Even before making any attempt to tell such a story regarding the events of that fearful day as had been decided upon, Giles March and I gave attention to the wounded. Samuel Rogers was resting comfortably on a pile of leaves at the farther end of the cave, and declared that he had improved wondrously since we brought him there, while Oscar Stephenson appeared to be suffering rather from exhaustion, caused by rapid travel and loss of blood, than from the bullet, which had ploughed its way through the flesh without breaking bones. Having seen so much of killing during the day just past, I was actually surprised at learning how many of us had been spared from what was neither more nor less than a massacre. The cave had seemed too large when we first found it; but now, with so many inside, it was all too small for comfortable living. Lest the reader may have forgotten how many of us were here assembled, let me set down the list: First, there was Mistress Morley, and the other woman whose name I do not now remember, with the two Morley children. Esther Hinchman made up the list of females. Master Bartlett and Stephen Morley represented the men of the valley, and in addition we had of the Minute Boys, Daniel Hinchman, for we counted him as among us, Samuel Rogers, Giles March, Oscar Stephenson, Miles Parker, and myself. I had not supposed so many of our company escaped the tomahawk and the scalping-knife until I saw them here assembled, and it was in my mind that we were more in numbers than all the others who had come out alive from the battle with John Butler’s renegades and red wolves. That Daniel Hinchman and Master Bartlett had worked like beavers during the absence of Giles March and myself, there could be no question. The cave, if such it could be called, had been cleared of rubbish, and that part of it to be used as sleeping quarters was covered with leaves and fir-tips. To my great delight, during such house-cleaning a living spring at the farther end of the excavation had been found, and, as showing how we might hold out against a considerable force for many days without fear of bodily suffering, Master Bartlett explained that it was his purpose, now we were all there to aid in the labor, to bring a number of large rocks in order to partially close up the mouth in such fashion that only one person could enter at a time. Therefore did it seem as if we would be more secure, in event of an attack, than if we were holding the best stockade that had ever been built in the valley. Mistress Morley and Master Bartlett had made further plans for the bettering of this refuge as soon as there was time in which to do the work, and among other things it was decided that it might be possible to drill a hole through the side of the mountain into the cave, using a sharpened sapling as a drill,--in case there were no rocks to interfere,--and thereby an outlet for smoke could be had.