The Southerner | Page 8

And I'll put up new gourds
long before they come!"
Comforted at last, he went to the woods to gather chinquapins. The
squirrels were scampering in all directions and he asked his father that
night to let him go hunting with him next day.
"All right, Boy!" was the hearty answer. "We'll have some fun this
winter."
He paused as he saw the mother's lips suddenly close and a shadow
pass over her dark, sensitive face.
"Hit's no use ter worry, Nancy," he went on good-naturedly. "I
promised you not ter take him 'less he wanted ter go. But hit's in the
blood, and hit's got ter come out."

Tom picked the Boy up and placed him on his knee and stroked his
dark head. Sarah crouched at his feet and smiled. He was going to tell
about the Indians again. She could tell by the look in his eye as he
watched the flames leap over the logs.
"Did ye know, Boy," he began slowly, "that we come out to Kaintuck
with Daniel Boone?"
"Did we?"
"Yes sirree, with old Dan'l hisself. It wuz thirty years ago. I wuz a little
shaver no bigger'n you, but I remember jest as well ez ef it wuz
yistiddy. Lordy, Boy, thar wuz er man that wuz er man! Ye couldn't a
made no jackleg carpenter outen him----" He paused and cast a sly
wink at Nancy as she bent over her knitting.
"Tell me about him?" the Boy cried.
"Yessir, Dan'l Boone wuz a man an' no mistake. The Indians would
ketch 'im an' keep er ketchin' 'im an' he'd slip through their fingers
slicker'n a eel. The very fust trip he tuck out here he wuz captured by
the Redskins. Dan'l wuz with his friend John Stuart.
"They left their camp one day an' set out on a big hunt, and all of a
sudden they wuz grabbed by the Injuns."
"Why didn't they shoot 'em?" the Boy asked.
"They wuz too many of 'em an' they wuz too quick for Dan'l. He didn't
have no show at all. The Injuns robbed 'em of everything they had an'
kept 'em prisoners.
"But ole Dan'l wuz a slick un. He'd been studyin' Injuns all his life an'
he knowed 'em frum a ter izard. They didn't have nothin' but bows an'
arrers then an' he had a rifle thes like mine. He never got flustered or
riled by the way they wuz treatin' him, but let on like he wuz happy ez
er June bug. Dan'l would raise his rifle, put a bullet twixt a buffalo's
eyes an' he'd drap in his tracks. The Injuns wuz tickled ter death an'

thought him the greatest man that ever lived--an' he wuz, too. So they
got ter likin' him an' treatin' 'im better. For seven days an' nights him an'
Stuart helped 'em hunt an' showed 'em how ter work er rifle. The Injuns
was plum fooled by Dan'l's friendly ways an' didn't watch 'im so close.
"So one night Dan'l helped 'em ter eat a bigger supper than ever. They
wuz all full enough ter bust, an' went ter sleep an' slept like logs. Hit
wuz a dark night an' the fire burned low, an' long 'bout midnight Dan'l
made up his mind ter give 'em the slip.
"Hit wuz er dangerous job. Ef he failed hit wuz death shore-nuff, for
nothin' makes a Injun so pizen mad ez fer anybody ter be treated nice
by 'em an' then try ter get away. The Redskins wuz all sleepin' round
the fire. They wuz used ter jumpin' in the middle o' the night or any
minute. Mebbe they wuz all ersleep, an' mebbe they wasn't.
"Old Dan'l he pertended ter be sleepin' the sleep er the dead, an' I tell ye
he riz mighty keerful, shuck Stuart easy, waked him up an' motioned
him ter foller. Talk about sneakin' up on a wild duck er a turkey--ole
Dan'l done some slick business gettin' away frum that fire! Man, ef
they'd rustled a leaf er broke a twig, them savages would a all been up
an' on 'em in a minute. Holdin' tight to their guns--you kin bet they
didn't leave them--and a steppin' light ez feathers they crept away from
the fire an' out into the deep dark o' the woods. They stopped an' stood
as still ez death an' watched till they see the Injuns hadn't waked----"
The pioneer paused and his white teeth shone through his black beard
as he cocked his shaggy head to one side and looked into the Boy's
wide eyes.
"And then what do you reckon Dan'l Boone done, sir?"
"What?"
"Waal, ye seed the way them bees made fer their trees, didn't ye, when
they got a load