[Transcriber's Note: Bold text is surrounded by =equal signs= and
italic text is surrounded by _underscores_.]
THE PIONEER BOYS OF THE OHIO
[Illustration]
OR: CLEARING THE WILDERNESS
THE YOUNG PIONEER SERIES
BY HARRISON ADAMS
ILLUSTRATED
[Illustration]
=THE PIONEER BOYS OF THE OHIO=,
Or: Clearing the Wilderness $1.25
=THE PIONEER BOYS ON THE GREAT LAKES=,
Or: On the Trail of the Iroquois 1.25
=THE PIONEER BOYS OF THE MISSISSIPPI=,
Or: The Homestead in the Wilderness 1.25
=THE PIONEER BOYS OF THE MISSOURI=,
Or: In the Country of the Sioux 1.25
=THE PIONEER BOYS OF THE YELLOWSTONE=,
Or: Lost in the Land of Wonders 1.25
=THE PIONEER BOYS OF THE COLUMBIA=,
Or: In the Wilderness of the Great Northwest 1.25
[Illustration]
THE PAGE COMPANY
53 Beacon Street Boston, Mass.
[Illustration: "'HERE WE ARE AT THE SPOT I PICKED OUT FOR YOUR
SETTLEMENT.'" (_See page 119._)]
The Young Pioneer Series
THE PIONEER BOYS OF THE OHIO
OR: CLEARING THE WILDERNESS
By HARRISON ADAMS
Author of "The Pioneer Boys on the Great Lakes," etc.
[Illustration]
Illustrated and Decorated by
CHARLES LIVINGSTON BULL
BOSTON [Illustration] THE PAGE
COMPANY [Illustration] PUBLISHERS
[Illustration]
_Copyright, 1912, by_
THE PAGE COMPANY
_All rights reserved_
First Impression, July, 1912
Second Impression, October, 1913
Third Impression, May, 1916
THE COLONIAL PRESS
C. H. SIMONDS & CO.
BOSTON, U. S. A.
PREFACE
MY DEAR BOYS:--As doubtless you well know, the early pioneer days were
times that tried men's souls. And boys, hardly in their teens, were
taught, in the bitter school of experience, that they must always live
up to the old Puritan motto, "Trust in the Lord; but _keep your powder
dry_." These same lads early learned to be self-dependent, and to fight
their own battles.
Steeped in this atmosphere, the names of many heroic early settlers
have come down to us through the pages of history. We all delight to
read of their bold achievements, for they were men of whom the country
must ever be proud.
But those stirring times before the Revolution also gave birth to many
a valiant soul whose daring and sacrifices have never been recorded on
the scroll of Fame. Some of these heroes were mere striplings in point
of years, yet capable, in times of great stress, of proving themselves
"chips of the old block."
It is to record the intensely interesting adventures of several
of these young pioneers, whose axes helped to blaze the way of
civilization in the then unknown region beyond the Alleghanies, that I
have started to write this series of books. I sincerely trust that if
you enjoy reading the present and first volume, you will welcome the
story to follow, to be called: "The Pioneer Boys on the Great Lakes;
or, On the Trail of the Iroquois."
Cordially yours,
HARRISON ADAMS.
_May 20th, 1912._
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
PREFACE v
I. AFTER FRESH VENISON 1
II. THE CABIN IN THE CLEARING 13
III. CAUGHT IN THE SNOW-STORM 25
IV. THE WOLF PACK 36
V. WHEN KATE CAME HOME 47
VI. THE DIE IS CAST 59
VII. INTO THE UNKNOWN LAND 68
VIII. THE PERILS OF THE WILDERNESS 77
IX. ALONG THE BUFFALO TRAIL 88
X. ATTACKED BY INDIANS 97
XI. ON THE BANK OF THE OHIO 106
XII. BOONE, THE CAPTAIN OF PIONEERS 118
XIII. BLUE JACKET 129
XIV. A NEW HOME IN THE WILDERNESS 141
XV. THE SUDDEN PERIL 152
XVI. CHASED BY THE FLAMES 167
XVII. A STRANGE PRISON 178
XVIII. AFTER THE FOREST FIRE 189
XIX. CAPTURED BY THE SHAWANEES 200
XX. THE COUNCIL FIRE 211
XXI. TIT FOR TAT 223
XXII. THE ESCAPE 235
XXIII. A CANOE TRIP IN THE STARLIGHT 245
XXIV. THE FEATHERED MESSAGE 255
XXV. AFLOAT ON THE FLOOD 266
XXVI. THE SINKING CRAFT 277
XXVII. BOB 286
XXVIII. A RESCUE 295
XXIX. WONDERFUL TIDINGS 306
XXX. CONCLUSION 315
NOTES 327
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
"'HERE WE ARE AT THE SPOT I PICKED OUR FOR YOUR
SETTLEMENT'" (_see page_ 119) _Frontispiece_
"DISCOVERED A HALF CIRCLE OF GLEAMING YELLOW EYES
WATCHING HIM" 35
"KICKING FURIOUSLY AT A LEAN BLACK BEAR, JUST
BELOW HIM" 49
"SLIPPING ADROITLY AROUND THE BEECH AS FAST AS THE
BUFFALO COULD CHASE AFTER HIM" 89
"THE FIRE WAS . . COMING ON AT HEADLONG SPEED" 170
"A PAIR OF MUSCULAR BRONZED ARMS SUDDENLY CLOSED
ABOUT THE BOY" 202
[Illustration]
The Pioneer Boys of the Ohio
CHAPTER I
AFTER FRESH VENISON
"SHALL we give it up for to-day, Sandy?"
"But the afternoon is only half spent, Bob, and we have had such poor
luck hunting."
"Just so; but it might have been worse. Two hickory-fed squirrels and a
plump 'possum make a fair bag after such a hard winter."
"Not so very much where there are five mouths to fill. Oh! Bob, if only
we _could_ get the deer that made these tracks! I'm tired of jerked
venison." (Note 1.)[A]
Robert Armstrong, sixteen years of age, looked down upon the ground
where the trail of the deer was well defined, and evidently he, too,
felt some of the eagerness that possessed his more impulsive brother.
It was the days previous to the Revolution. Around the two youths
stretched the great primeval Virginia wilderness, sparsely settled,
and hedged in by the chain of Alleghany Mountains, beyond which only a
few venturesome spirits had ever dared journey; and some of these bold
pioneers had never come back to tell the tale of their discoveries and
exploits.
The two boys had started from their cabin home, just outside a small
Virginia town, determined to secure fresh food for the family, at that
time facing unusual privation.
Alexander, or Sandy, as he was always called, the impetuous one,
seldom looked any distance ahead, so that it was Robert who many times
found himself compelled to pull his younger brother out of serious
difficulties.
Still, both lads, having been born and reared on the Virginia frontier,
were really older through experience than their years would indicate.
In those strenuous days of pioneering, boys had to learn how to take
care of themselves very soon after they began to walk. Their daily life
brought them in touch with the perils of the wilderness. They were
taught how to handle a gun at five years of age, and the tracks made
by all wild animals soon became as plain to them as the pages of a
printed book to a scholar.
Sandy, seeing his more cautious brother hesitate, renewed his pleading.
"We need this deer very much, Bob," he went on, eagerly. "Since father
lost his place with old Jason Diggett, things have gone hard with us at
home. Mother tries to smile and cheer us up, but every door has been
shut against poor father since that tobacco barn burned down, and he
was accused of setting fire to it."
"Yes," said the other, a frown crossing his young face as though
painful memories had been stirred up by his brother's words, "but they
were not able to prove anything against father, and we know that he
could never have done such a thing."
"But the deer," continued Sandy, persistently; "why not try for it?
Perhaps it may be feeding close by, in some glade where the trees have
sheltered the grass, or where there are tender twigs to be nipped off.
Say yes, Bob, and let us start right away."
The older boy cast a quick look upward, and his gaze rested longest in
the quarter where the forest wall was broken, allowing a view of the
gray sky.
"The air is raw, and I'm sure a storm is coming, late though the season
is," he remarked, slowly.
"Well, what of that?" declared Sandy, impatiently. "We are neither
sugar nor salt, to be washed away by rain or snow. Just think how
mother would smile if she saw us carrying home a nice fat buck, or even
a doe? Bob, say yes! This chance is too good to be lost."
Apparently his argument carried the day. That last stroke swept the
more cautious Robert quite off his feet, for he loved his dear little
mother above all things on earth, and the thought of pleasing her made
him ignore his inner warnings.
"All right, then, Sandy; let's call it a go. Just to be able to carry
home a store of fresh meat we'll take chances. And now to follow the
tracks."
With that he bent his keen gaze upon the ground, and immediately
started along the trail left by the deer, Sandy following close at his
heels.
Both lads carried the old-time flint-lock muskets, such as were in
general use during those early days. They served their purpose fairly
well, especially when in the steady hands of those who knew life often
depended on accuracy of aim. Many woodrangers and trappers, however,
had guns with longer barrels, which they called rifles, and capable of
sending a patched bullet with unerring skill a great distance.
In and out among the trees the two boys moved along. Not a single word
passed between them until at least a mile had been covered. Then Sandy
could restrain his impatience no longer. It was always a difficult
thing to keep him "bottled up" when speech was concerned, and his
brother Bob often declared he would make a good lawyer, or a parson, he
liked to hear himself talk so much.
"Are we getting closer, Bob? Is the trail any fresher than before? Oh!
I thought I saw something move just then!" he whispered in the other's
ear.
"Where?" demanded Bob, instantly, as he turned his head around, a look
of concern on his face; for, while the Indians of Virginia gave little
trouble to the settlers at that day, they were not always to be trusted.
"Never mind," returned Sandy, with a little chuckle; "for I see now it
was only a poor, scared rabbit bounding away. But how about the deer,
brother?"
"We must be near him," said Bob, gravely; "and I believe he will turn
out to be a five-prong buck, to judge from the size of his hoofs.
Silence, now, and we will go on. Remember to keep a close watch ahead,
and, if you get a good sight, send your lead back of his foreleg sure."
"You can depend on me, Bob," replied the younger lad; and it was not
boastfulness that made him say this, for he had long since developed
into a remarkably clever marksman.
In the fall, when the first snows drifted down through the valleys of
Virginia, the settlers always held shooting matches, where the best
shots of the country competed for prizes, usually some wild turkeys
that had been trapped alive. And more than a few times Sandy had held
his own with the celebrated sharpshooters among the buckskin-clad
hunters from the trails. No eye was quicker than his to glance along
the shiny barrel of a musket; and when he pulled the trigger his lead
usually found its mark, even though the target were but the ever moving
head of a turkey, whose body was hidden in the ground, fully an
hundred yards distant from the marksman.
Once more the two boys pushed on. Before five minutes passed Bob
noticed something that gave him a little concern. He had caught sight
of the first snowflake that came scurrying along on the wings of
the rising wind. A little thing in itself, but which might mean a
tremendous lot to these boys, miles away from home, and surrounded by a
trackless forest. In another five minutes, just as he had feared, the
snow was beginning to descend heavily, so that his task of following
the trail of the deer promised to come to a speedy end, as the ground
began to be covered with a white mantle.
There was only one thing that could be done now, if they meant to
pursue the hunt any further. Bob of late had been noting the general
direction taken by the deer; and they could keep pushing on, each pair
of eyes on the alert for signs of the expected quarry.
Now it became necessary to bring to the fore all the knowledge of
woodcraft the boys possessed. They must judge at a glance just how a
deer would proceed while pushing through the forest, avoiding such
dense thickets as promised to entangle his antlers, and at the same
time seeking shelter from possible enemies.
Suddenly Bob came to a stop, and whispered:
"Look ahead to where that pawpaw jungle ends! Something moved there;
and blest if I don't think it must be our game!"
Even as he finished speaking, out of the screening hedge leaped a
gallant buck, his head thrown back, and every muscle in his frame
answering to his fear of human kind.
It was a pretty sight, and one calculated to make the blood bound more
quickly through the veins of a hunter; but neither of the boys delayed
even one second in order to admire the scene. Their one thought was of
the possibility of their eagerly anticipated supply of meat making off
on its own rapidly flying hoofs.
Sandy was a bit the quicker in firing, for, being nervous by nature,
he knew how to aim more by instinct than by going through a set habit.
Still, the two discharges seemed to roll into one; and, with their
hearts in their mouths, the young marksmen looked to ascertain what the
result of the shots might be.
"Huzza! he is down!" almost shrieked Sandy, as the big buck made a
tremendous bound into the air, and came crashing upon the snow-covered
earth, where he tried in vain to regain his feet.
"Stop! Remember what old Reuben told you always to do!" cautioned Bob,
as he thrust himself in front of Sandy, already in the act of leaping
forward.
"I forgot," murmured the other, as with trembling hand he started to
reload his gun, some of the powder from his horn slipping out of his
shaking fingers as he attempted to pour it into the muzzle of the
barrel.
Then came a greased bullet in a patch of linen, being pushed down after
the powder had been rammed good and hard. To prime the flint-lock gun
was no great difficulty, though constant vigilance was needed in order
to make sure that the priming, so essential to a discharge, be not
shaken from the pan by accident.
"Now let us go up," said Sandy, after both had reloaded.
"He's kicking his last," remarked his brother, quietly, "and there
is no fear of our losing him. I wonder now if I missed. You were, as
usual, ahead of me in firing, Sandy. And I saw him quiver even before
I pulled trigger, so I know you hit him."
When they bent over the now motionless quarry it was found that there
were _two_ bullet-holes in the deer. (Note 2.)
"Yours is the one behind the shoulder, Sandy, and that killed him
instantly. He could have run a mile or more with the wound through
the body that I gave him. But never mind, we have had great luck, and
mother will be pleased when we carry this meat home."
Bob lost no time in bleeding the game. They were so far away from the
cabin that it would be impossible to "tote" the deer there intact; so
it was quickly determined to cut up the venison and select the choice
portions.
Both boys carried hunting knives, and they set to work without delay.
As they labored they became so interested in what they were doing that
neither seemed to pay any particular attention to the remarkable change
that had come over the weather, until after a while Sandy started to
complain that it was getting so dark he could hardly see how to work.
Then an exclamation from his brother caused him to raise his head.
What he saw was anything but reassuring. The snow was coming down
between the trees in blinding sheets, driven before a cold wind, that
seemed to be growing stronger with every passing minute.
"No getting back to the cabin for us to-night, Sandy," declared the
older one, with a shake of his head. "This promises to be as bad a
storm as we've had all winter, and even at the shortest you know we'd
have a five-hour tramp back home. So we must make the best of a bad
bargain and camp here in the woods."
"Well," remarked Sandy, whom no danger ever daunted, "anyhow, we've got
plenty to eat, and can keep warm, unless both of us forgot to bring
flint and steel along, which I know is not so, for here are mine in my
pouch, and some dry tinder as well."
By the time they had finished the task of cutting up the deer, and
secured all the choice portions in the skin, the forest was swathed
in a mantle of white; and, on the wind that screeched so noisily
while hurrying past, came new armies of scurrying snowflakes that
beat against the faces of the lads until they fairly stung with the
pain. Evidently the young pioneers were in for an experience besides
which all previous encounters with snow-storms would pale into utter
insignificance.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] The notes will be found at the end of the book.