After he had told her all that Pearson had said, and the reasons for
and against expecting an early attack, he went on:

"Now, it remains for you, my dear, to decide whether we shall stay
and defend the place till the last against any attack that may be
made, or whether we shall at once embark in the scow and make our way
down to the settlements."

"What do you think, William?" his wife asked.

"I scarcely know, myself," he answered; "but, if I had quite my own
way, I should send you and Nelly down to the settlements in the scow
and fight it out here with the hands."

"You certainly will not have your own way in that," his wife said.
"If you go of course I go; if you stay I stay. I would a thousand
times rather go through a siege here, and risk the worst, than go
down to Gloucester and have the frightful anxiety of not knowing what
was happening here. Besides, it is very possible, as you say, that
the Indians may attack the settlement itself. Many of the people
there have had no experience in Indian war, and the redskins are
likely to be far more successful in their surprise there than they
would be here. If we go we should have to leave our house, our barns,
our stacks, and our animals to the mercy of the savages. Your capital
is pretty nearly all embarked here now, and the loss of all this
would be ruin to us. At any rate, William, I am ready to stay here
and to risk what may come if you are. A life on the frontier is
necessarily a life of danger, and if we are to abandon everything and
to have to commence life afresh every time the Indians go on the