Garments and bed clothing were made of wool, which was spun at home by the wives and daughters. The women worked hard from morning till night, and the men had many things to do. There were lands to be cleared, crops to be raised, and game to be hunted and dressed. Besides all these occupations it was necessary to keep a constant lookout for hostile savages and to have all means of defense ready in case of a sudden attack. The Indians were so crafty and deceitful that only the closest watchfulness saved the palefaces from danger and death. Sometimes an unwary hunter, hearing the gobbling of a turkey or the call of an owl, would come out into an open place only to be laid low by the red man’s bullet. These experiences developed a strong and brave people. The settlers often bartered things because they had no money, and they were ignorant of many of the ways of civilized life. Some of the frontiersmen did not know that tea leaves should be steeped and used for a drink, and tried to eat them with butter or salt. When a boy was twelve years old he had to begin to take a man’s part. A gun was given to him, and he was placed at a loophole in the fort to help keep off the savage foe. Thus the boys grew up to be real men, knowing little fear, able to take care of themselves, and helping to build one of the great states of the American Union. CHAPTER XII TO KENTUCKY BY THE CUMBERLAND GAP Dr. Thomas Walker was a man of Virginia. He had attended William and Mary College, and was well educated for his times. As the agent of a land company which had a grant of new lands in Kentucky, he, with several companions, made a hard journey of six months into the wilderness. They started at Charlottesville in Virginia, went through the Blue Ridge into the Great Valley, and then followed the valley southwest. One of Walker’s companions bore the name of Ambrose Powell, and as they followed one of the long streams that flow to the southwest to form the Tennessee, they named it Powell’s river. His son afterwards was an officer in the Revolution, and it is said that A. P. Hill, a well-known Confederate general in the Civil War, was his great-grandson. These were, in fact, no common men who, in the year 1750, ventured out into the forest, over the roughest trails we can imagine, among wild animals and savage men. Following down Powell’s river, the travelers saw rugged mountains on their right, the Cumberland range. As they wished to explore the forests of Kentucky, they were looking for a chance to pass the mountains, and by and by they came in sight of a deep notch, cut at least a thousand feet below the top of the mountain ridge (Fig. 54). [Illustration: FIG. 54. CUMBERLAND GAP FROM THE EAST]