Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England With Axe and Rifle; or The Western Pioneers, by W.H.G. Kingston. ________________________________________________________________________ With great skill and sincerity Kingston depicts many of the struggles and efforts that the would-be settlers in the West had to make. Constant harrying by Red Indians, the weather, nasty neighbours, illness, all made life difficult, indeed almost impossible. The book is told through the eyes of a boy, as he grows to adulthood. His family, also Mr Tidey, who acted as family tutor, or Dominie, and Dio, a runaway slave to whom they give a home, form the principal actors in this tale, but there are many others, such as the wicked Bracher, and a mysterious hunter who appears several times in the book in the guise of a rescuer. Well into the last chapter we are presented with all sorts of dreadful happenings, which the hero feels to be like the imagined happenings of a bad dream. But suddenly it all sorts out and we have an unexpectedly happy conclusion to the tale. ________________________________________________________________________ WITH AXE AND RIFLE; OR THE WESTERN PIONEERS, BY W.H.G. KINGSTON. CHAPTER ONE. CAPTAIN LORAINE'S FARM IN THE FAR WEST--HOT-HEADED YOUNG MEN--OUR FAMILY--UNCLE DENIS TAKEN SICK--WE SET OUT TO VISIT HIM--THE CORDUROY ROAD--A WAYSIDE HOTEL--ROUGH COMPANY--APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY-- CROSSING THE FORD AT GREEN RIVER--NEARLY LOST--A BRAVE NEGRO--GRATITUDE OF MY PARENTS--AT MR. SILAS BRACHER'S PLANTATION--DIOGENES--MAMMY COE-- THE SLAVE-OWNER--MY FATHER ENDEAVOURS TO PURCHASE THE NEGRO--SLAVERY-- UNEXPECTED RECOVERY OF DR. O'DOWD'S PATIENT--A SPORTSMAN'S AMBITION-- TRAPPING--A RICH PRIZE--SOMETHING ABOUT TURKEYS--THE WONDERFUL CAVE OF KENTUCKY--OUR RETURN TO ILLINOIS. Some time after the termination of the long war which England had waged in the cause of liberty when well-nigh all the world was up in arms against her, my father, Captain Patrick Loraine, having served for many years as a subaltern, believing that he should no longer find employment for his sword, sold out of the army, and with the proceeds of his commission in his pocket, quitting the old country, came to the United States in the hopes of making his fortune more rapidly than he could expect to do at home.