On his part, Harry said but little. But he felt the loss as keenly as did anybody, for his sister Clara had been his constant companion all his life, and he loved her dearly.
But every period of mourning and lamenting must have an end, and there was plenty to do for all hands in Boonesborough.
“I think the best we can do is to get settled down,” said Peter Parsons. “That will give my wife and the girls something to do and keep their mind off of this trouble. As soon as we are settled you and I, friend Winship, and Joe and Harry, too, for that matter, can do our best to find some trace of your wife and my Clara.”
“But they may be suffering at this moment,” said Ezra Winship.
“I hardly think that. Now that the fight is over, if they have not been killed, they are most likely living quietly at some Indian village far away.”
As already mentioned, Peter Parsons had selected two sites for farms adjoining each other. There was scarcely a choice between the two, and to be perfectly fair in the matter Mr. Winship insisted upon drawing lots to decide which should be his and which Peter Parsons’.
It was decided that for the present only one cabin should be built, as close to the fort as possible, in which the Winships and the Parsons might dwell together until the following summer. This would keep Mrs. Parsons and the two Winship girls together while the boys and their fathers were away from home.
It was no easy task to fell the trees and build such a cabin as was needed for the united families, but the men and the boys went to work with a will, and inside of several weeks the cabin was finished in the rough. It was of logs and was about fifteen feet deep by thirty feet long. The interior was divided into a living room fifteen feet square, and opening off of this were two bedrooms of half that size. The living room boasted of a door front and back and a window, and there was also a window in each of the sleeping apartments.
No furniture of large size had been brought to this settlement, and it was consequently necessary to furnish the living room with a table built of a rough slab and two benches of the wooden-horse variety, commonly called puncheons. The floor was likewise a puncheon floor, that, is, made of the halves of a split log, the flat side smoothed off. In the bedchambers a long low frame was built, running parallel with the inner wall, and on these the beds were placed, foot to foot, two in each room.
The chimney of the cabin was rather a large affair, built of rough stone and such mortar as the settlers could make themselves. It was on the side of the living room, directly between the two doors opening into the bedrooms. Above the open fireplace was a shelf and several hooks for cooking utensils, and in the fireplace itself were several chains and hooks upon which to hang pots and other things. It may be added that the settlers had brought with them half a dozen knives and an equal number of spoons, cups, and plates. Forks were hardly known in those days, and many of the old pioneers preferred to cut their food with their hunting knives.