Nick of the Woods; Or, Adventures of Prairie LifeBird, Robert Montgomery
General
Nick of the Woods; Or, Adventures of Prairie Life
Bird, Robert Montgomery
Frontier and pioneer life -- Kentucky -- Fiction
wife of my bosom,' and 'the child of my heart,'--the _children_,
friend,--for there was five of them, sons and daughters together,--little
innocent babes that had done no wrong; and, truly, I loved them well.
Well, friend, the Injuns came around us: for being bold, because of my
faith that made me a man of peace and the friend of all men, I sat me
down far on the border. But the Shawnees came upon me, and came as men of
war, and their hands were red with the blood of my neighbours, and they
raised them against my little infants. Thee asked me in the wood, what I
would do in such case, having arms in my hand? Friend, I _had_ arms in my
hand, at that moment,--a gun that had shot me the beasts of the mountain
for food, and a knife that had pierced the throats of bears in their
dens. I gave them to the Shawnee chief, that he might know I was a
friend.--Friend! if thee asks me now for my children, I can tell
thee--With my own knife he struck down my eldest boy! with my own gun
he slew the mother of my children!--If thee should live till thee is
gray, thee will never see the sight I saw that day! When thee has
children that Injuns murder, as thee stands by,--a wife that clasps thee
legs in the writhing of death,--her blood, spouting up to thee bosom,
where she has slept,--an old mother calling thee to help her in the
death-struggle:--then, friend, _then_ thee may see--then thee
may know--then thee may feel--then thee may call theeself wretched, for
thee will be so! Here was my little boy,--does thee see? there his two
sisters--thee understands?--there--Thee may think I would have snatched a
weapon to help them _then_! Well, thee is right:--but it was too
late!--All murdered, friend!--all--all,--all cruelly murdered!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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