Some drove off the cattle to browse;
Some swept from the hearth the cold embers;
Some started to milking the cows;
While Lewis went into the block-house,
And said unto Maggie, his spouse,
“Ah, would they but come to besiege me,
They’d find, though no more on the trail
I may move as in earlier manhood—
Though thus, in my weakness, I rail—
That to handle the death-dealing rifle,