"We've got all our traps oiled, and stowed away on board the flatboat, you know, Bob; and won't we have the time of our lives, once we get settled in our new home, with the snow beginning to fly next autumn? I'm glad now that I traded for those five traps Adam Shell had. It gives us nearly double as many as we had before." So they chatted as they finished their cleaning up. Meanwhile the women were busily engaged in getting the last meal that they expected to take among those whom they had known so long. There were not many tears shed, for these hardy souls were accustomed to meeting all sorts of happenings with the fortitude that makes heroines. Indeed, Mrs. Armstrong admitted to herself that this parting did not cause one-half the wrench that came when they pulled up stakes, away off in Virginia, and first set out on the trail over the mountains, headed into the great West. Then they knew nothing of the Indian country, and a thousand fears assailed them; but now, the yell of the savage foe had become familiar in their ears, and surely little that was new in the form of peril could be awaiting them on their further journey. It was but the turning over of the page and beginning a second chapter in a tale that had already been started. After breakfast had been disposed of, there was a great confusion all through the little settlement. Work of all kinds was at a standstill for that morning, as all wished to add their mite to giving the adventurous families a hearty send-off. [Illustration: "AT LAST THEY WERE AFLOAT ON THE OHIO, BOUND INTO THE UNKNOWN COUNTRY THAT LAY FAR AWAY TO THE WESTWARD."] Before the sun had mounted three hours high in the eastern heavens the last word had been spoken; and amid the cheers of the assembled people, old and young, the ropes that held the large flatboat to the shore were cast off. At last they were afloat on the Ohio, bound into the unknown country that lay far away to the westward. Day after day, and week after week, they expected to continue to float ever onward, spending the daylight in making such progress as lay in their power, and either anchoring at night in the stream, or else, if it were deemed safe, tying up to the shore. Again and again had they listened to the sober warnings from those who expected to stick to the old settlement. And now the current had taken hold of their clumsy, but staunch, craft, and was commencing to hurry it along, as though anxious to sever the last ties binding them to these good friends. By degrees the shouts died out in the ever-increasing distance, and the bold pioneers began to pay more attention to their duties. Then a bend of the river shut out the last glimpse of the waving hats and kerchiefs, and a great silence came upon the scene, broken only by the creak of the big steering oar, or the gurgle of the river against the planking below.