welcomed the more as a friend if his hands were spattered with our
blood--the consciousness, I say, that we had these base traitors in our
midst only gave us a deeper resolution not to fail.

General Herkimer presently issued his order to the Tryon militia,
apprising them of the imminent danger, and summoning all between sixteen
and sixty to arms. There was no doubt now where the blow would fall.
Cherry Valley, Unadilla, and the Sacondaga settlements no longer feared
raids from the wilderness upon their flanks. The invaders were coming
forward in a solid mass, to strike square at the Valley's head. There we
must meet them!

It warms my old heart still to recall the earnestness and calm courage of
that summer fortnight of preparation. All up and down the Valley
bottom-lands the haying was in progress. Young and old, rich and poor, came
out to carry forward this work in common. The meadows were taken in their
order, some toiling with scythe and sickle, others standing guard at the
forest borders of the field to protect the workers. It was a goodly yield
that year, I remember, and never in my knowledge was the harvest gathered
and housed better or more thoroughly than in this period of genuine
danger, when no man knew whose cattle would feed upon his hay a month
hence. The women and girls worked beside the men, and brought them cooling
drinks of ginger, molasses, and vinegar, and spread tables of food in the
early evening shade for the weary gleaners. These would march home in
bodies, a little later, those with muskets being at the front and rear;
and then, after a short night's honest sleep, the rising sun would find
them again at work upon some other farm.

There was something very good and strengthening in this banding together
to get the hay in for all. During twenty years of peace and security, we