But the siege would be severe, perhaps long. Nothing could be done until they had a supply of water--and the spring was not inside the palisade, as was the frontier custom, but a short distance away, near the very spot where the red men were hiding in the thick woods. The night before only the ordinary amount of water had been brought in. The buckets were empty, and it was a hot August day. Life inside the stockade, even though there were no battle, would be unendurable. Captain Craig thought a moment, then called up the women and children, and told them his plan. “Will you, you women and you children who are large enough, go down to the spring, with every bucket you can carry, and bring back water? Our lives depend upon it. We think the Indians are hidden near the spring, waiting. Now if you’ll go, just as you do every morning, I think they’ll not molest you, for that would break up their plan. As far as we can we’ll cover you with our rifles. You see, don’t you, that this is our only hope? If we men go to the spring, it would be so unusual that it would rouse their suspicions at once; and if we were shot down, there would be no one to save the fort and you. Will you go?” They were quick to appreciate the situation. Of course Captain Craig might be all wrong in his theory. The savages might capture the women and children, right under the eyes of the men in the fort. No one could tell what they might do. It was a terrible state of affairs. They knew what capture meant--death by torture. They had not lived on the frontier for nothing. A shudder of terror went through the group. Water we must have. The men can’t go for it. We women will. Such were the steps Jemima Johnson’s thoughts took, and instantly she volunteered. The Spartan daughter of a fearless pioneer, the sister of others, the wife of another, Jemima Suggett Johnson was also the mother of five little children, and her husband was away in Virginia. But she was the first to offer to go. Quickly she gave her orders: Betsy, who was ten, was to go with her; Sally, to look after the two little boys as well as watch baby Richard, in his cradle. Now who would go with her for the water? Armed with wooden dippers, the wives of the Craig brothers and their children volunteered. Others quickly offered. Captain Craig opened the gate and out they marched after Captain Johnson--twelve women and sixteen children--true helpmates of those sturdy frontiersmen. They were nearly overcome with terror, yet they laughed and chatted as they tramped down the hill some sixty yards to the spring. A few of the younger ones found it hard to hide their agitation, but Jemima Johnson’s steadiness and cool composed manner reassured them and completely deceived the savages.