She managed, however, to conceal much of her womanly fears from the eyes of her loved ones. There were dangers everywhere, and as they supped with them each day that they lived, it was no wonder that by degrees even the women learned to hold peril in contempt.
“Looks like it might be a fine morning for a start,” Sandy remarked, as they drew near the edge of the flowing current, at a place where a ledge afforded an excellent foothold, when they wished to bend over and wash their faces.
“Yes, the spring is here in truth,” replied Bob, “and the birds are singing in every tree. After all, this is a beautiful spot, and I fear our mother is not one-half so anxious to leave it as the rest may be.”
“But just wait till she sees what a glorious country we are going to,” declared the ever-sanguine Sandy. “The birds may sing here, but it’s nothing to what they will do out there, where the land is so rich that it grows everything they want to eat. And as for game, why, just think of seeing a whole herd of buffaloes that no man could count! Oh! I do wish we were there right now. It has been a long time since we shot a buffalo.”
“That’s so, Sandy,” replied Bob, just a little enthusiastic himself; “and if things are half as fine as we’ve been told, we ought to soon have a splendid little settlement, with a stockade, and gardens, and cabins that will make it home to us.”
Sandy bent over, and splashed for a minute. He thoroughly enjoyed the cooling water, and, indeed, the boy was never so happy as when swimming, having taken to it when a mere lad.
Then he broke out again, showing that, try as he might, he could not keep his thoughts away from the one great subject that held them like a magnet.
“We’ve got all our traps oiled, and stowed away on board the flatboat, you know, Bob; and won’t we have the time of our lives, once we get settled in our new home, with the snow beginning to fly next autumn? I’m glad now that I traded for those five traps Adam Shell had. It gives us nearly double as many as we had before.”
So they chatted as they finished their cleaning up. Meanwhile the women were busily engaged in getting the last meal that they expected to take among those whom they had known so long.
There were not many tears shed, for these hardy souls were accustomed to meeting all sorts of happenings with the fortitude that makes heroines. Indeed, Mrs. Armstrong admitted to herself that this parting did not cause one-half the wrench that came when they pulled up stakes, away off in Virginia, and first set out on the trail over the mountains, headed into the great West. Then they knew nothing of the Indian country, and a thousand fears assailed them; but now, the yell of the savage foe had become familiar in their ears, and surely little that was new in the form of peril could be awaiting them on their further journey. It was but the turning over of the page and beginning a second chapter in a tale that had already been started.