The Pioneer Boys of the Ohio; or, Clearing the WildernessRathborne, St. George
General
The Pioneer Boys of the Ohio; or, Clearing the Wilderness
Rathborne, St. George
Frontier and pioneer life -- Juvenile fiction; Ohio River -- Juvenile fiction
"I think it must be so," returned Bob, hardly able to believe the
truth himself. "Their shouts seem to be further away; and the arrows
have stopped falling!"
"Oh! I wonder what damage has been done, and if--" But even the
stout-hearted Sandy dare not voice the fear that was in his soul, for
his thoughts had turned to the beloved father and the two others who
crouched back of that poor shelter of logs.
Were any of them injured?
"Lights! Start the fire, so that we can see what damage has been done!"
called the leader of the emigrant band; and almost like magic tinder
was ignited, to be applied to the fires prepared against this time of
need.
CHAPTER XI
ON THE BANK OF THE OHIO
"COME with me, Bob!" said the younger boy, unable to undertake the
mission alone.
"Courage!" cried the other in his ear; "I am sure all is well, and
that I heard Kate's voice in the song of hallelujah that arose from
the women when it was known the Indians had fled. All must be well,
brother!"
Yes, all was well; and in another moment the boys were encircled in
the loving arms of their anxious mother, while David, bleeding from a
slight wound where an arrow had struck him, stood by with thanksgiving
written on his bearded face.
If the boys had felt worried about the mother and Kate, fancy her
feelings, knowing as she did that her loved ones were on the firing
line and taking a thousand risks!
But it was all over now. Pat O'Mara declared that the red men had
received a lesson they would not soon forget. Doubtless the valiant
little company of home-seekers would not be troubled again while on
the way to the Ohio.
They had not come out of the battle entirely unscathed. True, Heaven
had been kind, and no one had been mortally hurt; but there were
several suffering grievous wounds, who would have to be tenderly nursed
for a time.
"It's lucky for us," declared the redoubtable Irish trapper, after the
extent of the damage had been discovered, "thot the Shawanees niver
poison their war arrows. Troth, but it would be a sorry day for the
loike av us if thot same were thrue, as I've knowed some Injuns to do."
And every poor fellow who had received a more or less painful wound
echoed his words.
When the pioneers came to look around in the early morning light,
expecting to find many dead Indians, for those guns had poured a hail
of bullets directly into the midst of the onrushing foe, to their great
surprise they failed to discover a single one. Their dusky comrades
must have crept up in the darkness and removed both dead and wounded,
fearing lest they fall into the hands of the whites.
It was high noon before the expedition could get started that day,
there were so many things to be done toward repairing damages,
attending the wounded, and waiting to hear the report of scouts sent
out to learn whether the Indians had really left the vicinity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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