In the Days of Poor Richard | Page 9

horses and colts, the latter following.
Solomon Binkus and Peter Bones and his son Israel stood on guard
until the boy John Bones returned with help from the upper valley. A
dozen men and boys completed the disarming of the band and that
evening set out with them on the south trail.
2
It is doubtful if this history would have been written but for an
accidental and highly interesting circumstance. In the first party young
Jack Irons rode a colt, just broken, with the girl captive, now happily
released. The boy had helped every one to get away; then there seemed
to be no ridable horse for him. He walked for a distance by the

stranger's mount as the latter was wild. The girl was silent for a time
after the colt had settled down, now and then wiping tears from her
eyes. By and by she asked:
"May I lead the colt while you ride?"
"Oh, no, I am not tired," was his answer.
"I want to do something for you."
"Why?"
"I am so grateful. I feel like the King's cat. I am trying to express my
feelings. I think I know, now, why the Indian women do the drudgery."
As she looked at Him her dark eyes were very serious.
"I have done little," said he. "It is Mr. Binkus who rescued you. We live
in a wild country among savages and the white folks have to protect
each other. We're used to it."
"I never saw or expected to see men like you," she went on. "I have
read of them in books, but I never hoped to see them and talk to them.
You are like Ajax and Achilles."
"Then I shall say that you are like the fair lady for whom they fought."
"I will not ride and see you walking."
"Then sit forward as far as you can and I will ride with you," he
answered.
In a moment he was on the colt's back behind her. She was a comely
maiden. An authority no less respectable than Major Duncan has
written that she was a tall, well shaped, fun loving girl a little past
sixteen and good to look upon, "with dark eyes and auburn hair, the
latter long and heavy and in the sunlight richly colored"; that she had
slender fingers and a beautiful skin, all showing that she had been
delicately bred. He adds that he envied the boy who had ridden before

and behind her half the length of Tryon County.
It was a close association and Jack found it so agreeable that he often
referred to that ride as the most exciting adventure of his life.
"What is your name?" he asked.
"Margaret Hare," she answered.
"How did they catch you?"
"Oh, they came suddenly and stealthily, as they do in the story books,
when we were alone in camp. My father and the guides had gone out to
hunt."
"Did they treat you well?"
"The Indians let us alone, but the two white men annoyed and
frightened us. The old chief kept us near him."
"The old chief knew better than to let any harm come to you until they
were sure of getting away with their plunder."
"We were in the valley of death and you have led us out of it. I am sure
that I do not look as if I were worth saving. I suppose that I must have
turned into an old woman. Is my hair white?"
"No. You are the best-looking girl I ever saw," he declared with rustic
frankness.
"I never had a compliment that pleased me so much," she answered, as
her elbows tightened a little on his hands which were clinging to her
coat. "I almost loved you for what you did to the old villain. I saw
blood on the side of your head. I fear he hurt you?"
"He jabbed me once. It is nothing."
"How brave you were!"

"I think I am more scared now than I was then," said Jack.
"Scared! Why?"
"I am not used to girls except my sisters."
She laughed and answered:
"And I am not used to heroes. I am sure you can not be so scared as I
am, but I rather enjoy it. I like to be scared--a little. This is so
different."
"I like you," he declared with a laugh.
"I feared you would not like an English girl. So many North Americans
hate England."
"The English have been hard on us."
"What do you mean?"
"They send us governors whom we do not like; they make laws for us
which we have to obey; they impose hard taxes which are not just and
they will not let us have a word to say about it."
"I think it