Angus was a frequent visitor at the Allison home. He was generous, impulsive and rough, and had not many home advantages, but his friendship for Rodney never wavered. Like all the boys, he disliked Denham, who was a fat little man with a greasy smile and eyes like a pig’s. He was said to be a miser, and a cheat, and a coward, which, in the eyes of the boys, was an unforgivable weakness.
One night Rodney and Angus had been over to a quilting party at the Dawsons’, or rather to the frolic which followed the quilting. There had been dancing to such music as the squeaky fiddle of Ander Byram could afford, also refreshments, in which a big ham and a roast of venison were two prominent features. The boys left early, Rodney because he had to rise by five o’clock the next morning, and Angus because he 35 had quarrelled with Betty Saunders. They came out into the crisp December air singing, “Polly put the kettle on, we’ll all take tea.”
Rodney, being in a confidential mood, told his companion of his plans for joining his father in the spring, and then said: “Angus, I should feel a lot better about leaving mother if I knew there was some one like you to help her out of any trouble that might come up. She might be sick, you know, and old Denham might try to cheat her in some way.”
“I’ll shake hands on that, Rod. Don’t you worry. Jimminy Jewsharp! but I wish I was goin’ too.”
CHAPTER V
A PLUNGE INTO THE FOREST
March fifteenth, 1773, Rodney Allison set out with a party of five men who were leaving to join Clark’s party on the Ohio.
The task would be somewhat like finding the needle in the haystack, perhaps, but all were confident and went away in high spirits.