“Land o’ mercy, Nancy! I’m no better pleased than you to go; but if there’s a chance of our being in danger, we must be on the safe side. I am as daring as the next; but I must say when we beeta have Injuns for visitors, I want to git out.” Therefore Agnes reluctantly packed up the things she most cared for--her favorite wolfskin that Archie had given her in place of the one she had taken such pride in at the first settlement; a little bowl quaintly carved, a belt ornamented with porcupine quills, and such like things. Polly’s feather-beds and the rest of the family necessities were packed on two horses, and the children were established in crates at the sides of these beasts of burden; and so the journey was taken to the fort, now the centre of quite a large, though scattered, community. Several families, at the report of Indians near, had come into the fort, but there was still a number of the clearings occupied by those who did not easily take alarm, and who waited for a confirmation of the news before they should leave their comfortable quarters. Jeanie insisted that Agnes should come immediately to her, but Agnes refused to leave her father altogether, though she spent many a day at the M’Cleans’ clearing, and there made the acquaintance of David Campbell, who, being a near neighbor, found it convenient to drop in often, despite the fact that Jeanie obstinately declared that she did not like him. “He is a good fellow,” Agnes insisted, “and I don’t see why you don’t like him. You must and shall,” which was a sure way of encouraging Jeanie in her decision not to like him. “It is a pity Archie is your brother, for then you could take him and give me David,” said Agnes, one day, when Jeanie had been singing Archie’s praises. “You can have David for aught I care,” returned Jeanie, bridling. “Do you say so? Well then, I’ll go with him to meeting next Sabbath day.” “You’d better wait till he asks you,” retorted Jeanie. “Oh, he’ll ask me fast enough,” Agnes replied, nodding her head with an air of conviction. Jeanie bit her lip but said nothing. David had asked her and she had refused. Like most girls she was in a contrary frame of mind when it came to a question of meeting a lover halfway. In her secret heart she was only too anxious to accept David’s company, but she would not have Agnes know it for the world, and though Agnes made many sly references to the pleasures to be expected upon the coming Sabbath, neither girl was particularly jubilant when she considered it, though of the two Agnes was the more pleased. She had noted Jeanie’s lofty expression, and laughed in her sleeve at the success of her little plot.