Annals of our ancestors; one hundred and fifty years of history in the ...

LIFE IN THE 'SIXTIES 251
the very dead of night with the air full of premonition of most
awful tragedy. It shows how unprepared was everyone for
that bloody page in the history of Minnesota. As I think of
it now it seems to me that few stories that have been written
have a scene more romantic and startling than that of two
young girls wandering down by a reedy lakeside, with the dark
woods and underbrush all about them, in the utter loneliness
and loveliness of a moonlight night in a new country; and no
one knows how near at the very moment were skulking savages
with all barbarous means of murder!
Brother William had come over from the Shadow to help
my husband with his harvesting, and in turn Alvah was to help
William. They had cut down a lot of grain, but some was still
lying in the swath unbound. Alvah and I were sitting in the
shade of our cabin when I noticed a cloud of dust arising over
the brush as I looked down the road. Soon a man on horseback
emerged from the brush and came in sight; he advanced
with leaps to our bars and called my husband. I noticed that
they plunged into an earnest conversation, and then the horseman
passed swiftly on. I soon learned that he was a messenger
to tell us that the Indians had broken out and were killing
people and burning buildings and grain some forty miles west,
and no mistake. We knew that no time was to be lost, and
the first thing for us to do was to inform the dear family at
Pearl Lake, four miles distant. Alvah walked over to father's
and he said he could but pause, when he reached the home, in
dread to disturb that peaceful scene. Mother was sitting on
the side porch mending clothes for father and Brother Joe to
wear in the harvest field, for the grain was now fully ripe and
waving in the sunshine. She was singing a quiet little song to
herself. The cool shade of those noble old forest trees lay
with its usual refreshing relief from the hot summer sun. The
lake was still and glossy, reflecting the trees along its margin.
Now and then there was a flash of wild ducks dipping down
for fish, all making a picture of such exquisite beauty and peace
that Alvah hesitated as he stood in mother's quiet presence.
At last he found words to tell her that the Indians were upon
our border, and flight was the only thing for us. In our house