CHAPTER IX
THE SPIRIT OF THE PIONEER
"OH! there goes the Hutchinson cabin, swept away down the river!" arosea cry from near by; and, looking out, the boys saw that it was indeedtoo true.
With the rising of the water the stout cabin had finally been liftedfrom its foundations, and, the last they saw of it, the current wasmaking a plaything of what had only a short time before been a happyhome.
"Ours may be the next!" was Sandy's choking exclamation, as he and Bobcontinued to stand there and watch.
Every time there was a lurch to the log building that seemed to presageits destruction, Sandy would press his hand over his eyes, as though hecould not bear the sight; and a moment later the cheering voice of hisbrother would assure him that the peril had passed, at least for thattime, as the sturdily-built cabin still held out.
So the early dawn found the dismal settlement on the bank of the Ohio.
Men stood moodily about, watching the destruction of their homes,and feeling very bitter toward the river that was robbing them somercilessly. Again and again did some one turn the conversation tothat subject which had engrossed the mind of Sandy Armstrong for solong--the charms of the rich land to be found away off toward theregion of the setting sun, where the Mississippi rolled its mightyflood, and abundance awaited the coming of bold pioneers capable ofturning the black soil that would grow fabulous crops.
One spoke of the vast herds of buffaloes that roamed unhindered throughthe aisles of the dense forests; another had heard stories about thevast quantities of the most valuable fur-bearing animals ever seen, andwhich could be easily captured by energetic trappers.
"And the Indians are not of the same bloodthirsty stripe as theShawanees, the Iroquois, and the Delawares, with whom we have beenconstantly threatened," was the argument a third settler advanced.
Sandy hovered around whenever the talk trended this way, eagerlydrinking in all that was said. He believed that, if only thatwonderful young forest ranger, Simon Kenton, were present, he wouldwillingly join his fortunes with a party that might be made up to starttoward the distant goal, as soon as a suitable flatboat could be built.And Sandy only wished he might see the tall, sinewy figure of theindomitable Kenton striding toward the fire at that very moment; sincehis coming would certainly sway the weak members of the party toward aconclusion.
Abijah Cook, the toothless old ranger, who had been entrusted withthe task of keeping track of the river's rise, came hastening towardthe gathering at this time. There was something about the way inwhich he swung his old coonskin cap that aroused the curiosity of thedisconsolate settlers.
"Abijah brings good news!" some one called out, as the hunter drew near.
"The river is surely at a stand!" called the man who swung his hunter'scap so vigorously. "For this half hour it has only risen an inch!"
"Then the worst must be over!" exclaimed a distracted father, hurryingoff to see if his cabin had stood through that period of stress andstrain.
It was a scene they would never forget that greeted the eyes of thepioneers as the day came on.
Five cabins were no longer where they had been at the close of thepreceding day. They had fallen victims to the insatiable maw of theriver, and by this time must have been scattered over miles of thewatercourse, as roof and walls were torn apart by the force of thecurrent.
Sandy was in a fever of suspense. He came back again and again to seeif their cabin still resisted the grip of the flood.
"There is a chance that it will hold out to the end!" he cried, as theboys stood there and watched the trembling roof of the home. "And, ifit does, why we can easily find mother's little treasure box, with thevaluables she thinks so much of; and then there is our wampum belt,which Pontiac gave us with his own hands, to show all Indians, whomight threaten us, that we were the friends and brothers of the sachem.Oh! I would feel pretty bad, I tell you, if that should be lost."
"So would I, Sandy," replied Bob; "because we've depended on that beltto keep the torch away from our settlement. Once it is lost, we are nobetter off than Boonesborough, or any other place around which theIndians constantly hover, ready to use bullets or arrows or torch uponthe unsuspicious settlers. But, Sandy, cheer up. If the cabin doeshold out to the end, we are sure to find the treasure box again; foryou know it would float on the water, and could hardly escape from theinterior, since the door is shut."
"That's what I've been thinking, Bob," returned the other. "But whenwill the water go down enough for us to cross over and find out thetruth? Every minute seems like a whole hour to me; and the hours arelike days."
"Well, we can't hurry the old river a bit by getting excited," Bobcontinued, knowing of old the nervous nature of his brother; "so thebest we can do is to try to make our mother and sister comfortable.They have gone into the blockhouse, you see, and it is there we mustcarry some of our belongings; for the women and children will have tosleep there for some days. Even the cabins that are left standing willbe so water-soaked that it would never do for children to sleep in themuntil they are dried out by fires."
And so, in this labor of love, even Sandy was enabled to forget, for atime at least, his troubles and anxieties.
The river, while at a stand, had not as yet started to go down, thoughby night, the older and more experienced among the settlers declared,they might expect to see some difference in the height of the waters.
Many anxious eyes were cast upward toward the heavens during themorning; and hardly a fleecy cloud that came sailing into sight but wasviewed with more or less fear, lest it turn into a vapory billow thatwould quickly overspread the blue arch, and let down another torrentialrain.
But the air was clear and crisp, and in truth it had apparently clearedup for good, as if Nature were satisfied with the damage alreadywrought.
The big blockhouse had been built with the thought that, in case ofan Indian attack, it would be called on to hold all in the littlesettlement. Around it a high stockade or palisade had been erected,behind the shelter of which the defenders might hold their own againstthe crafty foe, shooting through loopholes that had been made for guns.
It was a two-story affair, the upper projecting a foot or more beyondthe lower, as was the ease with most blockhouses built in those darkdays, when enemies were apt to spring up in a night, surroundingthe fort, and striving by every device known to savage ingenuity toencompass its destruction.
There were small openings in the floor of this second story where itoverlapped the lower walls, and through these the defenders mightprotect the log foundations from being set on fire by the red fiendswho had besieged the occupants, and were bent on their destruction.
After all, it could be made fairly comfortable, and, as there is moreor less consolation in having companions in misery, the women werebeginning to pluck up a little heart, looking to the coming of bettertimes.
Those whose homes had been carried away were promised the assistance ofevery strong arm in the community, in the effort to provide them withnew cabins, for, being so utterly aloof from contact with civilization,the pioneers were dependent on one another for everything that went tomake up life.
Of course the boys could not long keep away from the bank, where theymight look out toward the upper part of their submerged cabin andspeculate on its ability to hold out to the end.
As the day wore on their hopes kept rising and falling. Sandy, inparticular, changed his mind about every ten minutes. Now he wascertain that the good old cabin was bound to defy the power of theflood to move it from its foundations; then again he would call outthat he feared it must be about to give up the fight, because he hadseen its walls shake in a way that told they were near collapse.
But noon came and went, and found things just about the same as whendawn broke over the cheerless scene. True, another cabin had succumbedto the rush of swirling water, so that six in all had been destroyed;but that circumstance alone need not fill them with dismay, since newabodes could be erected, before many weeks had p
assed, that would inall probability be an improvement on the old.
Around the fires the men gathered in clusters to talk over thesituation, and exchange opinions. And every time Bob chanced to drawnear one of these groups he discovered, to his surprise, that much ofthe talk was about the chances of a venturesome party reaching thefertile prairie land away off to the west, by following the course ofthe Ohio.
Apparently, then, Sandy had spoken truly when he declared that the seedhad taken root in the hearts of several of the heads of families; andBob found that even his own father seemed to be as deeply interested inthe project as any of the others.
The very idea gave Bob a thrill. To the bold pioneer, be he boy orman, there is always something very fascinating about heading into theunknown land. Somewhere ahead there always exists a wonderful countrywhere marvellous things may be done. Just as the lure of gold led mento cross the wide plains to California so this feverish desire topossess the land appealed to our forefathers, and tempted them to bravethe perils that lay in wait along unknown trails, all leading westward.
Some of the men who had lost their hard-earned homes were especiallybitter concerning the location which had been picked out for them byDaniel Boone; just as though the frontiersman could ever have foreseensuch an astonishing rise of the river as this flood had been, greater,the Indians declared, than had ever been known before, as far back astheir traditions went.
But these grumblers declared that the place must have some sort ofcurse resting upon it. They had met with troubles without end eversince coming across the mountains to the new country on the Ohio.
To continue to bear up under the oppressive yoke was asking too muchof them; and, as they scorned the very idea of returning to Virginia,there seemed but one alternative, which was to move on further intothe wilderness, found a new home there, and profit by being the firstEnglish families to penetrate that hitherto unsettled region.
After they had eaten some lunch, which made things appear a bit morecheerful, as a meal always does, the boys again wandered down to theedge of the river, to look out over the flowing tide, and speculate onits fast subsidence; for they had made marks themselves, and knew bythese that the flood was losing its grip.
Sandy was feeling much more cheerful now. He even expressed the opinionthat they were sure to find the little treasure box floating aroundinside the cabin, once they could get out to see. And certainly theprecious wampum belt, that spelled safety for the Armstrong family, nomatter what tribe of Indians they happened to meet, could not be muchinjured by a mere soaking.
Bob had heard the changes rung upon this subject half a dozen timesduring that half of a day; and he fully anticipated finding his brotherbreaking out into another lament before half an hour had passed, as thewhim seized him.
Nor was he mistaken about this, though the cause came from a quarterleast expected. It was while the boys were standing there, watchingthe flow of the flood, and commenting on the fine stand taken by theArmstrong cabin, which must always reflect credit on its builders,themselves included, that Sandy gave a sudden exclamation that seemedto sound an alarm.
"After all," he cried out, in a distressed tone, "we have been buildingour hopes on a sandy foundation. The dear old cabin has stood upagainst all the pull of the river; but, see yonder, there comes agreat tree floating down, as if it was in a mill race; and as sure asanything it's headed straight for our poor home. Once that strikesagainst the wall, we can say good-bye to the Armstrong cabin. Oh! it'shard to have to stand here, and not be able to lift a hand to savemother's home!"
The Pioneer Boys of the Mississippi; or, The Homestead in the Wilderness Page 12
