When it was all over a council was held, and it was agreed that there was no chance whatever of the Indians returning to renew the contest, as they would be helpless on foot; but that if by a spy they found out that their horses were there, they might endeavor to recover them. It was therefore agreed that they should be driven over at once to Mr. Percy's, there to remain until a purchaser was obtained for them. In the afternoon the party dispersed, with many thanks from the Hardys for their prompt assistance. CHAPTER XI. QUIET TIMES. "After a storm comes a calm:" a saying true in the case of the Hardys, as in that of most others. All their neighbors agreed that after the very severe loss of the Indians, and the capture of the whole of their horses, there was no chance whatever of another attack, at any rate for many months. After that it was possible, and indeed probable, that they would endeavor to take vengeance for their disastrous defeat; but that at present they would be too crippled and disheartened to think of it. The settlers were now, therefore, able to give their whole attention to the farm. The first operation was the sheep-shearing. Four men had been hired to do the shearing at Canterbury, and then to come over to Mount Pleasant. Charley rode over to their neighbors' with Mrs. Hardy and his sisters, Mr. Hardy and Hubert remaining at home--the latter laid up with the wound in his leg. It was an amusing sight to see three or four hundred sheep driven into an enclosure, and then dragged out by the shearers. These men were paid according to the number shorn, and were very expert, a good hand getting through a hundred a day. They were rather rough, though, in their work, and the girls soon went away from the shearing-place with a feeling of pity and disgust, for the shearers often cut the sheep badly. Each man had a pot of tar by his side, with which he smeared over any wound. A certain sum was stopped from their pay for each sheep upon which they made a cut of over a certain length; but although this made them careful to a certain extent, they still wounded a great many of the poor creatures.