They walked down a sandy lane bounded on the right by a wide, green
clearing, and on the left by a line of chestnuts and maples, outposts
of the thick forests beyond.

"Yours is a fine site for a house," observed Sheppard, taking in the
clean-trimmed field that extended up the hillside, a brook that
splashed clear and noisy over the stones to tarry in a little
grass-bound lake which forced water through half-hollowed logs into a
spring house.

"I think so; this is the fourth time I've put up a' cabin on this
land," replied the colonel.

"How's that?"

"The redskins are keen to burn things."

Sheppard laughed at the pioneer's reply. "It's not difficult, Colonel
Zane, to understand why Fort Henry has stood all these years, with you
as its leader. Certainly the location for your cabin is the finest in
the settlement. What a view!"

High upon a bluff overhanging the majestic, slow-winding Ohio, the
colonel's cabin afforded a commanding position from which to view the
picturesque valley. Sheppard's eye first caught the outline of the
huge, bold, time-blackened fort which frowned protectingly over
surrounding log-cabins; then he saw the wide-sweeping river with its
verdant islands, golden, sandy bars, and willow-bordered shores, while
beyond, rolling pastures of wavy grass merging into green forests that
swept upward with slow swell until lost in the dim purple of distant