Well, the result of that move was that when night came we had stores in plenty--corn ground and in meal, young potatoes, smoked pork, and salted fish in such quantity that I believed we could hold out though we were besieged three weeks. But the prizes found this day were two cows that had taken to the thicket when the savages first appeared, who came out lowing to be milked. My heart was lighter than it had been at any time since we first went into Fort Jenkins when I took Esther Hinchman’s place on the platform, binding her by solemn promise that she would spend all her time in sleeping, until another day had come, unless by chance we were attacked. As it proved there was very little sleep to be had by any within the stockade on that night; we had our first taste of the work we had just begun, and I make bold to say that we did not come off badly, considering our lack of weapons. We had no more than relieved the women of sentry duty when Giles March, who was stationed near the northern end of the wall, cried out that he could see a canoe close under the opposite shore, and before the light of day had died fully away, we saw three others, all dropping cautiously down-stream. No more warning of an attack than that was needed; we knew full well that the curs would do what they might at striking a blow before morning, and, therefore, were ready for them when the time came. The women who had been selected to aid in the defence were warned to be ready when the first shot was fired, and Giles March and I made the rounds carefully after night had fully come, cautioning those who stood facing the thicket to fire at any moving thing. Not until near to one o’clock in the morning was any move made by the painted curs, and then one of them showed himself long enough for Daniel Hinchman to send a bullet where it would do the most good, from our point of view. Then it was the bloodthirsty wolves came at us with a rush, counting, most likely, to find that we had no weapons, and when I leaped on the platform to do my share in the battle which had begun so suddenly, Esther Hinchman was already there. “What are you doing here?” I cried, sharply, discharging my musket with good aim at a painted fiend who was coming forward at full speed as if to clamber up the wall. “Get down out of danger! I _will_ not have you here!” “I can keep watch while you reload your gun,” she said, pleadingly; but I literally forced her down, threatening that she should never again perform sentinel duty if she dared to disobey. From that moment until the rush had been checked, I had no time to give heed to her, for the savages pressed us hard during ten minutes or more, and all the while I could not but bewail the fact that we were expending our ammunition so rapidly, although every fellow strove hard not to waste a shot.