"You exaggerate the danger, wife. There are no Indians, in this part of
the country, who would dare to molest a settlement like ours. We count
thirteen able-bodied men in all, besides seven women, and could use
seventeen or eighteen muskets and rifles on an emergency. No _tribe_
would dare commence hostilities, in a time of general peace,
and so near the settlements too; and, as to stragglers, who might
indeed murder to rob, we are so strong, ourselves, that we may sleep in
peace, so far as they are concerned."

"One never knows that, dearest Hugh. A marauding party of half-a-dozen
might prove too much for many times their own number, when unprepared.
I _do_ hope you will have the gates hung, at least; should the
girls come here, in the autumn, I could not sleep without hanging the
gates."

"Fear nothing, love," said the captain, kissing his wife with manly
tenderness. "As for Beulah and Maud, let them come when they please; we
shall always have a welcome for them, and no place can be safer than
under their father's eyes."

"I care not so much for myself, Hugh, but _do_ not let the gates
be forgotten until the girls come."

"Everything shall be done as you desire, wife of mine, though it will
be a hard job to get two such confounded heavy loads of wood on their
hinges. We must take some day when everybody is at home, and everybody
willing to work. Saturday next, I intend to have a review; and, once a
month, the year round, there will be a muster, when all the arms are to
be cleaned and loaded, and orders given how to act in case of an alarm.
An old soldier would be disgraced to allow himself to be run down by