Why, she just wilted like a flower blasted by fire. I can't
understand why he let me go, and kept Jim, unless the Shawnee had
something to do with it. I never wished until now that I was a
hunter. I'd go after Girty. You've heard as well as I of his many
atrocities. I'd rather have seen Kate and Nell dead than have them
fall into his power. I'd rather have killed them myself!"
Young had aged perceptibly in these last few days. The blue veins
showed at his temples; his face had become thinner and paler, his
eyes had a look of pain. The former expression of patience, which
had sat so well on him, was gone.
"George, I can't account for my fancies or feelings, else, perhaps,
I'd be easier in mind," answered Dave. His face, too, showed the
ravages of grief. "I've had queer thoughts lately, and dreams such
as I never had before. Perhaps it's this trouble which has made me
so nervous. I don't seem able to pull myself together. I can neither
preach nor work."
"Neither can I! This trouble has hit you as hard as it has me. But,
Dave, we've still our duty. To endure, to endure--that is our life.
Because a beam of sunshine brightened, for a brief time, the gray of
our lives, and then faded away, we must not shirk nor grow sour and
discontented."
"But how cruel is this border life!"
"Nature itself is brutal.
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