CHAPTER IV.


THE FIGHT AT LEXINGTON.

Harold remained for four months longer with his cousin. The Indians
had made several attacks upon settlements at other points of the
frontier, but they had not repeated their incursion in the
neighborhood of the lake. The farming operations had gone on
regularly, but the men always worked with their rifles ready to their
hand. Pearson had predicted that the Indians were not likely to
return to that neighborhood. Mr. Welch's farm was the only one along
the lake that had escaped, and the loss the Indians had sustained in
attacking it had been so heavy that they were not likely to make an
expedition in that quarter, where the chances of booty were so small
and the certainty of a desperate resistance so great.

Other matters occurred which rendered the renewal of the attack
improbable. The news was brought by a wandering hunter that a quarrel
had arisen between the Shawnees and the Iroquois, and that the latter
had recalled their braves from the frontier to defend their own
villages in case of hostilities breaking out between them and the
rival tribe.

There was no occasion for Harold to wait for news from home, for his
father had, before starting, definitely fixed the day for his return,
and when that time approached Harold started on his eastward journey,