“Thank you, Morgan,” said my father, quietly; “and thank you too, my boy. We will not give up our restful, beautiful home for a scare. Perhaps if the Indians find that we wish to be at peace with them, they may never attempt to molest us. We will stay.”
Morgan gave his leg a slap, and turned round to me.
“There, Master George!” he cried. “Why, with all these fruit and vegetables coming on, I should have ’most broke my heart, and I know our Sarah would have broken hers.”
That day was after all a nervous one, and we felt as if at any moment an Indian might appear at the edge of the wood, followed by a body perhaps a hundred strong. So our vigilance was not relaxed, neither that day nor during the next week; but nothing occurred to disturb our peace, and the regular routine went on.
From what we heard at the settlement the idea of building a block-house had been for the present given up; but Morgan came back one morning, after a visit to the colonel’s man, with some news which rather disturbed my father.
“Small schooner in the river?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And you say that several of the gentlemen have been buying?”
“Yes, sir; that’s right,” said Morgan, “and the blacks are put to work in their plantations.”
My father frowned and walked away, while I eagerly turned to Morgan for an explanation.