the Blue Lick settlers held their own by right of private purchase; for
the inhibition to the acquisition of land in this way from the Indians
was not enacted till the following year, 1763, after the events to be
herein detailed, and, indeed, such purchases even further west and of an
earlier date are of record, albeit of doubtful legality.

Now that peace in whatever maimed sort had come to this stricken land
and these adventurous settlers, who held their lives, their all, by such
precarious tenure, internecine strife must needs arise among them; not
the hand of brother against brother,--they were spared that grief,--but
one tender, struggling community against another.

And it came about in this wise.

One day Peninnah Penelope Anne Mivane, watching from the "port-hole" of
the blockhouse, where the muzzle of that dog of war the little swivel
gun had once been wont to look forth, beheld Ralph Emsden ride out from
the stockade gate for a week's absence with a party of hunters; with
bluff but tender assurance he waved his hat and hand to her in farewell.

"Before all the men!" she said to herself, half in prudish dismay at his
effrontery, and yet pleased that he did not sheepishly seek to conceal
his preference. And although the men (there were but two or three and
not half the province, as her horror of this publicity would seem to
imply) said with a grin "Command me!" they said it _sotto voce_ and only
to each other.

Spring was once more afoot in the land. They daily marked her advance as
they went. Halfway up the mountains she had climbed: for the maples were
blooming in rich dark reds that made the nearer slopes even more