“Letters! letters! letters!”
This was the cry which circulated around Fort Oswego one morning some weeks after Dave had reached the stronghold, in company with Raymond, Shamer, and the two hunters the party had met in the forest.
Dave was slowly recovering from his hurt knee. The twist had proved more severe than at first anticipated, and he had found it necessary to go to the hospital more than once, to have it examined and dressed.
A courier from Albany had come in, with saddle-bags filled with letters of all kinds, written on the thinnest of paper, so that they should not weigh too much, for postage went by weight and was very high.
“A letter for me!” cried Dave, as it was handed to him. It was addressed to Fort Niagara, but as some of the soldiers of that place were now coming down to Oswego all the mail was sorted at this point before any was forwarded further.
The letter proved to be one written by Dave’s father, and filled four closely written sheets. In it James Morris said that the summer had been a fairly prosperous one at the homestead. The new cabin, built to take the place of that burnt by the Indians, was now in a comfortable condition, and both he and his brother had had a large crop of corn and hay, while garden vegetables had never done better. Rodney, the cripple, had gone out considerable during the warm days, and had on one occasion shot a deer drinking at the brook below the cabin, and had also brought in more than one acceptable string of fish.
“Your Aunt Lucy is real well,” [the letter continued]. “She awaited the coming of Nell with Sam Barringford with tremendous anxiety, and when the two appeared on the trail, Sam on a horse he had borrowed at Winchester and Nell on a pony, the good woman almost fell dead with joy. We were all affected, and although they came at ten in the morning, no more work was done that day, excepting such as was necessary to make them comfortable. Sam told his story in detail and then we listened to Nell, and I must confess there was not a dry eye among us when she told of the hardships among the redskins, and of how Jean Bevoir had treated her. I sincerely hope that scoundrelly trader is sent to prison for a long term of years, for he has earned it.
“The news that Fort Niagara was taken was hailed with joy by all of us, and we are proud of the part you and Henry played. Both of you must be careful and not run into needless danger. Now if Generals Wolfe and Amherst can only do as well this cruel war will soon come to an end, and then I can go and re-establish the post on the Kinotah, where, so I have been told by an old frontiersman, the game is now more plentiful than ever, since the Indians have left the hunting ground to go to war with the French.
“Sam wishes me to say that he is going to remain here and at Winchester only about a week longer. Then he is going to rejoin the army at Lake Ontario, to keep his eye on you and Henry. Henry will be sent a letter by his father in this same mail.”
Dave read the letter over three times before he allowed it to drop in his lap. In his mind’s eye he could picture the new cabin, and the joy of the inmates over the safe arrival of little Nell and honest Sam Barringford. And then a spasm of pain shot across his heart as he thought of Henry.