“No, as soon as the Indians saw father they ran away. One of them was that rascal Turtle Foot, and I suppose he thought father had it in for him on account of the way he treated you at Winchester.”
Henry was quite himself again, and Rodney was also doing finely, and had to tell how he could now work on the farm almost as well as anybody. He had been a great help during Dave’s absence.
“The work seems to strengthen me,” he said. “And, oh, Dave, you don’t know how good it feels to walk around once more like other folks!”
“I can believe you—now I am under the weather myself,” replied Dave.
“The home looks quite natural,” remarked James Morris, as he dropped into a comfortable chair. “Quite natural, and I am very glad to get back to it again.”
“And so am I glad,” murmured Dave. And then, as little Nell climbed up on his knee, he added: “I can tell you what, war isn’t all fun and glory, after all.”
A few words more and I will bring to a close this tale of a young pioneer’s war adventures while “With Washington in the West.”
After the defeat of Braddock came the defeat of English arms in other quarters, and as a consequence the whole frontier was in a state of excitement and terror. At Winchester and at Fort Cumberland there were frequent reports that all of the Indians were rising for a general massacre of the whites. These reports proved, upon investigation, to be untrue, but for many weeks the settlers, including the Morrises, slept upon their arms and kept their horses in readiness for immediate flight.
There could be but one result of all this, and early in the year following war was formally declared between France and England, and each nation set to work to send large forces to America in the hope of conquering its rival. These forces united with the colonists, and once again the tocsin of war sounded, spreading gradually from Virginia on the south to Canada on the north. Excitement was again at a fever heat, and in the midst of this, Dave Morris and his cousin Henry, now as well as ever, thought it their duty to go again to the front, and with them went old Sam Barringford. What their further adventures were will be related in a second volume of this series, entitled: “Marching on Niagara; or, The Soldier Boys of the Old Frontier.”