The Young Trailers | Page 7

story of each of the four buildings, thrust the muzzle of
his rifle into every one of the holes in turn, and then looked satisfied.
"It is well done," he said. "Nobody can shelter himself against the wall
from the fire of defenders up here."
These very strong buildings they called their blockhouses, and after
they finished them they dug a well in the corner of the inclosed ground,
striking water at a depth of twenty feet. Then their main labors were
finished, and each family now began to furnish its house as it would or
could.
It was not all work for Henry while this was going on, and some of the
labor itself was just as good as play. He was allowed to go considerable
distances with Ross, and these journeys were full of novelty. He was a
boy who came to places which no white boy had ever seen before. It
was hard for him to realize that it was all so new. Behold a splendid
grove of oaks! he was its discoverer. Here the little river dropped over a
cliff of ten feet; his eyes were the first to see the waterfall. From this
high hill the view was wonderful; he was the first to enjoy it. Forest,
open and canebrake alike were swarming with game, and he saw
buffaloes, deer, wild turkeys, and multitudes of rabbits and squirrels.
Unaccustomed yet to man, they allowed the explorers to come near.
Ross and Henry were accompanied on many of these journeys by
Shif'less Sol Hyde. Sol was a young man without kith or kin in the
settlement, and so, having nobody but himself to take care of, he chose
to roam the country a great portion of the time. He was fast acquiring a
skill in forest life and knowledge of its ways second only to that of
Ross, the guide. Some of the men called Sol lazy, but he defended
himself. "The good God made different kinds of people and they live
different kinds of lives," said he. "Mine suits me and harms nobody."
Ross said he was right, and Sol became a hunter and scout for the
settlement.
There was no lack of food. They yet had a good supply of the
provisions brought with them from the other side of the mountains, but

they saved them for a possible time of scarcity. Why should they use
this store when they could kill all the game they needed within a mile
of their own house smoke? Now Henry tasted the delights of buffalo
tongue and beaver tail, venison, wild turkey, fried squirrel, wild goose,
wild duck and a dozen kinds of fish. Never did a boy have more kinds
of meat, morning, noon, and night. The forest was full of game, the fish
were just standing up in the river and crying to be caught, and the air
was sometimes dark with wild fowl. Henry enjoyed it. He was always
hungry. Working and walking so much, and living in the open air every
minute of his life, except when he was eating or sleeping, his young
and growing frame demanded much nourishment, and it was not
denied.
At last the great day came when he was allowed to kill a deer if he
could. Both Ross and Shif'less Sol had interceded for him. "The boy's
getting big and strong an' it's time he learned," said Ross. "His hand's
steady enough an' his eye's good enough already," said Shif'less Sol,
and his father agreeing with them told them to take him and teach him.
Two miles away, near the bank of the river, was a spring to which the
game often came to drink, and for this spring they started a little while
before sundown, Henry carrying his rifle on his shoulder, and his heart
fluttering. He felt his years increase suddenly and his figure expand
with equal abruptness. He had become a man and he was going forth to
slay big game. Yet despite his new manhood the blood would run to his
head and he felt his nerves trembling. He grasped his precious rifle
more firmly and stole a look out of the corner of his eye at its barrel as
it lay across his left shoulder. Though a smaller weapon it was modeled
after the famous Western rifle, which, with the ax, won the wilderness.
The stock was of hard maple wood delicately carved, and the barrel
was comparatively long, slender, and of blue steel. The sights were as
fine-drawn as a hair. When Henry stood the gun beside himself, it was
just as tall as he. He carried, too, a powderhorn, and the horn, which
was as white as snow, was scraped so thin as to be transparent, thus
enabling its owner to