The river continued to fall very rapidly, and, in the course of a few days, might be expected to get back into its natural channel. But there was no great eagerness shown by the settlers to rebuild the wrecked cabins.
Truth to tell, the more they talked about making a bold push further westward, the stronger the idea began to appeal to them; until it was now almost an assured fact that several families would throw their fortunes in together, build a staunch flatboat, with a large log cabin on it, upon which they could embark, with their few household necessities, and trust to fortune to carry them safely through what perils might lie in wait further down the Ohio.
It was just two days after the flood went down, that a council of war was called among the families most directly interested in the new venture. These were, besides the Armstrongs, the Harkness, Bancroft and Wayne people, and several others who were as yet uncertain what course to pursue.
It was in a serious frame of mind that they gathered there in the open, to talk over what plans they had better arrange, looking to a migration from the settlement on the bank of the Ohio to new fields.
Every scrap of information that could be unearthed was made to do duty over again. Mr. Armstrong had become very much in earnest now, and he was held in such respect by the others that his change of front had considerable influence in causing the Waynes to decide.
Of course the younger element had nothing to say in this meeting; but that did not prevent them from listening with the deepest interest as the question was debated from all sides.
Sandy, especially, was filled with enthusiasm. His pet project, over which he had spent many a sleepless hour, now seemed in a fair way of being realized. Long had that mysterious West held out tempting hands toward the pioneer boy. Just as Daniel Boone had come to believe that it was his destiny to open up the wilderness to settlers, and plant new colonies in the midst of fertile lands; so this lad, apparently, had for some time felt that it was to be his fortune some day to look upon that grand river, discovered by De Soto, which but few whites had ever set eyes on, save the French traders and trappers, and they did not count for much,—in Sandy’s estimation, anyhow.
In the end there were just the four families who bound themselves together in a little league, resolved to attempt to better their conditions in this bold manner.
Some there were, among the others, who disliked exceedingly to see them make preparations for leaving, and threw all manner of trifling obstacles in the way. Whenever they had the chance they would work upon the fears of the women belonging to the four households, by narrating all manner of harrowing tales of the terror that lay in wait for unfortunate voyagers down that mysterious lower Ohio.