his interests centred in the free forest, where he had grown to
manhood. Now and again a longing would come upon him to see
something of the great, tumultuous, seething world of whose
existence he was dimly aware. There were times in the long winter
evenings when he and his brother, the old father, and the brother's
wife would sit round the stove after the children had been put to
bed, talking of the past and the future. Then old Angell would tell
his sons of the life he had once led in far-away England, before
the spirit of adventure drove him forth to seek his fortune in the
New World; and at such times Humphrey would listen with eager
attention, feeling the stirrings of a like spirit within him, and
wondering whether the vast walls of the giant forest would for ever
shut him in, or whether it would be his lot some day to cross the
heaving, mysterious, ever-moving ocean of which his father often
spoke, and visit the country of which he was still proud to call
himself a son.

Yet he loved his forest home and the free, wild life he led. Nor
was the element of peril lacking to the daily lot--peril which had
not found them yet, but which might spring upon them unawares at
any moment. For after years of peace and apparent goodwill on the
part of the Indians of the Five Nations, as this tract of debatable
land had come to be called, a spirit of ill will and ferocity was
arising again; and settlers who had for years lived in peace and
quietness in their lonely homes had been swooped down upon, scalped,
their houses burnt, their wives and children tomahawked--the raid
being so swift and sudden that defence and resistance had alike
been futile.

What gave an added horror to this sudden change of policy on the