[Illustration: “LONG KNIFE WAS TAKEN FAIRLY AND SQUARELY IN THE BREAST.”--P. 63.] WITH BOONE ON THE FRONTIER OR _THE PIONEER BOYS OF OLD KENTUCKY_ BY CAPTAIN RALPH BONEHILL AUTHOR OF “THE BOYS OF THE FORT,” “WITH CUSTER IN THE BLACK HILLS,” “WHEN SANTIAGO FELL,” “THE YOUNG BANDMASTER,” ETC. [Illustration] NEW YORK GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS COPYRIGHT, 1903 BY THE MERSHON COMPANY PREFACE “WITH BOONE ON THE FRONTIER” relates the adventures of two youths who, with their families, go westward into what was at that time the wilderness of Kentucky, to join Daniel Boone in settling what has since become one of the richest and most prosperous of our States. The history of this movement, and the history of the man who was its greatest leader, are as fascinating as the most exciting novel ever written. Daniel Boone was a character almost unique in American history, a man the very embodiment of pluck and energy, and one who knew neither fear nor the meaning of the word fail. For years he had his eye on the great green fields of Kentucky, and he resolved, in spite of the dangers from natural causes and from the Indians, to open up this territory to the hundreds of pioneers who had become tired of life along the eastern seacoast or close to it, and who wanted to go where they would be less under the rule of those English who were making themselves offensive at that time. While those in the East were fighting the War for Independence he and his trusty followers were working equally hard to give to this nation a stretch of land of which any people might well be proud. The first settlement in Kentucky was at Boonesborough, about eighteen miles to the southeast of Lexington, on the Kentucky River. To-day this village is of small importance, but at that time, in 1775, it boasted of a fort which, built under the directions of Daniel Boone, was a rallying point for all the settlers of that territory and a place to which they fled for safety at the first sign of an Indian uprising. It is in and around this fort that many incidents of the present tale occur. It may be that some, in reading this story, will deem many of the statements made therein overdrawn. Such is far from being the fact. The days in which Daniel Boone lived were full of dire peril to those who lived on the frontier, or who attempted to push further westward over the hunting grounds of the jealous red men, and many were the outrages committed by the Indians, not alone on the men and boys among the pioneers, but also among the women and girls, and even the little children. Let us all be thankful that such days are now past never to return. CAPTAIN RALPH BONEHILL. _July 1, 1903._ CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. TWO BOYS OF THE WILDERNESS, 1 II. PURSUED BY THE INDIANS, 11