must e'en accompany them."

"Well," said Colonel Bruce, "if it must be, it must, and I'm not the
brute to say 'No' to you. But lord, Captain, I should be glad to have you
stay a month or two, war it only to have a long talk about my old friend,
the brave old major. And thar's your sister, Captain,--lord, sir, she
would be the pet of the family, and would help my wife teach the girls
manners. Lord!" he continued, laughing, "you've no idea what grand
notions have got into the old woman's head about the way of behaving,
ever since it war that the Governor of Virginnie sent me a cunnel's
commission. She thinks I ought to w'ar a cocked hat and goold swabs,
and put on a blue coat instead of a leather shirt; but I wonder how soon
I'd see the end of it, out h'yar in the bushes? And then, as for the
girls, why thar's no end of the lessons she gives them;--and thar's
my Jenny,--that's the youngest,--came blubbering up the other day,
saying, 'she believed mother intended even to stop their licking at
the sugar-troughs, she was getting so great and so proud!' Howsomever,
women will be women, and thar's the end of it."

To this philosophic remark the officer of inferior degree bowed
acquiescence, and recalling his host's attention to the subject of most
interest to himself, requested to be informed what difficulties or
dangers might be apprehended on the further route to the Falls of Ohio.

"Why, none on 'arth that I know of," said Bruce; "you've as cl'ar
and broad a trace before you as man and beast could make--a
buffalo-street,[2] through the canes; and, when thar's open woods, blazes
as thick as stars, and horse-tracks still thicker: thar war more than a
thousand settlers have travelled it this year already. As for danngers,
Captain, why I reckon thar's none to think on. Thar war a good chance of