keep the army of Xerxes for a month, and feathers enough to make beds
for the whole country. Xerxes, Mr. Edwards, was a Grecian king, who—
no, he was a Turk, or a Persian, who wanted to conquer Greece, just
the same as these rascals will overrun our wheat fields, when they
come back in the fall. Away! away! Bess; I long to pepper them.”

In this wish both Marmaduke and young Edwards seemed equally to
participate, for the sight was exhilarating to a sportsman; and the
ladies soon dismissed the party after a hasty breakfast.

If the heavens were alive with pigeons, the whole village seemed
equally in motion with men, women, and children. Every species of
firearm, from the French ducking gun, with a barrel near six feet in
length, to the common horseman's pistol, was to be seen in the hands
of the men and boys; while bows and arrows, some made of the simple
stick of walnut sapling and others in a rude imitation of the ancient
cross-bows, were carried by many of the latter.

The houses and the signs of life apparent in the village drove the
alarmed birds from the direct line of their flight, toward the
mountains, along the sides and near the bases of which they were
glancing in dense masses, equally wonderful by the rapidity of their
motion and their incredible numbers.

We have already said that, across the inclined plane which fell from
the steep ascent of the mountain to the banks of the Susquehanna, ran
the highway on either side of which a clearing of many acres had been
made at a very early day. Over those clearings, and up the eastern
mountain, and along the dangerous path that was cut into its side, the
different individuals posted themselves, and in a few moments the