cha'r bottom, an' dat way, when we gits a dozen big squars of it made,
+as big both ways as the canes is long, we kin lay 'em on top o' one an'
+other, an' fasten 'em togedder wid bamboos, an' it'll be a fust-rate
+raft. Den you an' me kin pole it up stream, keepin' close to de shore,
+wid Mas' Sam an' little Miss Judie on it. When we git up dar, I kin go
+over to de fort, leavin' you wid Mas' Sam till de folks comes after you
+all."
+
+This was Joe's plan of operations, and upon thinking it over Tom was
+disposed to think it the best plan possible under the circumstances.
+Accordingly he and Joe went to work at once. They could not make the
+raft inside the drift-pile, for want of room, but they found a place in
+the bushes near the mouth of the creek, where they could work
+unobserved. They cut down a large number of the flexible green canes,
+and wove them together into a square net work. Repeating this operation
+several times they finally had enough of the squares to make, they
+thought, a secure raft, when laid one on top of the other. It would not
+do to join them in the bushes however, as that would make their weight
+so great that the boys could not lift them to the water. They
+determined, therefore, to get their pushing poles first, and then to
+carry the squares one by one to the river, and, arranging them there, to
+embark soon after nightfall. The work of construction had occupied many
+days, and it was now the 12th of November. The boys hoped to complete
+their undertaking the next day and embark the next night. After their
+return to the drift-pile, however, it occurred to Tom to inquire whether
+or not Joe knew the way from the river to the fort, after they should
+reach the end of their voyage.
+
+"I 'clar', Mas' Tom, I never thought o' dat at all!" said Joe in
+consternation. "I dunno a foot of de way, an' I dunno whar' de fort is
+either."
+
+Tom being equally ignorant, their long consultation held on the spot,
+ended in an enforced abandonment of the enterprise which had occupied
+their heads and hands for so long a time.
+
+"Now dar' it is, Mas' Tom," said Joe. "Dat's always the way. Mas' Sam
+never makes no blunder, 'cause he thinks it all out careful fust. Poor
+Joe's head gets things all mixed up. I ain't no count anyhow, an' I jest
+wish I was dead or somethin'."
+
+Poor Joe! The disappointment was a sore one to him. He had been thinking
+all along of the glory he should reap as the saviour of the little
+party, and now his whole plan was found to be worthless. He slept little
+that night, and once Tom heard him quietly sobbing in his corner.
+Creeping over to him Tom said:
+
+"Don't cry, Joe. You did your best anyhow, and it isn't your fault that
+you don't know the way to the fort," and passing his arm around the poor
+black boy's neck he gently drew his head to his shoulder, where it
+rested while the two slept.
+
+The next morning Judie was the first to wake, and she quietly waked Tom
+and Joe.
+
+"Boys, boys," she cried in a whisper, "the Indians are all around us,
+there is a fight going on. Get up quick, but don't make any noise."
+
+The little girl was right. Rifles were cracking and Indians yelling all
+around their little habitation. It at once occurred to Tom that here was
+hope as well as danger. If the Indians should be driven back by the
+whites, he could communicate with the latter and the little garrison of
+the root fortress would be rescued. At present, however, it was the
+savages and not the whites who surrounded the trees and the drift pile.
+Tom determined lose no chance, however, and cautioning the others to
+keep still, he went to the look-out to watch for an opportunity to
+communicate with the white men whom these Indians were evidently
+fighting.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE CANOE FIGHT.
+
+
+Before going further with the story of what happened around the root
+fortress on that morning, it is necessary to explain how it came about
+that a battle was fought there. I gather the facts from authentic
+history.
+
+During all the time spent by the Hardwickes in their wanderings and in
+the root fortress, the war had been going on vigorously. The occupants
+of Fort Sinquefield, when they abandoned that fort as described in the
+early chapters of this story, succeeded in making their way to Fort
+Glass, or Fort Madison, as it was properly named, though the people
+still used its original name Fort Glass in speaking of it, for which
+reason I have so called the place throughout this story. In July General
+Floyd, who was in command of all the United States forces in the
+south-west, sent General Claiborne, with his twelve months' Mississippi
+volunteers to Fort Stoddart, with instructions to render such aid as he
+could to the forts in the surrounding country. His force consisted of
+seven hundred men, and of them he took five hundred to Fort Stoddart,
+sending the remaining two hundred, under Col. Joseph E. Carson, a
+volunteer officer, to Fort Glass. The two hundred soldiers added greatly
+to the strength of the place, and with the settlers who had taken refuge
+inside, rendered it reasonably secure against attack. The refugees were
+under command of Captain Evan Austill, himself a planter of the
+neighborhood.
+
+Shortly after the storming of Fort Sinquefield, and almost immediately
+after the garrison of that place had reached Fort Glass, the Indians
+appeared in great numbers in that neighborhood, burning houses, killing
+everybody who strayed even a few hundred yards outside the picket gates,
+and seriously threatening the fort itself. In view of these facts Col.
+Carson sent a young man of nineteen years of age named Jerry Austill,
+the son of Capt. Evan Austill to General Claiborne's head-quarters,
+with dispatches describing the situation and asking for reinforcements.
+Young Austill made the journey alone and at night, at terrible risk, as
+he had to pass through a country infested with savages, but on his
+return brought, instead of assistance, an order for Col. Carson to
+evacuate the fort and retire to Fort Stephens. When he did so, however,
+Captain Austill and about fifty other planters, with their families,
+determined to remain and defend Fort Glass at all hazards. Among those
+who remained was Mr. Hardwicke, who, now that the Indians had murdered
+his children, as he supposed, had little to live for, and was disposed
+to serve the common cause at the most dangerous posts, where every
+available man was needed.
+
+After a time Col. Carson was sent back to the fort with his Mississippi
+volunteers, and this freed the daring spirits inside the fort from the
+necessity of remaining there. They went at once on scouting parties,
+Tandy Walker, the guide, being almost always one of the number going out
+on these perilous expeditions. They scoured the country far and near, in
+bodies ranging from two or three to twenty or thirty men, and fought the
+Indians in many places, losing some valuable men but making the Indians
+suffer in their turn.
+
+Finally it was determined to send out a party larger than any that had
+yet gone, to operate against the savages on the south-east side of the
+river. This expedition numbered seventy-two men, thirty of whom were
+Mississippi Yauger men, under a Captain Jones, while the others were
+volunteers from private life. The expedition was under the command of
+Sam Dale, already celebrated as an Indian fighter, and known among the
+Creeks, with whom he had lived, as Sam Thlueco, or Big Sam, on account
+of his enormous size and strength. During this Creek war he had
+performed some feats of strength, skill and daring, the memory of which
+is still preserved in history, together with that of the celebrated
+canoe fight, which we are now coming to. To tell of these deeds of
+prowess would lead us away from our proper business, namely, the telling
+of the present story; but the canoe fight comes properly into the story,
+being in fact one of its incidents. Three only of Dale's companions
+figured with him in the canoe fight, and they alone need mentioning by
+name. These were, first Jerry Austill, the young man already spoken of,
+who was six feet two inches high, slender but strong, and active as a
+cat; second, James Smith, a man of firm frame and dauntless spirit; and
+third Cęsar, a negro man, who conducted himself with a courage and
+coolness fairly entitling him to bear the name of the great Roman
+warrior.
+
+The expedition left Fort Glass on the 11th of November, 1823. Tandy
+Walker was its guide, and every man in the party knew that Tandy was not
+likely to be long in leading them to a place where Indians were
+plentiful. He knew every inch of country round about, and nothing
+pleased him so well as a battle in any shape. The day after they left
+Fort Glass, Dale's men reached the river at a point eighteen miles below
+the present town of Clairborne, and about fifteen miles below the root
+fortress. Here they crossed, in two canoes, to the eastern shore of the
+river, and spent the night without sleep. The next morning Austill, with
+six men, ascended the river in the canoes, while Dale, with the rest of
+the party, marched up the bank. About a mile below the root fortress,
+Dale who was marching some distance ahead of his men, came upon some
+Indians at breakfast, and without waiting for his men to come up, shot
+their chief. The rest fled precipitately, leaving their provisions
+behind. Pushing on, Dale reached a point about two hundred yards below
+the root fortress, and there determined to recross the river. The canoes
+transported the men as rapidly as possible, but when all were over
+except Dale and eight or nine men (among whom were Smith, Austill and
+Cęsar), and only one canoe remained at the eastern side of the stream, a
+large party of Indians, numbering, as was afterwards ascertained, nearly
+three hundred, attacked the handful of whites still remaining. These
+retreated from the field, where they were breakfasting, and keeping the
+Indians in check by careful and well-aimed firing, were about to get
+into the canoe and escape to the opposite bank, about four hundred yards
+away, when they discovered that their retreat was cut off by a large
+canoe full of Indians, eleven in all, which had come out of the mouth of
+the creek just above. The savages tried to approach the shore, but, in
+spite of the fact that by careening the canoe to one side and lying down
+they were able to conceal themselves, they were prevented from landing
+by Austill and one or two other men. Two of the Indians jumped into the
+water and tried to swim to the shore, while the others, firing over the
+gunwale of the boat, were sorely annoying the whites. Austill shot one
+of the swimmers but the other escaped to the shore, and joined the
+savages there, informing them, as Dale supposed, of the weakness of his
+force, which they had not yet discovered. Dale called to the men on the
+other side of the river to cross and assist him, but they, after making
+an abortive attempt to send a canoe load across, remained idle
+spectators of the terribly unequal conflict. Dale, seeing that no help
+was to come from them, and knowing that the Indians would shortly
+overcome him by sheer force of numbers, resolved upon a recklessly
+daring manoeuvre, namely, an attempt to capture the Indian canoe! He
+called out to his comrades.
+
+"I'm going to fight the canoe with a canoe. Who will go with me?"
+
+Austill, Smith and Cęsar volunteered at once, and Cęsar took his post as
+steersman, while the three stalwart soldiers were leaping into the
+canoe for the purpose of fighting hand to hand the nine Indians opposed
+to them. As they shot out from the shore the savages on the bank
+delivered a fierce fire upon them, but fortunately without effect. The
+savages in the canoe had exhausted their powder, and Dale's party would
+have had an advantage in this but for the fact that their own powder had
+become wet as they were getting into their canoe. The fight must be hand
+to hand, but they were not the men to shrink from it. When the boats
+struck, the Indians leaped up and began using their rifles as clubs.
+Austill, who was in the bow of Dale's boat, received the first shock of
+the battle, but Cęsar promptly swung his boat around, and grappling the
+other canoe held the two side by side during the whole fight. Dale's
+boat was a very small one, and he to relieve it sprang into the Indian
+canoe, thereby giving his comrades more room and crowding the Indians so
+closely together as to embarrass their movements. The blows now fell
+thick and fast. Austill was knocked down into the Indian boat, and an
+Indian was about to put him to death when Smith saved him by braining
+the savage. Austill then rose, and snatching a war club from one of the
+Indians used that instead of his rifle. Eight of the savages were slain,
+and Dale found himself face to face with the solitary survivor, whom he
+recognized as a young Muscogee with whom he had been for years on terms
+of the most intimate friendship, and whom he loved, as he declared,
+almost as a brother. He lowered his up-raised rifle to spare his friend,
+but the savage would not accept quarter. He cried out in the Creek
+language, which Dale understood as well as he did English.
+
+"Big Sam, you are a man, and I am another! Now for it!" and with that
+the two joined in a struggle for life. A blow from Dale's gun ended at
+once the canoe fight and the life of the young brave, who, even from his
+friend, would not accept the mercy which his nation was not ready to
+show to the whites. It is said that to the day of his death Dale could
+not speak of this incident without shedding tears.
+
+Dale and his comrades had still a duty to do and some danger yet to
+encounter. The party remaining on the bank was in imminent peril, and
+must be rescued at all hazards. The little canoe was not large enough to
+carry them all, and so the big one must be cleared of the dead Indians
+in it, and the heroes of the canoe fight accomplished this under a
+severe fire from the bank. Then jumping into the captured boat, they
+paddled to the shore, and taking their hard pressed comrades on board,
+crossed under fire to the other side, whence they marched to Fort Glass,
+twelve miles away, having dealt the savages a severe blow without losing
+a man. Austill was hurt pretty badly on the head, and a permanent dent
+in his skull attested the narrowness of his escape.
+
+This battle was waged within sight of the root fortress, the drift pile
+being indeed the cover from which the Indians fought. Tom, as we know,
+went to the look-out at the beginning of the fight, and he remained
+there to the end in the hope that the fortune of battle might possibly
+bring the whites within call, and thus afford the little refugee band a
+chance of escape. No such chance came, however, and sadly enough the
+two boys, for Joe was also in the look-out, watched the passage of the
+last of Dale's men across the stream, half a mile below.
+
+"Mas' Tom," said Joe, "dem folks gwine right straight to de fort."
+
+"Yes, of course," said Tom. "What of it?"
+
+"Nothin', only I wish I could go wid 'em, and tell 'em Mas' Sam's here
+sick."
+
+"So do I, Joe, but we can't go with them, and it's no use wishing."
+
+"I reckon 'tain't no use, but I can't help wishin' for all dat. When
+folk's got der own way dey don't wish for it. It's when you can't git
+your way dat you wish, ain't it?"
+
+Tom was forced to admit that Joe was right, and that in wishing to be
+with the retreating party he was not altogether unreasonable.
+
+The two boys sat there, looking and longing. The savages had disappeared
+almost as suddenly as they had come, and presently Joe sprang up,
+saying.
+
+"Dar's de little canoe lodged in the bushes, an' I'se gwine to fasten
+her to the bank anyhow, so's we'll have her if we want her."
+
+What possible use they could make of the canoe, it had not entered
+Joe's head to ask perhaps, but he tied the boat in the bushes
+nevertheless and secreted the paddle in the drift pile. He then visited
+the place where Dale's men had been surprised at breakfast, and brought
+off the pack of provisions which Dale had captured that morning from the
+savages and had himself abandoned in his turn. The pack was a
+well-stored one, and its possession was a matter of no little moment to
+the boys, whose bill of fare had hitherto embraced no bread, of which
+there was here an abundance in the shape of ash cake.
+
+"Mas' Tom," said Joe that evening, "do you know my master?"
+
+"Mr. Butler? Yes, certainly."
+
+"Well, if anything happens to poor Joe, and if you ever gits to de fort
+an' if Joe don't, an' if you sees my master dar you'll tell him Joe
+never runned away anyhow, won't you."
+
+"Yes, I'll tell him that Joe."
+
+"Even if the Ingins ketches me an' you dunno whar' I'se gone to, you'll
+tell him anyhow dat Joe never runned away from him or from you nuther,
+won't you, Mas' Tom?"
+
+"Of course, Joe. But there won't be any chance to tell him anything
+about it unless we all get back to the fort, and then you can tell him
+for yourself. He thinks you are dead, of course, and doesn't dream that
+you ever ran away. You'll get back safely if the Indians don't catch
+you, and if they catch you they'll catch all of us, so I won't be there
+to tell your master about you."
+
+"Dun no 'bout dat," replied Joe. "Dey mought catch Joe 'thout catchin'
+anybody else, an' 'thout you nor nobody knowin' nothin' 'bout it, and
+Joe wants you to promise anyway dat you'll stick to it to de las' dat
+poor Joe was no runaway nigger, nohow at all. Kin you do dat for me,
+Mas' Tom?"
+
+"Certainly, Joe," said Tom laughing, "I promise you."
+
+"Will you git mad if Joe axes you to shake han's on dat, Mas' Tom? I
+wants to make sartain sure on it."
+
+Tom laughed, but held out his hand, convinced that the poor black boy
+was out of spirits at least, if not out of his mind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE BOYS ARE DRIVEN OUT OF THE ROOT FORTRESS.
+
+
+Sam was only partially conscious during the battle around his
+habitation. The fever, which now rose and fell at intervals, was usually
+highest during the forenoon, abating somewhat later in the day. When it
+was highest he was always in either an unconscious stupor, or a wild
+delirium. When the fever abated, however, his consciousness returned,
+and he was capable of talking and of understanding all that was said. In
+these lucid intervals, he insisted upon knowing all that had happened,
+so that he might tell the boys what was best to do. On this day Tom had
+a story of more than ordinary interest to tell him, about the battle and
+the chance of rescue which had so narrowly passed them. Sam was
+interested in it all as a matter of course, but he was still more
+deeply interested, it seemed, in the condition of the sand near the
+place where he was lying. He had dug a little hole with his hand, and
+feeling of the sand found it decidedly wet. Turning to Tom, he said:
+
+"The river is rising rapidly, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes; but how did you find it out?"
+
+"By the sand. I've been watching it a good deal since the fall rains set
+in, as I'm afraid the river will drive us out of here. You see, the
+water works easily through the sand, and you can always tell what the
+level of the river is, if its banks are sandy, by digging down to where
+the sand is wet."
+
+"Yes," said Tom, "but the river isn't within a hundred feet of us yet."
+
+"You are mistaken. It is within six inches of us," said Sam.
+
+"How's that?"
+
+"Well, this bank is almost exactly level, and when the river gets above
+its edge it spreads at once all over it. Now the sand is wet within six
+inches of the top, and the river is within six inches of the edge of the
+bank. When it rises six or eight inches more, it'll be in here, and I'm
+afraid it will rise that much before morning. At any rate we must be
+ready for it."
+
+"What can we do?" asked Tom in alarm. "There's no place to hide on the
+upper bank."
+
+"We mustn't quit this bank, and we mustn't quit the drift-pile either,"
+replied Sam. "You must find a good place, high up in the drift where, by
+pulling out sticks, you and Joe can make a place for us to stay in."
+
+"But, Sam, what if the water gets to us there?"
+
+"It won't get to us there."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"Because the biggest freshets always come in the spring, and the top of
+this drift-pile was put where it is by the biggest freshets, so the
+river won't go near the top in November. You see, as the drift _floated_
+on top of the water to its present place, the top of the pile must be
+the highest point, or very nearly the highest, that the water ever
+reaches. If you can find a good place therefore in the upper part of the
+drift-pile, we shall be safe there. But you'd better see about it at
+once, as the water may be in here before morning, and at any rate we
+mustn't allow ourselves to be taken by surprise. You'd better go to the
+river and set a stake first so you can tell how fast the water rises and
+know when to move into the new place."
+
+Tom set his stake at the water's edge and then selected the most
+available place he could find for the new abode. He and Joe went
+diligently to work, rearranging the loose sticks of drift-wood and even
+carrying many of them clear out of the pile, so as to enlarge the hole
+they had found and make it as habitable as possible.
+
+"The trouble is," said Tom when they had nearly completed their task,
+"that we can't make a smooth floor, and it's going to be rather
+uncomfortable lying on loose logs and big round sticks that run every
+which way."
+
+"That's my business," said Judie looking in at the entrance. "I'm the
+housekeeper, you know, and I've thought of all that."
+
+And sure enough the little woman had brought a great pile of small,
+leafy, tree branches and bush tops, with which she speedily filled up
+the low places between the timbers, and covered the timbers themselves
+to a depth of three or four inches, making a soft as well as a level
+floor. She had foreseen the difficulty, and borrowing Sam's knife, had
+worked with all her might to provide in advance against it. But the
+bushes and leaves were not all that she had brought. She had collected
+also a large quantity of gray moss with which to make a carpet for the
+springy floor.
+
+"Now please don't tell brother Sam," she said when the boys praised her
+thoughtfulness and ingenuity. "I want to surprise him when he comes."
+
+Tom and Joe promised, and Tom said they would have to call her their
+"little housekeeper" hereafter.
+
+The river was still rising, but more slowly, it appeared, than it had
+done before. By Tom's calculations it was coming up at the rate of an
+inch in three hours, wherefore Sam thought they might safely remain
+where they were until morning at least, while if the water should come
+to a stand during the night, they would have no occasion to move at all,
+as a fall would rapidly follow, if the weather should remain clear.
+
+Joe had worked faithfully at the task of preparing the new place of
+refuge, but he was not at all satisfied with the arrangement.
+
+"I tell you, Mas' Tom," he said, "wood'll float, 'thout 'tis live oak,
+an' dis here drif'-pile 'll jest raise up an' float away, you'll see if
+it don't."
+
+"Why hasn't it floated away long ago, then, Joe?" asked Tom.
+
+"May be it has. How you know dis drif' didn't all on it come here las'
+time de river was up?"
+
+"Well, there's too much of it for that, and besides, Sam says this place
+is safe, and you know he is always right about things when he speaks
+positively about them."
+
+"Mas' Tom, don' you know Mas' Sam done been a-talkin' nonsense for two
+weeks now?"
+
+"Yes; but that's only when he's out of his head."
+
+"How you know when he's outen his head an' when he ain't?"
+
+"We know he's out of his head when he talks nonsense."
+
+"Well, maybe dis here 's nonsense. I jest knows it is, and dat's how I
+know Mas' Sam was outen his head when he said it."
+
+Tom saw that Joe was not to be convinced, and so he contented himself
+with saying,
+
+"Well, we'll see."
+
+"Yes, dat's jest it. We _will_ see, and feel too, when we all gets
+drownded in de water."
+
+The water came to a stand about midnight, and was falling slowly the
+next morning. But when morning came it was raining hard, and the rain
+was evidently not a local but a general one, wherefore, Tom feared that
+the fall would shortly be changed into a rise, and that the bank would
+soon be covered. He watched his stake carefully, visiting it every half
+hour. At nine o'clock the river had fallen three inches, and was about
+eight inches below the bank. From nine to ten it fell only about half an
+inch. Between ten and eleven the fall was not more than a quarter of an
+inch. Between eleven and twelve no fall at all was perceptible. From
+twelve to one there was a slight rise. Between one and two it rose
+nearly an inch. The next hour brought with it a rise of two inches. By
+five o'clock the level of the water was barely two inches below the
+edge of the bank, and as it was rising at the rate of two or three
+inches an hour, Sam thought it time to remove from their old to their
+new quarters. The change was of advantage to the sick boy, who was now
+getting somewhat better at any rate, and when he found himself in the
+new place the interest he showed in examining all the details of its
+arrangements, was the best possible evidence of improvement.
+
+"Come here, little woman," he said to Judie, "and give an account of
+yourself. You borrowed my knife yesterday, and somebody has been using
+it in cutting bush tops to make a smooth floor with, and the idea was a
+very good one. Can you tell me who it was?"
+
+"Maybe it was Tom," she replied mischievously.
+
+"No, it was not Tom," Sam answered. "He's too much of a great awkward
+boy to think of anything so comfortable. You must guess again."
+
+"Joe, then," she said.
+
+"No, it wasn't Joe, either," said Sam. "Joe can sleep on the edge of a
+fence rail as well as anywhere else, and he never would have thought of
+making our floor soft and smooth. Guess again."
+
+"Maybe it was brother Sam," said Judie.
+
+"Oh, certainly. It must have been I," replied Sam. "I must have done it.
+I'm so strong and active now-a-days. Yes, on reflection, I presume I did
+it, and the man in the moon helped me. Now I think it was a very
+thoughtful and helpful thing for anybody to do, so you ought to kiss me
+for doing it, and when the weather gets clear you must throw a kiss to
+the man in the moon, too, for his share." And with that he kissed the
+little housekeeper, and she felt herself abundantly repaid for her work
+and for the thoughtfulness she had shown. She was never so happy as when
+Sam praised her, "because he's such a splendid big brother," she would
+explain.
+
+Tom, seeing that Sam was getting better at last, began to hope for his
+complete recovery, and the hope made him buoyant of spirit again. Judie,
+too, who watched and weighed every symptom in Sam's case, discovered to
+her delight that he was decidedly better, and the discovery made her as
+happy as a healthy girl well can be. Poor Joe seemed to be the only
+miserable one in the party. He said almost nothing, answering questions
+with a simple "yes" or "no," and sitting moodily in his corner, when he
+stayed inside the "drift cavern"--which was Sam's name for the new
+abode--at all. He spent most of his time, however, on top of the pile,
+where he watched the water and the clouds. The rain had ceased, but the
+river, which was now creeping over the broad bank, continued to rise.
+
+"What is the matter with Joe?" asked Sam after the boy had gone out for
+the twentieth time.
+
+"I think he's afraid we're all going to be drowned," said Tom.
+
+"Drowned? How?"
+
+"Well, he says wood will float, and so he thinks when the water comes up
+under the drift-pile, it will all float away."
+
+"What nonsense!" exclaimed Sam. "Why didn't you tell him better, Tom?"
+
+"I did; but he sticks to it, and--"
+
+"Well, couldn't you explain it so that he would understand it and not
+have to trust to your judgment for it?"
+
+"No, I couldn't. The fact is, I don't quite understand it myself. There
+isn't a stick in this whole pile that won't float, and I don't quite
+understand why the pile won't. But I don't doubt you're right about it,
+Sam. You always are right whether I understand how things are or not."
+
+"Let me explain it to you, then. Do you know why some things float and
+others don't?"
+
+"Yes, of course. Because the things that float are lighter than the
+things that sink."
+
+"Not exactly. That log there is too heavy for you to lift, while you can
+carry a bullet between your thumb and finger. The log is many hundred
+times heavier than a bullet, but the log will float while the bullet
+will sink always."
+
+"That's so," said Tom, "and I don't know what does make some things
+float and other things sink."
+
+"Did you ever set a teacup in the water and see it float?"
+
+"Yes, many a time."
+
+"But if you fill it with water it will sink, won't it?"
+
+"Yes, of course."
+
+"Well, now I can explain the thing to you, I think. If a thing is
+heavier,--the whole thing I mean, than the amount of water it
+displaces,--that is, if it is heavier than exactly its own bulk of
+water, it will sink; but if it is lighter than its own bulk of water it
+will float."
+
+"Oh, yes, I see."
+
+"Now a bullet weighs a good deal more than its own bulk of water, and so
+it sinks. A log weighs less than its own bulk of water, and so it
+floats. An empty teacup weighs less than a solid body of water equal to
+it in size, and it therefore floats. If you fill it with water, however,
+you increase its weight without adding anything to the amount of water
+it displaces,--or rather, as you let water into all the hollow space,
+you lessen by that much the amount of water it must displace in sinking
+without taking away anything from its weight, and so it sinks; or, if
+you break the teacup you lessen the amount of water it must displace
+without lessening its weight, and so it sinks in that case, too. Do you
+understand that?"
+
+"Yes, I think I do," said Tom; "but I don't exactly see how it applies
+to the drift-pile."
+
+"I'll explain that presently. I want to make it plain first that the
+ability of a thing to float depends not on its weight, but on its weight
+as compared with that of a like bulk of water. This comparative or
+relative weight is called _specific gravity_, and in measuring the
+specific gravity of substances water is taken as the standard usually,
+though sometimes gold is used for that purpose. Now to come to the
+drift-pile. When the water rises say two or three feet, it will be above
+the level of the lower logs, and these would float away, if they were
+free, because their specific gravity is less than that of water. But
+there is twenty feet of other timber on top of them, and its weight must
+be added to theirs. The water displaced is exactly equal to their bulk,
+while the weight is many hundred times greater than theirs. Do you
+understand?"
+
+"Yes, I think I do. You mean that the water must come high enough to
+pretty nearly cover the whole drift-pile before any of it can float."
+
+"Yes. The pile must be considered as a whole, and it won't float until
+there is water enough to float the whole. The bottom logs can't float
+while those above them are clear out of water, if their weight rests on
+the bottom logs, as it does in the drift-pile. You see when you put
+anything into the water, it sinks until it has displaced a bulk of water
+equal to its own weight, and then stops sinking. In other words, that
+part of the floating thing which goes under the water is exactly the
+size of a body of water equal in weight to the whole thing. If a log
+floats with just half of itself above water, you know that the log
+weighs exactly the same as half its own bulk of water, or, in other
+words, that its specific gravity is just half that of water. Water two
+inches deep won't float a great saw-log, because a great saw-log weighs
+more than the amount of water it takes to cover its lower part two or
+three inches deep; and water two or three feet deep won't float a
+drift-pile twenty feet high, because such a drift-pile weighs a good
+deal more than a body of water two or three feet deep, of its own length
+and width. But even if the water were to rise to the top of the hammock,
+the pile wouldn't float away. It would float, of course, and some of the
+wood near its edges would be carried away, but the main pile would
+remain here, because it is all tangled together and can't go away except
+in one great mass. It is so firmly lodged against the trees as to
+prevent that, and as a freshet big enough to cover, or nearly cover it,
+would bring down a great quantity of new drift and deposit it here, the
+pile would grow bigger rather than smaller. But the river won't get very
+high at this season, or at any rate it won't rise to anywhere near the
+top of the hammock, as I have already explained to you, because it is
+evidently only the biggest freshets that ever come near the top, and the
+biggest freshets never come in the fall, but always in the spring. It
+isn't rising fast enough either. It isn't rising nearly so fast now as
+it was before it got over the bank."
+
+"Why, how do you know that, Sam? You haven't been to look."
+
+"No, but I know it, nevertheless, simply because I know that water, left
+to itself, will find its level."
+
+"I don't see what that's got to do with it," said Tom.
+
+"Perhaps not, but it has something to do with it for all that," replied
+Sam; "and I can make you see how, too."
+
+He paused, to think the matter over and determine how to present it to
+Tom's comprehension.
+
+"You see," he then resumed, "that the river inside its banks is about
+four hundred yards wide. When it rises above the banks, however, it
+spreads out over the level ground, and becomes, in some places, many
+miles wide, averaging a mile at least in width. Now there is only a
+certain amount of water coming into the river every hour. The rain has
+stopped, but the soil is full of water, and so there is about as much
+running into the river now as there was while the rain lasted. But the
+surface of the stream is now many times greater than it was, and as
+water finds its level, all that comes into the river spreads out over
+its whole surface, and of course doesn't raise its level nearly so much
+as the same quantity did while the stream was still within its banks. Do
+you understand now?"
+
+"What a great big brother you are, Sam, anyhow!" was all the reply Tom
+made.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+WHERE IS JOE?
+
+
+It was now getting late, and Sam knew that it was not well for him to
+talk longer. He felt so much better, however, that he knew he would
+continue to talk in spite of himself unless the whole party should go to
+sleep at once. Joe had not been in the drift cavern for more than two
+hours, and Sam, observing his prolonged absence, said:
+
+"Tom, I'm afraid some of us have hurt poor Joe's feelings. Go and look
+at your water-mark, and while you are out, find the poor fellow and find
+out what's the matter with him. He's a good boy, and has done his part
+faithfully ever since we started. I can't bear to think of him moping."
+
+Tom went out and examined his stake, which showed that the water was not
+more than an inch or two over the bank, and was not rising very rapidly
+now; but he could see nothing of Joe anywhere. He went to the look-out,
+but the boy was not there, and a diligent search through the drift-pile,
+showed that he was nowhere in the neighborhood of the fortress. Tom was
+now fairly alarmed, and returning, was about to report the facts to Sam,
+when little Judie, in a whisper, informed him that the big brother was
+asleep. As his fever had risen somewhat, Judie rightly thought it better
+not to disturb him, as he certainly could not aid in any way in finding
+Joe.
+
+"I must just think," Tom said to himself, "as Sam does, and then I can
+do all there is to be done. Now I know Joe isn't anywhere in the
+hammock, because I knew every place he could squeeze himself into, and
+I've looked in every one of them. It's no use then to waste time looking
+there any more. He must have left here, either accidentally or on
+purpose. He couldn't have slipped off the drift and drowned, because he
+can swim pretty well and would have swam out in a minute. There is no
+other way in which he can have left here by accident, unless an Indian
+has killed him on the drift-pile somewhere, and if that were so I would
+have found his body. He must have run away on purpose."
+
+But just as Tom reached this point in his thinking he remembered the
+earnestness with which poor Joe had begged him to bear witness in any
+and every event that he was not "a runaway nigger." And this reminded
+Tom of all the queer ways he had noticed in Joe of late. The boy must
+have had a premonition, he thought, that something was going to happen
+to him. Only two theories remained. One was that Joe had gone crazy
+under his long exile from civilized life and had madly put an end to
+himself by jumping into the river; and the other that, persisting in his
+belief in the instability of the drift-pile, he had gone to the upper
+bank for safety and had fallen asleep there. In that event he must be
+found, lest an Indian should discover him in the morning and put him to
+death. Tom went ashore after explaining his purpose to Judie, so that
+she might not be alarmed at his absence, and literally spent the entire
+night in hunting for the black boy. Joe was nowhere to be found, and
+when daylight came, Tom saw that a further search was of no use
+whatever, and he therefore returned sadly to the drift cavern. The water
+was now going down again, and the bank was free from it, but the sand in
+the root fortress was still too wet to sit or lie upon, and so Tom made
+no immediate preparation for their return.
+
+Sam's fever was very slight that morning, and his first question was
+about Joe. Tom told him of his night's search, and Sam's deduction from
+all the facts was that the poor boy had committed suicide, had been
+killed by an Indian and thrown into the river, or had fallen in
+accidentally and drowned.
+
+"He would never have left us in any case," said Sam, "and even had he
+been less faithful, he would have been afraid to run away, not knowing
+where to run or how to take care of himself in the woods."
+
+They were too much grieved for Joe's loss, to relish their breakfast,
+and that meal was dispatched very quickly. Tom watched the falling of
+the water all day, and at night reported that the river was well inside
+its banks again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+A FAMINE.
+
+
+The river having gone down until no water remained on the sandy bank,
+Tom reported the fact and added,
+
+"Now let's move back again to the root-fortress. It's a safer place than
+this, by a good deal, if it isn't quite so big or quite so comfortable."
+
+"No, we mustn't go back yet," said Judie, who had visited the fortress
+before Tom had, "because the sand in there is as wet as can be, and I
+can't let my big sick brother lie on it."
+
+"There, Tom," said Sam, "my doctor forbids my return yet awhile, and a
+sick man always must obey the doctor you know. Besides, Judie is right.
+It won't do for any of us to lie on wet sand; we must wait till it
+dries; but that won't be very long if the river continues to go down."
+
+Accordingly they spent one more night in the drift cavern. Early the
+next morning Judie went to the fortress, and returning said, playing
+doctor.
+
+"Now, then, Mr. Hardwicke, the floor of your lower house is quite dry,
+and I think it will be safe to move back again. Will you have your
+breakfast first, or will you wait until you get back home again before
+eating anything?"
+
+"Oh, let's wait, by all means, and eat breakfast in the dear old
+root-fortress," said Tom, and as Sam made no objection, it was so
+arranged.
+
+By nine o'clock the moss carpet was laid in the root-fortress and the
+little party was back in its old quarters again. The vacant corner which
+had been Joe's, reminded them sadly of his disappearance. Poor fellow!
+they had learned to love him almost as a brother, and they could not
+think of him now without tears. When three people sit down with a silent
+grief, their conversation is very apt to be lively, or, if they cannot
+quite accomplish that, they are sure to talk only of indifferent
+matters, and so it was in the present case. Judie was the first to break
+the silence which had fallen upon all.
+
+"Tom," she said playfully, "I'm afraid you're not a good provider. Here
+we are, hungry as wolves, and you haven't brought us a mite of anything
+to eat. You've moved everything but the provisions, and you've forgotten
+them entirely."
+
+Master Tom admitted the grievousness of his fault and returned at once
+to the drift cavern after the forgotten provision pack. The bread, as
+they all knew, was long ago exhausted, but plenty of meat remained, and
+this Tom presently brought. When he opened the pack a disagreeable odor
+spread itself at once over the little room.
+
+"Phew! what's that?" said Tom, and putting his nose to the meat, he
+looked up in blank consternation, saying:
+
+"The meat is spoiled, Sam! What on earth shall we do?"
+
+The case was an alarming one certainly. They were hungry, and Sam, whose
+returning health had brought with it a ravenous appetite, was
+particularly so. He needed wholesome, nourishing food now more than
+anything else, as he knew.
+
+"Well," he said, after thinking the matter over, "it can't be helped.
+There's nothing for it but to fall back on sweet potatoes till I get
+strong enough to go hunting. You must go to the potato field Tom, and
+bring some."
+
+There had been but one field of corn in the neighborhood at first, and
+the various parties of Indians who had camped in its vicinity had long
+ago carried away the last ear of corn from that, as the boys knew very
+well. The river was altogether too high now for mussels to be got, and
+so the sweet potatoes in a field half a mile away, were their only
+resource.
+
+Tom set out at once in quest of them, carefully looking out for lurking
+savages. He was gone more than an hour, and just as Sam was growing
+really uneasy on his account, he returned, _empty handed_!
+
+"There isn't a potato in the field," he said as he sat down in utter
+dejection. "The Indians have dug every one of them."
+
+This announcement was indeed an alarming one to the whole party. They
+were without an ounce of food of any sort within their utmost reach, and
+it was plain that they must starve, unless they could hit upon some new
+device, by which to get a supply.
+
+"I must go hunting, sick or well," said Sam rising; but he had no sooner
+got upon his feet, than he felt the utter impossibility of doing
+anything of the kind.
+
+"It's of no use," he said sadly. "I can't make my legs carry me, Tom,
+and so we must depend upon you. Go into the woods there by the creek,
+and sit down or stand still till you see something in the way of game,
+and then take good aim before you shoot, for we mustn't waste any of our
+powder."
+
+With this he shook the horn to ascertain how much remained in it, and
+was horrified to find it empty! Tom remembered that the last time he had
+loaded the gun he had used the last grain of powder in the horn.
+
+"Well, then," said Sam, "we have only one charge of powder between us
+and starvation, and it won't do to waste that, Tom. You can shoot pretty
+well when you have time enough to take good aim, and I suppose, if you
+make up your mind beforehand that you won't shoot till you know you can
+kill what you shoot at, it is safe enough. At any rate we must risk it.
+Remember, however, that you mustn't run the risk of wasting this load
+in your anxiety to kill the first thing you see to shoot at. There is
+plenty of game in the woods, so if you can't get a sure shot at one
+thing, wait for another. Get a sure shot anyhow, if it takes you all
+day. It must be something big enough to last us awhile, too. You mustn't
+shoot at anything less than a turkey or a 'possum, and you mustn't shoot
+at all till you get _very_ close, because if you miss, we will starve.
+Better take all day to-day and all day to-morrow than to miss when you
+fire."
+
+And after many instructions and cautionings, Tom sallied forth in search
+of game. Going into the woods for a considerable distance, he sat down
+on a log in the thick undergrowth and waited patiently for the
+appearance of some animal which could be eaten. Hour after hour passed,
+and Tom fell asleep. How long he slept he did not know, but waking
+suddenly he saw a flock of wild turkeys within a few yards of him.
+Raising his gun and taking a very deliberate aim he pulled the trigger.
+No explosion followed, but the clicking of the hammer was enough to put
+the game to flight.
+
+Poor Tom was disheartened, but it would not do to give up, and so he
+carefully picked the edge of his flint with his knife and walked further
+into the woods.
+
+He had not walked very far, with cautious steps, when he heard a
+rustling in the bushes just ahead of him. At first he thought it must be
+an Indian, and drawing back he waited for further developments. A grunt
+soon enlightened him as to the character of the game, and creeping
+through the bushes he found himself close to a fat young hog, one of the
+many running wild in those woods and thickets. That was something worth
+having. Levelling his gun again, he again pulled the trigger, but
+without effect, and opening the pan he discovered that during the rain,
+while in the drift cavern, the "priming," as the powder in the pan is
+called, had been reduced to a paste by water. To fire the gun was out of
+the question, and so clubbing it, Tom ran at the hog and dealt him a
+blow on the head, hoping in that way to secure the game which he could
+not shoot. The blow fell upon the nose of the animal, however, and while
+it brought a squeal of pain from him, it produced no beneficial result.
+The hog ran rapidly away, and Tom was left with nothing better than a
+broken gun to carry back to the fortress.
+
+Arriving there about three o'clock in the afternoon he told the doleful
+story of his failure, and sitting down burst into tears.
+
+"Come, come!" said Sam. "This will never do, old fellow. It's bad enough
+as it is without crying about it. We'll come all right if you'll only
+keep your courage up, and give me a chance to think. I'm getting better
+every day now, and if we can only hold out a few days longer, I'll be on
+my feet again, and then we'll go straight to Fort Glass. Just as soon as
+I can walk at all, we'll start, meantime we must get something to eat,
+and to do that I must think. Let me see. The gun is of no use now, but
+there are other ways of getting game besides shooting it. We must set
+some traps. This spoiled meat will do for bait. Get me a good piece of
+poplar wood, Tom, or cypress, or some other sort, that I can whittle
+easily, and I'll make some figure-four triggers. Then I'll tell you how
+to make dead-falls, and you must set as many of them as you can to make
+sure of getting something to eat by to-morrow morning."
+
+Tom brought the wood and Sam soon whittled out several sets of triggers.
+
+"Now do you know how to set a trap with these triggers, Tom?" he asked.
+
+"Yes, I've set many a partridge trap with figure fours."
+
+"Very well then. Now you must set dead-falls in the same way. That is,
+instead of a trap you must set a log. You see I've made the triggers big
+and strong, and you must put them under one end of as heavy a log as you
+can lift. Then you must lay other logs on top to make it as heavy as
+possible, and bait it with a piece of the spoilt meat. If anything
+undertakes to eat the meat to-night, the dead-fall will break its neck
+or back, sure. Here are six sets of triggers and you must set six
+dead-falls. We can go hungry till to-morrow, can't we, little woman?"
+chucking Judie under the chin.
+
+"We can try, anyhow," answered the little woman as cheerfully as she
+could, though she was by no means confident that she could do anything
+of the sort. She was already faint and almost sick, and whether she
+could live till morning or not was an undetermined question in her
+mind. To tell the truth, Sam himself felt but little confidence in his
+device. The spoiled meat, he knew, would attract only the larger
+animals, and such dead-falls as Tom could set were by no means certain
+to kill these in their fall. It was the very best thing he could do,
+however, and he must trust to it in the absence of any better reliance.
+He concealed his anxiety therefore, and after receiving Tom's report of
+his operations in dead-fall setting, he drew Judie to his side and told
+her a fairy story, as night fell. All went to sleep at last, and when
+morning came Sam aroused Tom very early and sent him to examine the
+traps. The boy was gone for an hour or more, when he returned with
+downcast countenance. Two of the traps had been thrown, but there was no
+game under them, while the four others remained undisturbed.
+
+Here was a bad out-look certainly, and they had not tasted food now for
+more than thirty hours!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+WHICH ENDS THE STORY.
+
+
+"Something must be done," said Sam, as soon as he had heard Tom's
+report, "and quickly too. Let me think a few minutes. We are beginning
+now to be hungry enough to eat anything, and when people get that hungry
+there are a good many things that can be eaten. I'll tell you what we
+must do, Tom--"
+
+But what it was that Sam had hit upon, Tom never knew. Just as this
+point in the conversation was reached _Joe_ came running in through the
+alley-way, his face flattened out into a broad grin of delight, his
+teeth and eyes shining, while he danced all over the fortress, shaking
+hands over and over again, and saying,
+
+"Hi! Miss Judie! Hi! Mas' Tom! Hi! Mas' Sam! How does ye all do now? Did
+you think Joe had runned away? Joe tell ye he never runned away. Joe
+ain't no runaway nigger, nohow at all, and de Ingins ain't ketched Joe
+nuther. Joe's back all safe an' sound, sartin sure! Hi!"
+
+"What on earth ails you, Joe? You're out of your wits, poor fellow,"
+said Sam, convinced that the black boy was demented.
+
+"No I ain't nuther, Mas' Sam," he replied. "Joe ain't crazy one bit, but
+he's glad _sure_."
+
+"Where have you been, Joe, since you left us?"
+
+"Whar? Why to de fort, an' I'se dun brung back a rescue too, didn't I
+tell you? Laws a massy, dat's what I comed in fust for to tell you. I'se
+done been to Fort Glass and brung a big rescue party, and de white folks
+dey said, long as Joe brung us he's 'titled to tell de good news fust,
+an' dat's how I'm here while de rest is outside de drif'."
+
+"Go and see, Tom," said Sam, afraid to believe this story of the
+seemingly insane boy, who, he thought, had become crazed from long
+brooding over the chances of rescue. Tom got up to go, but as he started
+Mr. Hardwicke himself met him in the door way and caught him in his
+arms. Tandy Walker was just behind.
+
+"Well, this beats all," said Tandy. "I've done a good many jobs o'
+rescuin' in my time, but I never yit found the rescued hid in the roots
+of a tree an' fortified with a drift-pile. An' if I'm a jedge o' sich
+things, this here party's a'most starved. I've seed hungry people afore
+now, an' I say le's have a breakfast sot right away for these here
+little ones."
+
+Tandy was right, as we know, and it was not long before an abundant
+breakfast was spread for Sam and Tom and little Judie. The rescue party
+consisted of twenty stout fellows from the fort, and after breakfast a
+rude litter was provided for Sam, and crossing the river in the little
+canoe the party began its homeward march. Tom was glad to walk, the walk
+being in that direction. Judie was carried, part of the time in her
+father's arms, part of it in Tandy Walker's, and part on the broad
+shoulders of Cęsar, the negro man who had participated in the canoe
+fight. Sam was stretched on a litter, carried by four of the men, and
+Joe insisted on walking always by his side, though he fell behind now
+and then for the purpose of dancing a little jig of delight. He would
+execute this movement, and then running, catch up with the litter again.
+
+"Tell me, Joe," said Sam after the black boy had become somewhat quiet
+again, "tell me all about this thing."
+
+"'Bout what thing, Mas' Sam?"
+
+"About your going to the fort and all that. How did you manage it, and
+how came you to think of it?"
+
+"Well, you see, Mas' Sam, when you was at your wust, I got a thinkin',
+an' I thought out a plan dat Mas' Tom said was a good un. Him an' me was
+to make a raf' out'n cane, an' pole it up de river wid you an' little
+Miss Judie on it, an' den I was to go cross de country to de fort an'
+bring help. Jes' as we got de raf' ready, howsomever, Mas' Tom he axed
+me if I know de way to de fort, an' as I didn't know nothin' 'bout it, I
+jis' sot down an' gived up. But I kep' a thinkin' all de time, an' I
+said to myself, 'Joe, you're a fool anyhow, an' you mustn't tell your
+plans till you know dey're good uns, an' you ain't got sense enough to
+know dat till you try 'em.' An' so I sot my head to work to git up a
+new plan, meanin' to try it all by myself. When de big fight took place
+an' I seed the white folks marchin' away, I said out 'loud, 'dem dare
+folks is gwine right straight to de fort,' an' I said to myself, 'I
+means to go dere too if I kin.' It took me two days 'n more to git de
+thing fixed up right in my min'.
+
+"I was willin' enough to risk Injuns, but I was afear'd you'n Mas' Tom
+'ud think Joe was a runaway nigger if I never comed back, an' dat
+troubled me. I fixed dat at las' by makin' Mas' Tom mos' swar he'd stick
+to it dat I wasn't no runaway nigger, an' den I sot out. I crossed de
+river in de little canoe an' hid her in de bushes. I found de place whar
+de white folks started from, an' I jes' follered dere trail. Dat was my
+plan. I know'd dey would make a big easy trail, dere was so many of 'em,
+an I meant to follow 'em. It took me more'n two whole nights to git to
+de fort, dough, 'cause de creeks was all high an' de brush very tangley.
+When I tole de folks about you'n Miss Judie an' Mas' Tom, dey didn't
+more'n half believe me, an' when I tole 'em I'd lead 'em straight to
+whar you was, an' dey said dey'd sculp me if I didn't, I jest said all
+right, 'cause if we don' find Mas' Sam an' little Miss Judie an' Mas'
+Tom no more, den I'd rather be sculped'n not, anyhow. But we did fin'
+you, didn't we Mas' Sam?" and at this Joe had to drop behind again and
+execute a rapid jig movement, as a relief to his feelings.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The government forces under General Jackson, together with the settlers
+themselves, were now pressing the savages very hard. Battles were fought
+almost every day, and every battle weakened the Indians. In December,
+General Claiborne invaded the Holy Ground, and utterly destroyed
+Weatherford's command, as a result of which that chief surrendered to
+Jackson and the war was practically at an end. A few more battles were
+necessary before a final peace could be made, and the last of them was
+fought on the 27th of March, 1814, at Horseshoe Bend; but after the
+battle of December 23d a little more than a month after Sam's party was
+rescued, the country north and west of the Alabama river was
+comparatively free from savages, who no longer dared wander about in
+small bands, plundering and burning houses, and the planters began to
+return to their homes to get ready for spring work.
+
+When Mr. Hardwicke was about to go home with his children, he sent for
+Joe. When the boy came, little Judie handed him a carefully folded
+document, saying,
+
+"Here's a present for you, Joe.
+
+"What's dis?" asked Joe, unable to guess what possible use he could have
+for such a paper as that, inasmuch as he couldn't read it to save his
+life.
+
+"These are your _free papers_, Joe," said Sam. "Father has bought you
+from Mr. Butler, for the purpose of setting you free, as a reward for
+your good conduct."
+
+Joe evidently wanted to say something, but did not know how.
+
+"Are you glad to be free, Joe?" asked Mr. Hardwicke.
+
+"Ain't I though?" and Joe's feet began to shuffle as if a jig were
+coming in spite of his desire to behave well.
+
+"Well, Joe," said Mr. Hardwicke, "I mean to give you a fair chance in
+life, and I've thought the matter over carefully. You are free now to
+do precisely as you please, and you can live where you like. But I've a
+proposition to make--a plan for you. Do you know my cypress farm,--the
+little one down in the fork of the two creeks?"
+
+"De one whar' ole uncle Peter Dun lived so long?"
+
+"Yes, the one uncle Peter manages for me."
+
+"Yes, master, I knows dat place mighty well."
+
+"Well, how would you like to buy it, Joe?"
+
+"Buy the farm, master? What's Joe got to buy wid? I ain't got no money,
+'thout it's a quarter Mas' Tandy Walker dun gim me fur to clean his
+boots sence we comed back to de fort, an' I jest know that a quarter
+won't buy no sich low grounds as dem dar down twix' dem dar creeks is.
+Dat's de very bes' lan' in Alabama. Leastways I dun hear de folks say
+'tis heaps o' times. You's jokin' wid Joe, master."
+
+"No, I am not, Joe. You can buy the land if you want it, and there are a
+hundred and ten acres in the tract, besides the strip of woods along
+both creeks."
+
+"How's I gwine to buy it, master?"
+
+"Well, let me see. You're about thirteen now. It will be nine years yet
+before you will be a man, and if you choose to live with me until you
+are twenty-one, I'll feed and clothe you till then, and the day you are
+twenty-one the farm shall be yours in payment of wages."
+
+"How you mean, master?"
+
+"I mean, that besides feeding and clothing you as I feed and clothe my
+people, I will give you the farm for your nine years' work. If you like
+the place, I will have all the papers made out, so that the farm will be
+yours, even if I should die before the time is up. I have more land than
+I care to keep, and you see I want to sell that one farm to you, if
+you'll buy it."
+
+"Looks to me, heap more like's if you was gwine to give it to me,
+master; dis on'y your fun to say I buy's it."
+
+"No, the bargain is a fair one, Joe. I could give you the farm now, but
+I think it will be better for you to work for it, and then you'll feel
+that it's yours by right and not by favor. I want to make a man of you,
+Joe, and my children shall always think of you as one of their best
+friends. Go out of doors if you want to dance, Joe," seeing the feet
+beginning to shuffle, and understanding the mingled joy and
+embarrassment of the boy.
+
+Joe hesitated a moment, and then with a sudden straightening of his
+shoulders, as if the future manliness were already beginning to assert
+itself in him, he advanced to Mr. Hardwicke, and shaking his hand, said:
+
+"Joe ain't got no learnin' an' no manners nuther, master, but Joe's
+_grateful_ anyhow," and bursting into tears the boy left the room.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
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+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" />
+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Big Brother, by George Cary Eggleston</title>
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+<body>
+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Big Brother, by George Cary Eggleston</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: The Big Brother</p>
+<p>       A Story of Indian War</p>
+<p>Author: George Cary Eggleston</p>
+<p>Release Date: March 18, 2007  [eBook #20849]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BIG BROTHER***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4>E-text prepared by David Garcia, Graeme Mackreth,<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net/c/">http://www.pgdp.net</a>)<br />
+    from page images generously made available by the<br />
+    Kentuckiana Digital Library<br />
+    (<a href="http://kdl.kyvl.org/">http://kdl.kyvl.org/</a>)</h4>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;" cellpadding="10">
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">
+      Note:
+    </td>
+    <td>
+      Images of the original pages are available through the
+      Kentuckiana Digital Library. See
+      <a href="http://kdl.kyvl.org/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=kyetexts;cc=kyetexts;xc=1&amp;idno=B92-200-30752132&amp;view=toc">
+	  http://kdl.kyvl.org/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=kyetexts;cc=kyetexts;xc=1&amp;idno=B92-200-30752132&amp;view=toc</a>
+	</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<img src="images/ill001.jpg" alt="Dog Charge"  />
+<a id="ill001" name="ill001"></a>
+</p>
+
+<p class='center'> THE DOG CHARGE.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h4>THE</h4>
+
+<h1><span class="smcap">Big Brother</span></h1>
+
+<h3>A STORY OF INDIAN WAR</h3>
+
+<h4>BY</h4>
+
+<h3>GEORGE CARY EGGLESTON</h3>
+
+<p class='center'><small>Author of "<span class="smcap">How to Educate Yourself," Etc.</span></small></p>
+
+<p class='center'><small>Illustrated</small></p>
+
+<p class='center' style="margin-top: 5em;"><small>NEW YORK<br />
+G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS<br />
+FOURTH AVENUE AND TWENTY-THIRD STREET<br />
+1875.</small>
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+<p class='center'><small>
+COPYRIGHT.<br />
+
+G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS.<br />
+
+1875.</small>
+</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+
+<h4><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</a></h4>
+<p style='margin-left: 10em;'><span class="smcap">Sinquefield</span></p>
+
+<h4><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</a></h4>
+<p style='margin-left: 10em;'><span class="smcap">The Storming of Sinquefield</span></p>
+
+<h4><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</a></h4>
+<p style='margin-left: 10em;'><span class="smcap">Sam's Lecture</span></p>
+
+<h4><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a></h4>
+<p style='margin-left: 10em;'><span class="smcap">Sam Finds It Necessary To Think</span></p>
+
+<h4><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</a></h4>
+<p style='margin-left: 10em;'><span class="smcap">Sam's Fortress</span></p>
+
+<h4><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</a></h4>
+<p style='margin-left: 10em;'><span class="smcap">Surprised</span></p>
+
+<h4><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</a></h4>
+<p style='margin-left: 10em;'><span class="smcap">Confused</span></p>
+
+<h4><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a></h4>
+<p style='margin-left: 10em;'><span class="smcap">Weatherford</span></p>
+
+<h4><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</a></h4>
+<p style='margin-left: 10em;'><span class="smcap">Weary Waiting</span></p>
+
+<h4><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</a></h4>
+<p style='margin-left: 10em;'><span class="smcap">Fighting Fire</span></p>
+
+<h4><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.</a></h4>
+<p style='margin-left: 10em;'><span class="smcap">In the Wilderness</span></p>
+
+<h4><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.</a></h4>
+<p style='margin-left: 10em;'><span class="smcap">An Alarm and a Welcome</span></p>
+
+<h4><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.</a></h4>
+<p style='margin-left: 10em;'><span class="smcap">Joe's Plan</span></p>
+
+<h4><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.</a></h4>
+<p style='margin-left: 10em;'><span class="smcap">The Canoe Fight</span></p>
+
+<h4><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.</a></h4>
+<p style='margin-left: 10em;'><span class="smcap">The Boys are driven out of the Root Fortress</span></p>
+
+<h4><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.</a></h4>
+<p style='margin-left: 10em;'><span class="smcap">Where is Joe?</span></p>
+
+<h4><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII.</a></h4>
+<p style='margin-left: 10em;'><span class="smcap">A Famine</span></p>
+
+<h4><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII.</a></h4>
+<p style='margin-left: 10em;'><span class="smcap">Which ends the Story</span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2>
+
+
+<p style="margin-left: 20em;">
+
+<a href="#ill001"><span class="smcap">The Dog Charge</span></a>
+<br />
+<a href="#ill002"><span class="smcap">Sam's Party</span> </a>
+<br />
+<a href="#ill003"><span class="smcap">"We's Dun Los'&mdash;Dat's wha' we is"</span> </a>
+<br />
+<a href="#ill005"><span class="smcap">Judie on the Raft</span> </a>
+<br />
+<a href="#ill006"><span class="smcap">The Perilous Leap</span></a>
+</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE BIG BROTHER.</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+<p class='center'>SINQUEFIELD.</p>
+
+
+<p>In the quiet days of peace and security in which we live it is difficult
+to imagine such a time of excitement as that at which our story opens,
+in the summer of 1813. From the beginning of that year, the Creek
+Indians in Alabama and Mississippi had shown a decided disposition to
+become hostile. In addition to the usual incentives to war which always
+exist where the white settlements border closely upon Indian territory,
+there were several special causes operating to bring about a struggle at
+that time. We were already at war with the British, and British agents
+were very active in stirring up trouble on our frontiers, knowing that
+nothing would so surely weaken the Americans as a general outbreak of
+Indian hostilities. Tecumseh, the great chief, had visited the Creeks,
+too, and had urged them to go on the war path, threatening them, in the
+event of their refusal, with the wrath of the Great Spirit. His appeals
+to their superstition were materially strengthened by the occurrence of
+an earthquake, which singularly enough, he had predicted, threatening
+that when he returned to his home he would stamp his foot and shake
+their houses down. Their own prophets, Francis and Singuista, had
+preached war, too, telling the Indians that their partial adoption of
+civilization, and their relations of friendship with the whites, were
+sorely displeasing to the Great Spirit, who would surely punish them if
+they did not immediately abandon the civilization and butcher the
+pale-faces. Francis predicted, also, that in the coming struggle no
+Indians would be killed, while the whites would be completely
+exterminated. All this was promised on condition that the Indians should
+become complete savages again, quitting all the habits of industry and
+thrift which they had been learning for some years past, and fighting
+mercilessly against all whites, sparing none.</p>
+
+<p>All these things combined to bring on the war, and during the spring
+several raids were made by small bodies of the Indians, in which they
+were pretty severely punished by the whites. Finally a battle was fought
+at Burnt-corn, in July 1813, and this was the signal for the breaking
+out of the most terrible of all Indian wars,&mdash;the most terrible, because
+the savages engaged in it had learned from the whites how to fight, and
+because many of their chiefs were educated half-breeds, familiar with
+the country and with all the points of weakness on the part of the
+settlers. Stockade forts were built in various places, and in these the
+settlers took refuge, leaving their fields to grow as they might and
+their houses to be plundered and burned whenever the Indians should
+choose to visit them. The stockades were so built as to enclose several
+acres each, and strong block houses inside, furnished additional
+protection. Into these forts there came men, women, and children, from
+all parts of the country, each bringing as much food as possible, and
+each willing to lend a hand to the common defence and the common
+support.</p>
+
+<p>On the 30th of August, the Indians attacked Fort Mims, one of the
+largest of the stockade stations, and after a desperate battle destroyed
+it, killing all but seventeen of the five hundred and fifty people who
+were living in it. The news of this terrible slaughter quickly spread
+over the country, and everybody knew now that a general war had begun,
+in which the Indians meant to destroy the whites utterly, not sparing
+even the youngest children.</p>
+
+<p>Those who had remained on their farms now flocked in great numbers to
+the forts, and every effort was made to strengthen the defences at all
+points. The men, including all the boys who were large enough to point a
+gun and pull a trigger, were organized into companies and assigned to
+port-holes, in order that each might know where to go to do his part of
+the fighting whenever the Indians should come. Even those of the women
+who knew how to shoot, insisted upon being provided with guns and
+assigned to posts of duty. There was not only no use in flinching, but
+every one of them knew that whenever the fort should be attacked the
+only question to be decided was, "Shall we beat the savages off, or
+shall every man woman and child of us be butchered?" They could not run
+away, for there was nowhere to run, except into the hands of the
+merciless foe. The life of every one of them was involved in the defence
+of the forts, and each was, therefore, anxious to do all he could to
+make the defense a successful one. Their only hope was in desperate
+courage, and, being Americans, their courage was equal to the demand
+made upon it. It was not a civilized war, in which surrenders, and
+exchanges of prisoners, and treaties and flags of truce, or even
+neutrality offered any escape. It was a savage war, in which the Indians
+intended to kill all the whites, old and young, wherever they could find
+them. The people in the forts knew this, and they made their
+arrangements accordingly.</p>
+
+<p>Now if the boys and girls who read this story will get their atlases and
+turn to the map of Alabama, they will find some points, the relative
+positions of which they must remember if they wish to understand fully
+the happenings with which we have to do. Just below the junction of the
+Alabama and Tombigbee rivers, on the east side of the stream, they will
+find the little town of Tensaw, and Fort Mims stood very near that
+place. The peninsula formed by the two rivers above their junction is
+now Clarke County, and almost exactly in its centre stands the village
+of Grove Hill. A mile or two to the north-east stood Fort Sinquefield.
+Fort White was several miles further west, and Fort Glass, afterwards
+called Fort Madison, stood fifteen miles south, at a point about three
+miles south of the present village of Suggsville. On the eastern side of
+the Alabama river is the town of Claiborne, and at a point about three
+miles below Claiborne the principal events of this story occurred. It
+will not hurt you, boys and girls, to learn a little accurate geography,
+by looking up these places before going on with the story, and if I were
+your schoolmaster, instead of your story teller, I should stop here to
+advise you always to look on the map for every town, river, lake,
+mountain or other geographical thing mentioned in any book or paper you
+read. I would advise you, too, if I were your schoolmaster, to add up
+all the figures given in books and newspapers, to see if the writers
+have made any mistakes; and it is a good plan too, to go at once to the
+dictionary when you meet a word you do not quite comprehend, or to the
+encyclop&aelig;dia or history, or whatever else is handy, whenever you read
+about anything and would like to know more about it. I say I should stop
+here to give you some such advice as this, if I were your schoolmaster.
+As I am not, however, I must go on with my story instead.</p>
+
+<p>Within a mile or two of Fort Sinquefield lived a gentleman named
+Hardwicke. He was a widower with three children. Sam, the oldest of the
+three, was nearly seventeen; Tommy was eleven, and a little girl of
+seven years, named Judith, but called Judie, was the other. Mr.
+Hardwicke was a quiet, studious man, who had come to Alabama from
+Baltimore, not many years before, and since the death of his wife he had
+spent most of his time in his library, which was famous throughout the
+settlement on account of the wonderful number of books it contained.
+There were hardly any schools in Alabama in those days, and Mr.
+Hardwicke, being a man of education and considerable wealth, gave up
+almost the whole of his time to his children, teaching them in doors and
+out, and directing them in their reading. It was understood that Sam
+would be sent north to attend College the next year, and meantime he had
+become a voracious reader. He read all sorts of books, and as he
+remembered and applied the things he learned from them, it was a common
+saying in the country round about, that "Sam Hardwicke knows pretty
+nearly everything." Of course that was not true, but he knew a good deal
+more than most of the men in the country, and better than all, he knew
+how very much there was for him yet to learn. A boy has learned the very
+best lesson of his life when he knows that he really does not know much;
+it is a lesson some people never learn at all. But books were not the
+only things Sam Hardwicke was familiar with. He could ride the worst
+horses in the country and shoot a rifle almost as well as Tandy Walker
+himself, and Tandy, as every reader of history knows, was the most
+famous rifleman, as well as the best guide and most daring scout in the
+whole south-west. Sam had hunted, too, over almost every inch of
+country within twenty miles around, trudging alone sometimes for a week
+or a fortnight before returning, and in this way he had learned to know
+the distances, the directions, and the nature of the country lying
+between different places,&mdash;a knowledge worth gaining by anybody, and
+especially valuable to a boy who lived in a frontier settlement. He was
+strong of limb and active as he was strong, and his "book knowledge," as
+the neighbors called it, served him many a good turn in the woods, when
+he was beset by difficulties.</p>
+
+<p>Sam's father was one of the very last of the settlers to go into a fort.
+He remained at home as long as he could, and went to Fort Sinquefield at
+last, only when warned by an Indian who for some reason liked him, that
+he and his children's lives were in imminent danger. That was on the
+first of September, and when the Hardwicke family, black and white, were
+safely within the little fortress, there remained outside only two
+families, namely, those of Abner James and Ransom Kimball, who
+determined to remain one more night at Kimball's house, two miles from
+Sinquefield. That very night the Indians, under Francis the prophet,
+burned the house, killing twelve of the inmates. Five others escaped,
+and one of them, Isham Kimball, who was then a boy of sixteen,
+afterwards became Clerk of Clarke County, where he was still living in
+1857.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+<p  class='center'>THE STORMING OF SINQUEFIELD.</p>
+
+
+<p>When the news of the massacre at Kimball's reached Fort Glass, a
+detachment of ten men was sent out to recover the bodies, which they
+brought to Fort Sinquefield for burial. The graves were dug in a little
+valley three or four hundred yards from the fort, and all the people
+went out to attend the funeral. The services had just come to an end
+when the cry of "Indians! Indians!" was raised, and a body of warriors,
+under the prophet Francis, dashed down from behind a hill, upon the
+defenceless people, whose guns were inside the fort. The first impulse
+of every one was to catch up the little children and hasten inside the
+gates, but it was manifestly too late. The Indians were already nearer
+the fort than they, and were running with all their might, brandishing
+their knives and tomahawks, and yelling like demons.</p>
+
+<p>There seemed no way of escape. Sam Hardwicke took little Judie up in his
+arms, and, quick as thought calculated the chances of reaching the fort.
+Clearly the only way in which he could possibly get there, was by
+leaving his little sister to her fate and running for his life. But Sam
+Hardwicke was not the sort of boy to do anything so cowardly as that.
+Abandoning the thought of getting to the fort, he called to Tom to
+follow him, and with Judie in his arms, he ran into a neighboring
+thicket, where the three, with Joe, a black boy of twelve or thirteen
+years who had followed them, concealed themselves in the bushes. Whether
+they had been seen by the Indians or not, they had no way of knowing,
+but their only hope of safety now lay in absolute stillness. They
+crouched down together and kept silence.</p>
+
+<p>"What's we gwine to do here, I wonder," whispered the black boy. "Whar
+mus' we go, Mas Sam?"</p>
+
+<p>Sam did not answer. He was too much absorbed in studying the situation
+to talk or even to listen. The Indians were coming down upon the white
+people from every side, and the only wonder was that Sam's little party
+had managed to find a gap in their line big enough to escape through.</p>
+
+<p>"Be patient, Joe," said little Judie, in the calmest voice possible.
+"Brother Sam will take care of us. Give him time. He always does know
+what to do."</p>
+
+<p>"Be still, Joe," said Sam. "If you talk that Indian'll see us," pointing
+to one not thirty steps distant, though Joe had not yet seen him.</p>
+
+<p>A terrified "ugh!" was all the reply Joe could make.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime the situation of the fort people was terrible. Cut off from the
+gates and unarmed, there seemed to be nothing for them to do except to
+meet death as bravely and calmly as they could. A young man named Isaac
+Harden happened to be near the gates, however, on horseback, and
+accompanied by a pack of about sixty hounds. And this young man, whose
+name has barely crept into a corner of history, was both a hero and a
+military genius, and he did right then and there, a deed as brilliant
+and as heroic as any other in history. Seeing the perilous position of
+the fort people, he raised himself in his stirrups and waving his hat,
+charged the savages <i>with his pack of dogs</i>, whooping and yelling after
+the manner of a huntsman, and leading the fierce bloodhounds right into
+the ranks of the infuriated Indians. The dogs being trained to chase and
+seize any living thing upon which their master might set them, attacked
+the Indians furiously, Harden encouraging them and riding down group
+after group of the bewildered savages. Charging right and left with his
+dogs, he succeeded in putting the Indians for a time upon the defensive,
+thus giving the white people time to escape into the fort. When all were
+in except Sam's party and a Mrs. Phillips who was killed, Harden began
+looking about him for a chance to secure his own safety. His impetuosity
+had carried him clear through the Indian ranks, and the savages, having
+beaten the dogs off, turned their attention to the young cavalier who
+had balked them in the very moment of their victory. They were between
+him and the gates, hundreds against one. His dogs were killed or
+scattered, and he saw at a glance that there was little hope for him.
+The woods behind him were full of Indians, and so retreat was
+impossible. Turning his horse's head towards the gates, he plunged spurs
+into his side, and with a pistol in each hand, dashed through the savage
+ranks, firing as he went. Blowing a blast upon his horn to recall those
+of his dogs which were still alive, he escaped on foot into the fort,
+just in time to let the gate shut in the face of the foremost Indian.
+His horse, history tells us, was killed under him, and he had five
+bullet holes through his clothes, but his skin was unbroken.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<img src="images/ill002.jpg" alt="Sam's Party"  />
+<a id="ill002" name="ill002"></a>
+</p>
+
+<p class='center'> SAM'S PARTY.</p>
+
+<p>Francis and his followers were balked but not beaten. Retiring for a few
+minutes behind the hill, they rallied and came again to the assault,
+more furiously than ever. Their savage instincts were thoroughly aroused
+by the unexpected defeat they had sustained in the very moment of their
+victory, and they were determined now to take the fort at any cost.
+Their plan of attack showed the skill of their leader, who was really a
+man of considerable ability in spite of his fanatical belief in his own
+prophetic gifts. He avoided both the errors usually committed by Indian
+leaders in storming fortified places. He refused, on the one hand, to
+let his men waste their powder and their time in desultory firing, and,
+on the other, he decided not to risk everything on the hazard of a
+single assault. His plan was to take the fort by storm, but the storming
+was to be done systematically. Dividing his force into two parts, he
+sent one to the attack, and held the other back in the hope that the
+first would gain a position so near the stockade as to make the assault
+of the second, led by himself, doubly sure of success. The plan was a
+good one, without doubt, and no man was better qualified than Francis to
+carry it out.</p>
+
+<p>When the storming party came, the people in the fort were ready for it.
+Counting out the women and children, their numbers were not large, but
+they were a brave and determined set of men and boys, who knew very well
+in what kind of a struggle they were engaged. They reserved their fire
+until the Indians were within thirty yards of the fort, and then
+delivered it as rapidly as they could, taking care to waste none of it
+by random or careless shooting. The fort consisted, as all the border
+fortifications did, of a simple stockade, inside of which was a
+block-house for the protection of the women and children, and designed
+also as a sort of "last ditch," in which a desperate resistance could be
+made, even after the fort had been carried. The stockade was made of the
+trunks of pine-trees set on end in the ground, close together, but
+pierced at intervals with port-holes, through which the men of the
+garrison could fire. Such a stockade afforded an excellent protection
+against the bullets and the arrows of the Indians, and gave its
+defenders a great advantage over the assailing force, which must, of
+course, be exposed to a galling fire from the men behind the barriers.
+As the stockade was about fifteen feet high, climbing over it was almost
+wholly out of the question, and the only way to take the fort was to
+rush upon it with fence rails, stop up the port-holes immediately in
+front, and keep so close to the stockade as to escape the fire from
+points to the right and left, while engaged in cutting down the timber
+barrier. If the Indians could do this, their superior numbers would
+enable them to rush in through the opening thus made, and then the
+block-house would be the only refuge left to the white people. The
+block-house was a building made of very large timbers, hewed square,
+laid close upon each other and notched to an exact fit at the ends. It
+had but one entrance, and that was near the top. This could be reached
+only by a ladder, and should the Indians gain access to the fort, the
+whites would retire, fighting, to this building, and when all were in,
+the ladder would be drawn in after them. From the port-holes of the
+block-house a fierce fire could be delivered, and as the square timbers
+were not easily set on fire, a body of Indians must be very determined
+indeed, if they succeeded in taking or destroying a block-house. At Fort
+Mims, however, they had done so, burning the house over the heads of the
+inmates.</p>
+
+<p>The reader will understand, from this description of the fort, how
+possible it was for the people within it to withstand a very determined
+attack, and to inflict heavy loss upon the savages, without suffering
+much in their turn. Francis's men charged furiously upon the silent
+stockade, but were sent reeling back as soon as they had come near
+enough for the riflemen within to fire with absolute accuracy of aim.
+Then the second body, under Francis himself, charged, but with no
+better success. A pause followed, and another charge was made just
+before nightfall.</p>
+
+<p>This time some of the savages succeeded in reaching the stockade and
+stopping up some of the port-holes. They cut down a part of the pickets
+too, and had their friends charged again at once, the fort would
+undoubtedly have been carried. As it was, Francis saw fit to draw off
+his men, for the time at least, and retire beyond the hill. What was now
+to be done? The attack had been repulsed, but it might be renewed at any
+moment. The Indians had suffered considerably, while the casualties
+within the fort were limited to the loss of one man and one boy. But the
+obstinate determination of Francis was well known, and it was certain
+that he had not finally abandoned his purpose of taking the little fort.
+He had already demonstrated his ability to carry the place, and it was,
+at the least, likely that he would come again within twenty-four hours,
+probably with a larger force, and should he do so, the little garrison
+was not in condition to repel his attack. To remain in the fort,
+therefore, was certain destruction; but the country was full of savages,
+and to attempt a march to Fort Glass, fifteen miles away, which was the
+nearest available place, the other forts being difficult to reach, was
+felt to be almost equally hazardous. A council was held, and it was
+finally determined that the perilous march to Fort Glass must be
+undertaken at all hazards. Accordingly, not long after nightfall the
+whole garrison, men, women and children, stealthily left the fort and
+silently crept away to the south.</p>
+
+<p>Sam had seen the dog charge and the escape of the whites into the fort.</p>
+
+<p>"What a fool I was!" he exclaimed, "not to stay where I was! We might
+have got in with the rest of them."</p>
+
+<p>"Why can't we go to de fort now, or leastways, as soon as de Injuns goes
+away?" asked Joe.</p>
+
+<p>"They ain't going away," said Sam. "They're going to storm the
+fort,&mdash;look, they're coming right here for a starting-point, and 'll be
+on top of us in a minute. Come!&mdash;don't make any noise, but follow me.
+Crawl on your hands and knees, and don't raise your heads. Look out for
+sticks. If you break one, the Indians 'll hear it."</p>
+
+<p>"Mas' Sam&mdash;dey's Injuns ahead'n us an' a-comin right torge us too. Look
+dar!"</p>
+
+<p>Sam looked, and saw a body of Indians just in front of him coming to
+reinforce the others. He and his friends were cut off between two bodies
+of savages.</p>
+
+<p>"Lie down and be still," he whispered. "It's all we can do&mdash;and I'm to
+blame for it all!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+<p  class='center'>SAM'S LECTURE.</p>
+
+
+<p>The people of the fort made no search for Sam and his companions; not
+because they cared nothing for them, but simply because they believed
+them certainly dead. Mr. Hardwicke, himself, had seen Sam start with
+little Judie towards the fort, before the dog charge was made, and as
+neither the boys nor Judie had ever reached the gates, he had no doubt
+whatever that his three children were slain, as was Mrs. Phillips, the
+only other person who had failed to get inside the stockade. Mr.
+Hardwicke wished to go out in search of their bodies, but was overruled
+by his companions, who, knowing that the savages were still in the
+immediate vicinity, thought it simply a reckless and unnecessary risk,
+to go hunting for the bodies of their friends hundreds of yards away,
+and immediately in front of the place at which the Indians were last
+seen. The idea was abandoned, therefore, and the fort party marched away
+in the darkness of a cloudy night, towards Fort Glass. Leaving them to
+find their way if they can, let us return to Sam and his little band.
+Seeing the Indians coming towards them, they lay down in the high weeds.
+The savages hurrying forward to reinforce their friends, passed within a
+few feet of the young people, but did not see them. The storming of the
+fort then began, and after watching the evolutions of the Indians for
+some time, Sam said:</p>
+
+<p>"We mustn't stay here. Those red skins are working around this way, and 'll
+find us. Crawl on your hands and knees, all of you, and follow me."</p>
+
+<p>"Whar's ye gwine to, Mas' Sam?" asked Joe.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Sh, sh</i>," said Judie. "Don't talk Joe, but do as Brother Sam tells
+you. Don't you know he always knows what's best? Besides, maybe he
+hasn't quite found out where he's going yet, himself."</p>
+
+<p>But Joe was not as confident of Sam's genius for doing the right thing
+as Judie was, and so, after crawling for some distance, he again broke
+silence.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Judie."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you want, Joe?"</p>
+
+<p>"Does <i>you</i> know whar Mas' Sam's a-takin' us to, an' what he's gwine to
+do when he gits dar?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, of course I don't."</p>
+
+<p>"How you know den, dat he's doin' de bes' thing?"</p>
+
+<p>But the conversation was terminated by a word from Sam, who said, in a
+whisper,</p>
+
+<p>"Joe, I'll tell you <i>where we're going if you keep talking</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Whar, Mas' Sam?"</p>
+
+<p>"Into the hands of the Indians. Keep your mouth shut, if you don't want
+your hair lifted off your head."</p>
+
+<p>As the black boy certainly did not want his hair cut Indian fashion, he
+became silent at once.</p>
+
+<p>When they had travelled in this way until they could no longer hear the
+yells of the Indians and the popping of guns at the fort, Sam called a
+halt. It was now nearly midnight.</p>
+
+<p>"Here is a good place to spend the rest of the night," he said, "and we
+must be as still as we can. We can stay here till to-morrow night, and
+then we must try to get to Fort Glass. It's about twelve or thirteen
+miles from here."</p>
+
+<p>"Le's go on now, Mas' Sam; I'se afear'd to stay here," said the black
+boy.</p>
+
+<p>"We can't," said Sam. "I got scratched in the foot with a stray bullet,
+just as we went into the thicket there at the fort, and I can't walk. I
+am a little faint and must lie down."</p>
+
+<p>At this little Judie, who fairly idolized Sam, and felt perfectly safe
+from Indians and everything else when he was with her, was disposed to
+set up a wail of sorrow and fright. If poor Sam were wounded, he might
+die, she thought, and the thought was too much for her.</p>
+
+<p>Sam soothed her, however, and the poor, tired little girl was soon fast
+asleep in his arms.</p>
+
+<p>"Bring some moss, boys," he said to his companions, "and make a bed for
+Judie here by this log."</p>
+
+<p>When he had laid her down, he drew off his shoe and wrapped the wounded
+foot in some of the long gray moss which hangs in great festoons from
+the trees of that region. Joe, with the true negro genius for sleeping,
+was already snoring at the foot of a tree. Sam quietly called Tom to his
+side.</p>
+
+<p>"Tom," said he, "my foot is bleeding pretty badly, and I can't see till
+morning to do anything for it. I have wrapped it up in moss, stuffing
+the softest parts into the wound, and that may stop it after a while.
+But I may not be able to travel to-morrow night, and if I can't you must
+leave me here and try to find your way to Fort Glass, with Judie. You
+must remember that her life will depend on you, and try to do your duty
+without flinching. Don't try to travel in the daytime. Go on to the
+south as fast as you can of nights, keeping in the woods and thickets,
+and as soon as you see a streak of gray in the sky find a good
+hiding-place and stop. You can get some corn and some sweet potatoes out
+of any field, but you must eat them raw, as it wont do to make a fire.
+Now go to sleep. I may be able to travel myself, but if I shouldn't,
+remember you are a brave man's son, and must do your duty as a
+Hardwicke should." And with that he shook the little fellow's hand.</p>
+
+<p>After a time Tom, overcome by weariness, fell asleep, but Sam remained
+awake all night, trying to staunch the flow of blood from his foot. He
+knew that if he could go on with the others their chance of safety would
+be vastly greater than without him, and so he was disposed to leave no
+effort untried to be in a fit condition to travel the next night. When
+morning came Sam called Tom and Joe, and directed them to examine his
+wound, into which he could not see very well.</p>
+
+<p>"Is the blood of a bright red, as it comes out, or a dark red?" he
+asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Bright," they both said.</p>
+
+<p>"Then it comes from an artery," he replied. "Are you sure it is bright
+red?"</p>
+
+<p>The boys were not quite sure.</p>
+
+<p>"Does it come in a steady stream or in spurts?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"It spurts, and stops and spurts again," said Tom.</p>
+
+<p>"It is an artery, then," said Sam. "Look and see if you can find the
+place it comes from."</p>
+
+<p>The boys made a careful examination and at last found the artery, a
+small one, which was cut only about half way across.</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said Sam. "If that's the case, I think I know how to stop
+the blood. Put your finger in, and <i>break the artery clear in two</i>".</p>
+
+<p>"O Sam, then you'll bleed to death," said Tom.</p>
+
+<p>"No I won't. Do as I tell you."</p>
+
+<p>"Let me cut it, then. It wont hurt you so much."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, no," cried Sam, staying his hand. "Don't cut it. Tear it, I
+tell you, and be quick."</p>
+
+<p>Tom tore it, and the blood stopped almost immediately. Sam then bound
+the foot up with strips of cloth torn from his clothing, and as he did
+so said:</p>
+
+<p>"Now I'll tell you both all about this so that you'll know what to do
+another time. If you know only <i>what</i> to do, you may forget; but if you
+know <i>why</i>, you'll remember. The blood comes out from the heart to all
+parts of the body in arteries, and when it leaves the heart it is bright
+red, because it is clean and pure. Your heart is a sort of force-pump,
+and every time it beats it forces the blood all over you. The arteries
+fork and branch out in every direction, until they terminate in
+millions of little veins smaller than the finest hairs, and these
+running together make bigger veins, through which the blood is carried
+to the lungs. In the veins it flows steadily, because the <i>capillary</i>
+veins, the ones like hairs, are so small that the spurts can't be felt
+beyond them. The blood in the veins is thick and dark, because it has
+taken up all the impurities from the system; but when it gets to the
+lungs your breath takes up all these and carries them off, leaving the
+blood pure again for another round. Now the arteries are long elastic
+tubes, that is to say, they will stretch a little, and fly back again,
+if you pull them, and when one is cut nearly but not quite off, the
+contraction keeps it wide open. If it is cut or torn entirely in two,
+the end draws back, and nine times in ten, if the artery is a small one,
+the drawing back shuts the end up entirely and the blood stops. But it
+is better to tear it than to cut it, because when torn the edges are
+jagged and it shrivels up more. I don't quite understand why, myself,
+but that is what the surgical books say. When anybody is hurt and
+bleeding badly, the first thing to do is to find out whether it is an
+artery or a vein that's cut. If the blood is bright and comes out in
+spurts, it's an artery. If it is dark, and flows steadily, it's a vein.
+If it's an artery and isn't cut quite in two, tear it in two. If that
+don't stop it, you must make a knot in a handkerchief and then press
+your finger above the cut in different places till you find where the
+artery is by the blood stopping. Then put the knot on that place and tie
+the handkerchief around the limb. You can stop a vein in the same way
+and more easily, but if it's a vein you must tie the handkerchief so
+that the cut place will be between it and the heart. You see the blood
+comes from the heart in the arteries, and goes back towards the heart in
+the veins, and so to stop an artery you tie inside, and to stop a vein
+outside of the cut place."</p>
+
+<p>I think it altogether probable that Master Sam would have gone into
+quite a lecture on anatomy and minor surgery, if little Judie had not
+waked up just then complaining of hunger. What he told the boys,
+however, is well worth remembering. He took little Judie on his lap and
+sent the two boys out to find a field of potatoes or corn. When they
+came back all four made a breakfast of raw sweet potatoes, drinking
+water which Tom brought in his wool hat from a creek not very far away.
+Sam grew stronger during the day, and at night the party set out on
+their way to Fort Glass. Sam's foot was not painful, but he was afraid
+of starting the blood again, and so he held it up, walking with a rude
+crutch which he had made during the day.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+<p  class='center'>SAM FINDS IT NECESSARY TO THINK.</p>
+
+
+<p>It was twelve miles from their first encampment to Fort Glass, and if
+Sam had been strong and well, and the way open, they might easily have
+made the journey before morning, by carrying little Judie a part of the
+way. As it was, they had to go through the thickest woods to avoid
+Indians, and must move cautiously all the time, as they could never know
+when they might stumble upon a party of savages around a camp-fire, or
+sleeping under a tree. Those of my readers who live in the far South
+know what thick woods are in that part of the country, but others may
+not. The trees grow as close together as they can, and the underbrush
+chokes up the space between them pretty effectually. Then the great
+vines of various kinds wind themselves in and out until in many places
+they literally stop the way so that a strong man with an axe could not
+go forward a hundred feet in a week. In other places the thick cane
+makes an equally impenetrable barrier, and Sam needed all his knowledge
+of the forest to enable him to work his way southward at night through
+such woods as those. The little party of wanderers sometimes found
+themselves apparently walled in in the pitchy darkness, with no possible
+way out but Sam's instinct, as he called it, which was simply his
+ability to remember the things he had learned, and to put two facts
+together to find out a third, always extricated them. Once they found
+themselves in a swamp, where the water was about eight inches deep. The
+underbrush, canes and vines made it impossible for them to see any great
+distance in any direction.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I know we will never get out of here," whined poor little Judie,
+ready to sink down in the water.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes we will, lady bird," said Sam cheerily. "What's the good of having
+a big brother if he can't take care of you? Tell me that, will you?
+Keep your courage up, little girl, I think I know where we are. Let me
+think."</p>
+
+<p>"I know wha' we is. Mas' Sam," said Joe.</p>
+
+<p>"Where, Joe," asked Sam, incredulously.</p>
+
+<p>"We'se dun' los',&mdash;dat's wha' we is," replied Joe.</p>
+
+<p>Sam laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"I know more than that," said Tom, "I know <i>where</i> we're lost."</p>
+
+<p>"Wha', Mas' Tom?" cried Joe, eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"In a swamp," said Tom.</p>
+
+<p>"And I know what swamp," said Sam, "which is better still. This swamp is
+the low grounds of a little creek, and I've been in it before to-night.
+I don't know just which way to go to get out, because I don't know just
+what part of the swamp we're in. But if my foot was well I'd soon find
+out."</p>
+
+<p>"How, Mas' Sam?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'd climb that sweet gum and look for landmarks."</p>
+
+<p>"Lan' marks? what's dem, Mas' Sam? will dey bite?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Joe, I mean I would look around and find something or other to
+steer by,&mdash;a house an open field or something."</p>
+
+<p>"I kin climb, Mas' Sam," replied Joe, "an' I'll be up dat dar tree in
+less'n no time."</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<img src="images/ill003.jpg" alt="dun los'"  />
+<a id="ill003" name="ill003"></a>
+</p>
+
+<p class='center'> "WE 'S DUN LOS'&mdash;DATS WHAT WE IS."</p>
+
+<p>And up the tree he went as nimbly as any squirrel might. As he went up,
+Sam cautioned him to make no noise, and not to shout, but to look around
+carefully, and then to come down and tell what he had seen.</p>
+
+<p>"I see a big openin'," said Joe, when he reached the ground again, "an'
+nigh de middle uv it dey's a big grove, wid a littler one jis' off to de
+left."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Sam, "I thought you'd see that. That's where Watkins's house
+stood: now which way is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Which-a-way's what, Mas' Sam?"</p>
+
+<p>"The opening with the groves in it."</p>
+
+<p>"I 'clar' I dunno, Mas' Sam."</p>
+
+<p>It had not entered Joe's head to mark the direction, and so he had to
+climb the tree again. In going up and coming down, however, he wound
+around the tree two or three times and was no wiser when he returned to
+the ground than before he began his ascent.</p>
+
+<p>"Look, Joe," said Sam. "Do you see that bright star through the trees?"</p>
+
+<p>"De brightest one, Mas' Sam?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I sees it."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, climb the tree, and when you get to the top, turn your face
+towards that star. Then see which way the opening is, and remember
+whether it is straight ahead of you, behind you, or to the right or
+left."</p>
+
+<p>Joe went up the tree again and this time managed to bring down the
+information that when he looked at the star the opening was on his left.</p>
+
+<p>With the knowledge of locality and direction thus gained, Sam was not
+long in finding his way to firm ground again, and as soon as he did so
+he selected a hiding-place for the day, as the morning was now at hand.</p>
+
+<p>The next night they had fewer difficulties, the woods through which they
+had to pass being freer from undergrowth than those they had already
+traversed, and when the third morning broke they were within a mile or
+two of Fort Glass. Sam thought at first of pushing on at once to the
+fort, but, seeing "Indian sign" in the shape of some smouldering fires
+near a spring, he abandoned the undertaking until night should come
+again, and hid his little company in the woods. Something to eat was the
+one immediate necessity. They were all nearly famished, and neither corn
+nor sweet potatoes were to be found anywhere in the vicinity. Sam
+directed the boys to bring some rushes from the creek bottoms, and
+peeling these, he and his companions ate the pith, which is slightly
+succulent and in a small degree nourishing. Sam had learned this fact by
+accident while out hunting one day, and Sam took care never to forget
+anything which might be useful. Towards night, when the rushes failed to
+satisfy their hunger, Sam was puzzling himself over the problem of
+getting food, when Tom asked him if he knew the name of a singular tree
+he had seen while out after rushes.</p>
+
+<p>"It has the biggest leaves I ever saw," he said, "and they all grow
+right out of its top. Some of 'em are six feet long, and they've got
+folds in 'em. There ain't any limbs to the tree at all."</p>
+
+<p>"Where did you see that?" asked Sam eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"Right over there, about a hundred yards."</p>
+
+<p>"Good! It's palmetto. I didn't know there was one this far from the sea
+though. Here, take my big knife and you and Joe go and cut out as much
+as you can of the soft part just where the leaves come out. It's what
+they call palmetto cabbage, and it's very good to eat too, I can tell
+you."</p>
+
+<p>The boys, after receiving minute instructions, went to the palmetto-tree
+and brought away several pounds of the terminal bud. On this the little
+company made a hearty meal, finding the "cabbage," as it is called, a
+well-flavored, juicy and tender kind of white vegetable substance, very
+nourishing and as palatable as cocoanut, which it closely resembles in
+flavor. Storing what was left in their pockets, they began to prepare
+for their night's journey to the fort, which they hoped to reach within
+an hour or two. They were just on the point of starting when a party of
+Indians, under Weatherford, the great half-breed chief, who was the life
+and soul of the war, rode across a neighboring field, and settled
+themselves for supper within a dozen yards of Sam's camp. The sky was
+overcast with clouds, and so night fell even more quickly than it
+usually does in Southern latitudes, where there is almost no twilight
+at all. Sam made his companions lie down at the approach of the savages,
+and as soon as it was fairly dark, the little party crept silently away.
+Before leaving, however, Sam had heard enough of the conversation
+between Weatherford and Peter McQueen, the other great half-breed
+warrior, to know that he could not reach the fort that night. The two
+half-breeds talked most of the time in English, and Sam learned that
+they had a large body of Indians in the vicinity, who were scouring the
+country around Fort Glass. Sam knew enough of Indian warfare to know
+that there would be numerous small parties of savage scouts lurking
+immediately around the fort day and night, for the purpose of picking
+off any daring whites who might venture outside the gates, and
+especially any messenger who might attempt to pass from that to any
+other fortress. He knew, therefore, that for some time to come it would
+be impossible to reach Fort Glass, and penetrating the woods for a
+considerable distance he stopped and sat down on a log, burying his face
+in his hands, and telling his companions not to speak to him, as he
+wanted to think.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+
+<p  class='center'>SAM'S FORTRESS.</p>
+
+
+<p>Sam's companions kept perfectly still. Their reverence for Sam had grown
+with every foot of their travels, and their confidence in his ability to
+get out of any difficulty, and ultimately to accomplish his purposes in
+the face of any obstacle, was now quite unbounded. And so, when he told
+them it was impossible to reach the fort and that he wanted to think,
+they patiently awaited the results of his thinking, confident that he
+would presently hit upon precisely the right thing to do.</p>
+
+<p>After a while he raised his head from his hands and said:</p>
+
+<p>"Come on, we must get clear away from here before morning;" but he said
+not a word about where he was going. His course was now nearly
+south-east, and just as the day was breaking he stopped and said:</p>
+
+<p>"There is the river at last. Now let's go to sleep."</p>
+
+<p>They obeyed him unquestioningly, though they had not the faintest idea
+where they were or what river it was which he had seen a little way
+ahead. When Sam waked it was nearly noon, and he ate a little of the
+palmetto cabbage left in his pockets, while the others slept. His face
+was very pale, however, and he sat very still until his companions
+aroused themselves. Then he explained.</p>
+
+<p>"When I found that we could not get to Fort Glass, the question was,
+where should we go? Fort Stoddart is probably surrounded by Indians too,
+and so the only thing to do was to make our way down through the Tensaw
+Country to Mobile; but that is about eighty or a hundred miles away, and
+the fact is I am a little sick from my wound. My foot and leg are all
+swelled up, and I've been having a fever, so that I can't travel much
+further. It seemed to me that the best thing to do, under the
+circumstances, was to find a good hiding-place where it will be easy to
+get something to eat, and to stay there till I get better, or something
+turns up, and so I thought of the Alabama River as the very best place,
+because mussels and things of that kind are better than sweet potatoes,
+and here we are; now the next thing is to find a hiding-place, and I
+think I know where one is. It has a spring by it, too, which is a good
+thing, for drinking this swamp and creek water will make us all sick. I
+was all through here on a camp-hunt once, and I remember a place on the
+other side of the river where two big hollow trees stand right together
+on top of a sort of bluff. About fifty yards further down the river
+there is a spring, just under the bluff. We must find the place if we
+can, to-night, and to do it we must first get across the river. It's so
+low now we can easily wade it, I think, and Judie can be pushed across
+on a log."</p>
+
+<p>As soon as night fell the plan was put into execution. The river was
+extremely low at the time, and Sam was confident that by choosing a wide
+place for their crossing, they could wade the stream easily; but lest
+there might be a channel too deep for that, he fastened four logs
+together with grapevines, and putting Judie on this raft bade the two
+boys tow it over, telling them that if they should find the water too
+deep for wading at any point, they could easily support themselves by
+clinging to the logs. They had no difficulty, however, and were soon on
+the east bank of the stream. Sam's task was a much harder one. The
+current was very rapid and the bottom too soft for the easy use of his
+crutch, while his strength was almost gone. His spirit sustained him,
+however, and after a while he reached the shore. When all were landed,
+the search began for the hiding-place Sam had described. It proved to be
+more than a mile higher up the river, and when they found it, the day
+was breaking. The trees were not hollow, as Sam had supposed. The river
+bank in that place is in three terraces, and the two great trees stood
+almost alone on the second one of these. The sandy soil had been
+gradually washed out from under the great trunks, so that the trees
+proper began about fifteen feet from the ground, the space below being
+occupied by a great net-work of exposed roots, some of them a foot or
+two in thickness, and others varying in size all the way down to mere
+threads. The freshets which had washed the earth away from the roots,
+had piled a great mass of drift-wood against one side of them. Sam made
+a careful examination of the place, and then all went to work. The two
+boys so disposed some of the drift-wood as to make a sort of covered
+passage from the edge of the bank to the two trees whose roots were
+interlaced with each other. Sam cut away some of the roots with his
+jackknife so as to make an entrance, and once inside the circle of outer
+roots, he was not long in making a roomy hiding-place for the whole
+party, immediately under the great trees.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<img src="images/ill005.jpg" alt="Judie on raft"  />
+<a id="ill005" name="ill005"></a>
+</p>
+
+<p class='center'>JUDIE ON THE RAFT.</p>
+
+<p>"We can enlarge our house with our knives whenever we choose," he said,
+"and if we stay here long enough, we must make Judie a room for herself
+under the other tree, with a passage leading from this into it."</p>
+
+<p>Sam said this to avoid saying something which would have alarmed and
+distressed the others. In truth he knew himself to be really ill, and
+believed that he would be much worse before being any better. For this
+reason he knew they must have more room than the present hiding-place
+afforded, and it was his plan to cut another room under the other tree,
+with a very narrow passage between. "Then," thought he, "if the Indians
+find us here, as I am afraid they will, they will find only poor sick
+Sam here in the outer room, and won't think of hunting further." Sam
+thought he was going to die at any rate, and his only care now was to
+save the lives of the others. He had made them gather some mussels at
+the river, and some green corn in a neighboring field, and he now said
+to the two boys, "These things must be cooked. It will not do for you to
+eat them raw any longer. They aren't wholesome that way, and so I've
+been thinking of a plan for cooking them. The spring is down under the
+lower bluff, and a fire down there won't make much smoke above the upper
+banks. We must make one out of drift-wood, but we mustn't use any pine.
+That smokes too much. The fire must be made in the daytime, because at
+night it would be seen too far. You boys must do the cooking, while I
+keep a look-out for Indians, and if any come within sight you can both
+get in here before they discover you, or if they do see you, they can't
+find you after you run away from the fire, and they will look for you
+out in the woods somewhere. Nobody would think of looking here. Now let
+me tell you how to cook the things. I was at a 'clam bake' in New
+England once, and I know how to make these mussels and corn taste well.
+You must dig a sort of fireplace in the sand bank and build your fire in
+there. When it burns away until you have a good bank of coals, you must
+put down on them a layer of the corn, in the shuck, then a layer of
+mussels, then a layer of corn, and finally cover them all up with coals
+and hot ashes, and leave them there for an hour or two, when they will
+be cooked beautifully."</p>
+
+<p>"But Mas' Sam," said Joe.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what is it, Joe?"</p>
+
+<p>"How's we gwine to git de fire?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, how do you think, Joe?"</p>
+
+<p>"I 'clare I dunno, Mas' Sam, 'thout you got some flints an' punk in your
+pockets."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I have no flints and no punk, Joe, but I'm going to get you some
+fire when the sun gets straight overhead."</p>
+
+<p>"Is you gwine to git it from de sun, Mas' Sam?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"What wid, Mas' Sam?"</p>
+
+<p>"With water, Joe."</p>
+
+<p>"Wid water, Mas' Sam! You'se foolin'. How you gwine to git fire wid
+water, <i>I'd</i> like to know."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, wait and see. I'm not fooling."</p>
+
+<p>To tell the truth, Tom was quite as much at a loss as Joe was, to know
+how Sam could get fire with water; but his confidence in his "big
+brother," as he called Sam, was too perfect to admit of a doubt or a
+question. As for Judie, she would hardly have raised her eyebrows if Sam
+had burned water, or whittled it into dolls' heads before her eyes. She
+believed in Sam absolutely, and supposed, as a matter of course, that he
+knew everything and could do anything he liked. But Joe was not yet
+satisfied that water could be made to assist in the kindling of a fire.
+He said nothing more, however, but carefully watched all of Sam's
+preparations.</p>
+
+<p>That young gentleman began by tearing a strip of cotton cloth from his
+shirt, and picking it to pieces. He then gathered from the drift-wood a
+number of dry sticks, and broke and split them up very fine.</p>
+
+<p>"We must have a few splinters of light-wood," he said; "but after the
+fire is once started, we mustn't put any more pine on."</p>
+
+<p>So saying, he split off a few splinters from a piece of rich heart-pine,
+which Southern people call "light-wood," because the negroes use it
+instead of lamps or candles.</p>
+
+<p>"Come now," said Sam, "its nearly noon, and I think I can get fire for
+you. Go up on top of the drift-pile, Tom, and look out for Indians. If
+you don't see any we can all go down to the spring together long enough
+to start a fire. Then I must come back to Judie, and I'll keep a
+look-out for Indians while you and Joe get the corn on. When you get it
+on, come back here and wait until it has time to cook. Stop a minute,
+Tom. Let's understand each other. If the one on the look-out sees
+Indians, he must let the others know; but it won't do to holler. Let me
+see. Can you whistle like a kildee, Tom?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, or like any other bird."</p>
+
+<p>"Can you, Joe?"</p>
+
+<p>"I reckon I <i>kin</i>, Mas' Sam," said Joe, who, to prove his powers
+straightway gave a shrill kildee whistle, which nearly deafened them
+all.</p>
+
+<p>"There, that'll do, Joe. Well, let's understand then, that if anyone of
+us sees Indians, he must whistle like a kildee. If the Indians hear it
+they'll think nothing of it."</p>
+
+<p>Tom went to the look-out, and seeing no savages anywhere, returned, and
+the whole party, little Judie excepted, proceeded to the spring. Sam
+then laid his sticks down in a pile, and taking out his watch removed
+the crystal. This he filled with clear water from the spring, and
+holding it over the cotton ravellings, moved it up and down until the
+sunlight, passing through it, gathered itself into a small bright spot
+on the cotton. Joe, eager to see, thrust his head over Sam's shoulder,
+and directly between the glass and the sun.</p>
+
+<p>"Take your head away, Joe, or I'll have to draw the fire right through
+it," said Sam, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"Mercy, Mas' Sam, don't do dat. I'se 'feard o' your witches' ways,
+anyhow," said Joe, drawing back. The glass was again put in position
+and the spot of bright sunlight reappeared. Presently a little cloud of
+smoke rose, and a moment afterwards, the cotton was fairly afire. It was
+not difficult now to get the light-wood and dry sticks to blazing, and a
+good fire was soon secured.</p>
+
+<p>"Now boys," said Sam, "I'll go back to the drift-pile and keep a
+look-out. If you hear the kildee call, run in as quickly as you can.
+When you get the corn and mussels on, and covered up, come back at
+once."</p>
+
+<p>No Indians showing themselves anywhere in the neighborhood, the boys got
+their dinner on or rather <i>in</i> the fire, and then returned to the root
+cavern to await the completion of the cooking process. When they were
+all safely stowed away in their places, Tom gave voice to the curiosity
+with which he was almost bursting.</p>
+
+<p>"Sam," he said, "how did you do that?"</p>
+
+<p>"How did I do what, Tom?"</p>
+
+<p>"How did you make the sun set the cotton on fire?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know whether I can make you understand it or not," said Sam,
+"but I'll try. You know light always goes in straight lines, if left to
+itself, don't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I didn't know that!</p>
+
+<p>"Yes you did, only you never thought of it. If you want to keep light
+out of your eyes, you always put your hand between them and the light,
+because you know the light goes straight and so will not go around your
+hand."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that's true, and when I want to make a shadow anywhere, I put
+something right before the light."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly. Well, the rays of the sun all come to us straight, and side
+by side. They are pretty hot, but not hot enough to set fire to anything
+that way. But if you can gather a good many of these rays together and
+make them all shine on one little spot, they will set fire to whatever
+they fall on. Now a piece of glass or any other thing that you can see
+through easily,&mdash;that is, any <i>transparent</i> thing, lets the sunlight
+through it, and if it is flat on both sides, it doesn't change the
+directions of the rays. But if both sides are rounded out, or if one
+side is rounded out and the other side is flat, it turns all the rays a
+little, and brings them right together in a point not far from the
+glass. If the sides are hollowed <i>in</i> instead of bulging out, the rays
+scatter, and if one side bulges out and the other bulges in, as they do
+in a watch crystal, one side scatters and the other side collects the
+rays, and so it is the same as if the glass had been perfectly flat, one
+side undoes the other's work. Now I have no glass which bulges out on
+both sides, and none that bulges out on one side and is flat on the
+other, but my watch crystal bulges out on one side and in on the other.
+But when I filled it with water, the water being as clear as the glass,
+it made it flat on top and bulging underneath, and so it gathered the
+sun's rays together in the light spot you saw, and set fire to the
+cotton."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but why did you have to wait till noon?" asked Tom.</p>
+
+<p>"Because the glass must be held right across the rays of light, and as I
+couldn't turn the crystal to either side without spilling the water, I
+had to use it at noon, when the sun was almost exactly overhead, and its
+rays came nearly straight down. If I had had a glass rounded out on both
+sides I could have got fire any time after the sun was well up in the
+sky. Now let me tell you what they call all these different kinds of
+glasses. One that is flat on one side and bulges out on the other is
+called a <i>convex lens</i>; if it bulges out on both sides it is a <i>double
+convex lens</i>; if it is hollowed in on one side and flat on the other it
+is a <i>concave lens</i>; if hollowed in on both sides we call it a <i>double
+concave lens</i>; and when it is hollowed in on one side and bulged out on
+the other, as any watch crystal does, it is a <i>concave convex lens</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Where did you learn all that, Sam?" asked Tom.</p>
+
+<p>"I learned part of it with father's spectacles, and part out of a book
+father lent me when I asked him why I couldn't make the bright, hot spot
+with a pair of near-sighted glasses that I found in one of mother's old
+work boxes. You see, when people begin to get old, their eyes flatten a
+little, and so everything they look at seems to be shaved off. They see
+well enough at a distance, but can't see small things close to them."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that the reason pa always looks over his spectacles when he looks at
+me?" asked Judie.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, little woman. He can't see to read without his glasses, but he
+can see you across the room without them, well enough. Well, to remedy
+this defect, old people wear spectacles with double convex lenses in
+them. But near-sighted people have exactly the opposite trouble. They
+can't see things except by bringing them near their eyes, because their
+eyes are not flat enough, and so their spectacles are made with double
+concave lenses. When I asked father about it, he gave me a book that
+explained it all, and that is where I learned the little I know about
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"The <i>little</i>! I'd like to know what you call a good deal," said Tom. "I
+never saw anybody that knew half as much as you do."</p>
+
+<p>"That is only because we live in a new country, Tom, where there are no
+very well educated people, and because you don't know how much there is
+to learn in the world. If these Indians ever get quiet, I hope to learn
+a good deal more every year than I know now. But it's time to see about
+our mussel bake. Run to the look-out, Tom, and then we can all go down
+and bring up the dinner."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+
+<p  class='center'>SURPRISED.</p>
+
+
+<p>The baked corn and mussels made a savory dish, or one which would have
+been savory enough but for the absence of salt. The boys knew well
+enough that salt was not to be had, however, and so they made a joke of
+its absence, and even pretended that they did not like their food salted
+at any time. Little Judie was so hungry that she cared very little
+whether food tasted well or not, provided it satisfied her appetite.</p>
+
+<p>The rest and the more wholesome food seemed to restore Sam to something
+like his customary strength during the first ten days of his stay in the
+"root fortress," as he had named their singular dwelling. His wounded
+foot got better, though it was still far from well, and, better than
+all, his fever left him. As he regained strength he began to lay plans
+again. To stay where they were was well enough as a temporary device for
+escaping the savages, but Sam's main purpose now was to get the little
+people under his charge back to civilization somewhere, and then to do
+his part in the war between the Indians and whites. He must first find a
+way to get Tom and Judie and Joe into one of the forts or into some safe
+town, and how to do this was the problem. He was unwilling to take them
+away from their present pretty secure hiding-place until he could decide
+upon some definite plan offering a reasonable prospect of escape. If he
+could have known as much as we now know of the movements of the savages,
+he would have had little difficulty. The larger part of the Indians had
+left the peninsula now forming Clarke County, and crossed to the
+south-eastern shore of the Alabama river,&mdash;the side on which Sam's root
+fortress stood, and if he could have known this, he would have made an
+effort to cross the river again and reach Fort Glass. The chief
+difficulty in the way of this undertaking would have been that of
+crossing the river, which was now swollen by recent rains. He knew
+nothing about the matter, however, and as Fort Mims, the first point
+attacked by the savages, was on the south-east side of the river, he
+reasoned that having afterwards crossed to Clarke County the Indians
+would not again cross to the south-east side in any considerable force.
+In this, as we know, he was mistaken, and the error led him into some
+danger, as we shall see. Thinking the matter over, he decided that his
+first plan of a march down through the Tensaw Country to the
+neighborhood of Mobile would be the safest and best thing to undertake.
+He was unwilling, however, to begin it with his companions without
+making a preliminary reconnoissance. Accordingly he explained the plan
+to Tom and Joe, and said:</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going to-night down towards old Fort Mims, to see if the country is
+pretty free from Indians, and to find out what I can about the chance of
+getting away from here. I'll leave you here with Judie, and you must be
+extra careful about exposing yourselves. You've corn and mussels and
+sweet potatoes enough already cooked, to last you a week, and I'll
+probably be back before that; if not you must eat them raw till I do
+come: it won't do to build a fire while I'm away." After giving minute
+directions for their guidance during his absence, Sam put a sweet potato
+in one pocket and an ear of corn in the other, and set out on his
+journey, walking with a stout stick, having discarded his crutch as no
+longer necessary. How far he walked that night, I am unable to say, his
+course being a very circuitous one. The moon rose full, soon after dark,
+and shone so brightly that Sam dared not cross the fields, but skirted
+around them keeping constantly in the woods and the edges of canebrakes.
+The next night and the next he continued his journey, though he found
+the country full of Indians. He saw their "sign" everywhere, and now and
+then saw some of the Indians themselves. The fourth evening found him so
+lame (his foot having swelled and become painful again) that he could
+not possibly go on. He had already gone far enough to discover that the
+country on that side of the river was too full of Indians for him to
+carry his little party safely through it, and so he determined to work
+his way back to the root fortress, and try the other side. Seeing a
+house in a field near by the place in which he had spent the day, he
+resolved to visit it for the purpose of bringing away any article he
+could find which might be useful to him in his effort to provide for his
+little band. In a grove near the house he found a horse,&mdash;a young and
+powerful animal, and as he feared his lameness would not permit him to
+reach his root fortress again on foot, he determined to ride the animal
+in spite of the fact that on horseback he would be in much greater
+danger of discovery by the Indians than on foot. The horse had a bridle
+on, and had evidently escaped, probably during a skirmish, from its
+white or red master.</p>
+
+<p>Sam tied him in the grove, and went on to the house, which had been
+sacked and partially burned. Looking around in the moonlight, Sam
+discovered a hatchet, and, in the corner of what had once been a
+store-house, the remains of a barrel of salt. These were two valuable
+discoveries. The hatchet would be of great service to him not only in
+the root fortress but even more in forcing a pathway through the
+canebrakes when he should again cross the river and try to reach one of
+the forts. The salt he must have at any cost, and as he had no bag he
+made one by ripping off the sleeve of his coat and tying its ends with
+strips of bark. He had just filled it, and tied up the ends when,
+hearing a noise, he turned, and saw two Indians within six feet of him.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+
+<p  class='center'>CONFUSED.</p>
+
+
+<p>The two Indians who had startled Sam, were on the point of entering the
+old dwelling house, and seemingly were unaccompanied by any others. Sam
+happened fortunately to be standing in shadow, and they passed without
+seeing him. But what was he now to do? He was at the back of the house,
+and a high picket fence around the place made it impossible for him to
+escape by the front-way, towards which the savages had gone. Looking
+through the door-way, he saw that the pair had passed through the room
+nearest him and into the adjoining apartment. He knew that other Indians
+were in the neighborhood, and that a dozen of them might wander into the
+enclosure at any moment. Resolving upon a bold man&oelig;uvre, he stepped
+lightly into the rear room of the house, and climbed up inside the wide
+mouthed chimney. Whether the Indians heard him or not he never knew, but
+at any rate he was none too soon in hiding, for he had hardly cleared
+the fireplace in his ascent when four or five savages came into the room
+and began to demolish the few articles of furniture left in the house.
+They had got whiskey somewhere, and having drank freely were even
+noisier than white men get under the influence of strong drink. They
+remained but a short time, when, setting fire again to the half-burned
+house, they left the place yelling as savages only can. Sam escaped as
+soon as he could from his uncomfortable quarters and made his way to the
+grove. Mounting his horse he rode away in the direction of the root
+fortress, keeping in the woods as well as he could and taking every
+precaution to avoid coming suddenly upon savages.</p>
+
+<p>As he rode only at night, the Indians' almost universal habit of
+building camp-fires wherever they stop for the night, helped him to
+avoid them. When morning came he sought a place deep in the forest, when
+he turned his horse loose to graze all day, while he slept at some
+distance from the animal, so that the noise of the beast's stamping and
+browsing might not lead to the discovery of his own whereabouts.</p>
+
+<p>As the evening of the second day of his return came round, Sam found
+himself genuinely sick. His foot and leg were much inflamed, and the
+excitement of the preceding night, together with his continued exposure
+to the drenching dews of the Southern autumn, had brought back his fever
+with increased violence, and a very brief experiment convinced him that
+he could not go further that night. He mounted his horse, but had ridden
+less than a mile when he felt a giddiness coming over him and found it
+necessary to abandon the effort to ride that night. He could hardly see,
+and the pain in his head, neck, back and limbs was excruciating. He
+dismounted and threw himself down on the ground without taking the
+trouble even to separate himself from his horse. The truth is, Sam had
+what they call in South Carolina country fever, a high type of malarial
+fever, which stupefies and benumbs its victim almost as soon as it
+attacks him. The dews in the far South, especially in the fall, are so
+heavy that the water will drip and even stream off the foliage of the
+trees all night, and Sam had been drenched every night during both his
+journeys, having no fire by which to warm himself or dry his clothes.
+Even without this drenching the poisonous exhalations of the swamps and
+woods would doubtless have given him the fever, and as it was he had it
+very severely. He laid down again almost under his horse's feet and fell
+into a sort of stupor. He knew that his fever required treatment, and
+that it would rapidly sap his strength, and the thought came to him:
+What if he should die there and never get back to the tree fortress? He
+was too sick to care for himself, but the thought of little Judie
+haunted his dreams, and he was seized with a semi-delirious impulse to
+remount his horse and ride straight away to the hiding-place in which he
+had left her, regardless of Indians, and of everything else. He dreamed
+a dozen times that he was doing this, and finally, when morning came, he
+forgot all about the danger of travelling by daylight, and mounting his
+horse in a confused, half-delirious way, rode straight out of the woods
+towards the open country, which he had hitherto so carefully avoided.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+
+<p  class='center'>WEATHERFORD.</p>
+
+
+<p>The fiercest and most conspicuous leader of the Indians in this war was
+William Weatherford, or the Red Eagle, as the Indians called him. He is
+commonly spoken of in history as a half-breed, but he was in reality
+almost a white man, with just enough of the Indian in his composition to
+add savage emotions to Scotch intellect and Scotch perseverance. His
+father was a Scotchman, and his mother a half-breed Indian Princess. He
+was brought up in the best civilization the border had, his father being
+wealthy. He became very rich himself, and, despite his savage instincts,
+which were always strong, his wealth, in land and slaves, made him a
+conservative. At first he favored a war with the whites, but a calmer
+afterthought led him to desire peace, and when he found that the
+tempest he had helped to stir up would not subside at his bidding, he
+began casting about for a way of escape. He was a man of unquestionable
+genius; a soldier of rare strategic ability; an orator of the truest
+sort, and his courage in danger was simply sublime. Such a man was
+likely to be of great value to the Indians in their approaching war, and
+when they began to suspect his loyalty to the nation, they watched him
+narrowly. Finding it impossible to postpone the war, and not wishing to
+sacrifice his fine property near the Holy Ground, he made a secret
+journey to the residence of his half brother David Tait and his brother
+John Weatherford, who lived among what were known as the "peacefuls,"
+namely, the Indians disposed to remain at peace with the whites in any
+event. His brothers, hearing his story, advised him to bring his
+negroes, horses and movable property generally, together with his
+family, to their plantations, and to remain there, inactive and neutral,
+during the struggle. When he returned to his residence for the purpose
+of doing this, however, he found that the hostile Indians had seized his
+family and his negroes as hostages, and, under the compulsion of their
+threat that they would kill his wife and children if he should dare to
+remain at peace, he joined in the war against the whites, becoming the
+fiercest of all the chieftains. He planned and led the assault upon Fort
+Mims, and was everywhere foremost in all the fighting. When the Creeks
+were utterly routed at the battle of the Holy Ground a month or so after
+the time of which I am writing, General Jackson issued a proclamation
+refusing terms of peace to the chiefs until Weatherford, whom he had
+determined to put to death, should be brought to him, alive or dead.
+Weatherford hearing of this, although he was safe beyond the borders and
+might have easily made his escape to Florida, as his comrade Peter
+McQueen did, rode straightway to Jackson's head-quarters, where he said
+to the commander who had set a price upon his head:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I am Weatherford. I have come to ask peace for my people. I am in your
+power. Do with me as you please. I am a soldier. I have done the white
+people all the harm I could. I have fought them and fought them bravely.
+If I yet had an army I would fight and contend to the last. But I have
+none. My people are all gone. I can now do no more than weep over the
+misfortunes of my nation."</p>
+
+<p>Jackson was so impressed with the sublime courage and the dignity of the
+man upon whose head he had set a price, that he treated him at once with
+chivalrous consideration. He told him that the only terms upon which the
+Indians could secure peace were unconditional submission and uniform
+good conduct; but "as for yourself," he said, "if you do not like the
+terms, no advantage shall be taken of your present surrender. You are at
+liberty to depart and resume hostilities when you please. But if you are
+taken then, your life shall pay the forfeit of your crimes."</p>
+
+<p>Weatherford calmly folded his arms and replied; "I desire peace for no
+selfish reasons, but that my nation may be relieved from its sufferings;
+for independent of the other consequences of the war, my people's cattle
+are destroyed and their women and children destitute of provisions. I
+may well be addressed in such language now. There was a time when I had
+a choice and could have answered you. I have none now. Even hope has
+ended. Once I could animate my warriors to battle. But I cannot animate
+the dead. My warriors can no longer hear my voice. Their bones are at
+Talladega, Tallashatche, Emuckfaw and Tohopeka. I have not surrendered
+myself thoughtlessly. While there were chances of success I never left
+my post nor supplicated peace. But my people are gone, and I now ask
+peace for my nation and myself. On the miseries and misfortunes brought
+upon my country, I look back with the deepest sorrow, and wish to avert
+still greater calamities. If I had been left to contend with the Georgia
+army, I would have raised my corn on one bank of the river and fought
+them on the other. But your people have destroyed my nation. General
+Jackson, you are a brave man,&mdash;I am another. I do not fear to die. But I
+rely upon your generosity. You will exact no terms of a conquered and
+helpless people but those to which they should accede. Whatever they may
+be it would now be folly and madness to oppose them. If they are
+opposed, you shall find me among the sternest enforcers of obedience.
+Those who would still hold out can only be influenced by a mean spirit
+of revenge. To this they must not and shall not sacrifice the last
+remnant of their country. You have told us what we may do and be safe.
+Yours is a good talk, and my nation ought to listen to it. They <i>shall</i>
+listen to it."<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>Jackson was too generous and too brave a man to remain unmoved under
+such a speech from a man who thus placed his own life in jeopardy for
+the sake of his people. He bade the chieftain return home, and promised
+peace to his people, a promise faithfully kept to this day. All this
+however occurred nearly two months after the time of which I write, and
+it is introduced here merely by way of explaining the things which
+happened to Sam on the morning of the rash resumption of his journey.</p>
+
+<p>This man Weatherford, the fiercest enemy the whites had, with a party
+of about twenty-five Indians, bivouacked, the night before, in the edge
+of the woods, and when Sam mounted his horse that morning the Indians
+were lying asleep immediately in his path as he rode blindly out of the
+thicket. The first intimation he had of their presence was a grunt from
+a big savage who lay almost under his horse's feet. Coming to himself in
+an instant, Sam took in the whole situation at a glance, and with the
+rapidity and precision which people who are accustomed to the dangers
+and difficulties of frontier life always acquire, he mentally weighed
+all the facts bearing upon the question of what to do, and decided. He
+saw before him the savages, rising from the ground at sight of him. He
+saw their horses browsing at some little distance from them. He saw a
+rifle, on which hung a powder-horn and a bullet-pouch, standing against
+a bush. He saw that he had already aroused the foe, and that he must
+stand a chase. His first impulse was to turn around and ride back, in
+the direction whence he had come; but in that direction lay the thicket
+through which he could not ride rapidly, and so if he should take that
+course, he would lose the advantage which he hoped to gain from the
+fleetness of his particularly good horse. Besides, in the thicket he
+must of course leave a trail easily followed. Just beyond the group of
+Indians he saw the open fields, and he made up his mind at once that he
+would push his horse into a run, dash right through the camp of the
+savages, pick up the convenient rifle if possible, and reaching the open
+country make all the speed he could. In this he knew he would have an
+advantage, inasmuch as he would get a good many hundred yards away
+before the savages could catch and mount their horses for the purpose of
+pursuing him, and he even hoped that they, seeing how far he was in
+advance of them, would abandon the idea of pursuit altogether. All this
+thinking, and weighing of chances, and deciding was the work of a single
+half second, and the plan, once formed, was executed instantly. Without
+pausing or turning he pushed his horse at a full run through the group
+of savages, receiving a glancing blow from a war club and dodging
+several others as he went. He succeeded in getting possession of the
+rifle which stood by the bush, and reached the field before a gun could
+be aimed at him. It was now his purpose to get so far ahead as to
+discourage pursuit, and with this object in view he continued to urge
+his horse forward at his best speed. This hope was a vain one, as he
+soon discovered. The Indians, infuriated by his boldness, mounted their
+horses and gave chase immediately. Sam had an excellent habit, as we
+know, of keeping his wits about him, and of preparing carefully for
+difficulties likely to come. The first thing to be done was to escape,
+if possible, and so he continued to press his high-spirited colt
+forward, while he debated the probabilities of being overtaken, and
+discussed with himself the resources at his command if the savages
+should come up with him. He was armed now, at any rate, and if running
+should prove of no avail, he could and would sell his life very dearly.
+Indeed the possession of the rifle roused all the spirit of battle there
+was in him, and great as the odds were against him, he was sorely
+tempted to pause long enough to shoot once at least. He remembered Tom
+and Judie and Joe, however, and their dependence upon him for guidance
+and protection, and for their sake more than for his own, suppressed
+the impulse and continued his flight. The Indians were nearly half a
+mile behind him, and, as nearly as he could tell, were not gaining upon
+him very rapidly. His colt seemed equal to a long continued race, and as
+yet showed no sign of faltering or fatigue. The question had now
+resolved itself, Sam thought, into one of endurance. How long the
+Indians would continue a pursuit in which he had the advantage of half a
+mile the start, he had no way of determining, but that his horse's
+endurance was as great at least as their perseverance, he had every
+reason to hope.</p>
+
+<p>Just as he had comforted himself with this thought, a new danger
+assailed him. One of the Indians, it seemed, taking advantage of a
+minute knowledge of the country, had saved a considerable distance by
+riding through a strip of woods and cutting off an angle. When Sam first
+caught sight of him, coming out of the woods, the savage was within a
+dozen yards of him, and evidently gaining upon him at every step. Sam's
+horse was a fleet one, but that of the Indian was apparently a
+thoroughbred, whose speed remained nearly as great after a mile's run
+as at the start. Knowing the Indians' skill in shooting while riding at
+full speed, Sam leaned as far as he could to one side, so that as little
+as possible of his person should be exposed to his pursuer's aim. He
+continued to press his horse too, but the savage gained steadily.
+Finding at last that he must shortly be overtaken, Sam resolved upon a
+bold man&oelig;uvre, by which to kill his foremost pursuer. Seizing the
+hatchet he had brought away from the house, he suddenly stopped his
+horse, and, as the Indian came along-side, aimed a savage blow at his
+head.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you know me, Sam?" said the Indian in good English, dodging the
+blow. "I'm Weatherford. If I'd wanted to kill you I might have done so a
+dozen times in the last five minutes. You know I don't want to kill
+<i>you</i>, though you're the only white man on earth I'd let go. But the
+others will make an end of you if they catch you. Ride on and I'll chase
+you. Turn to the left there and ride to the bluff. I'll follow you.
+There's a gully through the top. Ride down it as far as you can and jump
+your horse over the cliff. It's nearly fifty feet high, and may kill
+you, but it's the only way. The other warriors are coming up and
+they'll kill you sure if you don't jump. Jump, and I'll tell 'em I
+chased you over."</p>
+
+<p>Sam knew Weatherford well, and he knew why the blood-thirsty chief
+wished to spare him if he could, for Sam had rescued Weatherford once
+from an imminent peril at great risk to himself, though the story is too
+long to be told here. Whether or not there is nobleness enough in the
+Indian character to make the savage remember a benefit received, I am
+sure I cannot say, but Weatherford was <i>three-fourths white</i>, and with
+all his ferocity in war, history credits him with more than one generous
+impulse like that by which Sam was now profiting. The two rode on,
+Weatherford pretending to be in hot pursuit, shooting occasionally and
+yelling at every leap of his horse. The bluff towards which they rode
+was probably a hundred feet high, and was washed at its base by a deep
+but sluggish creek, on the other side of which lay a densely wooded
+swamp. Through the top of the bluff, however, was a sort of fissure or
+ravine washed by the flow of water during the rainy season, and where it
+terminated the height of its mouth above the stream was not more than
+forty or fifty feet. Down this gully Sam rode furiously, so that his
+horse might not be able to refuse the leap, which was a frightful one.
+Coming to the edge of the precipice with headlong speed, the animal
+could not draw back but plunged over with Sam sitting bolt upright on
+his back. Riding back to the top of the bank Weatherford met his
+warriors.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<img src="images/ill006.jpg" alt="leap"  />
+<a id="ill006" name="ill006"></a>
+</p>
+
+<p class='center'> THE PERILOUS LEAP.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is he?" asked the foremost.</p>
+
+<p>"His <i>body</i> is down there in the creek. I drove him over the precipice,"
+said the chief with well-feigned delight.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<p>His purpose evidently, was to satisfy the warriors that Sam was
+certainly killed, so that they might pursue him no further. Whether he
+was yet alive or not, Weatherford himself had no means of knowing. The
+last he had seen of him was as he went over the precipice, sitting bolt
+upright on his horse, grasping his rifle and looking straight ahead. He
+heard a splash in the water below, after which everything was still.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+
+<p  class='center'>WEARY WAITING.</p>
+
+
+<p>The days seemed very long to Tom and Joe and little Judie after Sam left
+on his journey. They had nothing to do but to sit still in their corners
+among the roots all day, and time always drags very slowly when people
+are doing nothing. Their provisions, as we know, were already
+cooked,&mdash;enough of them at least, to last a week, and before Sam left he
+had made them bring more than a bushel of sweet potatoes and all the
+corn they could find which was still soft enough to eat, and store it
+away for use if his return should be delayed in any way. The result was
+that their legs got no stretching, and they became moody, dispirited and
+unhappy before the second day of Sam's absence had come to an end. They
+found doing nothing the hardest and the dullest work they ever had done
+in their lives. Joe managed to sleep most of the time, but Tom was
+nervous, and poor little Judie, without Sam to depend upon, grew
+low-spirited and began to fear all sorts of evil things. Finally Sam's
+week was up and Sam had not appeared. The little people were now fairly
+frightened. What had become of him? they wondered. Had he fallen into
+the hands of the Indians? And if so, what were they to do now? They had
+never before known how dependent they were upon him. Even during his
+absence they had been regulating their lives by his minute instructions,
+and depending upon him for guidance after he should return. But what if
+he should never return? And why hadn't he come already? These thoughts
+were too much for them. Judie sat in her corner brooding over her
+trouble, and crying a little now and then. Joe was simply frightened,
+and his eyes grew bigger and rounder than ever. Tom was sustained in
+part by the thought that the burden of responsibility was now on him,
+and so he suppressed all manifestations of uneasiness, as well as he
+could, and gave himself up to the duty of studying the situation,
+calculating his resources and trying to decide what was the best thing
+to be done if Sam should not come back at all. He hit upon several
+excellent ideas, but made up his mind that before trying to put any of
+them into practice he would wait at least a fortnight longer for Sam's
+return. Their stock of provisions, eaten raw, would last much longer
+than that, and the fields were full of sweet potatoes, wherefore he
+wisely thought it best not to lose any chance of having Sam to do the
+thinking and planning. He was so anxious for his brother's return that
+he spent the greater part of his time on the drift-pile where he had
+built himself a little observatory, so arranged that he could see in
+every direction without the possibility of being seen in his turn.</p>
+
+<p>Sitting there in his look-out, watching for Sam, he had time to think of
+many things. His thinking was not always wise, as a matter of course,
+but for a boy of his age it did very well, certainly, and one day he hit
+upon a really valuable idea.</p>
+
+<p>The way it came about was this. He fell into a reverie, and remembered
+the happy old days at home, and one day in particular, when he was busy
+all day making a little wagon in which to give Judie a ride, and he
+remembered how very short that day seemed, although it was in June. Just
+then it popped into his head to think that there was a reason for
+everything, and that that day had seemed so short only because he had
+been very busy as its hours went by. If he had known what
+"generalization" means, he would have generalized this truth as
+follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Time passes rapidly with busy people." He did nothing of the kind,
+however. He only thought.</p>
+
+<p>"If poor little Judie had something to keep her busy all the time, she
+wouldn't be so miserable."</p>
+
+<p>And so he cudgelled his brains to invent some plan or other by which to
+set Judie at work and keep her at it all the time.</p>
+
+<p>When he returned to the fortress towards night, he said to the little
+woman; "Judie, I reckon poor Sam's foot is troubling him again, and
+that's the reason he hasn't got back yet. He'll work along slowly and
+get here after a while, but I'm afraid he'll be dreadfully tired and
+sick when he comes. We must have a good soft bed ready for him so that
+he can get a good rest."</p>
+
+<p>To this Judie assented, though in her heart she feared she should never
+see Sam again, as indeed Tom did too, though neither would admit the
+fact to the other.</p>
+
+<p>"Now I've been thinking," said Tom, "that it wont do, if he comes back
+half sick, to let him lie on green moss with all the outside on. Let me
+show you."</p>
+
+<p>And taking a strand of the long moss he scraped the greenish gray
+outside off, leaving a black strand like a horse hair.</p>
+
+<p>"There," he said, "Sam told me once that it's the soft outside part that
+holds water, while the inside is dry almost always. Now why can't we
+scrape the outside off of a great deal of moss and have the dry inside
+ready for Sam to sleep on when he comes back? It'll surprise him and
+he'll be glad too. He never cared for himself much, but he'll be glad to
+see that we care for him."</p>
+
+<p>The plan pleased little Judie wonderfully well. She was always delighted
+to do anything for Sam, and now that she was uneasy about him, and kept
+thinking of him as dead or dying or sick somewhere, and could hardly
+keep her tears back, nothing could have pleased her so well as to work
+for his comfort. Tom and Joe went out after dark, and brought in a large
+lot of moss, and the next morning all went to work, Judie made very
+little progress with her scraping, but she kept steadily at it, and it
+served its purpose in making her less miserable than before. The days
+passed more rapidly to Tom and Joe, too, and the whole party grew more
+cheerful under the influence of work. It was now ten days, however,
+since Sam had gone away, and his non-appearance was really alarming.
+When work stopped for the night, the thought of Sam was uppermost in the
+minds of all three, and for the first time they talked freely of the
+matter.</p>
+
+<p>Tom was disposed to cheer himself by cheering the others, and so he
+explained:</p>
+
+<p>"It's about forty-five miles to where Fort Mims stood, so Sam told me,
+and he said he might go nearly that far, if he didn't see Indians. If he
+went only thirty-five miles it would take him four or five nights; say
+five nights, and five more to come back would make ten. But may be his
+foot got sore, or Indians got in the way, and so it has taken him longer
+than he thought. I don't think we ought to be uneasy even if he should
+stay two weeks in all."</p>
+
+<p>That was all very well as a theory, and true enough too, but Tom was
+uneasy, nevertheless, and so were Joe and Judie. The worst of it was
+that none of them could hide the fact. The eleventh day came, and with
+it came an excitement. Tom was the first to wake, and without waiting
+for the others, he proceeded to make his breakfast off an ear of raw
+corn, which was almost hard enough to grind, and altogether too hard to
+be eaten as green corn at any well-regulated table. Tom ate it, however,
+having nothing better, and when Judie waked he offered her a softer ear,
+which he had carefully selected and laid aside. Judie tried but couldn't
+eat it. She was faint and almost sick, and found it impossible to
+swallow the raw corn.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor little sister," said Tom. "If I had any fire I'd roast a potato
+for you to-day anyhow, but the fire's all out and I can't."</p>
+
+<p>"Mas' Tom!" said Joe, "I'll tell you what! I dun see a heap o' fox
+grapes down dar by de creek, an' I'se gwine to git some for Miss Judie
+quicker'n you kin count ten." And so saying Joe ran first to the
+look-out, to make a preliminary reconnoissance. The boys rarely ever
+left the trees during the daytime, and when they did so they were
+careful first to satisfy themselves that there were no savages in the
+neighborhood. The creek, of which Joe spoke, emptied into the river a
+short distance above the root fortress, and, along its banks was a dense
+mass of undergrowth, which skirted the river below, all the way to the
+drift-pile. Joe had seen the grapes from the look-out, and had planned
+an excursion after them. He could follow the river bank to the creek,
+keeping in the bushes and moving cautiously, and if any Indians should
+appear he could retreat in the same way, without discovery. Tired of raw
+corn and sweet potatoes, the grapes had tempted him sorely, and it only
+needed Judie's longing for a change of diet to induce him, to make this
+foraging expedition.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+
+<p  class='center'>FIGHTING FIRE.</p>
+
+
+<p>Before proceeding to relate the incidents which follows, it is necessary
+to explain a little more fully the arrangement of the root fortress and
+the drift-pile. The two trees, which were enormous ones, had originally
+grown as close together as they could, and their roots had interlaced
+beneath the soil. The sand in which they grew having been gradually
+washed away, their great masses of roots were exposed for about fifteen
+feet below the original level of the soil and as they spread out they
+made two circles (one running a foot or two into the other), of about
+twelve or fifteen feet in diameter. Inside of this circle of great
+roots, the roots were mostly small, and the boys had cut them away with
+their knives, leaving just enough of them to stop up all the holes and
+obscure the view from without. The drift-pile, or hammock, as it is
+sometimes called at the South, had been years in forming, being
+drift-wood which had floated down the river during winter and spring
+freshets, and as it had lodged against the trees it lay only on their
+upper side, where it was piled up into a perpendicular wall nearly
+twenty feet high. Thence it stretched away up the river for a hundred
+yards or more. Now the only entrance big enough to admit a person into
+the root fortress was on the side next to the drift, and it opened only
+into an alley-way which the boys had partly found and partly made
+through the drift. This alley-way led past several little aisles running
+out to the right and left for a dozen yards or so,&mdash;aisles formed by the
+irregular piling of the logs on top of each other. In the fortress there
+were a dozen places at least, where the big roots were sufficiently wide
+apart to admit a grown man easily, but the boys had left the smaller
+roots which covered these gaps undisturbed, and cut only the one
+entrance. After cutting that on the side next the hammock, they had
+moved some of the drift so as to close up the sides of the entrance and
+make it open only into the alley-way. All this had been done under Sam's
+supervision, and as a result of his prudence and fore thought.</p>
+
+<p>Joe had been gone nearly half an hour when he burst suddenly into the
+chamber in which the others were. His hands were full of the wild
+grapes, but of those he was evidently not thinking. His face was of that
+peculiar hue which black faces assume when if they were white faces they
+would grow pale; and his lips, usually red, were of an ashy brown. His
+eyes were of the shape of saucers, and seemed not much smaller. He
+gasped for breath in an alarming way, and Tom saw that the poor fellow
+was frightened almost out of his wits.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter Joe? Tell me quick," said the younger boy.</p>
+
+<p>"O Mas' Tom, we'se dun surrounded. I was jest a-gittin' de grapes when I
+seed a'most a thousand Injuns a-comin,' an' I dun run my life a'most out
+a-gittin' here. Dey did not see me, but I seed dem, an' I tell you dey's
+de biggest Injuns you ever did see. I 'clar dey's mos' as tall as
+trees."</p>
+
+<p>"How many of 'em are there, Joe?" asked Tom standing up.</p>
+
+<p>"I couldn't count 'em e'zactly, Mas' Tom, but I reckon dey's not less'n
+a thousand of 'em,&mdash;maybe two thousan' for all I know."</p>
+
+<p>"Where are they, and what were they doing?" asked Tom; but before Joe
+could answer, the voices of the Indians themselves indicated their
+whereabouts, and Tom discerned that they were disagreeably close to his
+elbow.</p>
+
+<p>Seeking a place in which to cook their breakfast the savages had
+selected the corner formed by the root fortress and the drift-pile as a
+proper place for a fire, and were now breaking up sticks with which to
+start one. They were just outside the fortress, and either of the boys
+could have touched them by pushing his arm out between the roots. Tom
+motioned the others to keep absolutely silent, and going a little way
+into the hammock, through the passage way he managed to find a place
+from which he could see the intruders. He soon discovered that Joe's
+account of them was slightly exaggerated in two important particulars.
+They were only ordinary Indians, neither larger nor smaller than grown
+Indians usually are, and instead of a thousand there were but three of
+them in all.</p>
+
+<p>But three fully grown Indians were enough to justify a good deal of
+apprehension, and if they should discover the party in the tree, Tom
+knew very well they would make very short work of their destruction. He
+crept back to the tree therefore and again cautioned Joe and Judie, in a
+whisper, not to speak or make any other noise. Then he returned to his
+place of observation and watched the Indians. They soon made a crackling
+fire and proceeded to broil some game they had killed, this and the
+eating which followed occupied perhaps an hour, during which Tom made
+frequent journeys to the little room, nominally for the purpose of
+cautioning the others to keep still, but really to work off some portion
+of his uneasiness, which was growing with every moment. He was terrified
+at first upon general principles, as any other boy of eleven years old
+would have been. Then he was afraid that the Indians would by some
+accident, lean something against the curtain of small roots between two
+other big trees, and that the curtain might not be strong enough to
+support it, in which event their hiding-place would be discovered at
+once. He was afraid, too, that some slight noise inside the fortress
+might catch the uncommonly quick ears of the Indians.</p>
+
+<p>All these were dangers well worth considering; but now a new, and much
+greater danger began to show itself. The drift was largely composed of
+light wood, and from his hiding-place Tom could see that the fire built
+by the trees had communicated itself to the hammock, and that the flames
+were rapidly spreading. The danger now was that the fire would burn into
+the alley-way and so cut off retreat from the fortress, and if so those
+inside would be burned alive. Quitting his place of observation
+therefore, he established himself as a sentry in the alley-way, having
+determined, if the fire should approach the passage, to take Joe and
+Judie out of the fortress and into one of the aisles near the farther
+edge of the drift-pile. Having begun to plan he saw all the
+possibilities of the case and tried to provide for all. He knew that if
+the wind should drive the flames into the drift the whole pile would be
+destroyed in a very brief time, but in that case, he reasoned, the black
+smoke of the resinous pine would make it impossible for the Indians to
+see very far in that direction, and so he resolved, if the worst came,
+to lead his companions out of the upper end of the hammock, into the
+bushes and so escape to the creek, where he hoped to find a hiding-place
+of some sort. He had got this far in his planning when he heard Judie
+cough, and stepping quickly into the room found it full of smoke. Seeing
+that to stay there was to suffocate, he beckoned his companions to
+follow, and stepping lightly they passed down the alley-way and sat down
+in one of the aisles, behind a great sycamore log which ran across the
+pile. Peeping over this log Tom saw the three Indians shoulder their
+guns and walk away. He ran at once to the look-out, and though the smoke
+almost blinded him he observed all their movements. He wanted them away
+speedily, so that he and Joe might extinguish the fire if that were
+still possible, and as every minute served to increase the difficulty
+and lessen the chances of doing so, the loitering of the savages seemed
+interminable. They stopped first to drink at the spring. Then they
+amused themselves by throwing sticks, and pebbles and shells at a turtle
+which was sunning himself on a log in the stream. Then they stopped to
+examine the track of a turkey or of some animal, in the sand, and it
+really seemed to Tom that they did not mean to go away at all.</p>
+
+<p>All things have an end, however, and even the stay of disagreeable
+visitors cannot last always. The three savages finally disappeared a
+mile down the river, and Tom, after scanning the surrounding country and
+satisfying himself that there were no others in the immediate
+neighborhood, hurried to the place where Joe and Judie were hidden.</p>
+
+<p>"They've gone at least," he said, "and now Joe, we must put this fire
+out, if we can. Judie, you stay here, and if you find the smoke bothers
+you, go further down the alley that way. Don't try to stay if the smoke
+comes."</p>
+
+<p>How to stop the fire was the problem. Fortunately there was very little
+wind, and what there was blew chiefly from up the river. The flames had
+spread over a considerable space, however, and the boys had hardly
+anything with which to work.</p>
+
+<p>They carried water in their hats from the river, which was only a few
+yards away, now that it had risen to the bottom of the second bank.
+This was altogether too slow a way of working, however, and the fire was
+visibly gaining on the boys. But, slow as this process was, it served to
+teach Tom a lesson or rather to remind him of one he had learned and
+forgotten. He found that a hatful of water thrown on the bottom of the
+fire did more good than two hatfuls thrown on top, and he remembered
+that when the soot in the chimney at home caught fire once, his father
+would not allow anybody to pour water down the chimney, but stood
+himself by the fireplace throwing a little water, not up the chimney
+but, on the blazing fire below. This water, turned into steam, went up
+the chimney and soon extinguished the fire there. In the same way Tom
+now discovered that when he threw a hatful of water on a burning log at
+the bottom of the pile it had a perceptible effect all the way to the
+top. Thinking of the chimney fire he remembered also that his father had
+said at the time that a plank laid over the top of a burning chimney, or
+a screen fastened over the fireplace would stop the burning of the soot
+by stopping the air, and so smothering the fire. This suggested a new
+plan of operations for present use. The long gray moss grew in great
+abundance all around the place, and gathering this he dipped it in the
+river and then threw it on top of the fire. A bunch of the moss held
+greatly more water than his hat, and it served also to smother the fire.
+He and Joe repeated the operation, putting some of the moss on top and
+some against the sides of the burning pile of timber. The steam from
+these perceptibly checked the burning, and an hour's work covered the
+fire almost entirely up, so far at least as the exposed side of the
+drift-pile was concerned. But just as they were disposed to congratulate
+themselves upon their success in subduing the flames, they discovered
+that while they had been smothering the fire on one side it had been
+burning freely further in. The openness of the hammock gave free access
+to the air from the other side, and just beyond the line of moss they
+saw a blaze licking its tongue out from below. They were tired out,
+already, and this added discouragement to weariness. Little Judie,
+although the boys had urged her to remain quiet, had been hard at work
+bringing moss to them, insisting upon her right to work as well as
+they. She had discovered too that the sand, just below the surface was
+wet, and that this served almost as good a purpose as the moss itself
+when thrown on the fire. The poor little girl was utterly tired out at
+last, however, and when the fire seemed to be subsiding, she had yielded
+to Tom's entreaties, and going into the drift-pile had laid down to
+rest. Now that all their work promised to accomplish nothing, the boys
+were vexed with themselves for having permitted the frail little girl to
+wear herself out in so fruitless a task. This, with their
+disappointment, served to make them utterly wretched.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+
+<p  class='center'>IN THE WILDERNESS.</p>
+
+
+<p>When Sam went over the cliff, he thought of poor little Judie, and Tom
+and Joe, and, for their sake more than his own, took every precaution
+which might give him an additional chance of life. He knew that he
+should fall into the creek, and that the blow, when he struck the water,
+would be a very severe one. If he could keep his horse under him all the
+way, however, the animal and not he would be the chief sufferer. Fearing
+that the horse would hesitate at the cliff, blunder, and throw him a
+somersault, perhaps falling on him, he held the beast's head high and
+urged him forward at full speed, and so, as we have seen, the horse's
+back was almost level as he leaped from the top of the bank. Sam had no
+saddle or stirrups in which to become entangled, and as the horse
+struck the water fairly, the blow was not nearly so severe a shock to
+the boy as he had expected. Both went under the water, but rising again
+in a moment Sam slid off the animal's back, to give the poor fellow a
+better chance of escape by swimming. Striking out boldly Sam reached the
+bank and crawling up looked for his horse. The poor beast was evidently
+too severely hurt to swim with ease, and so he drifted away, Sam running
+along the bank, calling and encouraging him. He struck the shore at
+last, and Sam examining him found that while he was stunned and bruised
+no serious damage had been done.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor fellow," he said, stroking the colt's head, "you cannot serve me
+any further in this swamp, but you saved my life and I'm glad you're not
+killed anyhow."</p>
+
+<p>Then taking the bridle off, he turned the horse loose, to graze and
+browse at will in the dense growth of the swamp.</p>
+
+<p>Sam was feverish still, and very weak, but his anxiety to reach the root
+fortress again was an overmastering impulse. He had lost his bearings in
+the mad chase, and the sky was so overcast that he could make no use of
+the sun as a guide. He knew that his course lay nearly northward, and it
+was his purpose to travel only at night, as before; but unless he could
+get out of the swamp during the day, and ascertain in what direction he
+must travel, he could not go on during the night at all. If it should
+clear off by evening, the pole star would show him his way, but there
+was no promise of a clearing away. He must find the course during the
+day, and he set about it at once, after examining his salt bag which he
+had put around his body, under his shirt, on the night on which he got
+it. The salt was saturated with water, and Sam's first impulse was to
+wring it out; but it occurred to him that the water he should squeeze
+out of it would be salt water, or in other words, that some of the salt
+would come away with the water and be lost. If he let it dry gradually,
+however, all the salt would remain, and he determined to let it dry,
+carrying it, with that in view, over his shoulder. How to find out which
+way was north was the question, and it puzzled him sorely. He knew the
+general course of all the creeks in that part of the country, but as
+they wind about in every direction it was impossible to get any
+information out of the one he was near. It was his habit, when he wanted
+to solve any difficult problem, to sit down and think of it in all its
+bearings, and a very excellent habit that is too. Nearly half our
+blunders, all through life, might be avoided if we would think carefully
+before acting; and nearly half the useful things we know, have been
+found out simply by somebody's thinking. Sam sat down on a log and said
+to himself;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Now if there is anything in the woods which always or nearly always
+points in any one direction, I can find it by looking. Then I can find
+out which way it points, by remembering how the woods look around home,
+where I know the points of the compass."</p>
+
+<p>This was an excellent beginning, and Sam straightway began looking for
+something which should guide him. A patch of sunflowers grew by the
+creek, and he had heard that they always turn their heads to the sun,
+but upon examining them, he found some of them turned one way and some
+another, so that they were of no use whatever. Presently he observed
+some beautiful green moss growing at the root and for a good many feet
+up the trunk of a tree, and looking around he saw that the moss at the
+roots of all the trees grew only or chiefly on one side, and that the
+covered side was the same with all of them. Here was a uniform habit of
+vegetation, and Sam knew enough to know that such a habit was not likely
+to be confined to one particular locality. He began thinking of the
+woods around home, and especially of a clump of trees in the yard at his
+father's house, the moss-covered roots of which were Judie's favorite
+playing place. This moss, he remembered, was nearly all on the north
+side of the trees, whose southern roots were bare. All the other mossy
+trees he could remember taught the same lesson, namely, that the green
+moss which grows around the bases of trees, grows chiefly on the north
+side. He had no doubt that the law was a general, if not a universal
+one, and as the mossy trees were very numerous, he had a guide easily
+followed. Striking out northwardly, therefore, he travelled several
+miles before stopping, coming then to a suitable resting-place he lay
+down to gather strength for the night's journey. When night came,
+however, it had been raining for some hours, and in addition to the
+darkness of a rainy night in a swamp, Sam found the soft alluvial soil
+so saturated with water that he sank almost to his knees at every step.
+Finding it impossible to go on he stopped again on the highest and
+dryest piece of ground he could find, and prepared to spend the night
+there. Cutting down a number of thick-leaved bushes he arranged them
+against a fallen tree, as a shelter.</p>
+
+<p>He had been lying down but a short time when he discovered that pretty
+nearly all the rain that fell on his bush roof found its way through in
+great drops from the leaves. It then occurred to him that he had erred
+in placing the bushes with their tops up. This indeed, made them mere
+catchers and conductors of water to the space they covered. Turning
+them, so that their drooping leaves pointed downward, he was not long in
+making a really comfortable shelter, through which very little water
+could find its way.</p>
+
+<p>Towards morning he waked and found himself lying in water. He could see
+nothing in the darkness, but supposed that the rain had in some way made
+a pool where he was lying. On coming out from his tent, however, he
+found matters much worse than he had thought. In whatever direction he
+looked he could see nothing but water, and he knew what the trouble was.
+The rain had been very heavy all along the creek, and the stream having
+very little fall had spread out over the whole surface of the swamp.
+There was nothing to do except wait for daylight, and he climbed upon
+the trunk of the fallen tree to get out of the water while he waited.
+The rain had ceased to fall, and he had therefore no reason to fear any
+great increase in the depth of the surrounding water.</p>
+
+<p>When morning came, Sam found that he was not the only occupant of the
+fallen tree. A fine large opossum had taken refuge in one of the upper
+branches, and Sam used his rifle to good purpose in bringing him down.
+He was still suffering somewhat from the fever, though the excitement of
+his recent ride had done much to relieve him, as anything which occupies
+one's mind is apt to do in fevers of that sort, but he was nevertheless
+extremely hungry, not having tasted food of any kind for nearly two
+days, and having previously lived for a long time, as we know, upon an
+insufficient and not very wholesome diet. He was delighted therefore to
+get a fat young opossum for breakfast. The next thing was to cook it.
+Sam was in no danger here from Indians, who were not likely to be in
+such a swamp at any time, and were certainly not then, when the swamp
+was full of water. He had no objection therefore to a fire, but where
+and how to build one he was at some loss to determine. Looking carefully
+around he discovered that in falling the great sycamore tree on which he
+stood had thrown up a large mound of earth at its roots, as big trees in
+blowing down nearly always do. This mound was well above the water, even
+at its base, and here Sam determined to roast his opossum. He first dug
+a hole in the ground, making it about two feet long, one foot wide and
+eighteen inches deep. This was to be his fireplace and oven. He next
+collected dry bark from the under side of the fallen tree, and by
+breaking off its dead and well-seasoned limbs secured several large
+armfuls of wood. Then taking from his leathern bullet-pouch a piece of
+greased rag, kept there to wrap bullets in before ramming them in the
+barrel, he placed it in the "pan" of his rifle. Does the reader know
+what the "pan" of a rifle is? If not he knows nothing of flintlock guns,
+and I must explain. Before the invention of percussion caps, guns were
+provided with a little groove-shaped trough by the side of the powder
+chamber. From this "pan" as it was called, a little hole led into the
+charge. Over the pan fitted a piece of steel on a hinge, so that it
+could be opened and shut at pleasure. This piece of steel, after
+covering the pan, extended diagonally upward, and its surface was
+roughened like the face of a file. When the rifleman had loaded his gun
+he opened the pan, poured in a little powder and closed it again. In the
+hammer was a piece of flint, and when the trigger was pulled the flint
+came down with great force into the pan, scraping the roughened steel as
+it came, and raising the pan cover on its hinge. It thus deposited a
+shower of sparks in the pan, set fire to the powder there and through it
+to the charge in the gun.</p>
+
+<p>Sam's object was merely to get fire, however,&mdash;not to discharge his
+rifle,&mdash;wherefore, without reloading it, after shooting the opossum, he
+merely filled the pan with powder, placed the greasy rag in it, and
+cocking the gun pulled the trigger. In a moment the rag was burning, and
+before many minutes had passed, Sam had a good fire burning in and over
+the hole he had dug. He then skinned and dressed the opossum, stopping
+now and then to replenish the fire and to throw all the live coals into
+the hole as they formed. Within an hour the hole was full of burning
+coals, and hot enough, Sam thought, for his purpose. He cut a number of
+green twigs and collected a quantity of the long gray moss. He then
+removed all the fire from the hole, the sides and bottom of which were
+almost red hot, and passing a twig through the opossum, lowered it to
+the middle of the hole, where the twig rested on ledges provided for
+that purpose. This brought the dressed animal into the centre of the
+hole, without permitting it to touch either the sides or the bottom. He
+then laid twigs across the top of the hole, covered them with moss, and
+threw nearly a foot of loose earth over the moss. The sides and bottom
+of the hole, as I have said, were very hot, and Sam's plan was to keep
+the heat in until it should roast the meat thoroughly. That his plan
+was a good one, I know from experience, having roasted more than one
+turkey in that way. It is, in fact, the very best way in which meat of
+any kind can possibly be roasted at all, as it lets none of the flavor
+escape in the form of gases.</p>
+
+<p>Sam waited patiently for an hour, when, opening his earth oven, he found
+his opossum cooked to a rich, crisp brown. He ate a heartier and more
+wholesome breakfast that morning than he had eaten for weeks, and felt
+afterwards altogether better and stronger than before. The breakfast
+would have been an excellent one at any time, as the flesh of the
+opossum tastes almost exactly like that of a suckling pig, but it was
+doubly good to the poor half-famished boy. He stowed away the remains of
+his feast in his coat pockets to be eaten on his way back to the root
+fortress, resolving to kill some other game on the journey, for the use
+of the little garrison there. He was now, as he knew, not more than ten
+or twelve miles from his destination, but it was as yet impossible for
+him to travel. The swamp was full of cypresses, and it is a peculiar
+habit of these trees to turn their roots straight upward for any
+distance, from an inch to many feet, and then to bring them straight
+down again, making what are called cypress knees. These knees are very
+sharp on top, and sometimes stand not more than a foot apart. Being of
+all heights, many of them, as Sam knew, were under water now, and these
+made travelling impossible, even if there had been no quagmires to fall
+into, as there were. After studying the situation, Sam determined to
+remain where he was until the water should subside, and then to travel
+by daylight, at least until he should be out of the swamp and upon high
+ground again. The waters of the creek subsided much more slowly than
+they had risen, and Sam remained at the Sycamore Camp, as he called the
+place, for four days and nights before he thought travelling again
+practicable.</p>
+
+<p>He then resumed his march, beset by many difficulties. The ground was
+muddy everywhere, and impassably so in some places. There were many
+ponds and pools left in the swamp, and these had to be avoided, so that
+night had already come before he found himself fairly out of the swamp
+and on the bank of the river, about two miles below the root fortress.
+He now began to feel all sorts of apprehensions. He had been away
+eleven days, and he could not help imagining a variety of terrible
+things which might have happened to his little band during his absence.
+Presently he saw a great light up the river, and at once the thought
+flashed into his mind that the Indians had discovered and butchered the
+boys and Judie, and were now burning the drift pile.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll hurry on," he said to himself, "and if the Indians are really
+there, it's time for me to take part in this war. I can keep in the
+timber and pick off half a dozen of them there in the fire light. Then
+if they scalp me, I don't care. I'll at least make them suffer for what
+they've done."</p>
+
+<p>A fierce storm was just breaking,&mdash;a storm of the violent and heroic
+type seen only in tropical and sub-tropical countries, but Sam thought
+nothing of that. He pushed on almost unconsciously, with no thought
+except that with his rifle, hidden in the darkness, he could wage one
+sharp and terrible battle with the murderers of Judie and Tom and Joe,
+before suffering death at their hands. The lightning struck a tree just
+ahead of him, but he seemed not to observe the fact. He was going into
+battle, and what was a thunderbolt more or less at such a time. The rain
+followed, drenching him instantly, but not dampening his determination
+in the least.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
+
+<p  class='center'>AN ALARM AND A WELCOME.</p>
+
+
+<p>When Tom and Joe made the disheartening discovery that in spite of all
+their efforts the fire was burning inside the hammock, they felt like
+giving up in despair, and seeking another refuge.</p>
+
+<p>"But then Sam would never find us," said Tom, "even if he gets back. He
+will find this place burned up and think the Indians have killed us all.
+We <i>must</i> put this fire out, Joe, if it takes a week."</p>
+
+<p>And straightway the boys began again, saturating large armfuls of moss
+with water and laying them on top of the drift whenever the blaze showed
+itself. Heart-pine burns rapidly with a great blaze and much smoke, but
+it makes no coals, and a gallon of water will sometimes stop the
+burning of a great log of it, instantly. Every armful of wet moss
+therefore had an immediate and perceptible effect which greatly
+encouraged the boys. They worked hour after hour, not succeeding in
+putting the fire out, indeed, but managing to check it very decidedly,
+and better than all, to keep it away from the trees and from the
+alley-way leading to their hiding-place. Just as night fell, Joe called
+out,</p>
+
+<p>"I say, Mas' Tommy, it's gwine to rain bucketsful."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish it would," said Tom, looking up to the black clouds which as yet
+he had hardly observed at all. Just then a sharp flash followed by a
+sudden peal of thunder almost stunned the boys.</p>
+
+<p>"Dat didn't strike fur from here," said Joe.</p>
+
+<p>"No, it must have hit a tree down the river a little way," said Tom.</p>
+
+<p>The rain followed in torrents, and little Judie came out of her
+hiding-place to beg the boys to come in lest the lightning should strike
+them. They were encouraged by the rain, however, to continue fighting
+the fire, and resumed operations at once.</p>
+
+<p>"Hush!" said Tom presently, "there's Indians about. I heard 'em walking
+in the brush. Run around the hammock quick, and let's hide."</p>
+
+<p>All ran without a moment's hesitation, and secreting themselves in the
+drift awaited results.</p>
+
+<p>Presently they heard footsteps in the alley-way, and the voice of their
+big brother called out.</p>
+
+<p>"Where are all you, little people, and what do do you hide from me for?"</p>
+
+<p>The Indian they had heard was Sam creeping around to see who it was that
+was burning the drift. Seeing the boys and Judie, he walked out of the
+thicket, but before he could get to them they had taken refuge in the
+drift from the supposed danger. Their joy at Sam's return, and Sam's joy
+at finding them safe and well instead of finding Indians dancing around
+their burning dwelling, may be imagined. Tom put his arm around his
+brother's neck, and could say nothing but,</p>
+
+<p>"Dear old Sam," which he said over again every ten seconds during half
+an hour at least. Judie hugged and kissed Sam, and cried over him and
+called him her "dear, best, big brother," and did all sorts of foolish
+things which didn't strike Sam as foolish at all. Joe would sit awhile
+and then get up and dance until he knocked his shins against some of the
+drift, and then set down again, and then get up and dance again,
+grinning with delight, I have no doubt, though it was too dark for
+anybody to see whether he grinned or not.</p>
+
+<p>After a little while Sam went out and returning reported that the rain
+had completely extinguished the fire. They then retired to the root
+fortress which was unhurt, and Sam said he thought they ought to hold
+prayers before going to sleep. Sam prayed rather awkwardly perhaps, but
+he prayed because he felt like thanking the Father who had watched over
+them all in so many dangers, and the awkwardness of such a prayer is a
+matter of no consequence. They all laid down, after prayers, and one
+after another fell asleep.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning a fire was started after the plan Sam had adopted in
+the swamp, and some game which he had killed made a savory breakfast for
+all of them. Judie thought salt, which she now tasted for the first time
+in many weeks, was altogether better than sugar,&mdash;an opinion which it
+seems she never before held. After breakfast explanations were in
+order. Sam told the others all about his adventures, and they gave him a
+minute history of their life during his absence. Then Sam explained that
+from the number of savages he had seen on that side of the river, he
+thought the other side must now be comparatively free from them.</p>
+
+<p>"Fort Glass is just twelve miles away from here," he said, "and I mean
+now to go there, just as soon as I get a little rested and feel strong
+enough. The country along this part of the river is very bad to travel
+through, though, since the river rose, as all the creeks are up, and if
+we could get up the river about eight miles, we should be within six
+miles of the fort, with a good country to travel through. We can't get
+there, however, and so it's no use to talk about it. We must just strike
+out from here and make our way across the best way we can."</p>
+
+<p>But clearly Sam was in no condition to travel yet. His fever had come
+back on him that morning, and it was necessary to postpone the journey
+to Fort Glass until he should get better. He went into the woods during
+the day, and shot two squirrels and a wild turkey, but upon his return
+found himself unable to sit up longer. The bed of scraped moss was very
+welcome to the weary and sick boy. The next day he was a little better,
+but the next found him very ill and partly delirious. The boys were
+frightened. They had seen enough of the fevers of that region to know
+that they require immediate and constant treatment, and they had good
+reason to fear that Sam could never recover without medicine and a
+doctor. They ministered to him as well as they could, but they could do
+nothing to check the fever, which was now constant and very high. Sam
+knew hardly anything, and rarely ever spoke at all except to talk
+incoherently in fits of delirium.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
+
+<p  class='center'>JOE'S PLAN.</p>
+
+
+<p>Sam's illness continued day after day, and the boys were greatly
+troubled. Little Judie remained by her "big brother's" side almost
+constantly, while Tom and Joe provided food, cooked it, and attended to
+the wants of the little community to the very best of their ability.
+They were in the habit too, of retiring now and then, to a secluded spot
+in the drift-pile, to consult and discuss plans of procedure. One day
+Tom went to the rendezvous and found Joe there leaning against a log,
+with his feet on another, and his eyes closed.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you asleep, Joe?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Mas' Tom, I'se not asleep," said Joe, "I'se just thinkin'."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what were you thinking, Joe?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'se been layin' plans, Mas' Tom, an' I's laid one good un anyhow."</p>
+
+<p>"What is it, Joe?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you see Mas' Sam ought to have a doctor, an' he's gwine to die if
+he don't, dat's sartain. But dey ain't no doctor here."</p>
+
+<p>Joe said this as if it were a new truth just discovered, that there was
+no doctor there.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, go on, Joe," said Tom, "and tell me your plan, maybe it's a good
+one."</p>
+
+<p>"Course it's a good un. I dun tell you dat fust."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mas' Tom, don't you know Mas' Sam always begins 'way back whar' he's
+been thinkin' an' tells all dat fust so you kin see all de why's and
+wharfores?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; but what has that to do with your plan, Joe?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothin', only dat's de way I'se gwine to 'splain my plan, I'se dun
+begun way back whar I'se dun been thinkin', an' I'se gwine to tell all
+'bout dat fust. Den you'll understan' de whys and wharfores. You mus'n't
+hurry me, Mas' Tom, dat's all."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, tell it your own way, Joe," said Tom, laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I'se gwine to tell it Mas' Sam's way. Well, you see dey ain't no
+doctor here an' we can't git one to come here neither. So we must take
+Mas' Sam to whar' dey is doctors, do you see?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's all very well," said Tom, "but how are we to do that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Now you'se hurryin' me again, Mas' Tom. Dat's just what I'se a-comin'
+to. Mas' Sam said de other mornin' dat if we was up de river about eight
+miles furder, de fort would be only six miles away, an' de country would
+be easy 'nuff to cross. He dun say we couldn't git up de river, but we
+<i>kin</i>. You see Mas' Sam was sick, an' dat's de reason he say dat. Now I
+dun bin thinkin' of a way to git up de river. Dey's lots of cane here,
+an' you an' me kin twis' canes one over de other like de splits in a
+cha'r bottom, an' dat way, when we gits a dozen big squars of it made,
+as big both ways as the canes is long, we kin lay 'em on top o' one an'
+other, an' fasten 'em togedder wid bamboos, an' it'll be a fust-rate
+raft. Den you an' me kin pole it up stream, keepin' close to de shore,
+wid Mas' Sam an' little Miss Judie on it. When we git up dar, I kin go
+over to de fort, leavin' you wid Mas' Sam till de folks comes after you
+all."</p>
+
+<p>This was Joe's plan of operations, and upon thinking it over Tom was
+disposed to think it the best plan possible under the circumstances.
+Accordingly he and Joe went to work at once. They could not make the
+raft inside the drift-pile, for want of room, but they found a place in
+the bushes near the mouth of the creek, where they could work
+unobserved. They cut down a large number of the flexible green canes,
+and wove them together into a square net work. Repeating this operation
+several times they finally had enough of the squares to make, they
+thought, a secure raft, when laid one on top of the other. It would not
+do to join them in the bushes however, as that would make their weight
+so great that the boys could not lift them to the water. They
+determined, therefore, to get their pushing poles first, and then to
+carry the squares one by one to the river, and, arranging them there, to
+embark soon after nightfall. The work of construction had occupied many
+days, and it was now the 12th of November. The boys hoped to complete
+their undertaking the next day and embark the next night. After their
+return to the drift-pile, however, it occurred to Tom to inquire whether
+or not Joe knew the way from the river to the fort, after they should
+reach the end of their voyage.</p>
+
+<p>"I 'clar', Mas' Tom, I never thought o' dat at all!" said Joe in
+consternation. "I dunno a foot of de way, an' I dunno whar' de fort is
+either."</p>
+
+<p>Tom being equally ignorant, their long consultation held on the spot,
+ended in an enforced abandonment of the enterprise which had occupied
+their heads and hands for so long a time.</p>
+
+<p>"Now dar' it is, Mas' Tom," said Joe. "Dat's always the way. Mas' Sam
+never makes no blunder, 'cause he thinks it all out careful fust. Poor
+Joe's head gets things all mixed up. I ain't no count anyhow, an' I jest
+wish I was dead or somethin'."</p>
+
+<p>Poor Joe! The disappointment was a sore one to him. He had been thinking
+all along of the glory he should reap as the saviour of the little
+party, and now his whole plan was found to be worthless. He slept little
+that night, and once Tom heard him quietly sobbing in his corner.
+Creeping over to him Tom said:</p>
+
+<p>"Don't cry, Joe. You did your best anyhow, and it isn't your fault that
+you don't know the way to the fort," and passing his arm around the poor
+black boy's neck he gently drew his head to his shoulder, where it
+rested while the two slept.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning Judie was the first to wake, and she quietly waked Tom
+and Joe.</p>
+
+<p>"Boys, boys," she cried in a whisper, "the Indians are all around us,
+there is a fight going on. Get up quick, but don't make any noise."</p>
+
+<p>The little girl was right. Rifles were cracking and Indians yelling all
+around their little habitation. It at once occurred to Tom that here was
+hope as well as danger. If the Indians should be driven back by the
+whites, he could communicate with the latter and the little garrison of
+the root fortress would be rescued. At present, however, it was the
+savages and not the whites who surrounded the trees and the drift pile.
+Tom determined lose no chance, however, and cautioning the others to
+keep still, he went to the look-out to watch for an opportunity to
+communicate with the white men whom these Indians were evidently
+fighting.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
+
+<p  class='center'>THE CANOE FIGHT.</p>
+
+
+<p>Before going further with the story of what happened around the root
+fortress on that morning, it is necessary to explain how it came about
+that a battle was fought there. I gather the facts from authentic
+history.</p>
+
+<p>During all the time spent by the Hardwickes in their wanderings and in
+the root fortress, the war had been going on vigorously. The occupants
+of Fort Sinquefield, when they abandoned that fort as described in the
+early chapters of this story, succeeded in making their way to Fort
+Glass, or Fort Madison, as it was properly named, though the people
+still used its original name Fort Glass in speaking of it, for which
+reason I have so called the place throughout this story. In July General
+Floyd, who was in command of all the United States forces in the
+south-west, sent General Claiborne, with his twelve months' Mississippi
+volunteers to Fort Stoddart, with instructions to render such aid as he
+could to the forts in the surrounding country. His force consisted of
+seven hundred men, and of them he took five hundred to Fort Stoddart,
+sending the remaining two hundred, under Col. Joseph E. Carson, a
+volunteer officer, to Fort Glass. The two hundred soldiers added greatly
+to the strength of the place, and with the settlers who had taken refuge
+inside, rendered it reasonably secure against attack. The refugees were
+under command of Captain Evan Austill, himself a planter of the
+neighborhood.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after the storming of Fort Sinquefield, and almost immediately
+after the garrison of that place had reached Fort Glass, the Indians
+appeared in great numbers in that neighborhood, burning houses, killing
+everybody who strayed even a few hundred yards outside the picket gates,
+and seriously threatening the fort itself. In view of these facts Col.
+Carson sent a young man of nineteen years of age named Jerry Austill,
+the son of Capt. Evan Austill to General Claiborne's head-quarters,
+with dispatches describing the situation and asking for reinforcements.
+Young Austill made the journey alone and at night, at terrible risk, as
+he had to pass through a country infested with savages, but on his
+return brought, instead of assistance, an order for Col. Carson to
+evacuate the fort and retire to Fort Stephens. When he did so, however,
+Captain Austill and about fifty other planters, with their families,
+determined to remain and defend Fort Glass at all hazards. Among those
+who remained was Mr. Hardwicke, who, now that the Indians had murdered
+his children, as he supposed, had little to live for, and was disposed
+to serve the common cause at the most dangerous posts, where every
+available man was needed.</p>
+
+<p>After a time Col. Carson was sent back to the fort with his Mississippi
+volunteers, and this freed the daring spirits inside the fort from the
+necessity of remaining there. They went at once on scouting parties,
+Tandy Walker, the guide, being almost always one of the number going out
+on these perilous expeditions. They scoured the country far and near, in
+bodies ranging from two or three to twenty or thirty men, and fought the
+Indians in many places, losing some valuable men but making the Indians
+suffer in their turn.</p>
+
+<p>Finally it was determined to send out a party larger than any that had
+yet gone, to operate against the savages on the south-east side of the
+river. This expedition numbered seventy-two men, thirty of whom were
+Mississippi Yauger men, under a Captain Jones, while the others were
+volunteers from private life. The expedition was under the command of
+Sam Dale, already celebrated as an Indian fighter, and known among the
+Creeks, with whom he had lived, as Sam Thlueco, or Big Sam, on account
+of his enormous size and strength. During this Creek war he had
+performed some feats of strength, skill and daring, the memory of which
+is still preserved in history, together with that of the celebrated
+canoe fight, which we are now coming to. To tell of these deeds of
+prowess would lead us away from our proper business, namely, the telling
+of the present story; but the canoe fight comes properly into the story,
+being in fact one of its incidents. Three only of Dale's companions
+figured with him in the canoe fight, and they alone need mentioning by
+name. These were, first Jerry Austill, the young man already spoken of,
+who was six feet two inches high, slender but strong, and active as a
+cat; second, James Smith, a man of firm frame and dauntless spirit; and
+third C&aelig;sar, a negro man, who conducted himself with a courage and
+coolness fairly entitling him to bear the name of the great Roman
+warrior.</p>
+
+<p>The expedition left Fort Glass on the 11th of November, 1823. Tandy
+Walker was its guide, and every man in the party knew that Tandy was not
+likely to be long in leading them to a place where Indians were
+plentiful. He knew every inch of country round about, and nothing
+pleased him so well as a battle in any shape. The day after they left
+Fort Glass, Dale's men reached the river at a point eighteen miles below
+the present town of Clairborne, and about fifteen miles below the root
+fortress. Here they crossed, in two canoes, to the eastern shore of the
+river, and spent the night without sleep. The next morning Austill, with
+six men, ascended the river in the canoes, while Dale, with the rest of
+the party, marched up the bank. About a mile below the root fortress,
+Dale who was marching some distance ahead of his men, came upon some
+Indians at breakfast, and without waiting for his men to come up, shot
+their chief. The rest fled precipitately, leaving their provisions
+behind. Pushing on, Dale reached a point about two hundred yards below
+the root fortress, and there determined to recross the river. The canoes
+transported the men as rapidly as possible, but when all were over
+except Dale and eight or nine men (among whom were Smith, Austill and
+C&aelig;sar), and only one canoe remained at the eastern side of the stream, a
+large party of Indians, numbering, as was afterwards ascertained, nearly
+three hundred, attacked the handful of whites still remaining. These
+retreated from the field, where they were breakfasting, and keeping the
+Indians in check by careful and well-aimed firing, were about to get
+into the canoe and escape to the opposite bank, about four hundred yards
+away, when they discovered that their retreat was cut off by a large
+canoe full of Indians, eleven in all, which had come out of the mouth of
+the creek just above. The savages tried to approach the shore, but, in
+spite of the fact that by careening the canoe to one side and lying down
+they were able to conceal themselves, they were prevented from landing
+by Austill and one or two other men. Two of the Indians jumped into the
+water and tried to swim to the shore, while the others, firing over the
+gunwale of the boat, were sorely annoying the whites. Austill shot one
+of the swimmers but the other escaped to the shore, and joined the
+savages there, informing them, as Dale supposed, of the weakness of his
+force, which they had not yet discovered. Dale called to the men on the
+other side of the river to cross and assist him, but they, after making
+an abortive attempt to send a canoe load across, remained idle
+spectators of the terribly unequal conflict. Dale, seeing that no help
+was to come from them, and knowing that the Indians would shortly
+overcome him by sheer force of numbers, resolved upon a recklessly
+daring man&oelig;uvre, namely, an attempt to capture the Indian canoe! He
+called out to his comrades.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going to fight the canoe with a canoe. Who will go with me?"</p>
+
+<p>Austill, Smith and C&aelig;sar volunteered at once, and C&aelig;sar took his post as
+steersman, while the three stalwart soldiers were leaping into the
+canoe for the purpose of fighting hand to hand the nine Indians opposed
+to them. As they shot out from the shore the savages on the bank
+delivered a fierce fire upon them, but fortunately without effect. The
+savages in the canoe had exhausted their powder, and Dale's party would
+have had an advantage in this but for the fact that their own powder had
+become wet as they were getting into their canoe. The fight must be hand
+to hand, but they were not the men to shrink from it. When the boats
+struck, the Indians leaped up and began using their rifles as clubs.
+Austill, who was in the bow of Dale's boat, received the first shock of
+the battle, but C&aelig;sar promptly swung his boat around, and grappling the
+other canoe held the two side by side during the whole fight. Dale's
+boat was a very small one, and he to relieve it sprang into the Indian
+canoe, thereby giving his comrades more room and crowding the Indians so
+closely together as to embarrass their movements. The blows now fell
+thick and fast. Austill was knocked down into the Indian boat, and an
+Indian was about to put him to death when Smith saved him by braining
+the savage. Austill then rose, and snatching a war club from one of the
+Indians used that instead of his rifle. Eight of the savages were slain,
+and Dale found himself face to face with the solitary survivor, whom he
+recognized as a young Muscogee with whom he had been for years on terms
+of the most intimate friendship, and whom he loved, as he declared,
+almost as a brother. He lowered his up-raised rifle to spare his friend,
+but the savage would not accept quarter. He cried out in the Creek
+language, which Dale understood as well as he did English.</p>
+
+<p>"Big Sam, you are a man, and I am another! Now for it!" and with that
+the two joined in a struggle for life. A blow from Dale's gun ended at
+once the canoe fight and the life of the young brave, who, even from his
+friend, would not accept the mercy which his nation was not ready to
+show to the whites. It is said that to the day of his death Dale could
+not speak of this incident without shedding tears.</p>
+
+<p>Dale and his comrades had still a duty to do and some danger yet to
+encounter. The party remaining on the bank was in imminent peril, and
+must be rescued at all hazards. The little canoe was not large enough to
+carry them all, and so the big one must be cleared of the dead Indians
+in it, and the heroes of the canoe fight accomplished this under a
+severe fire from the bank. Then jumping into the captured boat, they
+paddled to the shore, and taking their hard pressed comrades on board,
+crossed under fire to the other side, whence they marched to Fort Glass,
+twelve miles away, having dealt the savages a severe blow without losing
+a man. Austill was hurt pretty badly on the head, and a permanent dent
+in his skull attested the narrowness of his escape.</p>
+
+<p>This battle was waged within sight of the root fortress, the drift pile
+being indeed the cover from which the Indians fought. Tom, as we know,
+went to the look-out at the beginning of the fight, and he remained
+there to the end in the hope that the fortune of battle might possibly
+bring the whites within call, and thus afford the little refugee band a
+chance of escape. No such chance came, however, and sadly enough the
+two boys, for Joe was also in the look-out, watched the passage of the
+last of Dale's men across the stream, half a mile below.</p>
+
+<p>"Mas' Tom," said Joe, "dem folks gwine right straight to de fort."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, of course," said Tom. "What of it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothin', only I wish I could go wid 'em, and tell 'em Mas' Sam's here
+sick."</p>
+
+<p>"So do I, Joe, but we can't go with them, and it's no use wishing."</p>
+
+<p>"I reckon 'tain't no use, but I can't help wishin' for all dat. When
+folk's got der own way dey don't wish for it. It's when you can't git
+your way dat you wish, ain't it?"</p>
+
+<p>Tom was forced to admit that Joe was right, and that in wishing to be
+with the retreating party he was not altogether unreasonable.</p>
+
+<p>The two boys sat there, looking and longing. The savages had disappeared
+almost as suddenly as they had come, and presently Joe sprang up,
+saying.</p>
+
+<p>"Dar's de little canoe lodged in the bushes, an' I'se gwine to fasten
+her to the bank anyhow, so's we'll have her if we want her."</p>
+
+<p>What possible use they could make of the canoe, it had not entered
+Joe's head to ask perhaps, but he tied the boat in the bushes
+nevertheless and secreted the paddle in the drift pile. He then visited
+the place where Dale's men had been surprised at breakfast, and brought
+off the pack of provisions which Dale had captured that morning from the
+savages and had himself abandoned in his turn. The pack was a
+well-stored one, and its possession was a matter of no little moment to
+the boys, whose bill of fare had hitherto embraced no bread, of which
+there was here an abundance in the shape of ash cake.</p>
+
+<p>"Mas' Tom," said Joe that evening, "do you know my master?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Butler? Yes, certainly."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if anything happens to poor Joe, and if you ever gits to de fort
+an' if Joe don't, an' if you sees my master dar you'll tell him Joe
+never runned away anyhow, won't you."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I'll tell him that Joe."</p>
+
+<p>"Even if the Ingins ketches me an' you dunno whar' I'se gone to, you'll
+tell him anyhow dat Joe never runned away from him or from you nuther,
+won't you, Mas' Tom?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, Joe. But there won't be any chance to tell him anything
+about it unless we all get back to the fort, and then you can tell him
+for yourself. He thinks you are dead, of course, and doesn't dream that
+you ever ran away. You'll get back safely if the Indians don't catch
+you, and if they catch you they'll catch all of us, so I won't be there
+to tell your master about you."</p>
+
+<p>"Dun no 'bout dat," replied Joe. "Dey mought catch Joe 'thout catchin'
+anybody else, an' 'thout you nor nobody knowin' nothin' 'bout it, and
+Joe wants you to promise anyway dat you'll stick to it to de las' dat
+poor Joe was no runaway nigger, nohow at all. Kin you do dat for me,
+Mas' Tom?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, Joe," said Tom laughing, "I promise you."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you git mad if Joe axes you to shake han's on dat, Mas' Tom? I
+wants to make sartain sure on it."</p>
+
+<p>Tom laughed, but held out his hand, convinced that the poor black boy
+was out of spirits at least, if not out of his mind.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2>
+
+<p  class='center'>THE BOYS ARE DRIVEN OUT OF THE ROOT FORTRESS.</p>
+
+
+<p>Sam was only partially conscious during the battle around his
+habitation. The fever, which now rose and fell at intervals, was usually
+highest during the forenoon, abating somewhat later in the day. When it
+was highest he was always in either an unconscious stupor, or a wild
+delirium. When the fever abated, however, his consciousness returned,
+and he was capable of talking and of understanding all that was said. In
+these lucid intervals, he insisted upon knowing all that had happened,
+so that he might tell the boys what was best to do. On this day Tom had
+a story of more than ordinary interest to tell him, about the battle and
+the chance of rescue which had so narrowly passed them. Sam was
+interested in it all as a matter of course, but he was still more
+deeply interested, it seemed, in the condition of the sand near the
+place where he was lying. He had dug a little hole with his hand, and
+feeling of the sand found it decidedly wet. Turning to Tom, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"The river is rising rapidly, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; but how did you find it out?"</p>
+
+<p>"By the sand. I've been watching it a good deal since the fall rains set
+in, as I'm afraid the river will drive us out of here. You see, the
+water works easily through the sand, and you can always tell what the
+level of the river is, if its banks are sandy, by digging down to where
+the sand is wet."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Tom, "but the river isn't within a hundred feet of us yet."</p>
+
+<p>"You are mistaken. It is within six inches of us," said Sam.</p>
+
+<p>"How's that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, this bank is almost exactly level, and when the river gets above
+its edge it spreads at once all over it. Now the sand is wet within six
+inches of the top, and the river is within six inches of the edge of the
+bank. When it rises six or eight inches more, it'll be in here, and I'm
+afraid it will rise that much before morning. At any rate we must be
+ready for it."</p>
+
+<p>"What can we do?" asked Tom in alarm. "There's no place to hide on the
+upper bank."</p>
+
+<p>"We mustn't quit this bank, and we mustn't quit the drift-pile either,"
+replied Sam. "You must find a good place, high up in the drift where, by
+pulling out sticks, you and Joe can make a place for us to stay in."</p>
+
+<p>"But, Sam, what if the water gets to us there?"</p>
+
+<p>"It won't get to us there."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because the biggest freshets always come in the spring, and the top of
+this drift-pile was put where it is by the biggest freshets, so the
+river won't go near the top in November. You see, as the drift <i>floated</i>
+on top of the water to its present place, the top of the pile must be
+the highest point, or very nearly the highest, that the water ever
+reaches. If you can find a good place therefore in the upper part of the
+drift-pile, we shall be safe there. But you'd better see about it at
+once, as the water may be in here before morning, and at any rate we
+mustn't allow ourselves to be taken by surprise. You'd better go to the
+river and set a stake first so you can tell how fast the water rises and
+know when to move into the new place."</p>
+
+<p>Tom set his stake at the water's edge and then selected the most
+available place he could find for the new abode. He and Joe went
+diligently to work, rearranging the loose sticks of drift-wood and even
+carrying many of them clear out of the pile, so as to enlarge the hole
+they had found and make it as habitable as possible.</p>
+
+<p>"The trouble is," said Tom when they had nearly completed their task,
+"that we can't make a smooth floor, and it's going to be rather
+uncomfortable lying on loose logs and big round sticks that run every
+which way."</p>
+
+<p>"That's my business," said Judie looking in at the entrance. "I'm the
+housekeeper, you know, and I've thought of all that."</p>
+
+<p>And sure enough the little woman had brought a great pile of small,
+leafy, tree branches and bush tops, with which she speedily filled up
+the low places between the timbers, and covered the timbers themselves
+to a depth of three or four inches, making a soft as well as a level
+floor. She had foreseen the difficulty, and borrowing Sam's knife, had
+worked with all her might to provide in advance against it. But the
+bushes and leaves were not all that she had brought. She had collected
+also a large quantity of gray moss with which to make a carpet for the
+springy floor.</p>
+
+<p>"Now please don't tell brother Sam," she said when the boys praised her
+thoughtfulness and ingenuity. "I want to surprise him when he comes."</p>
+
+<p>Tom and Joe promised, and Tom said they would have to call her their
+"little housekeeper" hereafter.</p>
+
+<p>The river was still rising, but more slowly, it appeared, than it had
+done before. By Tom's calculations it was coming up at the rate of an
+inch in three hours, wherefore Sam thought they might safely remain
+where they were until morning at least, while if the water should come
+to a stand during the night, they would have no occasion to move at all,
+as a fall would rapidly follow, if the weather should remain clear.</p>
+
+<p>Joe had worked faithfully at the task of preparing the new place of
+refuge, but he was not at all satisfied with the arrangement.</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you, Mas' Tom," he said, "wood'll float, 'thout 'tis live oak,
+an' dis here drif'-pile 'll jest raise up an' float away, you'll see if
+it don't."</p>
+
+<p>"Why hasn't it floated away long ago, then, Joe?" asked Tom.</p>
+
+<p>"May be it has. How you know dis drif' didn't all on it come here las'
+time de river was up?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, there's too much of it for that, and besides, Sam says this place
+is safe, and you know he is always right about things when he speaks
+positively about them."</p>
+
+<p>"Mas' Tom, don' you know Mas' Sam done been a-talkin' nonsense for two
+weeks now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; but that's only when he's out of his head."</p>
+
+<p>"How you know when he's outen his head an' when he ain't?"</p>
+
+<p>"We know he's out of his head when he talks nonsense."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, maybe dis here 's nonsense. I jest knows it is, and dat's how I
+know Mas' Sam was outen his head when he said it."</p>
+
+<p>Tom saw that Joe was not to be convinced, and so he contented himself
+with saying,</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we'll see."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, dat's jest it. We <i>will</i> see, and feel too, when we all gets
+drownded in de water."</p>
+
+<p>The water came to a stand about midnight, and was falling slowly the
+next morning. But when morning came it was raining hard, and the rain
+was evidently not a local but a general one, wherefore, Tom feared that
+the fall would shortly be changed into a rise, and that the bank would
+soon be covered. He watched his stake carefully, visiting it every half
+hour. At nine o'clock the river had fallen three inches, and was about
+eight inches below the bank. From nine to ten it fell only about half an
+inch. Between ten and eleven the fall was not more than a quarter of an
+inch. Between eleven and twelve no fall at all was perceptible. From
+twelve to one there was a slight rise. Between one and two it rose
+nearly an inch. The next hour brought with it a rise of two inches. By
+five o'clock the level of the water was barely two inches below the
+edge of the bank, and as it was rising at the rate of two or three
+inches an hour, Sam thought it time to remove from their old to their
+new quarters. The change was of advantage to the sick boy, who was now
+getting somewhat better at any rate, and when he found himself in the
+new place the interest he showed in examining all the details of its
+arrangements, was the best possible evidence of improvement.</p>
+
+<p>"Come here, little woman," he said to Judie, "and give an account of
+yourself. You borrowed my knife yesterday, and somebody has been using
+it in cutting bush tops to make a smooth floor with, and the idea was a
+very good one. Can you tell me who it was?"</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe it was Tom," she replied mischievously.</p>
+
+<p>"No, it was not Tom," Sam answered. "He's too much of a great awkward
+boy to think of anything so comfortable. You must guess again."</p>
+
+<p>"Joe, then," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"No, it wasn't Joe, either," said Sam. "Joe can sleep on the edge of a
+fence rail as well as anywhere else, and he never would have thought of
+making our floor soft and smooth. Guess again."</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe it was brother Sam," said Judie.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, certainly. It must have been I," replied Sam. "I must have done it.
+I'm so strong and active now-a-days. Yes, on reflection, I presume I did
+it, and the man in the moon helped me. Now I think it was a very
+thoughtful and helpful thing for anybody to do, so you ought to kiss me
+for doing it, and when the weather gets clear you must throw a kiss to
+the man in the moon, too, for his share." And with that he kissed the
+little housekeeper, and she felt herself abundantly repaid for her work
+and for the thoughtfulness she had shown. She was never so happy as when
+Sam praised her, "because he's such a splendid big brother," she would
+explain.</p>
+
+<p>Tom, seeing that Sam was getting better at last, began to hope for his
+complete recovery, and the hope made him buoyant of spirit again. Judie,
+too, who watched and weighed every symptom in Sam's case, discovered to
+her delight that he was decidedly better, and the discovery made her as
+happy as a healthy girl well can be. Poor Joe seemed to be the only
+miserable one in the party. He said almost nothing, answering questions
+with a simple "yes" or "no," and sitting moodily in his corner, when he
+stayed inside the "drift cavern"&mdash;which was Sam's name for the new
+abode&mdash;at all. He spent most of his time, however, on top of the pile,
+where he watched the water and the clouds. The rain had ceased, but the
+river, which was now creeping over the broad bank, continued to rise.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the matter with Joe?" asked Sam after the boy had gone out for
+the twentieth time.</p>
+
+<p>"I think he's afraid we're all going to be drowned," said Tom.</p>
+
+<p>"Drowned? How?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, he says wood will float, and so he thinks when the water comes up
+under the drift-pile, it will all float away."</p>
+
+<p>"What nonsense!" exclaimed Sam. "Why didn't you tell him better, Tom?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did; but he sticks to it, and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, couldn't you explain it so that he would understand it and not
+have to trust to your judgment for it?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I couldn't. The fact is, I don't quite understand it myself. There
+isn't a stick in this whole pile that won't float, and I don't quite
+understand why the pile won't. But I don't doubt you're right about it,
+Sam. You always are right whether I understand how things are or not."</p>
+
+<p>"Let me explain it to you, then. Do you know why some things float and
+others don't?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, of course. Because the things that float are lighter than the
+things that sink."</p>
+
+<p>"Not exactly. That log there is too heavy for you to lift, while you can
+carry a bullet between your thumb and finger. The log is many hundred
+times heavier than a bullet, but the log will float while the bullet
+will sink always."</p>
+
+<p>"That's so," said Tom, "and I don't know what does make some things
+float and other things sink."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you ever set a teacup in the water and see it float?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, many a time."</p>
+
+<p>"But if you fill it with water it will sink, won't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, of course."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, now I can explain the thing to you, I think. If a thing is
+heavier,&mdash;the whole thing I mean, than the amount of water it
+displaces,&mdash;that is, if it is heavier than exactly its own bulk of
+water, it will sink; but if it is lighter than its own bulk of water it
+will float."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, I see."</p>
+
+<p>"Now a bullet weighs a good deal more than its own bulk of water, and so
+it sinks. A log weighs less than its own bulk of water, and so it
+floats. An empty teacup weighs less than a solid body of water equal to
+it in size, and it therefore floats. If you fill it with water, however,
+you increase its weight without adding anything to the amount of water
+it displaces,&mdash;or rather, as you let water into all the hollow space,
+you lessen by that much the amount of water it must displace in sinking
+without taking away anything from its weight, and so it sinks; or, if
+you break the teacup you lessen the amount of water it must displace
+without lessening its weight, and so it sinks in that case, too. Do you
+understand that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I think I do," said Tom; "but I don't exactly see how it applies
+to the drift-pile."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll explain that presently. I want to make it plain first that the
+ability of a thing to float depends not on its weight, but on its weight
+as compared with that of a like bulk of water. This comparative or
+relative weight is called <i>specific gravity</i>, and in measuring the
+specific gravity of substances water is taken as the standard usually,
+though sometimes gold is used for that purpose. Now to come to the
+drift-pile. When the water rises say two or three feet, it will be above
+the level of the lower logs, and these would float away, if they were
+free, because their specific gravity is less than that of water. But
+there is twenty feet of other timber on top of them, and its weight must
+be added to theirs. The water displaced is exactly equal to their bulk,
+while the weight is many hundred times greater than theirs. Do you
+understand?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I think I do. You mean that the water must come high enough to
+pretty nearly cover the whole drift-pile before any of it can float."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. The pile must be considered as a whole, and it won't float until
+there is water enough to float the whole. The bottom logs can't float
+while those above them are clear out of water, if their weight rests on
+the bottom logs, as it does in the drift-pile. You see when you put
+anything into the water, it sinks until it has displaced a bulk of water
+equal to its own weight, and then stops sinking. In other words, that
+part of the floating thing which goes under the water is exactly the
+size of a body of water equal in weight to the whole thing. If a log
+floats with just half of itself above water, you know that the log
+weighs exactly the same as half its own bulk of water, or, in other
+words, that its specific gravity is just half that of water. Water two
+inches deep won't float a great saw-log, because a great saw-log weighs
+more than the amount of water it takes to cover its lower part two or
+three inches deep; and water two or three feet deep won't float a
+drift-pile twenty feet high, because such a drift-pile weighs a good
+deal more than a body of water two or three feet deep, of its own length
+and width. But even if the water were to rise to the top of the hammock,
+the pile wouldn't float away. It would float, of course, and some of the
+wood near its edges would be carried away, but the main pile would
+remain here, because it is all tangled together and can't go away except
+in one great mass. It is so firmly lodged against the trees as to
+prevent that, and as a freshet big enough to cover, or nearly cover it,
+would bring down a great quantity of new drift and deposit it here, the
+pile would grow bigger rather than smaller. But the river won't get very
+high at this season, or at any rate it won't rise to anywhere near the
+top of the hammock, as I have already explained to you, because it is
+evidently only the biggest freshets that ever come near the top, and the
+biggest freshets never come in the fall, but always in the spring. It
+isn't rising fast enough either. It isn't rising nearly so fast now as
+it was before it got over the bank."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, how do you know that, Sam? You haven't been to look."</p>
+
+<p>"No, but I know it, nevertheless, simply because I know that water, left
+to itself, will find its level."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see what that's got to do with it," said Tom.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps not, but it has something to do with it for all that," replied
+Sam; "and I can make you see how, too."</p>
+
+<p>He paused, to think the matter over and determine how to present it to
+Tom's comprehension.</p>
+
+<p>"You see," he then resumed, "that the river inside its banks is about
+four hundred yards wide. When it rises above the banks, however, it
+spreads out over the level ground, and becomes, in some places, many
+miles wide, averaging a mile at least in width. Now there is only a
+certain amount of water coming into the river every hour. The rain has
+stopped, but the soil is full of water, and so there is about as much
+running into the river now as there was while the rain lasted. But the
+surface of the stream is now many times greater than it was, and as
+water finds its level, all that comes into the river spreads out over
+its whole surface, and of course doesn't raise its level nearly so much
+as the same quantity did while the stream was still within its banks. Do
+you understand now?"</p>
+
+<p>"What a great big brother you are, Sam, anyhow!" was all the reply Tom
+made.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2>
+
+<p  class='center'>WHERE IS JOE?</p>
+
+
+<p>It was now getting late, and Sam knew that it was not well for him to
+talk longer. He felt so much better, however, that he knew he would
+continue to talk in spite of himself unless the whole party should go to
+sleep at once. Joe had not been in the drift cavern for more than two
+hours, and Sam, observing his prolonged absence, said:</p>
+
+<p>"Tom, I'm afraid some of us have hurt poor Joe's feelings. Go and look
+at your water-mark, and while you are out, find the poor fellow and find
+out what's the matter with him. He's a good boy, and has done his part
+faithfully ever since we started. I can't bear to think of him moping."</p>
+
+<p>Tom went out and examined his stake, which showed that the water was not
+more than an inch or two over the bank, and was not rising very rapidly
+now; but he could see nothing of Joe anywhere. He went to the look-out,
+but the boy was not there, and a diligent search through the drift-pile,
+showed that he was nowhere in the neighborhood of the fortress. Tom was
+now fairly alarmed, and returning, was about to report the facts to Sam,
+when little Judie, in a whisper, informed him that the big brother was
+asleep. As his fever had risen somewhat, Judie rightly thought it better
+not to disturb him, as he certainly could not aid in any way in finding
+Joe.</p>
+
+<p>"I must just think," Tom said to himself, "as Sam does, and then I can
+do all there is to be done. Now I know Joe isn't anywhere in the
+hammock, because I knew every place he could squeeze himself into, and
+I've looked in every one of them. It's no use then to waste time looking
+there any more. He must have left here, either accidentally or on
+purpose. He couldn't have slipped off the drift and drowned, because he
+can swim pretty well and would have swam out in a minute. There is no
+other way in which he can have left here by accident, unless an Indian
+has killed him on the drift-pile somewhere, and if that were so I would
+have found his body. He must have run away on purpose."</p>
+
+<p>But just as Tom reached this point in his thinking he remembered the
+earnestness with which poor Joe had begged him to bear witness in any
+and every event that he was not "a runaway nigger." And this reminded
+Tom of all the queer ways he had noticed in Joe of late. The boy must
+have had a premonition, he thought, that something was going to happen
+to him. Only two theories remained. One was that Joe had gone crazy
+under his long exile from civilized life and had madly put an end to
+himself by jumping into the river; and the other that, persisting in his
+belief in the instability of the drift-pile, he had gone to the upper
+bank for safety and had fallen asleep there. In that event he must be
+found, lest an Indian should discover him in the morning and put him to
+death. Tom went ashore after explaining his purpose to Judie, so that
+she might not be alarmed at his absence, and literally spent the entire
+night in hunting for the black boy. Joe was nowhere to be found, and
+when daylight came, Tom saw that a further search was of no use
+whatever, and he therefore returned sadly to the drift cavern. The water
+was now going down again, and the bank was free from it, but the sand in
+the root fortress was still too wet to sit or lie upon, and so Tom made
+no immediate preparation for their return.</p>
+
+<p>Sam's fever was very slight that morning, and his first question was
+about Joe. Tom told him of his night's search, and Sam's deduction from
+all the facts was that the poor boy had committed suicide, had been
+killed by an Indian and thrown into the river, or had fallen in
+accidentally and drowned.</p>
+
+<p>"He would never have left us in any case," said Sam, "and even had he
+been less faithful, he would have been afraid to run away, not knowing
+where to run or how to take care of himself in the woods."</p>
+
+<p>They were too much grieved for Joe's loss, to relish their breakfast,
+and that meal was dispatched very quickly. Tom watched the falling of
+the water all day, and at night reported that the river was well inside
+its banks again.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2>
+
+<p  class='center'>A FAMINE.</p>
+
+
+<p>The river having gone down until no water remained on the sandy bank,
+Tom reported the fact and added,</p>
+
+<p>"Now let's move back again to the root-fortress. It's a safer place than
+this, by a good deal, if it isn't quite so big or quite so comfortable."</p>
+
+<p>"No, we mustn't go back yet," said Judie, who had visited the fortress
+before Tom had, "because the sand in there is as wet as can be, and I
+can't let my big sick brother lie on it."</p>
+
+<p>"There, Tom," said Sam, "my doctor forbids my return yet awhile, and a
+sick man always must obey the doctor you know. Besides, Judie is right.
+It won't do for any of us to lie on wet sand; we must wait till it
+dries; but that won't be very long if the river continues to go down."</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly they spent one more night in the drift cavern. Early the
+next morning Judie went to the fortress, and returning said, playing
+doctor.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, then, Mr. Hardwicke, the floor of your lower house is quite dry,
+and I think it will be safe to move back again. Will you have your
+breakfast first, or will you wait until you get back home again before
+eating anything?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, let's wait, by all means, and eat breakfast in the dear old
+root-fortress," said Tom, and as Sam made no objection, it was so
+arranged.</p>
+
+<p>By nine o'clock the moss carpet was laid in the root-fortress and the
+little party was back in its old quarters again. The vacant corner which
+had been Joe's, reminded them sadly of his disappearance. Poor fellow!
+they had learned to love him almost as a brother, and they could not
+think of him now without tears. When three people sit down with a silent
+grief, their conversation is very apt to be lively, or, if they cannot
+quite accomplish that, they are sure to talk only of indifferent
+matters, and so it was in the present case. Judie was the first to break
+the silence which had fallen upon all.</p>
+
+<p>"Tom," she said playfully, "I'm afraid you're not a good provider. Here
+we are, hungry as wolves, and you haven't brought us a mite of anything
+to eat. You've moved everything but the provisions, and you've forgotten
+them entirely."</p>
+
+<p>Master Tom admitted the grievousness of his fault and returned at once
+to the drift cavern after the forgotten provision pack. The bread, as
+they all knew, was long ago exhausted, but plenty of meat remained, and
+this Tom presently brought. When he opened the pack a disagreeable odor
+spread itself at once over the little room.</p>
+
+<p>"Phew! what's that?" said Tom, and putting his nose to the meat, he
+looked up in blank consternation, saying:</p>
+
+<p>"The meat is spoiled, Sam! What on earth shall we do?"</p>
+
+<p>The case was an alarming one certainly. They were hungry, and Sam, whose
+returning health had brought with it a ravenous appetite, was
+particularly so. He needed wholesome, nourishing food now more than
+anything else, as he knew.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said, after thinking the matter over, "it can't be helped.
+There's nothing for it but to fall back on sweet potatoes till I get
+strong enough to go hunting. You must go to the potato field Tom, and
+bring some."</p>
+
+<p>There had been but one field of corn in the neighborhood at first, and
+the various parties of Indians who had camped in its vicinity had long
+ago carried away the last ear of corn from that, as the boys knew very
+well. The river was altogether too high now for mussels to be got, and
+so the sweet potatoes in a field half a mile away, were their only
+resource.</p>
+
+<p>Tom set out at once in quest of them, carefully looking out for lurking
+savages. He was gone more than an hour, and just as Sam was growing
+really uneasy on his account, he returned, <i>empty handed</i>!</p>
+
+<p>"There isn't a potato in the field," he said as he sat down in utter
+dejection. "The Indians have dug every one of them."</p>
+
+<p>This announcement was indeed an alarming one to the whole party. They
+were without an ounce of food of any sort within their utmost reach, and
+it was plain that they must starve, unless they could hit upon some new
+device, by which to get a supply.</p>
+
+<p>"I must go hunting, sick or well," said Sam rising; but he had no sooner
+got upon his feet, than he felt the utter impossibility of doing
+anything of the kind.</p>
+
+<p>"It's of no use," he said sadly. "I can't make my legs carry me, Tom,
+and so we must depend upon you. Go into the woods there by the creek,
+and sit down or stand still till you see something in the way of game,
+and then take good aim before you shoot, for we mustn't waste any of our
+powder."</p>
+
+<p>With this he shook the horn to ascertain how much remained in it, and
+was horrified to find it empty! Tom remembered that the last time he had
+loaded the gun he had used the last grain of powder in the horn.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then," said Sam, "we have only one charge of powder between us
+and starvation, and it won't do to waste that, Tom. You can shoot pretty
+well when you have time enough to take good aim, and I suppose, if you
+make up your mind beforehand that you won't shoot till you know you can
+kill what you shoot at, it is safe enough. At any rate we must risk it.
+Remember, however, that you mustn't run the risk of wasting this load
+in your anxiety to kill the first thing you see to shoot at. There is
+plenty of game in the woods, so if you can't get a sure shot at one
+thing, wait for another. Get a sure shot anyhow, if it takes you all
+day. It must be something big enough to last us awhile, too. You mustn't
+shoot at anything less than a turkey or a 'possum, and you mustn't shoot
+at all till you get <i>very</i> close, because if you miss, we will starve.
+Better take all day to-day and all day to-morrow than to miss when you
+fire."</p>
+
+<p>And after many instructions and cautionings, Tom sallied forth in search
+of game. Going into the woods for a considerable distance, he sat down
+on a log in the thick undergrowth and waited patiently for the
+appearance of some animal which could be eaten. Hour after hour passed,
+and Tom fell asleep. How long he slept he did not know, but waking
+suddenly he saw a flock of wild turkeys within a few yards of him.
+Raising his gun and taking a very deliberate aim he pulled the trigger.
+No explosion followed, but the clicking of the hammer was enough to put
+the game to flight.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Tom was disheartened, but it would not do to give up, and so he
+carefully picked the edge of his flint with his knife and walked further
+into the woods.</p>
+
+<p>He had not walked very far, with cautious steps, when he heard a
+rustling in the bushes just ahead of him. At first he thought it must be
+an Indian, and drawing back he waited for further developments. A grunt
+soon enlightened him as to the character of the game, and creeping
+through the bushes he found himself close to a fat young hog, one of the
+many running wild in those woods and thickets. That was something worth
+having. Levelling his gun again, he again pulled the trigger, but
+without effect, and opening the pan he discovered that during the rain,
+while in the drift cavern, the "priming," as the powder in the pan is
+called, had been reduced to a paste by water. To fire the gun was out of
+the question, and so clubbing it, Tom ran at the hog and dealt him a
+blow on the head, hoping in that way to secure the game which he could
+not shoot. The blow fell upon the nose of the animal, however, and while
+it brought a squeal of pain from him, it produced no beneficial result.
+The hog ran rapidly away, and Tom was left with nothing better than a
+broken gun to carry back to the fortress.</p>
+
+<p>Arriving there about three o'clock in the afternoon he told the doleful
+story of his failure, and sitting down burst into tears.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, come!" said Sam. "This will never do, old fellow. It's bad enough
+as it is without crying about it. We'll come all right if you'll only
+keep your courage up, and give me a chance to think. I'm getting better
+every day now, and if we can only hold out a few days longer, I'll be on
+my feet again, and then we'll go straight to Fort Glass. Just as soon as
+I can walk at all, we'll start, meantime we must get something to eat,
+and to do that I must think. Let me see. The gun is of no use now, but
+there are other ways of getting game besides shooting it. We must set
+some traps. This spoiled meat will do for bait. Get me a good piece of
+poplar wood, Tom, or cypress, or some other sort, that I can whittle
+easily, and I'll make some figure-four triggers. Then I'll tell you how
+to make dead-falls, and you must set as many of them as you can to make
+sure of getting something to eat by to-morrow morning."</p>
+
+<p>Tom brought the wood and Sam soon whittled out several sets of triggers.</p>
+
+<p>"Now do you know how to set a trap with these triggers, Tom?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I've set many a partridge trap with figure fours."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well then. Now you must set dead-falls in the same way. That is,
+instead of a trap you must set a log. You see I've made the triggers big
+and strong, and you must put them under one end of as heavy a log as you
+can lift. Then you must lay other logs on top to make it as heavy as
+possible, and bait it with a piece of the spoilt meat. If anything
+undertakes to eat the meat to-night, the dead-fall will break its neck
+or back, sure. Here are six sets of triggers and you must set six
+dead-falls. We can go hungry till to-morrow, can't we, little woman?"
+chucking Judie under the chin.</p>
+
+<p>"We can try, anyhow," answered the little woman as cheerfully as she
+could, though she was by no means confident that she could do anything
+of the sort. She was already faint and almost sick, and whether she
+could live till morning or not was an undetermined question in her
+mind. To tell the truth, Sam himself felt but little confidence in his
+device. The spoiled meat, he knew, would attract only the larger
+animals, and such dead-falls as Tom could set were by no means certain
+to kill these in their fall. It was the very best thing he could do,
+however, and he must trust to it in the absence of any better reliance.
+He concealed his anxiety therefore, and after receiving Tom's report of
+his operations in dead-fall setting, he drew Judie to his side and told
+her a fairy story, as night fell. All went to sleep at last, and when
+morning came Sam aroused Tom very early and sent him to examine the
+traps. The boy was gone for an hour or more, when he returned with
+downcast countenance. Two of the traps had been thrown, but there was no
+game under them, while the four others remained undisturbed.</p>
+
+<p>Here was a bad out-look certainly, and they had not tasted food now for
+more than thirty hours!</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2>
+
+<p  class='center'>WHICH ENDS THE STORY.</p>
+
+
+<p>"Something must be done," said Sam, as soon as he had heard Tom's
+report, "and quickly too. Let me think a few minutes. We are beginning
+now to be hungry enough to eat anything, and when people get that hungry
+there are a good many things that can be eaten. I'll tell you what we
+must do, Tom&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But what it was that Sam had hit upon, Tom never knew. Just as this
+point in the conversation was reached <i>Joe</i> came running in through the
+alley-way, his face flattened out into a broad grin of delight, his
+teeth and eyes shining, while he danced all over the fortress, shaking
+hands over and over again, and saying,</p>
+
+<p>"Hi! Miss Judie! Hi! Mas' Tom! Hi! Mas' Sam! How does ye all do now? Did
+you think Joe had runned away? Joe tell ye he never runned away. Joe
+ain't no runaway nigger, nohow at all, and de Ingins ain't ketched Joe
+nuther. Joe's back all safe an' sound, sartin sure! Hi!"</p>
+
+<p>"What on earth ails you, Joe? You're out of your wits, poor fellow,"
+said Sam, convinced that the black boy was demented.</p>
+
+<p>"No I ain't nuther, Mas' Sam," he replied. "Joe ain't crazy one bit, but
+he's glad <i>sure</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Where have you been, Joe, since you left us?"</p>
+
+<p>"Whar? Why to de fort, an' I'se dun brung back a rescue too, didn't I
+tell you? Laws a massy, dat's what I comed in fust for to tell you. I'se
+done been to Fort Glass and brung a big rescue party, and de white folks
+dey said, long as Joe brung us he's 'titled to tell de good news fust,
+an' dat's how I'm here while de rest is outside de drif'."</p>
+
+<p>"Go and see, Tom," said Sam, afraid to believe this story of the
+seemingly insane boy, who, he thought, had become crazed from long
+brooding over the chances of rescue. Tom got up to go, but as he started
+Mr. Hardwicke himself met him in the door way and caught him in his
+arms. Tandy Walker was just behind.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, this beats all," said Tandy. "I've done a good many jobs o'
+rescuin' in my time, but I never yit found the rescued hid in the roots
+of a tree an' fortified with a drift-pile. An' if I'm a jedge o' sich
+things, this here party's a'most starved. I've seed hungry people afore
+now, an' I say le's have a breakfast sot right away for these here
+little ones."</p>
+
+<p>Tandy was right, as we know, and it was not long before an abundant
+breakfast was spread for Sam and Tom and little Judie. The rescue party
+consisted of twenty stout fellows from the fort, and after breakfast a
+rude litter was provided for Sam, and crossing the river in the little
+canoe the party began its homeward march. Tom was glad to walk, the walk
+being in that direction. Judie was carried, part of the time in her
+father's arms, part of it in Tandy Walker's, and part on the broad
+shoulders of C&aelig;sar, the negro man who had participated in the canoe
+fight. Sam was stretched on a litter, carried by four of the men, and
+Joe insisted on walking always by his side, though he fell behind now
+and then for the purpose of dancing a little jig of delight. He would
+execute this movement, and then running, catch up with the litter again.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me, Joe," said Sam after the black boy had become somewhat quiet
+again, "tell me all about this thing."</p>
+
+<p>"'Bout what thing, Mas' Sam?"</p>
+
+<p>"About your going to the fort and all that. How did you manage it, and
+how came you to think of it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you see, Mas' Sam, when you was at your wust, I got a thinkin',
+an' I thought out a plan dat Mas' Tom said was a good un. Him an' me was
+to make a raf' out'n cane, an' pole it up de river wid you an' little
+Miss Judie on it, an' den I was to go cross de country to de fort an'
+bring help. Jes' as we got de raf' ready, howsomever, Mas' Tom he axed
+me if I know de way to de fort, an' as I didn't know nothin' 'bout it, I
+jis' sot down an' gived up. But I kep' a thinkin' all de time, an' I
+said to myself, 'Joe, you're a fool anyhow, an' you mustn't tell your
+plans till you know dey're good uns, an' you ain't got sense enough to
+know dat till you try 'em.' An' so I sot my head to work to git up a
+new plan, meanin' to try it all by myself. When de big fight took place
+an' I seed the white folks marchin' away, I said out 'loud, 'dem dare
+folks is gwine right straight to de fort,' an' I said to myself, 'I
+means to go dere too if I kin.' It took me two days 'n more to git de
+thing fixed up right in my min'.</p>
+
+<p>"I was willin' enough to risk Injuns, but I was afear'd you'n Mas' Tom
+'ud think Joe was a runaway nigger if I never comed back, an' dat
+troubled me. I fixed dat at las' by makin' Mas' Tom mos' swar he'd stick
+to it dat I wasn't no runaway nigger, an' den I sot out. I crossed de
+river in de little canoe an' hid her in de bushes. I found de place whar
+de white folks started from, an' I jes' follered dere trail. Dat was my
+plan. I know'd dey would make a big easy trail, dere was so many of 'em,
+an I meant to follow 'em. It took me more'n two whole nights to git to
+de fort, dough, 'cause de creeks was all high an' de brush very tangley.
+When I tole de folks about you'n Miss Judie an' Mas' Tom, dey didn't
+more'n half believe me, an' when I tole 'em I'd lead 'em straight to
+whar you was, an' dey said dey'd sculp me if I didn't, I jest said all
+right, 'cause if we don' find Mas' Sam an' little Miss Judie an' Mas'
+Tom no more, den I'd rather be sculped'n not, anyhow. But we did fin'
+you, didn't we Mas' Sam?" and at this Joe had to drop behind again and
+execute a rapid jig movement, as a relief to his feelings.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The government forces under General Jackson, together with the settlers
+themselves, were now pressing the savages very hard. Battles were fought
+almost every day, and every battle weakened the Indians. In December,
+General Claiborne invaded the Holy Ground, and utterly destroyed
+Weatherford's command, as a result of which that chief surrendered to
+Jackson and the war was practically at an end. A few more battles were
+necessary before a final peace could be made, and the last of them was
+fought on the 27th of March, 1814, at Horseshoe Bend; but after the
+battle of December 23d a little more than a month after Sam's party was
+rescued, the country north and west of the Alabama river was
+comparatively free from savages, who no longer dared wander about in
+small bands, plundering and burning houses, and the planters began to
+return to their homes to get ready for spring work.</p>
+
+<p>When Mr. Hardwicke was about to go home with his children, he sent for
+Joe. When the boy came, little Judie handed him a carefully folded
+document, saying,</p>
+
+<p>"Here's a present for you, Joe.</p>
+
+<p>"What's dis?" asked Joe, unable to guess what possible use he could have
+for such a paper as that, inasmuch as he couldn't read it to save his
+life.</p>
+
+<p>"These are your <i>free papers</i>, Joe," said Sam. "Father has bought you
+from Mr. Butler, for the purpose of setting you free, as a reward for
+your good conduct."</p>
+
+<p>Joe evidently wanted to say something, but did not know how.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you glad to be free, Joe?" asked Mr. Hardwicke.</p>
+
+<p>"Ain't I though?" and Joe's feet began to shuffle as if a jig were
+coming in spite of his desire to behave well.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Joe," said Mr. Hardwicke, "I mean to give you a fair chance in
+life, and I've thought the matter over carefully. You are free now to
+do precisely as you please, and you can live where you like. But I've a
+proposition to make&mdash;a plan for you. Do you know my cypress farm,&mdash;the
+little one down in the fork of the two creeks?"</p>
+
+<p>"De one whar' ole uncle Peter Dun lived so long?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, the one uncle Peter manages for me."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, master, I knows dat place mighty well."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, how would you like to buy it, Joe?"</p>
+
+<p>"Buy the farm, master? What's Joe got to buy wid? I ain't got no money,
+'thout it's a quarter Mas' Tandy Walker dun gim me fur to clean his
+boots sence we comed back to de fort, an' I jest know that a quarter
+won't buy no sich low grounds as dem dar down twix' dem dar creeks is.
+Dat's de very bes' lan' in Alabama. Leastways I dun hear de folks say
+'tis heaps o' times. You's jokin' wid Joe, master."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I am not, Joe. You can buy the land if you want it, and there are a
+hundred and ten acres in the tract, besides the strip of woods along
+both creeks."</p>
+
+<p>"How's I gwine to buy it, master?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, let me see. You're about thirteen now. It will be nine years yet
+before you will be a man, and if you choose to live with me until you
+are twenty-one, I'll feed and clothe you till then, and the day you are
+twenty-one the farm shall be yours in payment of wages."</p>
+
+<p>"How you mean, master?"</p>
+
+<p>"I mean, that besides feeding and clothing you as I feed and clothe my
+people, I will give you the farm for your nine years' work. If you like
+the place, I will have all the papers made out, so that the farm will be
+yours, even if I should die before the time is up. I have more land than
+I care to keep, and you see I want to sell that one farm to you, if
+you'll buy it."</p>
+
+<p>"Looks to me, heap more like's if you was gwine to give it to me,
+master; dis on'y your fun to say I buy's it."</p>
+
+<p>"No, the bargain is a fair one, Joe. I could give you the farm now, but
+I think it will be better for you to work for it, and then you'll feel
+that it's yours by right and not by favor. I want to make a man of you,
+Joe, and my children shall always think of you as one of their best
+friends. Go out of doors if you want to dance, Joe," seeing the feet
+beginning to shuffle, and understanding the mingled joy and
+embarrassment of the boy.</p>
+
+<p>Joe hesitated a moment, and then with a sudden straightening of his
+shoulders, as if the future manliness were already beginning to assert
+itself in him, he advanced to Mr. Hardwicke, and shaking his hand, said:</p>
+
+<p>"Joe ain't got no learnin' an' no manners nuther, master, but Joe's
+<i>grateful</i> anyhow," and bursting into tears the boy left the room.</p>
+
+<div class='footnotes'>
+<h4>FOOTNOTES</h4>
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> For these speeches of Weatherford's and for other
+historical details I am indebted to a valuable and interesting book,
+"Romantic Passages in South Western History," by A. B. Mull, Mobile, S.
+H. Goetzsl &amp; Co. publishers, which is now, unfortunately out of print.
+The speeches are well authenticated I believe.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> This incident of the leap over the precipice is strictly
+historical, else I should never have ventured to print it here.
+Weatherford himself, on the 23d of December, 1813, after the battle of
+Tohopeka, escaped a body of dragoons in a precisely similar manner. A
+still more remarkable leap was that of Major Samuel McCullock, on the 2d
+of September 1777, over a precipice fully 300 feet high near Wheeling,
+West Virginia. He jumped over on horseback, thinking such a death
+preferable to savage torture, but singularly enough, both he and his
+horse escaped unhurt.</p></div>
+</div>
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE END</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
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+<p>By <span class="smcap">John Proffatt</span>, LL.B., of the New York Bar.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Contents.</span>&mdash;I. Former Status of Women. II. Legal Conditions of
+Marriage. III. Personal Rights and Disabilities of the Wife. IV. Rights
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+Duties of Mother and Children. VII. Divorce.</p>
+
+<p>12mo, cloth, $1. Half bound, $1.25.</p></div>
+
+
+<p>BASTIAT. SOPHISMS OF PROTECTION.</p>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Big Brother, by George Cary Eggleston
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Big Brother
+       A Story of Indian War
+
+
+Author: George Cary Eggleston
+
+
+
+Release Date: March 18, 2007  [eBook #20849]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BIG BROTHER***
+
+
+E-text prepared by David Garcia, Graeme Mackreth, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) from
+page images generously made available by the Kentuckiana Digital Library
+(http://kdl.kyvl.org/)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 20849-h.htm or 20849-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/8/4/20849/20849-h/20849-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/8/4/20849/20849-h.zip)
+
+
+      Images of the original pages are available through the
+      Kentuckiana Digital Library. See
+      http://kdl.kyvl.org/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=kyetexts;cc=kyetexts;xc=1&idno=B92-200-30752132&view=toc
+
+
+
+
+
+THE BIG BROTHER
+
+A Story of Indian War
+
+by
+
+GEORGE CARY EGGLESTON
+
+Author of "How to Educate Yourself," Etc.
+
+Illustrated
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE DOG CHARGE.]
+
+
+
+New York
+G. P. Putnam's Sons
+Fourth Avenue and Twenty-Third Street
+1875.
+
+Copyright.
+G. P. Putnam's Sons.
+1875.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+                                                           Page.
+SINQUEFIELD                                                   7
+
+CHAPTER II.
+THE STORMING OF SINQUEFIELD                                  17
+
+CHAPTER III.
+SAM'S LECTURE                                                28
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+SAM FINDS IT NECESSARY TO THINK                              38
+
+CHAPTER V.
+SAM'S FORTRESS                                               46
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+SURPRISED                                                    61
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+CONFUSED                                                     67
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+WEATHERFORD                                                  71
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+WEARY WAITING                                                83
+
+CHAPTER X.
+FIGHTING FIRE                                                93
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+IN THE WILDERNESS                                           104
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+AN ALARM AND A WELCOME                                      118
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+JOE'S PLAN                                                  124
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+THE CANOE FIGHT                                             130
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+THE BOYS ARE DRIVEN OUT OF THE ROOT FORTRESS                143
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+WHERE IS JOE?                                               159
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+A FAMINE                                                    163
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+WHICH ENDS THE STORY                                        173
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+                                                           Page.
+
+THE DOG CHARGE                                    _Frontispiece._
+
+SAM'S PARTY                                                 20
+
+"WE'S DUN LOS'--DAT'S WHA' WE IS"                           40
+
+JUDIE ON THE RAFT                                           49
+
+THE PERILOUS LEAP                                           83
+
+
+
+
+THE BIG BROTHER.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+SINQUEFIELD.
+
+
+In the quiet days of peace and security in which we live it is difficult
+to imagine such a time of excitement as that at which our story opens,
+in the summer of 1813. From the beginning of that year, the Creek
+Indians in Alabama and Mississippi had shown a decided disposition to
+become hostile. In addition to the usual incentives to war which always
+exist where the white settlements border closely upon Indian territory,
+there were several special causes operating to bring about a struggle at
+that time. We were already at war with the British, and British agents
+were very active in stirring up trouble on our frontiers, knowing that
+nothing would so surely weaken the Americans as a general outbreak of
+Indian hostilities. Tecumseh, the great chief, had visited the Creeks,
+too, and had urged them to go on the war path, threatening them, in the
+event of their refusal, with the wrath of the Great Spirit. His appeals
+to their superstition were materially strengthened by the occurrence of
+an earthquake, which singularly enough, he had predicted, threatening
+that when he returned to his home he would stamp his foot and shake
+their houses down. Their own prophets, Francis and Singuista, had
+preached war, too, telling the Indians that their partial adoption of
+civilization, and their relations of friendship with the whites, were
+sorely displeasing to the Great Spirit, who would surely punish them if
+they did not immediately abandon the civilization and butcher the
+pale-faces. Francis predicted, also, that in the coming struggle no
+Indians would be killed, while the whites would be completely
+exterminated. All this was promised on condition that the Indians should
+become complete savages again, quitting all the habits of industry and
+thrift which they had been learning for some years past, and fighting
+mercilessly against all whites, sparing none.
+
+All these things combined to bring on the war, and during the spring
+several raids were made by small bodies of the Indians, in which they
+were pretty severely punished by the whites. Finally a battle was fought
+at Burnt-corn, in July 1813, and this was the signal for the breaking
+out of the most terrible of all Indian wars,--the most terrible, because
+the savages engaged in it had learned from the whites how to fight, and
+because many of their chiefs were educated half-breeds, familiar with
+the country and with all the points of weakness on the part of the
+settlers. Stockade forts were built in various places, and in these the
+settlers took refuge, leaving their fields to grow as they might and
+their houses to be plundered and burned whenever the Indians should
+choose to visit them. The stockades were so built as to enclose several
+acres each, and strong block houses inside, furnished additional
+protection. Into these forts there came men, women, and children, from
+all parts of the country, each bringing as much food as possible, and
+each willing to lend a hand to the common defence and the common
+support.
+
+On the 30th of August, the Indians attacked Fort Mims, one of the
+largest of the stockade stations, and after a desperate battle destroyed
+it, killing all but seventeen of the five hundred and fifty people who
+were living in it. The news of this terrible slaughter quickly spread
+over the country, and everybody knew now that a general war had begun,
+in which the Indians meant to destroy the whites utterly, not sparing
+even the youngest children.
+
+Those who had remained on their farms now flocked in great numbers to
+the forts, and every effort was made to strengthen the defences at all
+points. The men, including all the boys who were large enough to point a
+gun and pull a trigger, were organized into companies and assigned to
+port-holes, in order that each might know where to go to do his part of
+the fighting whenever the Indians should come. Even those of the women
+who knew how to shoot, insisted upon being provided with guns and
+assigned to posts of duty. There was not only no use in flinching, but
+every one of them knew that whenever the fort should be attacked the
+only question to be decided was, "Shall we beat the savages off, or
+shall every man woman and child of us be butchered?" They could not run
+away, for there was nowhere to run, except into the hands of the
+merciless foe. The life of every one of them was involved in the defence
+of the forts, and each was, therefore, anxious to do all he could to
+make the defense a successful one. Their only hope was in desperate
+courage, and, being Americans, their courage was equal to the demand
+made upon it. It was not a civilized war, in which surrenders, and
+exchanges of prisoners, and treaties and flags of truce, or even
+neutrality offered any escape. It was a savage war, in which the Indians
+intended to kill all the whites, old and young, wherever they could find
+them. The people in the forts knew this, and they made their
+arrangements accordingly.
+
+Now if the boys and girls who read this story will get their atlases and
+turn to the map of Alabama, they will find some points, the relative
+positions of which they must remember if they wish to understand fully
+the happenings with which we have to do. Just below the junction of the
+Alabama and Tombigbee rivers, on the east side of the stream, they will
+find the little town of Tensaw, and Fort Mims stood very near that
+place. The peninsula formed by the two rivers above their junction is
+now Clarke County, and almost exactly in its centre stands the village
+of Grove Hill. A mile or two to the north-east stood Fort Sinquefield.
+Fort White was several miles further west, and Fort Glass, afterwards
+called Fort Madison, stood fifteen miles south, at a point about three
+miles south of the present village of Suggsville. On the eastern side of
+the Alabama river is the town of Claiborne, and at a point about three
+miles below Claiborne the principal events of this story occurred. It
+will not hurt you, boys and girls, to learn a little accurate geography,
+by looking up these places before going on with the story, and if I were
+your schoolmaster, instead of your story teller, I should stop here to
+advise you always to look on the map for every town, river, lake,
+mountain or other geographical thing mentioned in any book or paper you
+read. I would advise you, too, if I were your schoolmaster, to add up
+all the figures given in books and newspapers, to see if the writers
+have made any mistakes; and it is a good plan too, to go at once to the
+dictionary when you meet a word you do not quite comprehend, or to the
+encyclopaedia or history, or whatever else is handy, whenever you read
+about anything and would like to know more about it. I say I should stop
+here to give you some such advice as this, if I were your schoolmaster.
+As I am not, however, I must go on with my story instead.
+
+Within a mile or two of Fort Sinquefield lived a gentleman named
+Hardwicke. He was a widower with three children. Sam, the oldest of the
+three, was nearly seventeen; Tommy was eleven, and a little girl of
+seven years, named Judith, but called Judie, was the other. Mr.
+Hardwicke was a quiet, studious man, who had come to Alabama from
+Baltimore, not many years before, and since the death of his wife he had
+spent most of his time in his library, which was famous throughout the
+settlement on account of the wonderful number of books it contained.
+There were hardly any schools in Alabama in those days, and Mr.
+Hardwicke, being a man of education and considerable wealth, gave up
+almost the whole of his time to his children, teaching them in doors and
+out, and directing them in their reading. It was understood that Sam
+would be sent north to attend College the next year, and meantime he had
+become a voracious reader. He read all sorts of books, and as he
+remembered and applied the things he learned from them, it was a common
+saying in the country round about, that "Sam Hardwicke knows pretty
+nearly everything." Of course that was not true, but he knew a good deal
+more than most of the men in the country, and better than all, he knew
+how very much there was for him yet to learn. A boy has learned the very
+best lesson of his life when he knows that he really does not know much;
+it is a lesson some people never learn at all. But books were not the
+only things Sam Hardwicke was familiar with. He could ride the worst
+horses in the country and shoot a rifle almost as well as Tandy Walker
+himself, and Tandy, as every reader of history knows, was the most
+famous rifleman, as well as the best guide and most daring scout in the
+whole south-west. Sam had hunted, too, over almost every inch of
+country within twenty miles around, trudging alone sometimes for a week
+or a fortnight before returning, and in this way he had learned to know
+the distances, the directions, and the nature of the country lying
+between different places,--a knowledge worth gaining by anybody, and
+especially valuable to a boy who lived in a frontier settlement. He was
+strong of limb and active as he was strong, and his "book knowledge," as
+the neighbors called it, served him many a good turn in the woods, when
+he was beset by difficulties.
+
+Sam's father was one of the very last of the settlers to go into a fort.
+He remained at home as long as he could, and went to Fort Sinquefield at
+last, only when warned by an Indian who for some reason liked him, that
+he and his children's lives were in imminent danger. That was on the
+first of September, and when the Hardwicke family, black and white, were
+safely within the little fortress, there remained outside only two
+families, namely, those of Abner James and Ransom Kimball, who
+determined to remain one more night at Kimball's house, two miles from
+Sinquefield. That very night the Indians, under Francis the prophet,
+burned the house, killing twelve of the inmates. Five others escaped,
+and one of them, Isham Kimball, who was then a boy of sixteen,
+afterwards became Clerk of Clarke County, where he was still living in
+1857.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE STORMING OF SINQUEFIELD.
+
+
+When the news of the massacre at Kimball's reached Fort Glass, a
+detachment of ten men was sent out to recover the bodies, which they
+brought to Fort Sinquefield for burial. The graves were dug in a little
+valley three or four hundred yards from the fort, and all the people
+went out to attend the funeral. The services had just come to an end
+when the cry of "Indians! Indians!" was raised, and a body of warriors,
+under the prophet Francis, dashed down from behind a hill, upon the
+defenceless people, whose guns were inside the fort. The first impulse
+of every one was to catch up the little children and hasten inside the
+gates, but it was manifestly too late. The Indians were already nearer
+the fort than they, and were running with all their might, brandishing
+their knives and tomahawks, and yelling like demons.
+
+There seemed no way of escape. Sam Hardwicke took little Judie up in his
+arms, and, quick as thought calculated the chances of reaching the fort.
+Clearly the only way in which he could possibly get there, was by
+leaving his little sister to her fate and running for his life. But Sam
+Hardwicke was not the sort of boy to do anything so cowardly as that.
+Abandoning the thought of getting to the fort, he called to Tom to
+follow him, and with Judie in his arms, he ran into a neighboring
+thicket, where the three, with Joe, a black boy of twelve or thirteen
+years who had followed them, concealed themselves in the bushes. Whether
+they had been seen by the Indians or not, they had no way of knowing,
+but their only hope of safety now lay in absolute stillness. They
+crouched down together and kept silence.
+
+"What's we gwine to do here, I wonder," whispered the black boy. "Whar
+mus' we go, Mas Sam?"
+
+Sam did not answer. He was too much absorbed in studying the situation
+to talk or even to listen. The Indians were coming down upon the white
+people from every side, and the only wonder was that Sam's little party
+had managed to find a gap in their line big enough to escape through.
+
+"Be patient, Joe," said little Judie, in the calmest voice possible.
+"Brother Sam will take care of us. Give him time. He always does know
+what to do."
+
+"Be still, Joe," said Sam. "If you talk that Indian'll see us," pointing
+to one not thirty steps distant, though Joe had not yet seen him.
+
+A terrified "ugh!" was all the reply Joe could make.
+
+Meantime the situation of the fort people was terrible. Cut off from the
+gates and unarmed, there seemed to be nothing for them to do except to
+meet death as bravely and calmly as they could. A young man named Isaac
+Harden happened to be near the gates, however, on horseback, and
+accompanied by a pack of about sixty hounds. And this young man, whose
+name has barely crept into a corner of history, was both a hero and a
+military genius, and he did right then and there, a deed as brilliant
+and as heroic as any other in history. Seeing the perilous position of
+the fort people, he raised himself in his stirrups and waving his hat,
+charged the savages _with his pack of dogs_, whooping and yelling after
+the manner of a huntsman, and leading the fierce bloodhounds right into
+the ranks of the infuriated Indians. The dogs being trained to chase and
+seize any living thing upon which their master might set them, attacked
+the Indians furiously, Harden encouraging them and riding down group
+after group of the bewildered savages. Charging right and left with his
+dogs, he succeeded in putting the Indians for a time upon the defensive,
+thus giving the white people time to escape into the fort. When all were
+in except Sam's party and a Mrs. Phillips who was killed, Harden began
+looking about him for a chance to secure his own safety. His impetuosity
+had carried him clear through the Indian ranks, and the savages, having
+beaten the dogs off, turned their attention to the young cavalier who
+had balked them in the very moment of their victory. They were between
+him and the gates, hundreds against one. His dogs were killed or
+scattered, and he saw at a glance that there was little hope for him.
+The woods behind him were full of Indians, and so retreat was
+impossible. Turning his horse's head towards the gates, he plunged spurs
+into his side, and with a pistol in each hand, dashed through the savage
+ranks, firing as he went. Blowing a blast upon his horn to recall those
+of his dogs which were still alive, he escaped on foot into the fort,
+just in time to let the gate shut in the face of the foremost Indian.
+His horse, history tells us, was killed under him, and he had five
+bullet holes through his clothes, but his skin was unbroken.
+
+[Illustration: SAM'S PARTY.]
+
+Francis and his followers were balked but not beaten. Retiring for a few
+minutes behind the hill, they rallied and came again to the assault,
+more furiously than ever. Their savage instincts were thoroughly aroused
+by the unexpected defeat they had sustained in the very moment of their
+victory, and they were determined now to take the fort at any cost.
+Their plan of attack showed the skill of their leader, who was really a
+man of considerable ability in spite of his fanatical belief in his own
+prophetic gifts. He avoided both the errors usually committed by Indian
+leaders in storming fortified places. He refused, on the one hand, to
+let his men waste their powder and their time in desultory firing, and,
+on the other, he decided not to risk everything on the hazard of a
+single assault. His plan was to take the fort by storm, but the storming
+was to be done systematically. Dividing his force into two parts, he
+sent one to the attack, and held the other back in the hope that the
+first would gain a position so near the stockade as to make the assault
+of the second, led by himself, doubly sure of success. The plan was a
+good one, without doubt, and no man was better qualified than Francis to
+carry it out.
+
+When the storming party came, the people in the fort were ready for it.
+Counting out the women and children, their numbers were not large, but
+they were a brave and determined set of men and boys, who knew very well
+in what kind of a struggle they were engaged. They reserved their fire
+until the Indians were within thirty yards of the fort, and then
+delivered it as rapidly as they could, taking care to waste none of it
+by random or careless shooting. The fort consisted, as all the border
+fortifications did, of a simple stockade, inside of which was a
+block-house for the protection of the women and children, and designed
+also as a sort of "last ditch," in which a desperate resistance could be
+made, even after the fort had been carried. The stockade was made of the
+trunks of pine-trees set on end in the ground, close together, but
+pierced at intervals with port-holes, through which the men of the
+garrison could fire. Such a stockade afforded an excellent protection
+against the bullets and the arrows of the Indians, and gave its
+defenders a great advantage over the assailing force, which must, of
+course, be exposed to a galling fire from the men behind the barriers.
+As the stockade was about fifteen feet high, climbing over it was almost
+wholly out of the question, and the only way to take the fort was to
+rush upon it with fence rails, stop up the port-holes immediately in
+front, and keep so close to the stockade as to escape the fire from
+points to the right and left, while engaged in cutting down the timber
+barrier. If the Indians could do this, their superior numbers would
+enable them to rush in through the opening thus made, and then the
+block-house would be the only refuge left to the white people. The
+block-house was a building made of very large timbers, hewed square,
+laid close upon each other and notched to an exact fit at the ends. It
+had but one entrance, and that was near the top. This could be reached
+only by a ladder, and should the Indians gain access to the fort, the
+whites would retire, fighting, to this building, and when all were in,
+the ladder would be drawn in after them. From the port-holes of the
+block-house a fierce fire could be delivered, and as the square timbers
+were not easily set on fire, a body of Indians must be very determined
+indeed, if they succeeded in taking or destroying a block-house. At Fort
+Mims, however, they had done so, burning the house over the heads of the
+inmates.
+
+The reader will understand, from this description of the fort, how
+possible it was for the people within it to withstand a very determined
+attack, and to inflict heavy loss upon the savages, without suffering
+much in their turn. Francis's men charged furiously upon the silent
+stockade, but were sent reeling back as soon as they had come near
+enough for the riflemen within to fire with absolute accuracy of aim.
+Then the second body, under Francis himself, charged, but with no
+better success. A pause followed, and another charge was made just
+before nightfall.
+
+This time some of the savages succeeded in reaching the stockade and
+stopping up some of the port-holes. They cut down a part of the pickets
+too, and had their friends charged again at once, the fort would
+undoubtedly have been carried. As it was, Francis saw fit to draw off
+his men, for the time at least, and retire beyond the hill. What was now
+to be done? The attack had been repulsed, but it might be renewed at any
+moment. The Indians had suffered considerably, while the casualties
+within the fort were limited to the loss of one man and one boy. But the
+obstinate determination of Francis was well known, and it was certain
+that he had not finally abandoned his purpose of taking the little fort.
+He had already demonstrated his ability to carry the place, and it was,
+at the least, likely that he would come again within twenty-four hours,
+probably with a larger force, and should he do so, the little garrison
+was not in condition to repel his attack. To remain in the fort,
+therefore, was certain destruction; but the country was full of savages,
+and to attempt a march to Fort Glass, fifteen miles away, which was the
+nearest available place, the other forts being difficult to reach, was
+felt to be almost equally hazardous. A council was held, and it was
+finally determined that the perilous march to Fort Glass must be
+undertaken at all hazards. Accordingly, not long after nightfall the
+whole garrison, men, women and children, stealthily left the fort and
+silently crept away to the south.
+
+Sam had seen the dog charge and the escape of the whites into the fort.
+
+"What a fool I was!" he exclaimed, "not to stay where I was! We might
+have got in with the rest of them."
+
+"Why can't we go to de fort now, or leastways, as soon as de Injuns goes
+away?" asked Joe.
+
+"They ain't going away," said Sam. "They're going to storm the
+fort,--look, they're coming right here for a starting-point, and 'll be
+on top of us in a minute. Come!--don't make any noise, but follow me.
+Crawl on your hands and knees, and don't raise your heads. Look out for
+sticks. If you break one, the Indians 'll hear it."
+
+"Mas' Sam--dey's Injuns ahead'n us an' a-comin right torge us too. Look
+dar!"
+
+Sam looked, and saw a body of Indians just in front of him coming to
+reinforce the others. He and his friends were cut off between two bodies
+of savages.
+
+"Lie down and be still," he whispered. "It's all we can do--and I'm to
+blame for it all!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+SAM'S LECTURE.
+
+
+The people of the fort made no search for Sam and his companions; not
+because they cared nothing for them, but simply because they believed
+them certainly dead. Mr. Hardwicke, himself, had seen Sam start with
+little Judie towards the fort, before the dog charge was made, and as
+neither the boys nor Judie had ever reached the gates, he had no doubt
+whatever that his three children were slain, as was Mrs. Phillips, the
+only other person who had failed to get inside the stockade. Mr.
+Hardwicke wished to go out in search of their bodies, but was overruled
+by his companions, who, knowing that the savages were still in the
+immediate vicinity, thought it simply a reckless and unnecessary risk,
+to go hunting for the bodies of their friends hundreds of yards away,
+and immediately in front of the place at which the Indians were last
+seen. The idea was abandoned, therefore, and the fort party marched away
+in the darkness of a cloudy night, towards Fort Glass. Leaving them to
+find their way if they can, let us return to Sam and his little band.
+Seeing the Indians coming towards them, they lay down in the high weeds.
+The savages hurrying forward to reinforce their friends, passed within a
+few feet of the young people, but did not see them. The storming of the
+fort then began, and after watching the evolutions of the Indians for
+some time, Sam said:
+
+"We mustn't stay here. Those red skins are working around this way, and 'll
+find us. Crawl on your hands and knees, all of you, and follow me."
+
+"Whar's ye gwine to, Mas' Sam?" asked Joe.
+
+"_Sh, sh_," said Judie. "Don't talk Joe, but do as Brother Sam tells
+you. Don't you know he always knows what's best? Besides, maybe he
+hasn't quite found out where he's going yet, himself."
+
+But Joe was not as confident of Sam's genius for doing the right thing
+as Judie was, and so, after crawling for some distance, he again broke
+silence.
+
+"Miss Judie."
+
+"What do you want, Joe?"
+
+"Does _you_ know whar Mas' Sam's a-takin' us to, an' what he's gwine to
+do when he gits dar?"
+
+"No, of course I don't."
+
+"How you know den, dat he's doin' de bes' thing?"
+
+But the conversation was terminated by a word from Sam, who said, in a
+whisper,
+
+"Joe, I'll tell you _where we're going if you keep talking_."
+
+"Whar, Mas' Sam?"
+
+"Into the hands of the Indians. Keep your mouth shut, if you don't want
+your hair lifted off your head."
+
+As the black boy certainly did not want his hair cut Indian fashion, he
+became silent at once.
+
+When they had travelled in this way until they could no longer hear the
+yells of the Indians and the popping of guns at the fort, Sam called a
+halt. It was now nearly midnight.
+
+"Here is a good place to spend the rest of the night," he said, "and we
+must be as still as we can. We can stay here till to-morrow night, and
+then we must try to get to Fort Glass. It's about twelve or thirteen
+miles from here."
+
+"Le's go on now, Mas' Sam; I'se afear'd to stay here," said the black
+boy.
+
+"We can't," said Sam. "I got scratched in the foot with a stray bullet,
+just as we went into the thicket there at the fort, and I can't walk. I
+am a little faint and must lie down."
+
+At this little Judie, who fairly idolized Sam, and felt perfectly safe
+from Indians and everything else when he was with her, was disposed to
+set up a wail of sorrow and fright. If poor Sam were wounded, he might
+die, she thought, and the thought was too much for her.
+
+Sam soothed her, however, and the poor, tired little girl was soon fast
+asleep in his arms.
+
+"Bring some moss, boys," he said to his companions, "and make a bed for
+Judie here by this log."
+
+When he had laid her down, he drew off his shoe and wrapped the wounded
+foot in some of the long gray moss which hangs in great festoons from
+the trees of that region. Joe, with the true negro genius for sleeping,
+was already snoring at the foot of a tree. Sam quietly called Tom to his
+side.
+
+"Tom," said he, "my foot is bleeding pretty badly, and I can't see till
+morning to do anything for it. I have wrapped it up in moss, stuffing
+the softest parts into the wound, and that may stop it after a while.
+But I may not be able to travel to-morrow night, and if I can't you must
+leave me here and try to find your way to Fort Glass, with Judie. You
+must remember that her life will depend on you, and try to do your duty
+without flinching. Don't try to travel in the daytime. Go on to the
+south as fast as you can of nights, keeping in the woods and thickets,
+and as soon as you see a streak of gray in the sky find a good
+hiding-place and stop. You can get some corn and some sweet potatoes out
+of any field, but you must eat them raw, as it wont do to make a fire.
+Now go to sleep. I may be able to travel myself, but if I shouldn't,
+remember you are a brave man's son, and must do your duty as a
+Hardwicke should." And with that he shook the little fellow's hand.
+
+After a time Tom, overcome by weariness, fell asleep, but Sam remained
+awake all night, trying to staunch the flow of blood from his foot. He
+knew that if he could go on with the others their chance of safety would
+be vastly greater than without him, and so he was disposed to leave no
+effort untried to be in a fit condition to travel the next night. When
+morning came Sam called Tom and Joe, and directed them to examine his
+wound, into which he could not see very well.
+
+"Is the blood of a bright red, as it comes out, or a dark red?" he
+asked.
+
+"Bright," they both said.
+
+"Then it comes from an artery," he replied. "Are you sure it is bright
+red?"
+
+The boys were not quite sure.
+
+"Does it come in a steady stream or in spurts?" he asked.
+
+"It spurts, and stops and spurts again," said Tom.
+
+"It is an artery, then," said Sam. "Look and see if you can find the
+place it comes from."
+
+The boys made a careful examination and at last found the artery, a
+small one, which was cut only about half way across.
+
+"All right," said Sam. "If that's the case, I think I know how to stop
+the blood. Put your finger in, and _break the artery clear in two_".
+
+"O Sam, then you'll bleed to death," said Tom.
+
+"No I won't. Do as I tell you."
+
+"Let me cut it, then. It wont hurt you so much."
+
+"No, no, no," cried Sam, staying his hand. "Don't cut it. Tear it, I
+tell you, and be quick."
+
+Tom tore it, and the blood stopped almost immediately. Sam then bound
+the foot up with strips of cloth torn from his clothing, and as he did
+so said:
+
+"Now I'll tell you both all about this so that you'll know what to do
+another time. If you know only _what_ to do, you may forget; but if you
+know _why_, you'll remember. The blood comes out from the heart to all
+parts of the body in arteries, and when it leaves the heart it is bright
+red, because it is clean and pure. Your heart is a sort of force-pump,
+and every time it beats it forces the blood all over you. The arteries
+fork and branch out in every direction, until they terminate in
+millions of little veins smaller than the finest hairs, and these
+running together make bigger veins, through which the blood is carried
+to the lungs. In the veins it flows steadily, because the _capillary_
+veins, the ones like hairs, are so small that the spurts can't be felt
+beyond them. The blood in the veins is thick and dark, because it has
+taken up all the impurities from the system; but when it gets to the
+lungs your breath takes up all these and carries them off, leaving the
+blood pure again for another round. Now the arteries are long elastic
+tubes, that is to say, they will stretch a little, and fly back again,
+if you pull them, and when one is cut nearly but not quite off, the
+contraction keeps it wide open. If it is cut or torn entirely in two,
+the end draws back, and nine times in ten, if the artery is a small one,
+the drawing back shuts the end up entirely and the blood stops. But it
+is better to tear it than to cut it, because when torn the edges are
+jagged and it shrivels up more. I don't quite understand why, myself,
+but that is what the surgical books say. When anybody is hurt and
+bleeding badly, the first thing to do is to find out whether it is an
+artery or a vein that's cut. If the blood is bright and comes out in
+spurts, it's an artery. If it is dark, and flows steadily, it's a vein.
+If it's an artery and isn't cut quite in two, tear it in two. If that
+don't stop it, you must make a knot in a handkerchief and then press
+your finger above the cut in different places till you find where the
+artery is by the blood stopping. Then put the knot on that place and tie
+the handkerchief around the limb. You can stop a vein in the same way
+and more easily, but if it's a vein you must tie the handkerchief so
+that the cut place will be between it and the heart. You see the blood
+comes from the heart in the arteries, and goes back towards the heart in
+the veins, and so to stop an artery you tie inside, and to stop a vein
+outside of the cut place."
+
+I think it altogether probable that Master Sam would have gone into
+quite a lecture on anatomy and minor surgery, if little Judie had not
+waked up just then complaining of hunger. What he told the boys,
+however, is well worth remembering. He took little Judie on his lap and
+sent the two boys out to find a field of potatoes or corn. When they
+came back all four made a breakfast of raw sweet potatoes, drinking
+water which Tom brought in his wool hat from a creek not very far away.
+Sam grew stronger during the day, and at night the party set out on
+their way to Fort Glass. Sam's foot was not painful, but he was afraid
+of starting the blood again, and so he held it up, walking with a rude
+crutch which he had made during the day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+SAM FINDS IT NECESSARY TO THINK.
+
+
+It was twelve miles from their first encampment to Fort Glass, and if
+Sam had been strong and well, and the way open, they might easily have
+made the journey before morning, by carrying little Judie a part of the
+way. As it was, they had to go through the thickest woods to avoid
+Indians, and must move cautiously all the time, as they could never know
+when they might stumble upon a party of savages around a camp-fire, or
+sleeping under a tree. Those of my readers who live in the far South
+know what thick woods are in that part of the country, but others may
+not. The trees grow as close together as they can, and the underbrush
+chokes up the space between them pretty effectually. Then the great
+vines of various kinds wind themselves in and out until in many places
+they literally stop the way so that a strong man with an axe could not
+go forward a hundred feet in a week. In other places the thick cane
+makes an equally impenetrable barrier, and Sam needed all his knowledge
+of the forest to enable him to work his way southward at night through
+such woods as those. The little party of wanderers sometimes found
+themselves apparently walled in in the pitchy darkness, with no possible
+way out but Sam's instinct, as he called it, which was simply his
+ability to remember the things he had learned, and to put two facts
+together to find out a third, always extricated them. Once they found
+themselves in a swamp, where the water was about eight inches deep. The
+underbrush, canes and vines made it impossible for them to see any great
+distance in any direction.
+
+"Oh, I know we will never get out of here," whined poor little Judie,
+ready to sink down in the water.
+
+"Yes we will, lady bird," said Sam cheerily. "What's the good of having
+a big brother if he can't take care of you? Tell me that, will you?
+Keep your courage up, little girl, I think I know where we are. Let me
+think."
+
+"I know wha' we is. Mas' Sam," said Joe.
+
+"Where, Joe," asked Sam, incredulously.
+
+"We'se dun' los',--dat's wha' we is," replied Joe.
+
+Sam laughed.
+
+"I know more than that," said Tom, "I know _where_ we're lost."
+
+"Wha', Mas' Tom?" cried Joe, eagerly.
+
+"In a swamp," said Tom.
+
+"And I know what swamp," said Sam, "which is better still. This swamp is
+the low grounds of a little creek, and I've been in it before to-night.
+I don't know just which way to go to get out, because I don't know just
+what part of the swamp we're in. But if my foot was well I'd soon find
+out."
+
+"How, Mas' Sam?"
+
+"I'd climb that sweet gum and look for landmarks."
+
+"Lan' marks? what's dem, Mas' Sam? will dey bite?"
+
+"No, Joe, I mean I would look around and find something or other to
+steer by,--a house an open field or something."
+
+"I kin climb, Mas' Sam," replied Joe, "an' I'll be up dat dar tree in
+less'n no time."
+
+[Illustration: "WE 'S DUN LOS'--DATS WHAT WE IS."]
+
+And up the tree he went as nimbly as any squirrel might. As he went up,
+Sam cautioned him to make no noise, and not to shout, but to look around
+carefully, and then to come down and tell what he had seen.
+
+"I see a big openin'," said Joe, when he reached the ground again, "an'
+nigh de middle uv it dey's a big grove, wid a littler one jis' off to de
+left."
+
+"Yes," said Sam, "I thought you'd see that. That's where Watkins's house
+stood: now which way is it?"
+
+"Which-a-way's what, Mas' Sam?"
+
+"The opening with the groves in it."
+
+"I 'clar' I dunno, Mas' Sam."
+
+It had not entered Joe's head to mark the direction, and so he had to
+climb the tree again. In going up and coming down, however, he wound
+around the tree two or three times and was no wiser when he returned to
+the ground than before he began his ascent.
+
+"Look, Joe," said Sam. "Do you see that bright star through the trees?"
+
+"De brightest one, Mas' Sam?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Yes, I sees it."
+
+"Well, climb the tree, and when you get to the top, turn your face
+towards that star. Then see which way the opening is, and remember
+whether it is straight ahead of you, behind you, or to the right or
+left."
+
+Joe went up the tree again and this time managed to bring down the
+information that when he looked at the star the opening was on his left.
+
+With the knowledge of locality and direction thus gained, Sam was not
+long in finding his way to firm ground again, and as soon as he did so
+he selected a hiding-place for the day, as the morning was now at hand.
+
+The next night they had fewer difficulties, the woods through which they
+had to pass being freer from undergrowth than those they had already
+traversed, and when the third morning broke they were within a mile or
+two of Fort Glass. Sam thought at first of pushing on at once to the
+fort, but, seeing "Indian sign" in the shape of some smouldering fires
+near a spring, he abandoned the undertaking until night should come
+again, and hid his little company in the woods. Something to eat was the
+one immediate necessity. They were all nearly famished, and neither corn
+nor sweet potatoes were to be found anywhere in the vicinity. Sam
+directed the boys to bring some rushes from the creek bottoms, and
+peeling these, he and his companions ate the pith, which is slightly
+succulent and in a small degree nourishing. Sam had learned this fact by
+accident while out hunting one day, and Sam took care never to forget
+anything which might be useful. Towards night, when the rushes failed to
+satisfy their hunger, Sam was puzzling himself over the problem of
+getting food, when Tom asked him if he knew the name of a singular tree
+he had seen while out after rushes.
+
+"It has the biggest leaves I ever saw," he said, "and they all grow
+right out of its top. Some of 'em are six feet long, and they've got
+folds in 'em. There ain't any limbs to the tree at all."
+
+"Where did you see that?" asked Sam eagerly.
+
+"Right over there, about a hundred yards."
+
+"Good! It's palmetto. I didn't know there was one this far from the sea
+though. Here, take my big knife and you and Joe go and cut out as much
+as you can of the soft part just where the leaves come out. It's what
+they call palmetto cabbage, and it's very good to eat too, I can tell
+you."
+
+The boys, after receiving minute instructions, went to the palmetto-tree
+and brought away several pounds of the terminal bud. On this the little
+company made a hearty meal, finding the "cabbage," as it is called, a
+well-flavored, juicy and tender kind of white vegetable substance, very
+nourishing and as palatable as cocoanut, which it closely resembles in
+flavor. Storing what was left in their pockets, they began to prepare
+for their night's journey to the fort, which they hoped to reach within
+an hour or two. They were just on the point of starting when a party of
+Indians, under Weatherford, the great half-breed chief, who was the life
+and soul of the war, rode across a neighboring field, and settled
+themselves for supper within a dozen yards of Sam's camp. The sky was
+overcast with clouds, and so night fell even more quickly than it
+usually does in Southern latitudes, where there is almost no twilight
+at all. Sam made his companions lie down at the approach of the savages,
+and as soon as it was fairly dark, the little party crept silently away.
+Before leaving, however, Sam had heard enough of the conversation
+between Weatherford and Peter McQueen, the other great half-breed
+warrior, to know that he could not reach the fort that night. The two
+half-breeds talked most of the time in English, and Sam learned that
+they had a large body of Indians in the vicinity, who were scouring the
+country around Fort Glass. Sam knew enough of Indian warfare to know
+that there would be numerous small parties of savage scouts lurking
+immediately around the fort day and night, for the purpose of picking
+off any daring whites who might venture outside the gates, and
+especially any messenger who might attempt to pass from that to any
+other fortress. He knew, therefore, that for some time to come it would
+be impossible to reach Fort Glass, and penetrating the woods for a
+considerable distance he stopped and sat down on a log, burying his face
+in his hands, and telling his companions not to speak to him, as he
+wanted to think.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+SAM'S FORTRESS.
+
+
+Sam's companions kept perfectly still. Their reverence for Sam had grown
+with every foot of their travels, and their confidence in his ability to
+get out of any difficulty, and ultimately to accomplish his purposes in
+the face of any obstacle, was now quite unbounded. And so, when he told
+them it was impossible to reach the fort and that he wanted to think,
+they patiently awaited the results of his thinking, confident that he
+would presently hit upon precisely the right thing to do.
+
+After a while he raised his head from his hands and said:
+
+"Come on, we must get clear away from here before morning;" but he said
+not a word about where he was going. His course was now nearly
+south-east, and just as the day was breaking he stopped and said:
+
+"There is the river at last. Now let's go to sleep."
+
+They obeyed him unquestioningly, though they had not the faintest idea
+where they were or what river it was which he had seen a little way
+ahead. When Sam waked it was nearly noon, and he ate a little of the
+palmetto cabbage left in his pockets, while the others slept. His face
+was very pale, however, and he sat very still until his companions
+aroused themselves. Then he explained.
+
+"When I found that we could not get to Fort Glass, the question was,
+where should we go? Fort Stoddart is probably surrounded by Indians too,
+and so the only thing to do was to make our way down through the Tensaw
+Country to Mobile; but that is about eighty or a hundred miles away, and
+the fact is I am a little sick from my wound. My foot and leg are all
+swelled up, and I've been having a fever, so that I can't travel much
+further. It seemed to me that the best thing to do, under the
+circumstances, was to find a good hiding-place where it will be easy to
+get something to eat, and to stay there till I get better, or something
+turns up, and so I thought of the Alabama River as the very best place,
+because mussels and things of that kind are better than sweet potatoes,
+and here we are; now the next thing is to find a hiding-place, and I
+think I know where one is. It has a spring by it, too, which is a good
+thing, for drinking this swamp and creek water will make us all sick. I
+was all through here on a camp-hunt once, and I remember a place on the
+other side of the river where two big hollow trees stand right together
+on top of a sort of bluff. About fifty yards further down the river
+there is a spring, just under the bluff. We must find the place if we
+can, to-night, and to do it we must first get across the river. It's so
+low now we can easily wade it, I think, and Judie can be pushed across
+on a log."
+
+As soon as night fell the plan was put into execution. The river was
+extremely low at the time, and Sam was confident that by choosing a wide
+place for their crossing, they could wade the stream easily; but lest
+there might be a channel too deep for that, he fastened four logs
+together with grapevines, and putting Judie on this raft bade the two
+boys tow it over, telling them that if they should find the water too
+deep for wading at any point, they could easily support themselves by
+clinging to the logs. They had no difficulty, however, and were soon on
+the east bank of the stream. Sam's task was a much harder one. The
+current was very rapid and the bottom too soft for the easy use of his
+crutch, while his strength was almost gone. His spirit sustained him,
+however, and after a while he reached the shore. When all were landed,
+the search began for the hiding-place Sam had described. It proved to be
+more than a mile higher up the river, and when they found it, the day
+was breaking. The trees were not hollow, as Sam had supposed. The river
+bank in that place is in three terraces, and the two great trees stood
+almost alone on the second one of these. The sandy soil had been
+gradually washed out from under the great trunks, so that the trees
+proper began about fifteen feet from the ground, the space below being
+occupied by a great net-work of exposed roots, some of them a foot or
+two in thickness, and others varying in size all the way down to mere
+threads. The freshets which had washed the earth away from the roots,
+had piled a great mass of drift-wood against one side of them. Sam made
+a careful examination of the place, and then all went to work. The two
+boys so disposed some of the drift-wood as to make a sort of covered
+passage from the edge of the bank to the two trees whose roots were
+interlaced with each other. Sam cut away some of the roots with his
+jackknife so as to make an entrance, and once inside the circle of outer
+roots, he was not long in making a roomy hiding-place for the whole
+party, immediately under the great trees.
+
+[Illustration: JUDIE ON THE RAFT.]
+
+"We can enlarge our house with our knives whenever we choose," he said,
+"and if we stay here long enough, we must make Judie a room for herself
+under the other tree, with a passage leading from this into it."
+
+Sam said this to avoid saying something which would have alarmed and
+distressed the others. In truth he knew himself to be really ill, and
+believed that he would be much worse before being any better. For this
+reason he knew they must have more room than the present hiding-place
+afforded, and it was his plan to cut another room under the other tree,
+with a very narrow passage between. "Then," thought he, "if the Indians
+find us here, as I am afraid they will, they will find only poor sick
+Sam here in the outer room, and won't think of hunting further." Sam
+thought he was going to die at any rate, and his only care now was to
+save the lives of the others. He had made them gather some mussels at
+the river, and some green corn in a neighboring field, and he now said
+to the two boys, "These things must be cooked. It will not do for you to
+eat them raw any longer. They aren't wholesome that way, and so I've
+been thinking of a plan for cooking them. The spring is down under the
+lower bluff, and a fire down there won't make much smoke above the upper
+banks. We must make one out of drift-wood, but we mustn't use any pine.
+That smokes too much. The fire must be made in the daytime, because at
+night it would be seen too far. You boys must do the cooking, while I
+keep a look-out for Indians, and if any come within sight you can both
+get in here before they discover you, or if they do see you, they can't
+find you after you run away from the fire, and they will look for you
+out in the woods somewhere. Nobody would think of looking here. Now let
+me tell you how to cook the things. I was at a 'clam bake' in New
+England once, and I know how to make these mussels and corn taste well.
+You must dig a sort of fireplace in the sand bank and build your fire in
+there. When it burns away until you have a good bank of coals, you must
+put down on them a layer of the corn, in the shuck, then a layer of
+mussels, then a layer of corn, and finally cover them all up with coals
+and hot ashes, and leave them there for an hour or two, when they will
+be cooked beautifully."
+
+"But Mas' Sam," said Joe.
+
+"Well, what is it, Joe?"
+
+"How's we gwine to git de fire?"
+
+"Well, how do you think, Joe?"
+
+"I 'clare I dunno, Mas' Sam, 'thout you got some flints an' punk in your
+pockets."
+
+"No, I have no flints and no punk, Joe, but I'm going to get you some
+fire when the sun gets straight overhead."
+
+"Is you gwine to git it from de sun, Mas' Sam?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What wid, Mas' Sam?"
+
+"With water, Joe."
+
+"Wid water, Mas' Sam! You'se foolin'. How you gwine to git fire wid
+water, _I'd_ like to know."
+
+"Well, wait and see. I'm not fooling."
+
+To tell the truth, Tom was quite as much at a loss as Joe was, to know
+how Sam could get fire with water; but his confidence in his "big
+brother," as he called Sam, was too perfect to admit of a doubt or a
+question. As for Judie, she would hardly have raised her eyebrows if Sam
+had burned water, or whittled it into dolls' heads before her eyes. She
+believed in Sam absolutely, and supposed, as a matter of course, that he
+knew everything and could do anything he liked. But Joe was not yet
+satisfied that water could be made to assist in the kindling of a fire.
+He said nothing more, however, but carefully watched all of Sam's
+preparations.
+
+That young gentleman began by tearing a strip of cotton cloth from his
+shirt, and picking it to pieces. He then gathered from the drift-wood a
+number of dry sticks, and broke and split them up very fine.
+
+"We must have a few splinters of light-wood," he said; "but after the
+fire is once started, we mustn't put any more pine on."
+
+So saying, he split off a few splinters from a piece of rich heart-pine,
+which Southern people call "light-wood," because the negroes use it
+instead of lamps or candles.
+
+"Come now," said Sam, "its nearly noon, and I think I can get fire for
+you. Go up on top of the drift-pile, Tom, and look out for Indians. If
+you don't see any we can all go down to the spring together long enough
+to start a fire. Then I must come back to Judie, and I'll keep a
+look-out for Indians while you and Joe get the corn on. When you get it
+on, come back here and wait until it has time to cook. Stop a minute,
+Tom. Let's understand each other. If the one on the look-out sees
+Indians, he must let the others know; but it won't do to holler. Let me
+see. Can you whistle like a kildee, Tom?"
+
+"Yes, or like any other bird."
+
+"Can you, Joe?"
+
+"I reckon I _kin_, Mas' Sam," said Joe, who, to prove his powers
+straightway gave a shrill kildee whistle, which nearly deafened them
+all.
+
+"There, that'll do, Joe. Well, let's understand then, that if anyone of
+us sees Indians, he must whistle like a kildee. If the Indians hear it
+they'll think nothing of it."
+
+Tom went to the look-out, and seeing no savages anywhere, returned, and
+the whole party, little Judie excepted, proceeded to the spring. Sam
+then laid his sticks down in a pile, and taking out his watch removed
+the crystal. This he filled with clear water from the spring, and
+holding it over the cotton ravellings, moved it up and down until the
+sunlight, passing through it, gathered itself into a small bright spot
+on the cotton. Joe, eager to see, thrust his head over Sam's shoulder,
+and directly between the glass and the sun.
+
+"Take your head away, Joe, or I'll have to draw the fire right through
+it," said Sam, laughing.
+
+"Mercy, Mas' Sam, don't do dat. I'se 'feard o' your witches' ways,
+anyhow," said Joe, drawing back. The glass was again put in position
+and the spot of bright sunlight reappeared. Presently a little cloud of
+smoke rose, and a moment afterwards, the cotton was fairly afire. It was
+not difficult now to get the light-wood and dry sticks to blazing, and a
+good fire was soon secured.
+
+"Now boys," said Sam, "I'll go back to the drift-pile and keep a
+look-out. If you hear the kildee call, run in as quickly as you can.
+When you get the corn and mussels on, and covered up, come back at
+once."
+
+No Indians showing themselves anywhere in the neighborhood, the boys got
+their dinner on or rather _in_ the fire, and then returned to the root
+cavern to await the completion of the cooking process. When they were
+all safely stowed away in their places, Tom gave voice to the curiosity
+with which he was almost bursting.
+
+"Sam," he said, "how did you do that?"
+
+"How did I do what, Tom?"
+
+"How did you make the sun set the cotton on fire?"
+
+"I don't know whether I can make you understand it or not," said Sam,
+"but I'll try. You know light always goes in straight lines, if left to
+itself, don't you?"
+
+"No, I didn't know that!
+
+"Yes you did, only you never thought of it. If you want to keep light
+out of your eyes, you always put your hand between them and the light,
+because you know the light goes straight and so will not go around your
+hand."
+
+"Yes, that's true, and when I want to make a shadow anywhere, I put
+something right before the light."
+
+"Certainly. Well, the rays of the sun all come to us straight, and side
+by side. They are pretty hot, but not hot enough to set fire to anything
+that way. But if you can gather a good many of these rays together and
+make them all shine on one little spot, they will set fire to whatever
+they fall on. Now a piece of glass or any other thing that you can see
+through easily,--that is, any _transparent_ thing, lets the sunlight
+through it, and if it is flat on both sides, it doesn't change the
+directions of the rays. But if both sides are rounded out, or if one
+side is rounded out and the other side is flat, it turns all the rays a
+little, and brings them right together in a point not far from the
+glass. If the sides are hollowed _in_ instead of bulging out, the rays
+scatter, and if one side bulges out and the other bulges in, as they do
+in a watch crystal, one side scatters and the other side collects the
+rays, and so it is the same as if the glass had been perfectly flat, one
+side undoes the other's work. Now I have no glass which bulges out on
+both sides, and none that bulges out on one side and is flat on the
+other, but my watch crystal bulges out on one side and in on the other.
+But when I filled it with water, the water being as clear as the glass,
+it made it flat on top and bulging underneath, and so it gathered the
+sun's rays together in the light spot you saw, and set fire to the
+cotton."
+
+"Yes, but why did you have to wait till noon?" asked Tom.
+
+"Because the glass must be held right across the rays of light, and as I
+couldn't turn the crystal to either side without spilling the water, I
+had to use it at noon, when the sun was almost exactly overhead, and its
+rays came nearly straight down. If I had had a glass rounded out on both
+sides I could have got fire any time after the sun was well up in the
+sky. Now let me tell you what they call all these different kinds of
+glasses. One that is flat on one side and bulges out on the other is
+called a _convex lens_; if it bulges out on both sides it is a _double
+convex lens_; if it is hollowed in on one side and flat on the other it
+is a _concave lens_; if hollowed in on both sides we call it a _double
+concave lens_; and when it is hollowed in on one side and bulged out on
+the other, as any watch crystal does, it is a _concave convex lens_."
+
+"Where did you learn all that, Sam?" asked Tom.
+
+"I learned part of it with father's spectacles, and part out of a book
+father lent me when I asked him why I couldn't make the bright, hot spot
+with a pair of near-sighted glasses that I found in one of mother's old
+work boxes. You see, when people begin to get old, their eyes flatten a
+little, and so everything they look at seems to be shaved off. They see
+well enough at a distance, but can't see small things close to them."
+
+"Is that the reason pa always looks over his spectacles when he looks at
+me?" asked Judie.
+
+"Yes, little woman. He can't see to read without his glasses, but he
+can see you across the room without them, well enough. Well, to remedy
+this defect, old people wear spectacles with double convex lenses in
+them. But near-sighted people have exactly the opposite trouble. They
+can't see things except by bringing them near their eyes, because their
+eyes are not flat enough, and so their spectacles are made with double
+concave lenses. When I asked father about it, he gave me a book that
+explained it all, and that is where I learned the little I know about
+it."
+
+"The _little_! I'd like to know what you call a good deal," said Tom. "I
+never saw anybody that knew half as much as you do."
+
+"That is only because we live in a new country, Tom, where there are no
+very well educated people, and because you don't know how much there is
+to learn in the world. If these Indians ever get quiet, I hope to learn
+a good deal more every year than I know now. But it's time to see about
+our mussel bake. Run to the look-out, Tom, and then we can all go down
+and bring up the dinner."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+SURPRISED.
+
+
+The baked corn and mussels made a savory dish, or one which would have
+been savory enough but for the absence of salt. The boys knew well
+enough that salt was not to be had, however, and so they made a joke of
+its absence, and even pretended that they did not like their food salted
+at any time. Little Judie was so hungry that she cared very little
+whether food tasted well or not, provided it satisfied her appetite.
+
+The rest and the more wholesome food seemed to restore Sam to something
+like his customary strength during the first ten days of his stay in the
+"root fortress," as he had named their singular dwelling. His wounded
+foot got better, though it was still far from well, and, better than
+all, his fever left him. As he regained strength he began to lay plans
+again. To stay where they were was well enough as a temporary device for
+escaping the savages, but Sam's main purpose now was to get the little
+people under his charge back to civilization somewhere, and then to do
+his part in the war between the Indians and whites. He must first find a
+way to get Tom and Judie and Joe into one of the forts or into some safe
+town, and how to do this was the problem. He was unwilling to take them
+away from their present pretty secure hiding-place until he could decide
+upon some definite plan offering a reasonable prospect of escape. If he
+could have known as much as we now know of the movements of the savages,
+he would have had little difficulty. The larger part of the Indians had
+left the peninsula now forming Clarke County, and crossed to the
+south-eastern shore of the Alabama river,--the side on which Sam's root
+fortress stood, and if he could have known this, he would have made an
+effort to cross the river again and reach Fort Glass. The chief
+difficulty in the way of this undertaking would have been that of
+crossing the river, which was now swollen by recent rains. He knew
+nothing about the matter, however, and as Fort Mims, the first point
+attacked by the savages, was on the south-east side of the river, he
+reasoned that having afterwards crossed to Clarke County the Indians
+would not again cross to the south-east side in any considerable force.
+In this, as we know, he was mistaken, and the error led him into some
+danger, as we shall see. Thinking the matter over, he decided that his
+first plan of a march down through the Tensaw Country to the
+neighborhood of Mobile would be the safest and best thing to undertake.
+He was unwilling, however, to begin it with his companions without
+making a preliminary reconnoissance. Accordingly he explained the plan
+to Tom and Joe, and said:
+
+"I'm going to-night down towards old Fort Mims, to see if the country is
+pretty free from Indians, and to find out what I can about the chance of
+getting away from here. I'll leave you here with Judie, and you must be
+extra careful about exposing yourselves. You've corn and mussels and
+sweet potatoes enough already cooked, to last you a week, and I'll
+probably be back before that; if not you must eat them raw till I do
+come: it won't do to build a fire while I'm away." After giving minute
+directions for their guidance during his absence, Sam put a sweet potato
+in one pocket and an ear of corn in the other, and set out on his
+journey, walking with a stout stick, having discarded his crutch as no
+longer necessary. How far he walked that night, I am unable to say, his
+course being a very circuitous one. The moon rose full, soon after dark,
+and shone so brightly that Sam dared not cross the fields, but skirted
+around them keeping constantly in the woods and the edges of canebrakes.
+The next night and the next he continued his journey, though he found
+the country full of Indians. He saw their "sign" everywhere, and now and
+then saw some of the Indians themselves. The fourth evening found him so
+lame (his foot having swelled and become painful again) that he could
+not possibly go on. He had already gone far enough to discover that the
+country on that side of the river was too full of Indians for him to
+carry his little party safely through it, and so he determined to work
+his way back to the root fortress, and try the other side. Seeing a
+house in a field near by the place in which he had spent the day, he
+resolved to visit it for the purpose of bringing away any article he
+could find which might be useful to him in his effort to provide for his
+little band. In a grove near the house he found a horse,--a young and
+powerful animal, and as he feared his lameness would not permit him to
+reach his root fortress again on foot, he determined to ride the animal
+in spite of the fact that on horseback he would be in much greater
+danger of discovery by the Indians than on foot. The horse had a bridle
+on, and had evidently escaped, probably during a skirmish, from its
+white or red master.
+
+Sam tied him in the grove, and went on to the house, which had been
+sacked and partially burned. Looking around in the moonlight, Sam
+discovered a hatchet, and, in the corner of what had once been a
+store-house, the remains of a barrel of salt. These were two valuable
+discoveries. The hatchet would be of great service to him not only in
+the root fortress but even more in forcing a pathway through the
+canebrakes when he should again cross the river and try to reach one of
+the forts. The salt he must have at any cost, and as he had no bag he
+made one by ripping off the sleeve of his coat and tying its ends with
+strips of bark. He had just filled it, and tied up the ends when,
+hearing a noise, he turned, and saw two Indians within six feet of him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+CONFUSED.
+
+
+The two Indians who had startled Sam, were on the point of entering the
+old dwelling house, and seemingly were unaccompanied by any others. Sam
+happened fortunately to be standing in shadow, and they passed without
+seeing him. But what was he now to do? He was at the back of the house,
+and a high picket fence around the place made it impossible for him to
+escape by the front-way, towards which the savages had gone. Looking
+through the door-way, he saw that the pair had passed through the room
+nearest him and into the adjoining apartment. He knew that other Indians
+were in the neighborhood, and that a dozen of them might wander into the
+enclosure at any moment. Resolving upon a bold manoeuvre, he stepped
+lightly into the rear room of the house, and climbed up inside the wide
+mouthed chimney. Whether the Indians heard him or not he never knew, but
+at any rate he was none too soon in hiding, for he had hardly cleared
+the fireplace in his ascent when four or five savages came into the room
+and began to demolish the few articles of furniture left in the house.
+They had got whiskey somewhere, and having drank freely were even
+noisier than white men get under the influence of strong drink. They
+remained but a short time, when, setting fire again to the half-burned
+house, they left the place yelling as savages only can. Sam escaped as
+soon as he could from his uncomfortable quarters and made his way to the
+grove. Mounting his horse he rode away in the direction of the root
+fortress, keeping in the woods as well as he could and taking every
+precaution to avoid coming suddenly upon savages.
+
+As he rode only at night, the Indians' almost universal habit of
+building camp-fires wherever they stop for the night, helped him to
+avoid them. When morning came he sought a place deep in the forest, when
+he turned his horse loose to graze all day, while he slept at some
+distance from the animal, so that the noise of the beast's stamping and
+browsing might not lead to the discovery of his own whereabouts.
+
+As the evening of the second day of his return came round, Sam found
+himself genuinely sick. His foot and leg were much inflamed, and the
+excitement of the preceding night, together with his continued exposure
+to the drenching dews of the Southern autumn, had brought back his fever
+with increased violence, and a very brief experiment convinced him that
+he could not go further that night. He mounted his horse, but had ridden
+less than a mile when he felt a giddiness coming over him and found it
+necessary to abandon the effort to ride that night. He could hardly see,
+and the pain in his head, neck, back and limbs was excruciating. He
+dismounted and threw himself down on the ground without taking the
+trouble even to separate himself from his horse. The truth is, Sam had
+what they call in South Carolina country fever, a high type of malarial
+fever, which stupefies and benumbs its victim almost as soon as it
+attacks him. The dews in the far South, especially in the fall, are so
+heavy that the water will drip and even stream off the foliage of the
+trees all night, and Sam had been drenched every night during both his
+journeys, having no fire by which to warm himself or dry his clothes.
+Even without this drenching the poisonous exhalations of the swamps and
+woods would doubtless have given him the fever, and as it was he had it
+very severely. He laid down again almost under his horse's feet and fell
+into a sort of stupor. He knew that his fever required treatment, and
+that it would rapidly sap his strength, and the thought came to him:
+What if he should die there and never get back to the tree fortress? He
+was too sick to care for himself, but the thought of little Judie
+haunted his dreams, and he was seized with a semi-delirious impulse to
+remount his horse and ride straight away to the hiding-place in which he
+had left her, regardless of Indians, and of everything else. He dreamed
+a dozen times that he was doing this, and finally, when morning came, he
+forgot all about the danger of travelling by daylight, and mounting his
+horse in a confused, half-delirious way, rode straight out of the woods
+towards the open country, which he had hitherto so carefully avoided.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+WEATHERFORD.
+
+
+The fiercest and most conspicuous leader of the Indians in this war was
+William Weatherford, or the Red Eagle, as the Indians called him. He is
+commonly spoken of in history as a half-breed, but he was in reality
+almost a white man, with just enough of the Indian in his composition to
+add savage emotions to Scotch intellect and Scotch perseverance. His
+father was a Scotchman, and his mother a half-breed Indian Princess. He
+was brought up in the best civilization the border had, his father being
+wealthy. He became very rich himself, and, despite his savage instincts,
+which were always strong, his wealth, in land and slaves, made him a
+conservative. At first he favored a war with the whites, but a calmer
+afterthought led him to desire peace, and when he found that the
+tempest he had helped to stir up would not subside at his bidding, he
+began casting about for a way of escape. He was a man of unquestionable
+genius; a soldier of rare strategic ability; an orator of the truest
+sort, and his courage in danger was simply sublime. Such a man was
+likely to be of great value to the Indians in their approaching war, and
+when they began to suspect his loyalty to the nation, they watched him
+narrowly. Finding it impossible to postpone the war, and not wishing to
+sacrifice his fine property near the Holy Ground, he made a secret
+journey to the residence of his half brother David Tait and his brother
+John Weatherford, who lived among what were known as the "peacefuls,"
+namely, the Indians disposed to remain at peace with the whites in any
+event. His brothers, hearing his story, advised him to bring his
+negroes, horses and movable property generally, together with his
+family, to their plantations, and to remain there, inactive and neutral,
+during the struggle. When he returned to his residence for the purpose
+of doing this, however, he found that the hostile Indians had seized his
+family and his negroes as hostages, and, under the compulsion of their
+threat that they would kill his wife and children if he should dare to
+remain at peace, he joined in the war against the whites, becoming the
+fiercest of all the chieftains. He planned and led the assault upon Fort
+Mims, and was everywhere foremost in all the fighting. When the Creeks
+were utterly routed at the battle of the Holy Ground a month or so after
+the time of which I am writing, General Jackson issued a proclamation
+refusing terms of peace to the chiefs until Weatherford, whom he had
+determined to put to death, should be brought to him, alive or dead.
+Weatherford hearing of this, although he was safe beyond the borders and
+might have easily made his escape to Florida, as his comrade Peter
+McQueen did, rode straightway to Jackson's head-quarters, where he said
+to the commander who had set a price upon his head:--
+
+"I am Weatherford. I have come to ask peace for my people. I am in your
+power. Do with me as you please. I am a soldier. I have done the white
+people all the harm I could. I have fought them and fought them bravely.
+If I yet had an army I would fight and contend to the last. But I have
+none. My people are all gone. I can now do no more than weep over the
+misfortunes of my nation."
+
+Jackson was so impressed with the sublime courage and the dignity of the
+man upon whose head he had set a price, that he treated him at once with
+chivalrous consideration. He told him that the only terms upon which the
+Indians could secure peace were unconditional submission and uniform
+good conduct; but "as for yourself," he said, "if you do not like the
+terms, no advantage shall be taken of your present surrender. You are at
+liberty to depart and resume hostilities when you please. But if you are
+taken then, your life shall pay the forfeit of your crimes."
+
+Weatherford calmly folded his arms and replied; "I desire peace for no
+selfish reasons, but that my nation may be relieved from its sufferings;
+for independent of the other consequences of the war, my people's cattle
+are destroyed and their women and children destitute of provisions. I
+may well be addressed in such language now. There was a time when I had
+a choice and could have answered you. I have none now. Even hope has
+ended. Once I could animate my warriors to battle. But I cannot animate
+the dead. My warriors can no longer hear my voice. Their bones are at
+Talladega, Tallashatche, Emuckfaw and Tohopeka. I have not surrendered
+myself thoughtlessly. While there were chances of success I never left
+my post nor supplicated peace. But my people are gone, and I now ask
+peace for my nation and myself. On the miseries and misfortunes brought
+upon my country, I look back with the deepest sorrow, and wish to avert
+still greater calamities. If I had been left to contend with the Georgia
+army, I would have raised my corn on one bank of the river and fought
+them on the other. But your people have destroyed my nation. General
+Jackson, you are a brave man,--I am another. I do not fear to die. But I
+rely upon your generosity. You will exact no terms of a conquered and
+helpless people but those to which they should accede. Whatever they may
+be it would now be folly and madness to oppose them. If they are
+opposed, you shall find me among the sternest enforcers of obedience.
+Those who would still hold out can only be influenced by a mean spirit
+of revenge. To this they must not and shall not sacrifice the last
+remnant of their country. You have told us what we may do and be safe.
+Yours is a good talk, and my nation ought to listen to it. They _shall_
+listen to it."[1]
+
+[Footnote 1: For these speeches of Weatherford's and for other
+historical details I am indebted to a valuable and interesting book,
+"Romantic Passages in South Western History," by A. B. Mull, Mobile, S.
+H. Goetzsl & Co. publishers, which is now, unfortunately out of print.
+The speeches are well authenticated I believe.]
+
+Jackson was too generous and too brave a man to remain unmoved under
+such a speech from a man who thus placed his own life in jeopardy for
+the sake of his people. He bade the chieftain return home, and promised
+peace to his people, a promise faithfully kept to this day. All this
+however occurred nearly two months after the time of which I write, and
+it is introduced here merely by way of explaining the things which
+happened to Sam on the morning of the rash resumption of his journey.
+
+This man Weatherford, the fiercest enemy the whites had, with a party
+of about twenty-five Indians, bivouacked, the night before, in the edge
+of the woods, and when Sam mounted his horse that morning the Indians
+were lying asleep immediately in his path as he rode blindly out of the
+thicket. The first intimation he had of their presence was a grunt from
+a big savage who lay almost under his horse's feet. Coming to himself in
+an instant, Sam took in the whole situation at a glance, and with the
+rapidity and precision which people who are accustomed to the dangers
+and difficulties of frontier life always acquire, he mentally weighed
+all the facts bearing upon the question of what to do, and decided. He
+saw before him the savages, rising from the ground at sight of him. He
+saw their horses browsing at some little distance from them. He saw a
+rifle, on which hung a powder-horn and a bullet-pouch, standing against
+a bush. He saw that he had already aroused the foe, and that he must
+stand a chase. His first impulse was to turn around and ride back, in
+the direction whence he had come; but in that direction lay the thicket
+through which he could not ride rapidly, and so if he should take that
+course, he would lose the advantage which he hoped to gain from the
+fleetness of his particularly good horse. Besides, in the thicket he
+must of course leave a trail easily followed. Just beyond the group of
+Indians he saw the open fields, and he made up his mind at once that he
+would push his horse into a run, dash right through the camp of the
+savages, pick up the convenient rifle if possible, and reaching the open
+country make all the speed he could. In this he knew he would have an
+advantage, inasmuch as he would get a good many hundred yards away
+before the savages could catch and mount their horses for the purpose of
+pursuing him, and he even hoped that they, seeing how far he was in
+advance of them, would abandon the idea of pursuit altogether. All this
+thinking, and weighing of chances, and deciding was the work of a single
+half second, and the plan, once formed, was executed instantly. Without
+pausing or turning he pushed his horse at a full run through the group
+of savages, receiving a glancing blow from a war club and dodging
+several others as he went. He succeeded in getting possession of the
+rifle which stood by the bush, and reached the field before a gun could
+be aimed at him. It was now his purpose to get so far ahead as to
+discourage pursuit, and with this object in view he continued to urge
+his horse forward at his best speed. This hope was a vain one, as he
+soon discovered. The Indians, infuriated by his boldness, mounted their
+horses and gave chase immediately. Sam had an excellent habit, as we
+know, of keeping his wits about him, and of preparing carefully for
+difficulties likely to come. The first thing to be done was to escape,
+if possible, and so he continued to press his high-spirited colt
+forward, while he debated the probabilities of being overtaken, and
+discussed with himself the resources at his command if the savages
+should come up with him. He was armed now, at any rate, and if running
+should prove of no avail, he could and would sell his life very dearly.
+Indeed the possession of the rifle roused all the spirit of battle there
+was in him, and great as the odds were against him, he was sorely
+tempted to pause long enough to shoot once at least. He remembered Tom
+and Judie and Joe, however, and their dependence upon him for guidance
+and protection, and for their sake more than for his own, suppressed
+the impulse and continued his flight. The Indians were nearly half a
+mile behind him, and, as nearly as he could tell, were not gaining upon
+him very rapidly. His colt seemed equal to a long continued race, and as
+yet showed no sign of faltering or fatigue. The question had now
+resolved itself, Sam thought, into one of endurance. How long the
+Indians would continue a pursuit in which he had the advantage of half a
+mile the start, he had no way of determining, but that his horse's
+endurance was as great at least as their perseverance, he had every
+reason to hope.
+
+Just as he had comforted himself with this thought, a new danger
+assailed him. One of the Indians, it seemed, taking advantage of a
+minute knowledge of the country, had saved a considerable distance by
+riding through a strip of woods and cutting off an angle. When Sam first
+caught sight of him, coming out of the woods, the savage was within a
+dozen yards of him, and evidently gaining upon him at every step. Sam's
+horse was a fleet one, but that of the Indian was apparently a
+thoroughbred, whose speed remained nearly as great after a mile's run
+as at the start. Knowing the Indians' skill in shooting while riding at
+full speed, Sam leaned as far as he could to one side, so that as little
+as possible of his person should be exposed to his pursuer's aim. He
+continued to press his horse too, but the savage gained steadily.
+Finding at last that he must shortly be overtaken, Sam resolved upon a
+bold manoeuvre, by which to kill his foremost pursuer. Seizing the
+hatchet he had brought away from the house, he suddenly stopped his
+horse, and, as the Indian came along-side, aimed a savage blow at his
+head.
+
+"Don't you know me, Sam?" said the Indian in good English, dodging the
+blow. "I'm Weatherford. If I'd wanted to kill you I might have done so a
+dozen times in the last five minutes. You know I don't want to kill
+_you_, though you're the only white man on earth I'd let go. But the
+others will make an end of you if they catch you. Ride on and I'll chase
+you. Turn to the left there and ride to the bluff. I'll follow you.
+There's a gully through the top. Ride down it as far as you can and jump
+your horse over the cliff. It's nearly fifty feet high, and may kill
+you, but it's the only way. The other warriors are coming up and
+they'll kill you sure if you don't jump. Jump, and I'll tell 'em I
+chased you over."
+
+Sam knew Weatherford well, and he knew why the blood-thirsty chief
+wished to spare him if he could, for Sam had rescued Weatherford once
+from an imminent peril at great risk to himself, though the story is too
+long to be told here. Whether or not there is nobleness enough in the
+Indian character to make the savage remember a benefit received, I am
+sure I cannot say, but Weatherford was _three-fourths white_, and with
+all his ferocity in war, history credits him with more than one generous
+impulse like that by which Sam was now profiting. The two rode on,
+Weatherford pretending to be in hot pursuit, shooting occasionally and
+yelling at every leap of his horse. The bluff towards which they rode
+was probably a hundred feet high, and was washed at its base by a deep
+but sluggish creek, on the other side of which lay a densely wooded
+swamp. Through the top of the bluff, however, was a sort of fissure or
+ravine washed by the flow of water during the rainy season, and where it
+terminated the height of its mouth above the stream was not more than
+forty or fifty feet. Down this gully Sam rode furiously, so that his
+horse might not be able to refuse the leap, which was a frightful one.
+Coming to the edge of the precipice with headlong speed, the animal
+could not draw back but plunged over with Sam sitting bolt upright on
+his back. Riding back to the top of the bank Weatherford met his
+warriors.
+
+[Illustration: THE PERILOUS LEAP.]
+
+"Where is he?" asked the foremost.
+
+"His _body_ is down there in the creek. I drove him over the precipice,"
+said the chief with well-feigned delight.[2]
+
+[Footnote 2: This incident of the leap over the precipice is strictly
+historical, else I should never have ventured to print it here.
+Weatherford himself, on the 23d of December, 1813, after the battle of
+Tohopeka, escaped a body of dragoons in a precisely similar manner. A
+still more remarkable leap was that of Major Samuel McCullock, on the 2d
+of September 1777, over a precipice fully 300 feet high near Wheeling,
+West Virginia. He jumped over on horseback, thinking such a death
+preferable to savage torture, but singularly enough, both he and his
+horse escaped unhurt.]
+
+His purpose evidently, was to satisfy the warriors that Sam was
+certainly killed, so that they might pursue him no further. Whether he
+was yet alive or not, Weatherford himself had no means of knowing. The
+last he had seen of him was as he went over the precipice, sitting bolt
+upright on his horse, grasping his rifle and looking straight ahead. He
+heard a splash in the water below, after which everything was still.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+WEARY WAITING.
+
+
+The days seemed very long to Tom and Joe and little Judie after Sam left
+on his journey. They had nothing to do but to sit still in their corners
+among the roots all day, and time always drags very slowly when people
+are doing nothing. Their provisions, as we know, were already
+cooked,--enough of them at least, to last a week, and before Sam left he
+had made them bring more than a bushel of sweet potatoes and all the
+corn they could find which was still soft enough to eat, and store it
+away for use if his return should be delayed in any way. The result was
+that their legs got no stretching, and they became moody, dispirited and
+unhappy before the second day of Sam's absence had come to an end. They
+found doing nothing the hardest and the dullest work they ever had done
+in their lives. Joe managed to sleep most of the time, but Tom was
+nervous, and poor little Judie, without Sam to depend upon, grew
+low-spirited and began to fear all sorts of evil things. Finally Sam's
+week was up and Sam had not appeared. The little people were now fairly
+frightened. What had become of him? they wondered. Had he fallen into
+the hands of the Indians? And if so, what were they to do now? They had
+never before known how dependent they were upon him. Even during his
+absence they had been regulating their lives by his minute instructions,
+and depending upon him for guidance after he should return. But what if
+he should never return? And why hadn't he come already? These thoughts
+were too much for them. Judie sat in her corner brooding over her
+trouble, and crying a little now and then. Joe was simply frightened,
+and his eyes grew bigger and rounder than ever. Tom was sustained in
+part by the thought that the burden of responsibility was now on him,
+and so he suppressed all manifestations of uneasiness, as well as he
+could, and gave himself up to the duty of studying the situation,
+calculating his resources and trying to decide what was the best thing
+to be done if Sam should not come back at all. He hit upon several
+excellent ideas, but made up his mind that before trying to put any of
+them into practice he would wait at least a fortnight longer for Sam's
+return. Their stock of provisions, eaten raw, would last much longer
+than that, and the fields were full of sweet potatoes, wherefore he
+wisely thought it best not to lose any chance of having Sam to do the
+thinking and planning. He was so anxious for his brother's return that
+he spent the greater part of his time on the drift-pile where he had
+built himself a little observatory, so arranged that he could see in
+every direction without the possibility of being seen in his turn.
+
+Sitting there in his look-out, watching for Sam, he had time to think of
+many things. His thinking was not always wise, as a matter of course,
+but for a boy of his age it did very well, certainly, and one day he hit
+upon a really valuable idea.
+
+The way it came about was this. He fell into a reverie, and remembered
+the happy old days at home, and one day in particular, when he was busy
+all day making a little wagon in which to give Judie a ride, and he
+remembered how very short that day seemed, although it was in June. Just
+then it popped into his head to think that there was a reason for
+everything, and that that day had seemed so short only because he had
+been very busy as its hours went by. If he had known what
+"generalization" means, he would have generalized this truth as
+follows:--
+
+"Time passes rapidly with busy people." He did nothing of the kind,
+however. He only thought.
+
+"If poor little Judie had something to keep her busy all the time, she
+wouldn't be so miserable."
+
+And so he cudgelled his brains to invent some plan or other by which to
+set Judie at work and keep her at it all the time.
+
+When he returned to the fortress towards night, he said to the little
+woman; "Judie, I reckon poor Sam's foot is troubling him again, and
+that's the reason he hasn't got back yet. He'll work along slowly and
+get here after a while, but I'm afraid he'll be dreadfully tired and
+sick when he comes. We must have a good soft bed ready for him so that
+he can get a good rest."
+
+To this Judie assented, though in her heart she feared she should never
+see Sam again, as indeed Tom did too, though neither would admit the
+fact to the other.
+
+"Now I've been thinking," said Tom, "that it wont do, if he comes back
+half sick, to let him lie on green moss with all the outside on. Let me
+show you."
+
+And taking a strand of the long moss he scraped the greenish gray
+outside off, leaving a black strand like a horse hair.
+
+"There," he said, "Sam told me once that it's the soft outside part that
+holds water, while the inside is dry almost always. Now why can't we
+scrape the outside off of a great deal of moss and have the dry inside
+ready for Sam to sleep on when he comes back? It'll surprise him and
+he'll be glad too. He never cared for himself much, but he'll be glad to
+see that we care for him."
+
+The plan pleased little Judie wonderfully well. She was always delighted
+to do anything for Sam, and now that she was uneasy about him, and kept
+thinking of him as dead or dying or sick somewhere, and could hardly
+keep her tears back, nothing could have pleased her so well as to work
+for his comfort. Tom and Joe went out after dark, and brought in a large
+lot of moss, and the next morning all went to work, Judie made very
+little progress with her scraping, but she kept steadily at it, and it
+served its purpose in making her less miserable than before. The days
+passed more rapidly to Tom and Joe, too, and the whole party grew more
+cheerful under the influence of work. It was now ten days, however,
+since Sam had gone away, and his non-appearance was really alarming.
+When work stopped for the night, the thought of Sam was uppermost in the
+minds of all three, and for the first time they talked freely of the
+matter.
+
+Tom was disposed to cheer himself by cheering the others, and so he
+explained:
+
+"It's about forty-five miles to where Fort Mims stood, so Sam told me,
+and he said he might go nearly that far, if he didn't see Indians. If he
+went only thirty-five miles it would take him four or five nights; say
+five nights, and five more to come back would make ten. But may be his
+foot got sore, or Indians got in the way, and so it has taken him longer
+than he thought. I don't think we ought to be uneasy even if he should
+stay two weeks in all."
+
+That was all very well as a theory, and true enough too, but Tom was
+uneasy, nevertheless, and so were Joe and Judie. The worst of it was
+that none of them could hide the fact. The eleventh day came, and with
+it came an excitement. Tom was the first to wake, and without waiting
+for the others, he proceeded to make his breakfast off an ear of raw
+corn, which was almost hard enough to grind, and altogether too hard to
+be eaten as green corn at any well-regulated table. Tom ate it, however,
+having nothing better, and when Judie waked he offered her a softer ear,
+which he had carefully selected and laid aside. Judie tried but couldn't
+eat it. She was faint and almost sick, and found it impossible to
+swallow the raw corn.
+
+"Poor little sister," said Tom. "If I had any fire I'd roast a potato
+for you to-day anyhow, but the fire's all out and I can't."
+
+"Mas' Tom!" said Joe, "I'll tell you what! I dun see a heap o' fox
+grapes down dar by de creek, an' I'se gwine to git some for Miss Judie
+quicker'n you kin count ten." And so saying Joe ran first to the
+look-out, to make a preliminary reconnoissance. The boys rarely ever
+left the trees during the daytime, and when they did so they were
+careful first to satisfy themselves that there were no savages in the
+neighborhood. The creek, of which Joe spoke, emptied into the river a
+short distance above the root fortress, and, along its banks was a dense
+mass of undergrowth, which skirted the river below, all the way to the
+drift-pile. Joe had seen the grapes from the look-out, and had planned
+an excursion after them. He could follow the river bank to the creek,
+keeping in the bushes and moving cautiously, and if any Indians should
+appear he could retreat in the same way, without discovery. Tired of raw
+corn and sweet potatoes, the grapes had tempted him sorely, and it only
+needed Judie's longing for a change of diet to induce him, to make this
+foraging expedition.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+FIGHTING FIRE.
+
+
+Before proceeding to relate the incidents which follows, it is necessary
+to explain a little more fully the arrangement of the root fortress and
+the drift-pile. The two trees, which were enormous ones, had originally
+grown as close together as they could, and their roots had interlaced
+beneath the soil. The sand in which they grew having been gradually
+washed away, their great masses of roots were exposed for about fifteen
+feet below the original level of the soil and as they spread out they
+made two circles (one running a foot or two into the other), of about
+twelve or fifteen feet in diameter. Inside of this circle of great
+roots, the roots were mostly small, and the boys had cut them away with
+their knives, leaving just enough of them to stop up all the holes and
+obscure the view from without. The drift-pile, or hammock, as it is
+sometimes called at the South, had been years in forming, being
+drift-wood which had floated down the river during winter and spring
+freshets, and as it had lodged against the trees it lay only on their
+upper side, where it was piled up into a perpendicular wall nearly
+twenty feet high. Thence it stretched away up the river for a hundred
+yards or more. Now the only entrance big enough to admit a person into
+the root fortress was on the side next to the drift, and it opened only
+into an alley-way which the boys had partly found and partly made
+through the drift. This alley-way led past several little aisles running
+out to the right and left for a dozen yards or so,--aisles formed by the
+irregular piling of the logs on top of each other. In the fortress there
+were a dozen places at least, where the big roots were sufficiently wide
+apart to admit a grown man easily, but the boys had left the smaller
+roots which covered these gaps undisturbed, and cut only the one
+entrance. After cutting that on the side next the hammock, they had
+moved some of the drift so as to close up the sides of the entrance and
+make it open only into the alley-way. All this had been done under Sam's
+supervision, and as a result of his prudence and fore thought.
+
+Joe had been gone nearly half an hour when he burst suddenly into the
+chamber in which the others were. His hands were full of the wild
+grapes, but of those he was evidently not thinking. His face was of that
+peculiar hue which black faces assume when if they were white faces they
+would grow pale; and his lips, usually red, were of an ashy brown. His
+eyes were of the shape of saucers, and seemed not much smaller. He
+gasped for breath in an alarming way, and Tom saw that the poor fellow
+was frightened almost out of his wits.
+
+"What's the matter Joe? Tell me quick," said the younger boy.
+
+"O Mas' Tom, we'se dun surrounded. I was jest a-gittin' de grapes when I
+seed a'most a thousand Injuns a-comin,' an' I dun run my life a'most out
+a-gittin' here. Dey did not see me, but I seed dem, an' I tell you dey's
+de biggest Injuns you ever did see. I 'clar dey's mos' as tall as
+trees."
+
+"How many of 'em are there, Joe?" asked Tom standing up.
+
+"I couldn't count 'em e'zactly, Mas' Tom, but I reckon dey's not less'n
+a thousand of 'em,--maybe two thousan' for all I know."
+
+"Where are they, and what were they doing?" asked Tom; but before Joe
+could answer, the voices of the Indians themselves indicated their
+whereabouts, and Tom discerned that they were disagreeably close to his
+elbow.
+
+Seeking a place in which to cook their breakfast the savages had
+selected the corner formed by the root fortress and the drift-pile as a
+proper place for a fire, and were now breaking up sticks with which to
+start one. They were just outside the fortress, and either of the boys
+could have touched them by pushing his arm out between the roots. Tom
+motioned the others to keep absolutely silent, and going a little way
+into the hammock, through the passage way he managed to find a place
+from which he could see the intruders. He soon discovered that Joe's
+account of them was slightly exaggerated in two important particulars.
+They were only ordinary Indians, neither larger nor smaller than grown
+Indians usually are, and instead of a thousand there were but three of
+them in all.
+
+But three fully grown Indians were enough to justify a good deal of
+apprehension, and if they should discover the party in the tree, Tom
+knew very well they would make very short work of their destruction. He
+crept back to the tree therefore and again cautioned Joe and Judie, in a
+whisper, not to speak or make any other noise. Then he returned to his
+place of observation and watched the Indians. They soon made a crackling
+fire and proceeded to broil some game they had killed, this and the
+eating which followed occupied perhaps an hour, during which Tom made
+frequent journeys to the little room, nominally for the purpose of
+cautioning the others to keep still, but really to work off some portion
+of his uneasiness, which was growing with every moment. He was terrified
+at first upon general principles, as any other boy of eleven years old
+would have been. Then he was afraid that the Indians would by some
+accident, lean something against the curtain of small roots between two
+other big trees, and that the curtain might not be strong enough to
+support it, in which event their hiding-place would be discovered at
+once. He was afraid, too, that some slight noise inside the fortress
+might catch the uncommonly quick ears of the Indians.
+
+All these were dangers well worth considering; but now a new, and much
+greater danger began to show itself. The drift was largely composed of
+light wood, and from his hiding-place Tom could see that the fire built
+by the trees had communicated itself to the hammock, and that the flames
+were rapidly spreading. The danger now was that the fire would burn into
+the alley-way and so cut off retreat from the fortress, and if so those
+inside would be burned alive. Quitting his place of observation
+therefore, he established himself as a sentry in the alley-way, having
+determined, if the fire should approach the passage, to take Joe and
+Judie out of the fortress and into one of the aisles near the farther
+edge of the drift-pile. Having begun to plan he saw all the
+possibilities of the case and tried to provide for all. He knew that if
+the wind should drive the flames into the drift the whole pile would be
+destroyed in a very brief time, but in that case, he reasoned, the black
+smoke of the resinous pine would make it impossible for the Indians to
+see very far in that direction, and so he resolved, if the worst came,
+to lead his companions out of the upper end of the hammock, into the
+bushes and so escape to the creek, where he hoped to find a hiding-place
+of some sort. He had got this far in his planning when he heard Judie
+cough, and stepping quickly into the room found it full of smoke. Seeing
+that to stay there was to suffocate, he beckoned his companions to
+follow, and stepping lightly they passed down the alley-way and sat down
+in one of the aisles, behind a great sycamore log which ran across the
+pile. Peeping over this log Tom saw the three Indians shoulder their
+guns and walk away. He ran at once to the look-out, and though the smoke
+almost blinded him he observed all their movements. He wanted them away
+speedily, so that he and Joe might extinguish the fire if that were
+still possible, and as every minute served to increase the difficulty
+and lessen the chances of doing so, the loitering of the savages seemed
+interminable. They stopped first to drink at the spring. Then they
+amused themselves by throwing sticks, and pebbles and shells at a turtle
+which was sunning himself on a log in the stream. Then they stopped to
+examine the track of a turkey or of some animal, in the sand, and it
+really seemed to Tom that they did not mean to go away at all.
+
+All things have an end, however, and even the stay of disagreeable
+visitors cannot last always. The three savages finally disappeared a
+mile down the river, and Tom, after scanning the surrounding country and
+satisfying himself that there were no others in the immediate
+neighborhood, hurried to the place where Joe and Judie were hidden.
+
+"They've gone at least," he said, "and now Joe, we must put this fire
+out, if we can. Judie, you stay here, and if you find the smoke bothers
+you, go further down the alley that way. Don't try to stay if the smoke
+comes."
+
+How to stop the fire was the problem. Fortunately there was very little
+wind, and what there was blew chiefly from up the river. The flames had
+spread over a considerable space, however, and the boys had hardly
+anything with which to work.
+
+They carried water in their hats from the river, which was only a few
+yards away, now that it had risen to the bottom of the second bank.
+This was altogether too slow a way of working, however, and the fire was
+visibly gaining on the boys. But, slow as this process was, it served to
+teach Tom a lesson or rather to remind him of one he had learned and
+forgotten. He found that a hatful of water thrown on the bottom of the
+fire did more good than two hatfuls thrown on top, and he remembered
+that when the soot in the chimney at home caught fire once, his father
+would not allow anybody to pour water down the chimney, but stood
+himself by the fireplace throwing a little water, not up the chimney
+but, on the blazing fire below. This water, turned into steam, went up
+the chimney and soon extinguished the fire there. In the same way Tom
+now discovered that when he threw a hatful of water on a burning log at
+the bottom of the pile it had a perceptible effect all the way to the
+top. Thinking of the chimney fire he remembered also that his father had
+said at the time that a plank laid over the top of a burning chimney, or
+a screen fastened over the fireplace would stop the burning of the soot
+by stopping the air, and so smothering the fire. This suggested a new
+plan of operations for present use. The long gray moss grew in great
+abundance all around the place, and gathering this he dipped it in the
+river and then threw it on top of the fire. A bunch of the moss held
+greatly more water than his hat, and it served also to smother the fire.
+He and Joe repeated the operation, putting some of the moss on top and
+some against the sides of the burning pile of timber. The steam from
+these perceptibly checked the burning, and an hour's work covered the
+fire almost entirely up, so far at least as the exposed side of the
+drift-pile was concerned. But just as they were disposed to congratulate
+themselves upon their success in subduing the flames, they discovered
+that while they had been smothering the fire on one side it had been
+burning freely further in. The openness of the hammock gave free access
+to the air from the other side, and just beyond the line of moss they
+saw a blaze licking its tongue out from below. They were tired out,
+already, and this added discouragement to weariness. Little Judie,
+although the boys had urged her to remain quiet, had been hard at work
+bringing moss to them, insisting upon her right to work as well as
+they. She had discovered too that the sand, just below the surface was
+wet, and that this served almost as good a purpose as the moss itself
+when thrown on the fire. The poor little girl was utterly tired out at
+last, however, and when the fire seemed to be subsiding, she had yielded
+to Tom's entreaties, and going into the drift-pile had laid down to
+rest. Now that all their work promised to accomplish nothing, the boys
+were vexed with themselves for having permitted the frail little girl to
+wear herself out in so fruitless a task. This, with their
+disappointment, served to make them utterly wretched.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+IN THE WILDERNESS.
+
+
+When Sam went over the cliff, he thought of poor little Judie, and Tom
+and Joe, and, for their sake more than his own, took every precaution
+which might give him an additional chance of life. He knew that he
+should fall into the creek, and that the blow, when he struck the water,
+would be a very severe one. If he could keep his horse under him all the
+way, however, the animal and not he would be the chief sufferer. Fearing
+that the horse would hesitate at the cliff, blunder, and throw him a
+somersault, perhaps falling on him, he held the beast's head high and
+urged him forward at full speed, and so, as we have seen, the horse's
+back was almost level as he leaped from the top of the bank. Sam had no
+saddle or stirrups in which to become entangled, and as the horse
+struck the water fairly, the blow was not nearly so severe a shock to
+the boy as he had expected. Both went under the water, but rising again
+in a moment Sam slid off the animal's back, to give the poor fellow a
+better chance of escape by swimming. Striking out boldly Sam reached the
+bank and crawling up looked for his horse. The poor beast was evidently
+too severely hurt to swim with ease, and so he drifted away, Sam running
+along the bank, calling and encouraging him. He struck the shore at
+last, and Sam examining him found that while he was stunned and bruised
+no serious damage had been done.
+
+"Poor fellow," he said, stroking the colt's head, "you cannot serve me
+any further in this swamp, but you saved my life and I'm glad you're not
+killed anyhow."
+
+Then taking the bridle off, he turned the horse loose, to graze and
+browse at will in the dense growth of the swamp.
+
+Sam was feverish still, and very weak, but his anxiety to reach the root
+fortress again was an overmastering impulse. He had lost his bearings in
+the mad chase, and the sky was so overcast that he could make no use of
+the sun as a guide. He knew that his course lay nearly northward, and it
+was his purpose to travel only at night, as before; but unless he could
+get out of the swamp during the day, and ascertain in what direction he
+must travel, he could not go on during the night at all. If it should
+clear off by evening, the pole star would show him his way, but there
+was no promise of a clearing away. He must find the course during the
+day, and he set about it at once, after examining his salt bag which he
+had put around his body, under his shirt, on the night on which he got
+it. The salt was saturated with water, and Sam's first impulse was to
+wring it out; but it occurred to him that the water he should squeeze
+out of it would be salt water, or in other words, that some of the salt
+would come away with the water and be lost. If he let it dry gradually,
+however, all the salt would remain, and he determined to let it dry,
+carrying it, with that in view, over his shoulder. How to find out which
+way was north was the question, and it puzzled him sorely. He knew the
+general course of all the creeks in that part of the country, but as
+they wind about in every direction it was impossible to get any
+information out of the one he was near. It was his habit, when he wanted
+to solve any difficult problem, to sit down and think of it in all its
+bearings, and a very excellent habit that is too. Nearly half our
+blunders, all through life, might be avoided if we would think carefully
+before acting; and nearly half the useful things we know, have been
+found out simply by somebody's thinking. Sam sat down on a log and said
+to himself;--
+
+"Now if there is anything in the woods which always or nearly always
+points in any one direction, I can find it by looking. Then I can find
+out which way it points, by remembering how the woods look around home,
+where I know the points of the compass."
+
+This was an excellent beginning, and Sam straightway began looking for
+something which should guide him. A patch of sunflowers grew by the
+creek, and he had heard that they always turn their heads to the sun,
+but upon examining them, he found some of them turned one way and some
+another, so that they were of no use whatever. Presently he observed
+some beautiful green moss growing at the root and for a good many feet
+up the trunk of a tree, and looking around he saw that the moss at the
+roots of all the trees grew only or chiefly on one side, and that the
+covered side was the same with all of them. Here was a uniform habit of
+vegetation, and Sam knew enough to know that such a habit was not likely
+to be confined to one particular locality. He began thinking of the
+woods around home, and especially of a clump of trees in the yard at his
+father's house, the moss-covered roots of which were Judie's favorite
+playing place. This moss, he remembered, was nearly all on the north
+side of the trees, whose southern roots were bare. All the other mossy
+trees he could remember taught the same lesson, namely, that the green
+moss which grows around the bases of trees, grows chiefly on the north
+side. He had no doubt that the law was a general, if not a universal
+one, and as the mossy trees were very numerous, he had a guide easily
+followed. Striking out northwardly, therefore, he travelled several
+miles before stopping, coming then to a suitable resting-place he lay
+down to gather strength for the night's journey. When night came,
+however, it had been raining for some hours, and in addition to the
+darkness of a rainy night in a swamp, Sam found the soft alluvial soil
+so saturated with water that he sank almost to his knees at every step.
+Finding it impossible to go on he stopped again on the highest and
+dryest piece of ground he could find, and prepared to spend the night
+there. Cutting down a number of thick-leaved bushes he arranged them
+against a fallen tree, as a shelter.
+
+He had been lying down but a short time when he discovered that pretty
+nearly all the rain that fell on his bush roof found its way through in
+great drops from the leaves. It then occurred to him that he had erred
+in placing the bushes with their tops up. This indeed, made them mere
+catchers and conductors of water to the space they covered. Turning
+them, so that their drooping leaves pointed downward, he was not long in
+making a really comfortable shelter, through which very little water
+could find its way.
+
+Towards morning he waked and found himself lying in water. He could see
+nothing in the darkness, but supposed that the rain had in some way made
+a pool where he was lying. On coming out from his tent, however, he
+found matters much worse than he had thought. In whatever direction he
+looked he could see nothing but water, and he knew what the trouble was.
+The rain had been very heavy all along the creek, and the stream having
+very little fall had spread out over the whole surface of the swamp.
+There was nothing to do except wait for daylight, and he climbed upon
+the trunk of the fallen tree to get out of the water while he waited.
+The rain had ceased to fall, and he had therefore no reason to fear any
+great increase in the depth of the surrounding water.
+
+When morning came, Sam found that he was not the only occupant of the
+fallen tree. A fine large opossum had taken refuge in one of the upper
+branches, and Sam used his rifle to good purpose in bringing him down.
+He was still suffering somewhat from the fever, though the excitement of
+his recent ride had done much to relieve him, as anything which occupies
+one's mind is apt to do in fevers of that sort, but he was nevertheless
+extremely hungry, not having tasted food of any kind for nearly two
+days, and having previously lived for a long time, as we know, upon an
+insufficient and not very wholesome diet. He was delighted therefore to
+get a fat young opossum for breakfast. The next thing was to cook it.
+Sam was in no danger here from Indians, who were not likely to be in
+such a swamp at any time, and were certainly not then, when the swamp
+was full of water. He had no objection therefore to a fire, but where
+and how to build one he was at some loss to determine. Looking carefully
+around he discovered that in falling the great sycamore tree on which he
+stood had thrown up a large mound of earth at its roots, as big trees in
+blowing down nearly always do. This mound was well above the water, even
+at its base, and here Sam determined to roast his opossum. He first dug
+a hole in the ground, making it about two feet long, one foot wide and
+eighteen inches deep. This was to be his fireplace and oven. He next
+collected dry bark from the under side of the fallen tree, and by
+breaking off its dead and well-seasoned limbs secured several large
+armfuls of wood. Then taking from his leathern bullet-pouch a piece of
+greased rag, kept there to wrap bullets in before ramming them in the
+barrel, he placed it in the "pan" of his rifle. Does the reader know
+what the "pan" of a rifle is? If not he knows nothing of flintlock guns,
+and I must explain. Before the invention of percussion caps, guns were
+provided with a little groove-shaped trough by the side of the powder
+chamber. From this "pan" as it was called, a little hole led into the
+charge. Over the pan fitted a piece of steel on a hinge, so that it
+could be opened and shut at pleasure. This piece of steel, after
+covering the pan, extended diagonally upward, and its surface was
+roughened like the face of a file. When the rifleman had loaded his gun
+he opened the pan, poured in a little powder and closed it again. In the
+hammer was a piece of flint, and when the trigger was pulled the flint
+came down with great force into the pan, scraping the roughened steel as
+it came, and raising the pan cover on its hinge. It thus deposited a
+shower of sparks in the pan, set fire to the powder there and through it
+to the charge in the gun.
+
+Sam's object was merely to get fire, however,--not to discharge his
+rifle,--wherefore, without reloading it, after shooting the opossum, he
+merely filled the pan with powder, placed the greasy rag in it, and
+cocking the gun pulled the trigger. In a moment the rag was burning, and
+before many minutes had passed, Sam had a good fire burning in and over
+the hole he had dug. He then skinned and dressed the opossum, stopping
+now and then to replenish the fire and to throw all the live coals into
+the hole as they formed. Within an hour the hole was full of burning
+coals, and hot enough, Sam thought, for his purpose. He cut a number of
+green twigs and collected a quantity of the long gray moss. He then
+removed all the fire from the hole, the sides and bottom of which were
+almost red hot, and passing a twig through the opossum, lowered it to
+the middle of the hole, where the twig rested on ledges provided for
+that purpose. This brought the dressed animal into the centre of the
+hole, without permitting it to touch either the sides or the bottom. He
+then laid twigs across the top of the hole, covered them with moss, and
+threw nearly a foot of loose earth over the moss. The sides and bottom
+of the hole, as I have said, were very hot, and Sam's plan was to keep
+the heat in until it should roast the meat thoroughly. That his plan
+was a good one, I know from experience, having roasted more than one
+turkey in that way. It is, in fact, the very best way in which meat of
+any kind can possibly be roasted at all, as it lets none of the flavor
+escape in the form of gases.
+
+Sam waited patiently for an hour, when, opening his earth oven, he found
+his opossum cooked to a rich, crisp brown. He ate a heartier and more
+wholesome breakfast that morning than he had eaten for weeks, and felt
+afterwards altogether better and stronger than before. The breakfast
+would have been an excellent one at any time, as the flesh of the
+opossum tastes almost exactly like that of a suckling pig, but it was
+doubly good to the poor half-famished boy. He stowed away the remains of
+his feast in his coat pockets to be eaten on his way back to the root
+fortress, resolving to kill some other game on the journey, for the use
+of the little garrison there. He was now, as he knew, not more than ten
+or twelve miles from his destination, but it was as yet impossible for
+him to travel. The swamp was full of cypresses, and it is a peculiar
+habit of these trees to turn their roots straight upward for any
+distance, from an inch to many feet, and then to bring them straight
+down again, making what are called cypress knees. These knees are very
+sharp on top, and sometimes stand not more than a foot apart. Being of
+all heights, many of them, as Sam knew, were under water now, and these
+made travelling impossible, even if there had been no quagmires to fall
+into, as there were. After studying the situation, Sam determined to
+remain where he was until the water should subside, and then to travel
+by daylight, at least until he should be out of the swamp and upon high
+ground again. The waters of the creek subsided much more slowly than
+they had risen, and Sam remained at the Sycamore Camp, as he called the
+place, for four days and nights before he thought travelling again
+practicable.
+
+He then resumed his march, beset by many difficulties. The ground was
+muddy everywhere, and impassably so in some places. There were many
+ponds and pools left in the swamp, and these had to be avoided, so that
+night had already come before he found himself fairly out of the swamp
+and on the bank of the river, about two miles below the root fortress.
+He now began to feel all sorts of apprehensions. He had been away
+eleven days, and he could not help imagining a variety of terrible
+things which might have happened to his little band during his absence.
+Presently he saw a great light up the river, and at once the thought
+flashed into his mind that the Indians had discovered and butchered the
+boys and Judie, and were now burning the drift pile.
+
+"I'll hurry on," he said to himself, "and if the Indians are really
+there, it's time for me to take part in this war. I can keep in the
+timber and pick off half a dozen of them there in the fire light. Then
+if they scalp me, I don't care. I'll at least make them suffer for what
+they've done."
+
+A fierce storm was just breaking,--a storm of the violent and heroic
+type seen only in tropical and sub-tropical countries, but Sam thought
+nothing of that. He pushed on almost unconsciously, with no thought
+except that with his rifle, hidden in the darkness, he could wage one
+sharp and terrible battle with the murderers of Judie and Tom and Joe,
+before suffering death at their hands. The lightning struck a tree just
+ahead of him, but he seemed not to observe the fact. He was going into
+battle, and what was a thunderbolt more or less at such a time. The rain
+followed, drenching him instantly, but not dampening his determination
+in the least.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+AN ALARM AND A WELCOME.
+
+
+When Tom and Joe made the disheartening discovery that in spite of all
+their efforts the fire was burning inside the hammock, they felt like
+giving up in despair, and seeking another refuge.
+
+"But then Sam would never find us," said Tom, "even if he gets back. He
+will find this place burned up and think the Indians have killed us all.
+We _must_ put this fire out, Joe, if it takes a week."
+
+And straightway the boys began again, saturating large armfuls of moss
+with water and laying them on top of the drift whenever the blaze showed
+itself. Heart-pine burns rapidly with a great blaze and much smoke, but
+it makes no coals, and a gallon of water will sometimes stop the
+burning of a great log of it, instantly. Every armful of wet moss
+therefore had an immediate and perceptible effect which greatly
+encouraged the boys. They worked hour after hour, not succeeding in
+putting the fire out, indeed, but managing to check it very decidedly,
+and better than all, to keep it away from the trees and from the
+alley-way leading to their hiding-place. Just as night fell, Joe called
+out,
+
+"I say, Mas' Tommy, it's gwine to rain bucketsful."
+
+"I wish it would," said Tom, looking up to the black clouds which as yet
+he had hardly observed at all. Just then a sharp flash followed by a
+sudden peal of thunder almost stunned the boys.
+
+"Dat didn't strike fur from here," said Joe.
+
+"No, it must have hit a tree down the river a little way," said Tom.
+
+The rain followed in torrents, and little Judie came out of her
+hiding-place to beg the boys to come in lest the lightning should strike
+them. They were encouraged by the rain, however, to continue fighting
+the fire, and resumed operations at once.
+
+"Hush!" said Tom presently, "there's Indians about. I heard 'em walking
+in the brush. Run around the hammock quick, and let's hide."
+
+All ran without a moment's hesitation, and secreting themselves in the
+drift awaited results.
+
+Presently they heard footsteps in the alley-way, and the voice of their
+big brother called out.
+
+"Where are all you, little people, and what do do you hide from me for?"
+
+The Indian they had heard was Sam creeping around to see who it was that
+was burning the drift. Seeing the boys and Judie, he walked out of the
+thicket, but before he could get to them they had taken refuge in the
+drift from the supposed danger. Their joy at Sam's return, and Sam's joy
+at finding them safe and well instead of finding Indians dancing around
+their burning dwelling, may be imagined. Tom put his arm around his
+brother's neck, and could say nothing but,
+
+"Dear old Sam," which he said over again every ten seconds during half
+an hour at least. Judie hugged and kissed Sam, and cried over him and
+called him her "dear, best, big brother," and did all sorts of foolish
+things which didn't strike Sam as foolish at all. Joe would sit awhile
+and then get up and dance until he knocked his shins against some of the
+drift, and then set down again, and then get up and dance again,
+grinning with delight, I have no doubt, though it was too dark for
+anybody to see whether he grinned or not.
+
+After a little while Sam went out and returning reported that the rain
+had completely extinguished the fire. They then retired to the root
+fortress which was unhurt, and Sam said he thought they ought to hold
+prayers before going to sleep. Sam prayed rather awkwardly perhaps, but
+he prayed because he felt like thanking the Father who had watched over
+them all in so many dangers, and the awkwardness of such a prayer is a
+matter of no consequence. They all laid down, after prayers, and one
+after another fell asleep.
+
+The next morning a fire was started after the plan Sam had adopted in
+the swamp, and some game which he had killed made a savory breakfast for
+all of them. Judie thought salt, which she now tasted for the first time
+in many weeks, was altogether better than sugar,--an opinion which it
+seems she never before held. After breakfast explanations were in
+order. Sam told the others all about his adventures, and they gave him a
+minute history of their life during his absence. Then Sam explained that
+from the number of savages he had seen on that side of the river, he
+thought the other side must now be comparatively free from them.
+
+"Fort Glass is just twelve miles away from here," he said, "and I mean
+now to go there, just as soon as I get a little rested and feel strong
+enough. The country along this part of the river is very bad to travel
+through, though, since the river rose, as all the creeks are up, and if
+we could get up the river about eight miles, we should be within six
+miles of the fort, with a good country to travel through. We can't get
+there, however, and so it's no use to talk about it. We must just strike
+out from here and make our way across the best way we can."
+
+But clearly Sam was in no condition to travel yet. His fever had come
+back on him that morning, and it was necessary to postpone the journey
+to Fort Glass until he should get better. He went into the woods during
+the day, and shot two squirrels and a wild turkey, but upon his return
+found himself unable to sit up longer. The bed of scraped moss was very
+welcome to the weary and sick boy. The next day he was a little better,
+but the next found him very ill and partly delirious. The boys were
+frightened. They had seen enough of the fevers of that region to know
+that they require immediate and constant treatment, and they had good
+reason to fear that Sam could never recover without medicine and a
+doctor. They ministered to him as well as they could, but they could do
+nothing to check the fever, which was now constant and very high. Sam
+knew hardly anything, and rarely ever spoke at all except to talk
+incoherently in fits of delirium.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+JOE'S PLAN.
+
+
+Sam's illness continued day after day, and the boys were greatly
+troubled. Little Judie remained by her "big brother's" side almost
+constantly, while Tom and Joe provided food, cooked it, and attended to
+the wants of the little community to the very best of their ability.
+They were in the habit too, of retiring now and then, to a secluded spot
+in the drift-pile, to consult and discuss plans of procedure. One day
+Tom went to the rendezvous and found Joe there leaning against a log,
+with his feet on another, and his eyes closed.
+
+"Are you asleep, Joe?" he asked.
+
+"No, Mas' Tom, I'se not asleep," said Joe, "I'se just thinkin'."
+
+"Well, what were you thinking, Joe?"
+
+"I'se been layin' plans, Mas' Tom, an' I's laid one good un anyhow."
+
+"What is it, Joe?"
+
+"Well, you see Mas' Sam ought to have a doctor, an' he's gwine to die if
+he don't, dat's sartain. But dey ain't no doctor here."
+
+Joe said this as if it were a new truth just discovered, that there was
+no doctor there.
+
+"Well, go on, Joe," said Tom, "and tell me your plan, maybe it's a good
+one."
+
+"Course it's a good un. I dun tell you dat fust."
+
+"Well, what is it?"
+
+"Mas' Tom, don't you know Mas' Sam always begins 'way back whar' he's
+been thinkin' an' tells all dat fust so you kin see all de why's and
+wharfores?"
+
+"Yes; but what has that to do with your plan, Joe?"
+
+"Nothin', only dat's de way I'se gwine to 'splain my plan, I'se dun
+begun way back whar I'se dun been thinkin', an' I'se gwine to tell all
+'bout dat fust. Den you'll understan' de whys and wharfores. You mus'n't
+hurry me, Mas' Tom, dat's all."
+
+"All right, tell it your own way, Joe," said Tom, laughing.
+
+"No, I'se gwine to tell it Mas' Sam's way. Well, you see dey ain't no
+doctor here an' we can't git one to come here neither. So we must take
+Mas' Sam to whar' dey is doctors, do you see?"
+
+"That's all very well," said Tom, "but how are we to do that?"
+
+"Now you'se hurryin' me again, Mas' Tom. Dat's just what I'se a-comin'
+to. Mas' Sam said de other mornin' dat if we was up de river about eight
+miles furder, de fort would be only six miles away, an' de country would
+be easy 'nuff to cross. He dun say we couldn't git up de river, but we
+_kin_. You see Mas' Sam was sick, an' dat's de reason he say dat. Now I
+dun bin thinkin' of a way to git up de river. Dey's lots of cane here,
+an' you an' me kin twis' canes one over de other like de splits in a
+cha'r bottom, an' dat way, when we gits a dozen big squars of it made,
+as big both ways as the canes is long, we kin lay 'em on top o' one an'
+other, an' fasten 'em togedder wid bamboos, an' it'll be a fust-rate
+raft. Den you an' me kin pole it up stream, keepin' close to de shore,
+wid Mas' Sam an' little Miss Judie on it. When we git up dar, I kin go
+over to de fort, leavin' you wid Mas' Sam till de folks comes after you
+all."
+
+This was Joe's plan of operations, and upon thinking it over Tom was
+disposed to think it the best plan possible under the circumstances.
+Accordingly he and Joe went to work at once. They could not make the
+raft inside the drift-pile, for want of room, but they found a place in
+the bushes near the mouth of the creek, where they could work
+unobserved. They cut down a large number of the flexible green canes,
+and wove them together into a square net work. Repeating this operation
+several times they finally had enough of the squares to make, they
+thought, a secure raft, when laid one on top of the other. It would not
+do to join them in the bushes however, as that would make their weight
+so great that the boys could not lift them to the water. They
+determined, therefore, to get their pushing poles first, and then to
+carry the squares one by one to the river, and, arranging them there, to
+embark soon after nightfall. The work of construction had occupied many
+days, and it was now the 12th of November. The boys hoped to complete
+their undertaking the next day and embark the next night. After their
+return to the drift-pile, however, it occurred to Tom to inquire whether
+or not Joe knew the way from the river to the fort, after they should
+reach the end of their voyage.
+
+"I 'clar', Mas' Tom, I never thought o' dat at all!" said Joe in
+consternation. "I dunno a foot of de way, an' I dunno whar' de fort is
+either."
+
+Tom being equally ignorant, their long consultation held on the spot,
+ended in an enforced abandonment of the enterprise which had occupied
+their heads and hands for so long a time.
+
+"Now dar' it is, Mas' Tom," said Joe. "Dat's always the way. Mas' Sam
+never makes no blunder, 'cause he thinks it all out careful fust. Poor
+Joe's head gets things all mixed up. I ain't no count anyhow, an' I jest
+wish I was dead or somethin'."
+
+Poor Joe! The disappointment was a sore one to him. He had been thinking
+all along of the glory he should reap as the saviour of the little
+party, and now his whole plan was found to be worthless. He slept little
+that night, and once Tom heard him quietly sobbing in his corner.
+Creeping over to him Tom said:
+
+"Don't cry, Joe. You did your best anyhow, and it isn't your fault that
+you don't know the way to the fort," and passing his arm around the poor
+black boy's neck he gently drew his head to his shoulder, where it
+rested while the two slept.
+
+The next morning Judie was the first to wake, and she quietly waked Tom
+and Joe.
+
+"Boys, boys," she cried in a whisper, "the Indians are all around us,
+there is a fight going on. Get up quick, but don't make any noise."
+
+The little girl was right. Rifles were cracking and Indians yelling all
+around their little habitation. It at once occurred to Tom that here was
+hope as well as danger. If the Indians should be driven back by the
+whites, he could communicate with the latter and the little garrison of
+the root fortress would be rescued. At present, however, it was the
+savages and not the whites who surrounded the trees and the drift pile.
+Tom determined lose no chance, however, and cautioning the others to
+keep still, he went to the look-out to watch for an opportunity to
+communicate with the white men whom these Indians were evidently
+fighting.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE CANOE FIGHT.
+
+
+Before going further with the story of what happened around the root
+fortress on that morning, it is necessary to explain how it came about
+that a battle was fought there. I gather the facts from authentic
+history.
+
+During all the time spent by the Hardwickes in their wanderings and in
+the root fortress, the war had been going on vigorously. The occupants
+of Fort Sinquefield, when they abandoned that fort as described in the
+early chapters of this story, succeeded in making their way to Fort
+Glass, or Fort Madison, as it was properly named, though the people
+still used its original name Fort Glass in speaking of it, for which
+reason I have so called the place throughout this story. In July General
+Floyd, who was in command of all the United States forces in the
+south-west, sent General Claiborne, with his twelve months' Mississippi
+volunteers to Fort Stoddart, with instructions to render such aid as he
+could to the forts in the surrounding country. His force consisted of
+seven hundred men, and of them he took five hundred to Fort Stoddart,
+sending the remaining two hundred, under Col. Joseph E. Carson, a
+volunteer officer, to Fort Glass. The two hundred soldiers added greatly
+to the strength of the place, and with the settlers who had taken refuge
+inside, rendered it reasonably secure against attack. The refugees were
+under command of Captain Evan Austill, himself a planter of the
+neighborhood.
+
+Shortly after the storming of Fort Sinquefield, and almost immediately
+after the garrison of that place had reached Fort Glass, the Indians
+appeared in great numbers in that neighborhood, burning houses, killing
+everybody who strayed even a few hundred yards outside the picket gates,
+and seriously threatening the fort itself. In view of these facts Col.
+Carson sent a young man of nineteen years of age named Jerry Austill,
+the son of Capt. Evan Austill to General Claiborne's head-quarters,
+with dispatches describing the situation and asking for reinforcements.
+Young Austill made the journey alone and at night, at terrible risk, as
+he had to pass through a country infested with savages, but on his
+return brought, instead of assistance, an order for Col. Carson to
+evacuate the fort and retire to Fort Stephens. When he did so, however,
+Captain Austill and about fifty other planters, with their families,
+determined to remain and defend Fort Glass at all hazards. Among those
+who remained was Mr. Hardwicke, who, now that the Indians had murdered
+his children, as he supposed, had little to live for, and was disposed
+to serve the common cause at the most dangerous posts, where every
+available man was needed.
+
+After a time Col. Carson was sent back to the fort with his Mississippi
+volunteers, and this freed the daring spirits inside the fort from the
+necessity of remaining there. They went at once on scouting parties,
+Tandy Walker, the guide, being almost always one of the number going out
+on these perilous expeditions. They scoured the country far and near, in
+bodies ranging from two or three to twenty or thirty men, and fought the
+Indians in many places, losing some valuable men but making the Indians
+suffer in their turn.
+
+Finally it was determined to send out a party larger than any that had
+yet gone, to operate against the savages on the south-east side of the
+river. This expedition numbered seventy-two men, thirty of whom were
+Mississippi Yauger men, under a Captain Jones, while the others were
+volunteers from private life. The expedition was under the command of
+Sam Dale, already celebrated as an Indian fighter, and known among the
+Creeks, with whom he had lived, as Sam Thlueco, or Big Sam, on account
+of his enormous size and strength. During this Creek war he had
+performed some feats of strength, skill and daring, the memory of which
+is still preserved in history, together with that of the celebrated
+canoe fight, which we are now coming to. To tell of these deeds of
+prowess would lead us away from our proper business, namely, the telling
+of the present story; but the canoe fight comes properly into the story,
+being in fact one of its incidents. Three only of Dale's companions
+figured with him in the canoe fight, and they alone need mentioning by
+name. These were, first Jerry Austill, the young man already spoken of,
+who was six feet two inches high, slender but strong, and active as a
+cat; second, James Smith, a man of firm frame and dauntless spirit; and
+third Caesar, a negro man, who conducted himself with a courage and
+coolness fairly entitling him to bear the name of the great Roman
+warrior.
+
+The expedition left Fort Glass on the 11th of November, 1823. Tandy
+Walker was its guide, and every man in the party knew that Tandy was not
+likely to be long in leading them to a place where Indians were
+plentiful. He knew every inch of country round about, and nothing
+pleased him so well as a battle in any shape. The day after they left
+Fort Glass, Dale's men reached the river at a point eighteen miles below
+the present town of Clairborne, and about fifteen miles below the root
+fortress. Here they crossed, in two canoes, to the eastern shore of the
+river, and spent the night without sleep. The next morning Austill, with
+six men, ascended the river in the canoes, while Dale, with the rest of
+the party, marched up the bank. About a mile below the root fortress,
+Dale who was marching some distance ahead of his men, came upon some
+Indians at breakfast, and without waiting for his men to come up, shot
+their chief. The rest fled precipitately, leaving their provisions
+behind. Pushing on, Dale reached a point about two hundred yards below
+the root fortress, and there determined to recross the river. The canoes
+transported the men as rapidly as possible, but when all were over
+except Dale and eight or nine men (among whom were Smith, Austill and
+Caesar), and only one canoe remained at the eastern side of the stream, a
+large party of Indians, numbering, as was afterwards ascertained, nearly
+three hundred, attacked the handful of whites still remaining. These
+retreated from the field, where they were breakfasting, and keeping the
+Indians in check by careful and well-aimed firing, were about to get
+into the canoe and escape to the opposite bank, about four hundred yards
+away, when they discovered that their retreat was cut off by a large
+canoe full of Indians, eleven in all, which had come out of the mouth of
+the creek just above. The savages tried to approach the shore, but, in
+spite of the fact that by careening the canoe to one side and lying down
+they were able to conceal themselves, they were prevented from landing
+by Austill and one or two other men. Two of the Indians jumped into the
+water and tried to swim to the shore, while the others, firing over the
+gunwale of the boat, were sorely annoying the whites. Austill shot one
+of the swimmers but the other escaped to the shore, and joined the
+savages there, informing them, as Dale supposed, of the weakness of his
+force, which they had not yet discovered. Dale called to the men on the
+other side of the river to cross and assist him, but they, after making
+an abortive attempt to send a canoe load across, remained idle
+spectators of the terribly unequal conflict. Dale, seeing that no help
+was to come from them, and knowing that the Indians would shortly
+overcome him by sheer force of numbers, resolved upon a recklessly
+daring manoeuvre, namely, an attempt to capture the Indian canoe! He
+called out to his comrades.
+
+"I'm going to fight the canoe with a canoe. Who will go with me?"
+
+Austill, Smith and Caesar volunteered at once, and Caesar took his post as
+steersman, while the three stalwart soldiers were leaping into the
+canoe for the purpose of fighting hand to hand the nine Indians opposed
+to them. As they shot out from the shore the savages on the bank
+delivered a fierce fire upon them, but fortunately without effect. The
+savages in the canoe had exhausted their powder, and Dale's party would
+have had an advantage in this but for the fact that their own powder had
+become wet as they were getting into their canoe. The fight must be hand
+to hand, but they were not the men to shrink from it. When the boats
+struck, the Indians leaped up and began using their rifles as clubs.
+Austill, who was in the bow of Dale's boat, received the first shock of
+the battle, but Caesar promptly swung his boat around, and grappling the
+other canoe held the two side by side during the whole fight. Dale's
+boat was a very small one, and he to relieve it sprang into the Indian
+canoe, thereby giving his comrades more room and crowding the Indians so
+closely together as to embarrass their movements. The blows now fell
+thick and fast. Austill was knocked down into the Indian boat, and an
+Indian was about to put him to death when Smith saved him by braining
+the savage. Austill then rose, and snatching a war club from one of the
+Indians used that instead of his rifle. Eight of the savages were slain,
+and Dale found himself face to face with the solitary survivor, whom he
+recognized as a young Muscogee with whom he had been for years on terms
+of the most intimate friendship, and whom he loved, as he declared,
+almost as a brother. He lowered his up-raised rifle to spare his friend,
+but the savage would not accept quarter. He cried out in the Creek
+language, which Dale understood as well as he did English.
+
+"Big Sam, you are a man, and I am another! Now for it!" and with that
+the two joined in a struggle for life. A blow from Dale's gun ended at
+once the canoe fight and the life of the young brave, who, even from his
+friend, would not accept the mercy which his nation was not ready to
+show to the whites. It is said that to the day of his death Dale could
+not speak of this incident without shedding tears.
+
+Dale and his comrades had still a duty to do and some danger yet to
+encounter. The party remaining on the bank was in imminent peril, and
+must be rescued at all hazards. The little canoe was not large enough to
+carry them all, and so the big one must be cleared of the dead Indians
+in it, and the heroes of the canoe fight accomplished this under a
+severe fire from the bank. Then jumping into the captured boat, they
+paddled to the shore, and taking their hard pressed comrades on board,
+crossed under fire to the other side, whence they marched to Fort Glass,
+twelve miles away, having dealt the savages a severe blow without losing
+a man. Austill was hurt pretty badly on the head, and a permanent dent
+in his skull attested the narrowness of his escape.
+
+This battle was waged within sight of the root fortress, the drift pile
+being indeed the cover from which the Indians fought. Tom, as we know,
+went to the look-out at the beginning of the fight, and he remained
+there to the end in the hope that the fortune of battle might possibly
+bring the whites within call, and thus afford the little refugee band a
+chance of escape. No such chance came, however, and sadly enough the
+two boys, for Joe was also in the look-out, watched the passage of the
+last of Dale's men across the stream, half a mile below.
+
+"Mas' Tom," said Joe, "dem folks gwine right straight to de fort."
+
+"Yes, of course," said Tom. "What of it?"
+
+"Nothin', only I wish I could go wid 'em, and tell 'em Mas' Sam's here
+sick."
+
+"So do I, Joe, but we can't go with them, and it's no use wishing."
+
+"I reckon 'tain't no use, but I can't help wishin' for all dat. When
+folk's got der own way dey don't wish for it. It's when you can't git
+your way dat you wish, ain't it?"
+
+Tom was forced to admit that Joe was right, and that in wishing to be
+with the retreating party he was not altogether unreasonable.
+
+The two boys sat there, looking and longing. The savages had disappeared
+almost as suddenly as they had come, and presently Joe sprang up,
+saying.
+
+"Dar's de little canoe lodged in the bushes, an' I'se gwine to fasten
+her to the bank anyhow, so's we'll have her if we want her."
+
+What possible use they could make of the canoe, it had not entered
+Joe's head to ask perhaps, but he tied the boat in the bushes
+nevertheless and secreted the paddle in the drift pile. He then visited
+the place where Dale's men had been surprised at breakfast, and brought
+off the pack of provisions which Dale had captured that morning from the
+savages and had himself abandoned in his turn. The pack was a
+well-stored one, and its possession was a matter of no little moment to
+the boys, whose bill of fare had hitherto embraced no bread, of which
+there was here an abundance in the shape of ash cake.
+
+"Mas' Tom," said Joe that evening, "do you know my master?"
+
+"Mr. Butler? Yes, certainly."
+
+"Well, if anything happens to poor Joe, and if you ever gits to de fort
+an' if Joe don't, an' if you sees my master dar you'll tell him Joe
+never runned away anyhow, won't you."
+
+"Yes, I'll tell him that Joe."
+
+"Even if the Ingins ketches me an' you dunno whar' I'se gone to, you'll
+tell him anyhow dat Joe never runned away from him or from you nuther,
+won't you, Mas' Tom?"
+
+"Of course, Joe. But there won't be any chance to tell him anything
+about it unless we all get back to the fort, and then you can tell him
+for yourself. He thinks you are dead, of course, and doesn't dream that
+you ever ran away. You'll get back safely if the Indians don't catch
+you, and if they catch you they'll catch all of us, so I won't be there
+to tell your master about you."
+
+"Dun no 'bout dat," replied Joe. "Dey mought catch Joe 'thout catchin'
+anybody else, an' 'thout you nor nobody knowin' nothin' 'bout it, and
+Joe wants you to promise anyway dat you'll stick to it to de las' dat
+poor Joe was no runaway nigger, nohow at all. Kin you do dat for me,
+Mas' Tom?"
+
+"Certainly, Joe," said Tom laughing, "I promise you."
+
+"Will you git mad if Joe axes you to shake han's on dat, Mas' Tom? I
+wants to make sartain sure on it."
+
+Tom laughed, but held out his hand, convinced that the poor black boy
+was out of spirits at least, if not out of his mind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE BOYS ARE DRIVEN OUT OF THE ROOT FORTRESS.
+
+
+Sam was only partially conscious during the battle around his
+habitation. The fever, which now rose and fell at intervals, was usually
+highest during the forenoon, abating somewhat later in the day. When it
+was highest he was always in either an unconscious stupor, or a wild
+delirium. When the fever abated, however, his consciousness returned,
+and he was capable of talking and of understanding all that was said. In
+these lucid intervals, he insisted upon knowing all that had happened,
+so that he might tell the boys what was best to do. On this day Tom had
+a story of more than ordinary interest to tell him, about the battle and
+the chance of rescue which had so narrowly passed them. Sam was
+interested in it all as a matter of course, but he was still more
+deeply interested, it seemed, in the condition of the sand near the
+place where he was lying. He had dug a little hole with his hand, and
+feeling of the sand found it decidedly wet. Turning to Tom, he said:
+
+"The river is rising rapidly, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes; but how did you find it out?"
+
+"By the sand. I've been watching it a good deal since the fall rains set
+in, as I'm afraid the river will drive us out of here. You see, the
+water works easily through the sand, and you can always tell what the
+level of the river is, if its banks are sandy, by digging down to where
+the sand is wet."
+
+"Yes," said Tom, "but the river isn't within a hundred feet of us yet."
+
+"You are mistaken. It is within six inches of us," said Sam.
+
+"How's that?"
+
+"Well, this bank is almost exactly level, and when the river gets above
+its edge it spreads at once all over it. Now the sand is wet within six
+inches of the top, and the river is within six inches of the edge of the
+bank. When it rises six or eight inches more, it'll be in here, and I'm
+afraid it will rise that much before morning. At any rate we must be
+ready for it."
+
+"What can we do?" asked Tom in alarm. "There's no place to hide on the
+upper bank."
+
+"We mustn't quit this bank, and we mustn't quit the drift-pile either,"
+replied Sam. "You must find a good place, high up in the drift where, by
+pulling out sticks, you and Joe can make a place for us to stay in."
+
+"But, Sam, what if the water gets to us there?"
+
+"It won't get to us there."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"Because the biggest freshets always come in the spring, and the top of
+this drift-pile was put where it is by the biggest freshets, so the
+river won't go near the top in November. You see, as the drift _floated_
+on top of the water to its present place, the top of the pile must be
+the highest point, or very nearly the highest, that the water ever
+reaches. If you can find a good place therefore in the upper part of the
+drift-pile, we shall be safe there. But you'd better see about it at
+once, as the water may be in here before morning, and at any rate we
+mustn't allow ourselves to be taken by surprise. You'd better go to the
+river and set a stake first so you can tell how fast the water rises and
+know when to move into the new place."
+
+Tom set his stake at the water's edge and then selected the most
+available place he could find for the new abode. He and Joe went
+diligently to work, rearranging the loose sticks of drift-wood and even
+carrying many of them clear out of the pile, so as to enlarge the hole
+they had found and make it as habitable as possible.
+
+"The trouble is," said Tom when they had nearly completed their task,
+"that we can't make a smooth floor, and it's going to be rather
+uncomfortable lying on loose logs and big round sticks that run every
+which way."
+
+"That's my business," said Judie looking in at the entrance. "I'm the
+housekeeper, you know, and I've thought of all that."
+
+And sure enough the little woman had brought a great pile of small,
+leafy, tree branches and bush tops, with which she speedily filled up
+the low places between the timbers, and covered the timbers themselves
+to a depth of three or four inches, making a soft as well as a level
+floor. She had foreseen the difficulty, and borrowing Sam's knife, had
+worked with all her might to provide in advance against it. But the
+bushes and leaves were not all that she had brought. She had collected
+also a large quantity of gray moss with which to make a carpet for the
+springy floor.
+
+"Now please don't tell brother Sam," she said when the boys praised her
+thoughtfulness and ingenuity. "I want to surprise him when he comes."
+
+Tom and Joe promised, and Tom said they would have to call her their
+"little housekeeper" hereafter.
+
+The river was still rising, but more slowly, it appeared, than it had
+done before. By Tom's calculations it was coming up at the rate of an
+inch in three hours, wherefore Sam thought they might safely remain
+where they were until morning at least, while if the water should come
+to a stand during the night, they would have no occasion to move at all,
+as a fall would rapidly follow, if the weather should remain clear.
+
+Joe had worked faithfully at the task of preparing the new place of
+refuge, but he was not at all satisfied with the arrangement.
+
+"I tell you, Mas' Tom," he said, "wood'll float, 'thout 'tis live oak,
+an' dis here drif'-pile 'll jest raise up an' float away, you'll see if
+it don't."
+
+"Why hasn't it floated away long ago, then, Joe?" asked Tom.
+
+"May be it has. How you know dis drif' didn't all on it come here las'
+time de river was up?"
+
+"Well, there's too much of it for that, and besides, Sam says this place
+is safe, and you know he is always right about things when he speaks
+positively about them."
+
+"Mas' Tom, don' you know Mas' Sam done been a-talkin' nonsense for two
+weeks now?"
+
+"Yes; but that's only when he's out of his head."
+
+"How you know when he's outen his head an' when he ain't?"
+
+"We know he's out of his head when he talks nonsense."
+
+"Well, maybe dis here 's nonsense. I jest knows it is, and dat's how I
+know Mas' Sam was outen his head when he said it."
+
+Tom saw that Joe was not to be convinced, and so he contented himself
+with saying,
+
+"Well, we'll see."
+
+"Yes, dat's jest it. We _will_ see, and feel too, when we all gets
+drownded in de water."
+
+The water came to a stand about midnight, and was falling slowly the
+next morning. But when morning came it was raining hard, and the rain
+was evidently not a local but a general one, wherefore, Tom feared that
+the fall would shortly be changed into a rise, and that the bank would
+soon be covered. He watched his stake carefully, visiting it every half
+hour. At nine o'clock the river had fallen three inches, and was about
+eight inches below the bank. From nine to ten it fell only about half an
+inch. Between ten and eleven the fall was not more than a quarter of an
+inch. Between eleven and twelve no fall at all was perceptible. From
+twelve to one there was a slight rise. Between one and two it rose
+nearly an inch. The next hour brought with it a rise of two inches. By
+five o'clock the level of the water was barely two inches below the
+edge of the bank, and as it was rising at the rate of two or three
+inches an hour, Sam thought it time to remove from their old to their
+new quarters. The change was of advantage to the sick boy, who was now
+getting somewhat better at any rate, and when he found himself in the
+new place the interest he showed in examining all the details of its
+arrangements, was the best possible evidence of improvement.
+
+"Come here, little woman," he said to Judie, "and give an account of
+yourself. You borrowed my knife yesterday, and somebody has been using
+it in cutting bush tops to make a smooth floor with, and the idea was a
+very good one. Can you tell me who it was?"
+
+"Maybe it was Tom," she replied mischievously.
+
+"No, it was not Tom," Sam answered. "He's too much of a great awkward
+boy to think of anything so comfortable. You must guess again."
+
+"Joe, then," she said.
+
+"No, it wasn't Joe, either," said Sam. "Joe can sleep on the edge of a
+fence rail as well as anywhere else, and he never would have thought of
+making our floor soft and smooth. Guess again."
+
+"Maybe it was brother Sam," said Judie.
+
+"Oh, certainly. It must have been I," replied Sam. "I must have done it.
+I'm so strong and active now-a-days. Yes, on reflection, I presume I did
+it, and the man in the moon helped me. Now I think it was a very
+thoughtful and helpful thing for anybody to do, so you ought to kiss me
+for doing it, and when the weather gets clear you must throw a kiss to
+the man in the moon, too, for his share." And with that he kissed the
+little housekeeper, and she felt herself abundantly repaid for her work
+and for the thoughtfulness she had shown. She was never so happy as when
+Sam praised her, "because he's such a splendid big brother," she would
+explain.
+
+Tom, seeing that Sam was getting better at last, began to hope for his
+complete recovery, and the hope made him buoyant of spirit again. Judie,
+too, who watched and weighed every symptom in Sam's case, discovered to
+her delight that he was decidedly better, and the discovery made her as
+happy as a healthy girl well can be. Poor Joe seemed to be the only
+miserable one in the party. He said almost nothing, answering questions
+with a simple "yes" or "no," and sitting moodily in his corner, when he
+stayed inside the "drift cavern"--which was Sam's name for the new
+abode--at all. He spent most of his time, however, on top of the pile,
+where he watched the water and the clouds. The rain had ceased, but the
+river, which was now creeping over the broad bank, continued to rise.
+
+"What is the matter with Joe?" asked Sam after the boy had gone out for
+the twentieth time.
+
+"I think he's afraid we're all going to be drowned," said Tom.
+
+"Drowned? How?"
+
+"Well, he says wood will float, and so he thinks when the water comes up
+under the drift-pile, it will all float away."
+
+"What nonsense!" exclaimed Sam. "Why didn't you tell him better, Tom?"
+
+"I did; but he sticks to it, and--"
+
+"Well, couldn't you explain it so that he would understand it and not
+have to trust to your judgment for it?"
+
+"No, I couldn't. The fact is, I don't quite understand it myself. There
+isn't a stick in this whole pile that won't float, and I don't quite
+understand why the pile won't. But I don't doubt you're right about it,
+Sam. You always are right whether I understand how things are or not."
+
+"Let me explain it to you, then. Do you know why some things float and
+others don't?"
+
+"Yes, of course. Because the things that float are lighter than the
+things that sink."
+
+"Not exactly. That log there is too heavy for you to lift, while you can
+carry a bullet between your thumb and finger. The log is many hundred
+times heavier than a bullet, but the log will float while the bullet
+will sink always."
+
+"That's so," said Tom, "and I don't know what does make some things
+float and other things sink."
+
+"Did you ever set a teacup in the water and see it float?"
+
+"Yes, many a time."
+
+"But if you fill it with water it will sink, won't it?"
+
+"Yes, of course."
+
+"Well, now I can explain the thing to you, I think. If a thing is
+heavier,--the whole thing I mean, than the amount of water it
+displaces,--that is, if it is heavier than exactly its own bulk of
+water, it will sink; but if it is lighter than its own bulk of water it
+will float."
+
+"Oh, yes, I see."
+
+"Now a bullet weighs a good deal more than its own bulk of water, and so
+it sinks. A log weighs less than its own bulk of water, and so it
+floats. An empty teacup weighs less than a solid body of water equal to
+it in size, and it therefore floats. If you fill it with water, however,
+you increase its weight without adding anything to the amount of water
+it displaces,--or rather, as you let water into all the hollow space,
+you lessen by that much the amount of water it must displace in sinking
+without taking away anything from its weight, and so it sinks; or, if
+you break the teacup you lessen the amount of water it must displace
+without lessening its weight, and so it sinks in that case, too. Do you
+understand that?"
+
+"Yes, I think I do," said Tom; "but I don't exactly see how it applies
+to the drift-pile."
+
+"I'll explain that presently. I want to make it plain first that the
+ability of a thing to float depends not on its weight, but on its weight
+as compared with that of a like bulk of water. This comparative or
+relative weight is called _specific gravity_, and in measuring the
+specific gravity of substances water is taken as the standard usually,
+though sometimes gold is used for that purpose. Now to come to the
+drift-pile. When the water rises say two or three feet, it will be above
+the level of the lower logs, and these would float away, if they were
+free, because their specific gravity is less than that of water. But
+there is twenty feet of other timber on top of them, and its weight must
+be added to theirs. The water displaced is exactly equal to their bulk,
+while the weight is many hundred times greater than theirs. Do you
+understand?"
+
+"Yes, I think I do. You mean that the water must come high enough to
+pretty nearly cover the whole drift-pile before any of it can float."
+
+"Yes. The pile must be considered as a whole, and it won't float until
+there is water enough to float the whole. The bottom logs can't float
+while those above them are clear out of water, if their weight rests on
+the bottom logs, as it does in the drift-pile. You see when you put
+anything into the water, it sinks until it has displaced a bulk of water
+equal to its own weight, and then stops sinking. In other words, that
+part of the floating thing which goes under the water is exactly the
+size of a body of water equal in weight to the whole thing. If a log
+floats with just half of itself above water, you know that the log
+weighs exactly the same as half its own bulk of water, or, in other
+words, that its specific gravity is just half that of water. Water two
+inches deep won't float a great saw-log, because a great saw-log weighs
+more than the amount of water it takes to cover its lower part two or
+three inches deep; and water two or three feet deep won't float a
+drift-pile twenty feet high, because such a drift-pile weighs a good
+deal more than a body of water two or three feet deep, of its own length
+and width. But even if the water were to rise to the top of the hammock,
+the pile wouldn't float away. It would float, of course, and some of the
+wood near its edges would be carried away, but the main pile would
+remain here, because it is all tangled together and can't go away except
+in one great mass. It is so firmly lodged against the trees as to
+prevent that, and as a freshet big enough to cover, or nearly cover it,
+would bring down a great quantity of new drift and deposit it here, the
+pile would grow bigger rather than smaller. But the river won't get very
+high at this season, or at any rate it won't rise to anywhere near the
+top of the hammock, as I have already explained to you, because it is
+evidently only the biggest freshets that ever come near the top, and the
+biggest freshets never come in the fall, but always in the spring. It
+isn't rising fast enough either. It isn't rising nearly so fast now as
+it was before it got over the bank."
+
+"Why, how do you know that, Sam? You haven't been to look."
+
+"No, but I know it, nevertheless, simply because I know that water, left
+to itself, will find its level."
+
+"I don't see what that's got to do with it," said Tom.
+
+"Perhaps not, but it has something to do with it for all that," replied
+Sam; "and I can make you see how, too."
+
+He paused, to think the matter over and determine how to present it to
+Tom's comprehension.
+
+"You see," he then resumed, "that the river inside its banks is about
+four hundred yards wide. When it rises above the banks, however, it
+spreads out over the level ground, and becomes, in some places, many
+miles wide, averaging a mile at least in width. Now there is only a
+certain amount of water coming into the river every hour. The rain has
+stopped, but the soil is full of water, and so there is about as much
+running into the river now as there was while the rain lasted. But the
+surface of the stream is now many times greater than it was, and as
+water finds its level, all that comes into the river spreads out over
+its whole surface, and of course doesn't raise its level nearly so much
+as the same quantity did while the stream was still within its banks. Do
+you understand now?"
+
+"What a great big brother you are, Sam, anyhow!" was all the reply Tom
+made.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+WHERE IS JOE?
+
+
+It was now getting late, and Sam knew that it was not well for him to
+talk longer. He felt so much better, however, that he knew he would
+continue to talk in spite of himself unless the whole party should go to
+sleep at once. Joe had not been in the drift cavern for more than two
+hours, and Sam, observing his prolonged absence, said:
+
+"Tom, I'm afraid some of us have hurt poor Joe's feelings. Go and look
+at your water-mark, and while you are out, find the poor fellow and find
+out what's the matter with him. He's a good boy, and has done his part
+faithfully ever since we started. I can't bear to think of him moping."
+
+Tom went out and examined his stake, which showed that the water was not
+more than an inch or two over the bank, and was not rising very rapidly
+now; but he could see nothing of Joe anywhere. He went to the look-out,
+but the boy was not there, and a diligent search through the drift-pile,
+showed that he was nowhere in the neighborhood of the fortress. Tom was
+now fairly alarmed, and returning, was about to report the facts to Sam,
+when little Judie, in a whisper, informed him that the big brother was
+asleep. As his fever had risen somewhat, Judie rightly thought it better
+not to disturb him, as he certainly could not aid in any way in finding
+Joe.
+
+"I must just think," Tom said to himself, "as Sam does, and then I can
+do all there is to be done. Now I know Joe isn't anywhere in the
+hammock, because I knew every place he could squeeze himself into, and
+I've looked in every one of them. It's no use then to waste time looking
+there any more. He must have left here, either accidentally or on
+purpose. He couldn't have slipped off the drift and drowned, because he
+can swim pretty well and would have swam out in a minute. There is no
+other way in which he can have left here by accident, unless an Indian
+has killed him on the drift-pile somewhere, and if that were so I would
+have found his body. He must have run away on purpose."
+
+But just as Tom reached this point in his thinking he remembered the
+earnestness with which poor Joe had begged him to bear witness in any
+and every event that he was not "a runaway nigger." And this reminded
+Tom of all the queer ways he had noticed in Joe of late. The boy must
+have had a premonition, he thought, that something was going to happen
+to him. Only two theories remained. One was that Joe had gone crazy
+under his long exile from civilized life and had madly put an end to
+himself by jumping into the river; and the other that, persisting in his
+belief in the instability of the drift-pile, he had gone to the upper
+bank for safety and had fallen asleep there. In that event he must be
+found, lest an Indian should discover him in the morning and put him to
+death. Tom went ashore after explaining his purpose to Judie, so that
+she might not be alarmed at his absence, and literally spent the entire
+night in hunting for the black boy. Joe was nowhere to be found, and
+when daylight came, Tom saw that a further search was of no use
+whatever, and he therefore returned sadly to the drift cavern. The water
+was now going down again, and the bank was free from it, but the sand in
+the root fortress was still too wet to sit or lie upon, and so Tom made
+no immediate preparation for their return.
+
+Sam's fever was very slight that morning, and his first question was
+about Joe. Tom told him of his night's search, and Sam's deduction from
+all the facts was that the poor boy had committed suicide, had been
+killed by an Indian and thrown into the river, or had fallen in
+accidentally and drowned.
+
+"He would never have left us in any case," said Sam, "and even had he
+been less faithful, he would have been afraid to run away, not knowing
+where to run or how to take care of himself in the woods."
+
+They were too much grieved for Joe's loss, to relish their breakfast,
+and that meal was dispatched very quickly. Tom watched the falling of
+the water all day, and at night reported that the river was well inside
+its banks again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+A FAMINE.
+
+
+The river having gone down until no water remained on the sandy bank,
+Tom reported the fact and added,
+
+"Now let's move back again to the root-fortress. It's a safer place than
+this, by a good deal, if it isn't quite so big or quite so comfortable."
+
+"No, we mustn't go back yet," said Judie, who had visited the fortress
+before Tom had, "because the sand in there is as wet as can be, and I
+can't let my big sick brother lie on it."
+
+"There, Tom," said Sam, "my doctor forbids my return yet awhile, and a
+sick man always must obey the doctor you know. Besides, Judie is right.
+It won't do for any of us to lie on wet sand; we must wait till it
+dries; but that won't be very long if the river continues to go down."
+
+Accordingly they spent one more night in the drift cavern. Early the
+next morning Judie went to the fortress, and returning said, playing
+doctor.
+
+"Now, then, Mr. Hardwicke, the floor of your lower house is quite dry,
+and I think it will be safe to move back again. Will you have your
+breakfast first, or will you wait until you get back home again before
+eating anything?"
+
+"Oh, let's wait, by all means, and eat breakfast in the dear old
+root-fortress," said Tom, and as Sam made no objection, it was so
+arranged.
+
+By nine o'clock the moss carpet was laid in the root-fortress and the
+little party was back in its old quarters again. The vacant corner which
+had been Joe's, reminded them sadly of his disappearance. Poor fellow!
+they had learned to love him almost as a brother, and they could not
+think of him now without tears. When three people sit down with a silent
+grief, their conversation is very apt to be lively, or, if they cannot
+quite accomplish that, they are sure to talk only of indifferent
+matters, and so it was in the present case. Judie was the first to break
+the silence which had fallen upon all.
+
+"Tom," she said playfully, "I'm afraid you're not a good provider. Here
+we are, hungry as wolves, and you haven't brought us a mite of anything
+to eat. You've moved everything but the provisions, and you've forgotten
+them entirely."
+
+Master Tom admitted the grievousness of his fault and returned at once
+to the drift cavern after the forgotten provision pack. The bread, as
+they all knew, was long ago exhausted, but plenty of meat remained, and
+this Tom presently brought. When he opened the pack a disagreeable odor
+spread itself at once over the little room.
+
+"Phew! what's that?" said Tom, and putting his nose to the meat, he
+looked up in blank consternation, saying:
+
+"The meat is spoiled, Sam! What on earth shall we do?"
+
+The case was an alarming one certainly. They were hungry, and Sam, whose
+returning health had brought with it a ravenous appetite, was
+particularly so. He needed wholesome, nourishing food now more than
+anything else, as he knew.
+
+"Well," he said, after thinking the matter over, "it can't be helped.
+There's nothing for it but to fall back on sweet potatoes till I get
+strong enough to go hunting. You must go to the potato field Tom, and
+bring some."
+
+There had been but one field of corn in the neighborhood at first, and
+the various parties of Indians who had camped in its vicinity had long
+ago carried away the last ear of corn from that, as the boys knew very
+well. The river was altogether too high now for mussels to be got, and
+so the sweet potatoes in a field half a mile away, were their only
+resource.
+
+Tom set out at once in quest of them, carefully looking out for lurking
+savages. He was gone more than an hour, and just as Sam was growing
+really uneasy on his account, he returned, _empty handed_!
+
+"There isn't a potato in the field," he said as he sat down in utter
+dejection. "The Indians have dug every one of them."
+
+This announcement was indeed an alarming one to the whole party. They
+were without an ounce of food of any sort within their utmost reach, and
+it was plain that they must starve, unless they could hit upon some new
+device, by which to get a supply.
+
+"I must go hunting, sick or well," said Sam rising; but he had no sooner
+got upon his feet, than he felt the utter impossibility of doing
+anything of the kind.
+
+"It's of no use," he said sadly. "I can't make my legs carry me, Tom,
+and so we must depend upon you. Go into the woods there by the creek,
+and sit down or stand still till you see something in the way of game,
+and then take good aim before you shoot, for we mustn't waste any of our
+powder."
+
+With this he shook the horn to ascertain how much remained in it, and
+was horrified to find it empty! Tom remembered that the last time he had
+loaded the gun he had used the last grain of powder in the horn.
+
+"Well, then," said Sam, "we have only one charge of powder between us
+and starvation, and it won't do to waste that, Tom. You can shoot pretty
+well when you have time enough to take good aim, and I suppose, if you
+make up your mind beforehand that you won't shoot till you know you can
+kill what you shoot at, it is safe enough. At any rate we must risk it.
+Remember, however, that you mustn't run the risk of wasting this load
+in your anxiety to kill the first thing you see to shoot at. There is
+plenty of game in the woods, so if you can't get a sure shot at one
+thing, wait for another. Get a sure shot anyhow, if it takes you all
+day. It must be something big enough to last us awhile, too. You mustn't
+shoot at anything less than a turkey or a 'possum, and you mustn't shoot
+at all till you get _very_ close, because if you miss, we will starve.
+Better take all day to-day and all day to-morrow than to miss when you
+fire."
+
+And after many instructions and cautionings, Tom sallied forth in search
+of game. Going into the woods for a considerable distance, he sat down
+on a log in the thick undergrowth and waited patiently for the
+appearance of some animal which could be eaten. Hour after hour passed,
+and Tom fell asleep. How long he slept he did not know, but waking
+suddenly he saw a flock of wild turkeys within a few yards of him.
+Raising his gun and taking a very deliberate aim he pulled the trigger.
+No explosion followed, but the clicking of the hammer was enough to put
+the game to flight.
+
+Poor Tom was disheartened, but it would not do to give up, and so he
+carefully picked the edge of his flint with his knife and walked further
+into the woods.
+
+He had not walked very far, with cautious steps, when he heard a
+rustling in the bushes just ahead of him. At first he thought it must be
+an Indian, and drawing back he waited for further developments. A grunt
+soon enlightened him as to the character of the game, and creeping
+through the bushes he found himself close to a fat young hog, one of the
+many running wild in those woods and thickets. That was something worth
+having. Levelling his gun again, he again pulled the trigger, but
+without effect, and opening the pan he discovered that during the rain,
+while in the drift cavern, the "priming," as the powder in the pan is
+called, had been reduced to a paste by water. To fire the gun was out of
+the question, and so clubbing it, Tom ran at the hog and dealt him a
+blow on the head, hoping in that way to secure the game which he could
+not shoot. The blow fell upon the nose of the animal, however, and while
+it brought a squeal of pain from him, it produced no beneficial result.
+The hog ran rapidly away, and Tom was left with nothing better than a
+broken gun to carry back to the fortress.
+
+Arriving there about three o'clock in the afternoon he told the doleful
+story of his failure, and sitting down burst into tears.
+
+"Come, come!" said Sam. "This will never do, old fellow. It's bad enough
+as it is without crying about it. We'll come all right if you'll only
+keep your courage up, and give me a chance to think. I'm getting better
+every day now, and if we can only hold out a few days longer, I'll be on
+my feet again, and then we'll go straight to Fort Glass. Just as soon as
+I can walk at all, we'll start, meantime we must get something to eat,
+and to do that I must think. Let me see. The gun is of no use now, but
+there are other ways of getting game besides shooting it. We must set
+some traps. This spoiled meat will do for bait. Get me a good piece of
+poplar wood, Tom, or cypress, or some other sort, that I can whittle
+easily, and I'll make some figure-four triggers. Then I'll tell you how
+to make dead-falls, and you must set as many of them as you can to make
+sure of getting something to eat by to-morrow morning."
+
+Tom brought the wood and Sam soon whittled out several sets of triggers.
+
+"Now do you know how to set a trap with these triggers, Tom?" he asked.
+
+"Yes, I've set many a partridge trap with figure fours."
+
+"Very well then. Now you must set dead-falls in the same way. That is,
+instead of a trap you must set a log. You see I've made the triggers big
+and strong, and you must put them under one end of as heavy a log as you
+can lift. Then you must lay other logs on top to make it as heavy as
+possible, and bait it with a piece of the spoilt meat. If anything
+undertakes to eat the meat to-night, the dead-fall will break its neck
+or back, sure. Here are six sets of triggers and you must set six
+dead-falls. We can go hungry till to-morrow, can't we, little woman?"
+chucking Judie under the chin.
+
+"We can try, anyhow," answered the little woman as cheerfully as she
+could, though she was by no means confident that she could do anything
+of the sort. She was already faint and almost sick, and whether she
+could live till morning or not was an undetermined question in her
+mind. To tell the truth, Sam himself felt but little confidence in his
+device. The spoiled meat, he knew, would attract only the larger
+animals, and such dead-falls as Tom could set were by no means certain
+to kill these in their fall. It was the very best thing he could do,
+however, and he must trust to it in the absence of any better reliance.
+He concealed his anxiety therefore, and after receiving Tom's report of
+his operations in dead-fall setting, he drew Judie to his side and told
+her a fairy story, as night fell. All went to sleep at last, and when
+morning came Sam aroused Tom very early and sent him to examine the
+traps. The boy was gone for an hour or more, when he returned with
+downcast countenance. Two of the traps had been thrown, but there was no
+game under them, while the four others remained undisturbed.
+
+Here was a bad out-look certainly, and they had not tasted food now for
+more than thirty hours!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+WHICH ENDS THE STORY.
+
+
+"Something must be done," said Sam, as soon as he had heard Tom's
+report, "and quickly too. Let me think a few minutes. We are beginning
+now to be hungry enough to eat anything, and when people get that hungry
+there are a good many things that can be eaten. I'll tell you what we
+must do, Tom--"
+
+But what it was that Sam had hit upon, Tom never knew. Just as this
+point in the conversation was reached _Joe_ came running in through the
+alley-way, his face flattened out into a broad grin of delight, his
+teeth and eyes shining, while he danced all over the fortress, shaking
+hands over and over again, and saying,
+
+"Hi! Miss Judie! Hi! Mas' Tom! Hi! Mas' Sam! How does ye all do now? Did
+you think Joe had runned away? Joe tell ye he never runned away. Joe
+ain't no runaway nigger, nohow at all, and de Ingins ain't ketched Joe
+nuther. Joe's back all safe an' sound, sartin sure! Hi!"
+
+"What on earth ails you, Joe? You're out of your wits, poor fellow,"
+said Sam, convinced that the black boy was demented.
+
+"No I ain't nuther, Mas' Sam," he replied. "Joe ain't crazy one bit, but
+he's glad _sure_."
+
+"Where have you been, Joe, since you left us?"
+
+"Whar? Why to de fort, an' I'se dun brung back a rescue too, didn't I
+tell you? Laws a massy, dat's what I comed in fust for to tell you. I'se
+done been to Fort Glass and brung a big rescue party, and de white folks
+dey said, long as Joe brung us he's 'titled to tell de good news fust,
+an' dat's how I'm here while de rest is outside de drif'."
+
+"Go and see, Tom," said Sam, afraid to believe this story of the
+seemingly insane boy, who, he thought, had become crazed from long
+brooding over the chances of rescue. Tom got up to go, but as he started
+Mr. Hardwicke himself met him in the door way and caught him in his
+arms. Tandy Walker was just behind.
+
+"Well, this beats all," said Tandy. "I've done a good many jobs o'
+rescuin' in my time, but I never yit found the rescued hid in the roots
+of a tree an' fortified with a drift-pile. An' if I'm a jedge o' sich
+things, this here party's a'most starved. I've seed hungry people afore
+now, an' I say le's have a breakfast sot right away for these here
+little ones."
+
+Tandy was right, as we know, and it was not long before an abundant
+breakfast was spread for Sam and Tom and little Judie. The rescue party
+consisted of twenty stout fellows from the fort, and after breakfast a
+rude litter was provided for Sam, and crossing the river in the little
+canoe the party began its homeward march. Tom was glad to walk, the walk
+being in that direction. Judie was carried, part of the time in her
+father's arms, part of it in Tandy Walker's, and part on the broad
+shoulders of Caesar, the negro man who had participated in the canoe
+fight. Sam was stretched on a litter, carried by four of the men, and
+Joe insisted on walking always by his side, though he fell behind now
+and then for the purpose of dancing a little jig of delight. He would
+execute this movement, and then running, catch up with the litter again.
+
+"Tell me, Joe," said Sam after the black boy had become somewhat quiet
+again, "tell me all about this thing."
+
+"'Bout what thing, Mas' Sam?"
+
+"About your going to the fort and all that. How did you manage it, and
+how came you to think of it?"
+
+"Well, you see, Mas' Sam, when you was at your wust, I got a thinkin',
+an' I thought out a plan dat Mas' Tom said was a good un. Him an' me was
+to make a raf' out'n cane, an' pole it up de river wid you an' little
+Miss Judie on it, an' den I was to go cross de country to de fort an'
+bring help. Jes' as we got de raf' ready, howsomever, Mas' Tom he axed
+me if I know de way to de fort, an' as I didn't know nothin' 'bout it, I
+jis' sot down an' gived up. But I kep' a thinkin' all de time, an' I
+said to myself, 'Joe, you're a fool anyhow, an' you mustn't tell your
+plans till you know dey're good uns, an' you ain't got sense enough to
+know dat till you try 'em.' An' so I sot my head to work to git up a
+new plan, meanin' to try it all by myself. When de big fight took place
+an' I seed the white folks marchin' away, I said out 'loud, 'dem dare
+folks is gwine right straight to de fort,' an' I said to myself, 'I
+means to go dere too if I kin.' It took me two days 'n more to git de
+thing fixed up right in my min'.
+
+"I was willin' enough to risk Injuns, but I was afear'd you'n Mas' Tom
+'ud think Joe was a runaway nigger if I never comed back, an' dat
+troubled me. I fixed dat at las' by makin' Mas' Tom mos' swar he'd stick
+to it dat I wasn't no runaway nigger, an' den I sot out. I crossed de
+river in de little canoe an' hid her in de bushes. I found de place whar
+de white folks started from, an' I jes' follered dere trail. Dat was my
+plan. I know'd dey would make a big easy trail, dere was so many of 'em,
+an I meant to follow 'em. It took me more'n two whole nights to git to
+de fort, dough, 'cause de creeks was all high an' de brush very tangley.
+When I tole de folks about you'n Miss Judie an' Mas' Tom, dey didn't
+more'n half believe me, an' when I tole 'em I'd lead 'em straight to
+whar you was, an' dey said dey'd sculp me if I didn't, I jest said all
+right, 'cause if we don' find Mas' Sam an' little Miss Judie an' Mas'
+Tom no more, den I'd rather be sculped'n not, anyhow. But we did fin'
+you, didn't we Mas' Sam?" and at this Joe had to drop behind again and
+execute a rapid jig movement, as a relief to his feelings.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The government forces under General Jackson, together with the settlers
+themselves, were now pressing the savages very hard. Battles were fought
+almost every day, and every battle weakened the Indians. In December,
+General Claiborne invaded the Holy Ground, and utterly destroyed
+Weatherford's command, as a result of which that chief surrendered to
+Jackson and the war was practically at an end. A few more battles were
+necessary before a final peace could be made, and the last of them was
+fought on the 27th of March, 1814, at Horseshoe Bend; but after the
+battle of December 23d a little more than a month after Sam's party was
+rescued, the country north and west of the Alabama river was
+comparatively free from savages, who no longer dared wander about in
+small bands, plundering and burning houses, and the planters began to
+return to their homes to get ready for spring work.
+
+When Mr. Hardwicke was about to go home with his children, he sent for
+Joe. When the boy came, little Judie handed him a carefully folded
+document, saying,
+
+"Here's a present for you, Joe.
+
+"What's dis?" asked Joe, unable to guess what possible use he could have
+for such a paper as that, inasmuch as he couldn't read it to save his
+life.
+
+"These are your _free papers_, Joe," said Sam. "Father has bought you
+from Mr. Butler, for the purpose of setting you free, as a reward for
+your good conduct."
+
+Joe evidently wanted to say something, but did not know how.
+
+"Are you glad to be free, Joe?" asked Mr. Hardwicke.
+
+"Ain't I though?" and Joe's feet began to shuffle as if a jig were
+coming in spite of his desire to behave well.
+
+"Well, Joe," said Mr. Hardwicke, "I mean to give you a fair chance in
+life, and I've thought the matter over carefully. You are free now to
+do precisely as you please, and you can live where you like. But I've a
+proposition to make--a plan for you. Do you know my cypress farm,--the
+little one down in the fork of the two creeks?"
+
+"De one whar' ole uncle Peter Dun lived so long?"
+
+"Yes, the one uncle Peter manages for me."
+
+"Yes, master, I knows dat place mighty well."
+
+"Well, how would you like to buy it, Joe?"
+
+"Buy the farm, master? What's Joe got to buy wid? I ain't got no money,
+'thout it's a quarter Mas' Tandy Walker dun gim me fur to clean his
+boots sence we comed back to de fort, an' I jest know that a quarter
+won't buy no sich low grounds as dem dar down twix' dem dar creeks is.
+Dat's de very bes' lan' in Alabama. Leastways I dun hear de folks say
+'tis heaps o' times. You's jokin' wid Joe, master."
+
+"No, I am not, Joe. You can buy the land if you want it, and there are a
+hundred and ten acres in the tract, besides the strip of woods along
+both creeks."
+
+"How's I gwine to buy it, master?"
+
+"Well, let me see. You're about thirteen now. It will be nine years yet
+before you will be a man, and if you choose to live with me until you
+are twenty-one, I'll feed and clothe you till then, and the day you are
+twenty-one the farm shall be yours in payment of wages."
+
+"How you mean, master?"
+
+"I mean, that besides feeding and clothing you as I feed and clothe my
+people, I will give you the farm for your nine years' work. If you like
+the place, I will have all the papers made out, so that the farm will be
+yours, even if I should die before the time is up. I have more land than
+I care to keep, and you see I want to sell that one farm to you, if
+you'll buy it."
+
+"Looks to me, heap more like's if you was gwine to give it to me,
+master; dis on'y your fun to say I buy's it."
+
+"No, the bargain is a fair one, Joe. I could give you the farm now, but
+I think it will be better for you to work for it, and then you'll feel
+that it's yours by right and not by favor. I want to make a man of you,
+Joe, and my children shall always think of you as one of their best
+friends. Go out of doors if you want to dance, Joe," seeing the feet
+beginning to shuffle, and understanding the mingled joy and
+embarrassment of the boy.
+
+Joe hesitated a moment, and then with a sudden straightening of his
+shoulders, as if the future manliness were already beginning to assert
+itself in him, he advanced to Mr. Hardwicke, and shaking his hand, said:
+
+"Joe ain't got no learnin' an' no manners nuther, master, but Joe's
+_grateful_ anyhow," and bursting into tears the boy left the room.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+CAPITAL BOOKS FOR BOYS.
+
+Published by G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS.
+4th AVE. AND 23d STREET, NEW YORK.
+
+
+I.
+
+THE BOY WITH AN IDEA; by Mrs. Eiloart, author of "Chris Fairlie's
+Boyhood," &c. Illustrated, cloth extra, $1.75.
+
+
+II.
+
+THE YOUNG MECHANIC; Practical Carpentry. Containing Directions for the
+use of Tools, and for the Construction of Steam-Engines and Mechanical
+Models, including the Art of Turning in Wood and Metal. Illustrated,
+octavo, cloth extra, $1.75.
+
+"A valuable book, eminently useful to beginners, and suggestive even to
+the experienced and skilful."--_Albany Journal._
+
+
+III.
+
+THE REALM OF THE ICE-KING; by the author of "Saved from the Wreck."
+Illustrated, cloth extra, $2.00
+
+This will be found a most attractive volume of Arctic Travels and
+Adventures.
+
+
+IV.
+
+WONDERS OF THE DEEP; by Prof. Schele De Vere. Contents: Pearls, Corals,
+Oysters, a Pinch of Salt, a Grain of Sand, Odd Fish, Lighthouses,
+Mercury, &c., &c., &c. Illustrated, cloth extra, $1.50
+
+"One of the freshest, most scientific, and at the same time, most
+popular and delightful books of the kind we have ever read."--_St.
+John's Telegraph._
+
+
+V.
+
+THE LIFE AND JOURNALS OF JOHN J. AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST. Comprising
+narrations of his expeditions in the American Forests, &c. 12mo., cloth
+extra, gilt top, $2.25
+
+"It is a grand story of a grand life, more instructive than a sermon,
+more romantic than a romance."--_Harper's Magazine._
+
+--Any of the above sent, postpaid, on the receipt of price.
+
+
+
+
+Putnams' Series of Popular Manuals.
+
+HALF-HOURS WITH THE MICROSCOPE.
+
+By EDWIN LANKESTER, M.D., F. R.S. Illustrated by 250 Drawings from
+Nature. 12mo, cloth, $1.25.
+
+"This beautiful little volume is a very complete manual for the amateur
+microscopist. * * * The 'Half-Hours' are filled with clear and agreeable
+descriptions, whilst eight plates, executed with the most beautiful
+minuteness and sharpness, exhibit no less than 250 objects with the
+utmost attainable distinctness."--_Critic._
+
+
+HALF-HOURS WITH THE TELESCOPE:
+
+Being a popular Guide to the Use of the Telescope as a means of
+Amusement and Instruction. Adapted to inexpensive instruments. By R. A.
+PROCTOR, B.A., F.R.A.S. 12mo, cloth, with illustrations on stone and
+wood. Price, $1.25.
+
+"It is crammed with starry plates on wood and stone, and among the
+celestial phenomena described or figured, by far the larger number may
+be profitably examined with small telescopes."--_Illustrated Times._
+
+
+HALF-HOURS WITH THE STARS:
+
+A Plain and Easy Guide to the Knowledge of the Constellations, showing
+in 12 Maps, the Position of the Principal Star Groups Night after Night
+throughout the Year, with introduction and a separate explanation of
+each Map. True for every Year. By RICHARD A. PROCTOR, B.A., F.R.A.S.
+Demy 4to. Price, $2.25.
+
+"Nothing so well calculated to give a rapid and thorough knowledge of
+the position of the stars in the firmament has ever been designed or
+published hitherto. Mr. Proctor's 'Half-Hours with the Stars' will
+become a text-book in all schools, and an invaluable aid to all teachers
+of the young."--_Weekly Times._
+
+
+MANUAL OF POPULAR PHYSIOLOGY:
+
+Being an Attempt to Explain the Science of Life in Untechnical Language.
+By HENRY LAWSON, M.D. 18mo, with 90 Illustrations. Price, $1.25.
+
+Man's Mechanism, Life, Force, Food, Digestion, Respiration, Heat, the
+Skin, the Kidneys, Nervous System, Organs of Sense, &c., &c., &c.
+
+"Dr Lawson has succeeded in rendering his manual amusing as well as
+instructive. All the great facts in human physiology are presented to
+the reader successively; and either for private reading or for classes,
+this manual will be found well adapted for initiating the uninformed
+into the mysteries of the structure and function of their own
+bodies."--_Athenaeum._
+
+
+WOMAN BEFORE THE LAW.
+
+By JOHN PROFFATT, LL.B., of the New York Bar.
+
+CONTENTS.--I. Former Status of Women. II. Legal Conditions of Marriage.
+III. Personal Rights and Disabilities of the Wife. IV. Rights of
+Property, Real and Personal. V. Dower. VI. Reciprocal Rights and Duties
+of Mother and Children. VII. Divorce.
+
+12mo, cloth, $1. Half bound, $1.25.
+
+
+BASTIAT. SOPHISMS OF PROTECTION.
+
+By FREDERIC BASTIAT. With Preface by HORACE WHITE. Cloth. Price $1.00.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BIG BROTHER***
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