“Yet another entry offered; so, while I with rifle stood,
Lest the woman should escape us in the darkness of the wood,
“To the roof my two companions quickly climbed, a path to gain
By the great, capacious chimney, where resistance would be vain;
“For, so soon as they descended and attacked her on the floor,
Unopposed I’d find an entrance in the then unguarded door.
“But let no one boast his cunning, if a squaw be in the way,
Never fox hath more of shrewdness than a woman held at bay.
“From its place within the corner soon she tore a feather-bed,
And she tossed it in an instant on the embers fiery red.