is delighted at the thought, and promises to return an accomplished
backwoodsman. John joins me in kind love to yourself and your
husband, and believe me to remain,

"Your Affectionate Cousin,

"MARY WILSON."


Four months after the date of the above letter a lad some fifteen
years old was walking with a man of middle age on the shores of Lake
Huron. Behind them was a large clearing of about a hundred acres in
extent; a comfortable house, with buildings for cattle, stood at a
distance of some three hundred yards from the lake; broad fields of
yellow corn waved brightly in the sun; and from the edge of the
clearing came the sound of a woodsman's ax, showing that the
proprietor was still enlarging the limits of his farm. Surrounding
the house, at a distance of twenty yards, was a strong stockade some
seven feet in height, formed of young trees, pointed at the upper
end, squared, and fixed firmly in the ground. The house itself,
although far more spacious and comfortable than the majority of
backwood farmhouses, was built in the usual fashion, of solid logs,
and was evidently designed to resist attack.

William Welch had settled ten years before on this spot, which was
then far removed from the nearest habitation. It would have been a
very imprudent act, under ordinary circumstances, to have established
himself in so lonely a position, so far removed from the possibility
of assistance in case of attack. He settled there, however, just
after Pontiac, who was at the head of an alliance of all the Indian