A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers - Pennsylvania State ...

had eaten came out of wounds he had received in his body.”
This was also the case with Davis. The last two reached home
at length, safe if not sound, and lived many years in a crippled
state to enjoy their pension.
But alas! of the crippled Indians, and their adventures in
the woods,—
“For as we are informed, so thick and fast they fell,
Scarce twenty of their number at night did get home well,”—
how many balls lodged with them, how fared their cranberries,
what Berwick or Saco they got into, and finally what
pension or township was granted them, there is no journal
to tell.
It is stated in the History of Dunstable, that just before his
last march, Lovewell was warned to beware of the ambuscades
of the enemy, but “he replied, `that he did not care for
them,’ and bending down a small elm beside which he was
standing into a bow, declared `that he would treat the Indians
in the same way.’ This elm is still standing [in Nashua],
a venerable and magnificent tree.”
A <strong>Week</strong> on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
94
Meanwhile, having passed the Horseshoe Interval in
Tyngsborough, where the river makes a sudden bend to the
northwest,—for our reflections have anticipated our progress
somewhat,—we were advancing farther into the country and
into the day, which last proved almost as golden as the preceding,
though the slight bustle and activity of the Monday
seemed to penetrate even to this scenery. Now and then we
had to muster all our energy to get round a point, where the
river broke rippling over rocks, and the maples trailed their
branches in the stream, but there was generally a backwater
or eddy on the side, of which we took advantage. The river
was here about forty rods wide and fifteen feet deep. Occasionally
one ran along the shore, examining the country, and
visiting the nearest farm-houses, while the other followed
the windings of the stream alone, to meet his companion at
some distant point, and hear the report of his adventures;
how the farmer praised the coolness of his well, and his wife
offered the stranger a draught of milk, or the children quarrelled
for the only transparency in the window that they might
get sight of the man at the well. For though the country