over the curb and peering down the dark opening, cried out, in
tones of anguish and remorse, "O Joseph, if you're in the land of the
living, I 'll have you!" "I 'll take ye at your word," answered
Joseph, springing up from his hiding-place and avenging himself for
her coyness and coldness by a hearty embrace.

Our own paternal ancestor, owing to religious scruples in the
matter of taking arms even for defence of life and property, refused
to leave his undefended house and enter the garrison. The Indians
frequently came to his house; and the family more than once in the
night heard them whispering under the windows, and saw them put
their copper faces to the glass to take a view of the apartments.
Strange as it may seem, they never offered any injury or insult to
the inmates.

In 1695 the township was many times molested by Indians, and
several persons were killed and wounded. Early in the fall a small
party made their appearance in the northerly part of the town,
where, finding two boys at work in an open field, they managed to
surprise and capture them, and, without committing further
violence, retreated through the woods to their homes on the shore
of Lake Winnipiseogee. Isaac Bradley, aged fifteen, was a small
but active and vigorous boy; his companion in captivity, Joseph
Whittaker, was only eleven, yet quite as large in size, and heavier in
his movements. After a hard and painful journey they arrived at the
lake, and were placed in an Indian family, consisting of a man and
squaw and two or three children. Here they soon acquired a
sufficient knowledge of the Indian tongue to enable them to learn
from the conversation carried on in their presence that it was
designed to take them to Canada in the spring. This discovery was