United States or Democratic Republic of the Congo ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Weary of the pent-up life, longing for action, and starved for a good meal, the anger of his many followers against Clark and Harrod was nigh as great as his. He started roughly to shoulder his way out, and whether from accident or design Captain Harrod slipped in front of him, I never knew. The thing that followed happened quickly as the catching of my breath.
Into the turmoil at the gate came Colonel Clark, sending the disputants this way and that to defend the fort, McGary to command one quarter, Harrod and Bowman another, and every man that could be found to a loophole, while Mrs. Ray continued to run up and down, wringing her hands, now facing one man, now another. Some of her words came to me, shrilly, above the noise. "He fed you he fed you.
She woke with a start two hours later to find herself alone in the room, but there was still some fire in the grate, and a candle burning on the table. The heavy steps of a man on the stairs had woke her, and she knew that Joe Harrod was coming down from his room. He came and knocked at the door. "Is Fan here?" he called huskily. "Where's the girl got to, I'd like to know?"
Meanwhile other pioneers, as hardy and enterprising as Boon's companions, had likewise made up their minds that they would come in to possess the land; and in bands or small parties they had crossed the mountains or floated down the Ohio, under the leadership of such men as Harrod, Logan, and the McAfees.
Caution being born into me with all the strength of a vice, I said nothing. Whereupon she seized me in her strong hands and shook me. "Ye little imp!" said she, while the women paused in their work to laugh at us. "The boy is right, Polly Ann," said Mrs. Harrod, "and he's got more sense than most of the men in the fort." "Ay, that he has," the gaunt Mrs.
How at dawn we found them gone, and Kenton and Harrod and brave Captain Montgomery set out in pursuit, with Cowan and Tom and Ray. All day they rode, relentless, and the next evening returned with but eight weary and sullen fugitives of all those who had deserted. The next day the sun rose on a smiling world, the polished reaches of the river golden mirrors reflecting the forest's green.
Here they encountered two men, who were among the greatest of the western pioneers, and were destined to leave their names in historic association with the early settlement of Kentucky, James Harrod and Michael Stoner, a German, both of whom had descended the Ohio from Fort Pitt.
He strode up to Harrod until their faces almost touched, and his voice shook with the intensity of his anger. "By G d, you nor Clark nor any one else will stop me, I say!" He swung around and faced the people. "Come on, boys! We'll fetch that corn, or know the reason why." A responding murmur showed that the bulk of them were with him.
Now to be told that this was all a vain delusion, mere fancy, that she was a child of sin, as unclean in the sight of Heaven as the worst person she had ever known a Joe Harrod or a Captain Horton, for instance and that God's anger would burn for ever against her unless she cast away her own filthy rags Fan thought that these had been cast away a long time ago and clothed herself with the divine righteousness all that bewildered and surprised her at first.
In age, in penury, landless, and without a home, he is seen leaving Kentucky, then an opulent and flourishing country, for a new wilderness and new scenes of adventure. Among the names of the conspicuous backwoodsmen who settled the west, we cannot fail to recognize that of James Harrod. He was from the banks of the Monongahela, and among the earliest immigrants to the "Bloody Ground."
Word Of The Day