LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
| Jim Peterson Questioning the Frontier Angel | [Frontispiece] |
| PAGE | |
| "For God's sake come and take me off, for they are afterme." | [33] |
| The Frontier Angel | [39] |
| "Onward they poured, shouting like madmen." | [45] |
| "Whosomever is on that flat-boat ain't living, that's sartin." | [51] |
| "'O Lord, I'm shot,' suddenly exclaimed Jenkins." | [81] |
| "Before he could rise the Indians were upon him." | [108] |
| "The Frontier Angel gazed calmly on him a moment." | [126] |
| "'Mr. Thomas McGable, Esq., I believe,' said Peterson withmuch gravity, without removing the aim of his rifle." | [156] |
| "'Quick! water; she has fainted,' exclaimed Mansfield." | [229] |
| "Then die—!" | [244] |
THE FRONTIER ANGEL:
A ROMANCE OF
KENTUCKY RANGERS' LIFE.
CHAPTER I.
THE NIGHT BEFORE THE DEPARTURE.
In the western part of Pennsylvania, near the commencement of the Ohio river, stands a small town, which, at the close of the last century, numbered about thirty dwellings. Although properly a border settlement at the time mentioned, there were so many others beyond, that it was hardly regarded as being in the "Mighty West." The inhabitants were mostly farmers, possessed of large and beautiful farms, who commenced their labors in the morning, and retired to rest in the evening, without much fear of the molestation of their savage brethren. True, a few years previous, the latter had committed murders and depredations even farther east than this, and the settlers never allowed themselves fully to give way to an undue sense of security. But, unless a most unexpected triumph should crown the struggles of the Indians, there was little occasion for apprehension upon the part of the whites.
The time on which we visit this village, is an evening in the spring, toward the close of the last century. The night is dark and cloudy, and the houses are invisible in the deep gloom; but there are numerous twinkling lights in the different dwellings, which give it the appearance of a constellation set in the vast sky of darkness around. Broad fields of cleared land stretch for a long distance into the background, while there are numerous other dwellings further eastward, toward Pittsburg, and many cabins further westward in Ohio and Virginia; so that they are not without neighbors, and may properly be said still to be in the land of civilization.