Yet it was a
most doleful flight. Most of these women had been made widows
the day before, some of them had been made widows and childless
at the same time, and wondered why they should seek to live
longer. But the very mental stupor of many of them was an aid.
They ceased to cry out, and some even ceased to be afraid.
Henry, Shif'less Sol, and Tom dropped to the rear. Paul and Long
Jim were on either flank, while Carpenter led slowly on toward
the mountains.
"'Pears to me," said Tom, "that the thing fur us to do is to
hurry 'em up ez much ez possible."
"So the Indians won't see 'em crossing the plain," said Henry.
"We couldn't defend them against a large force, and it would
merely be a massacre. We must persuade them to walk faster."
Shif'less Sol was invaluable in this crisis. He could talk
forever in his-placid way, and, with his gentle encouragement,
mild sarcasm, and anecdotes of great feminine walkers that he had
known, he soon had them moving faster.
Henry and Tom dropped farther to the rear. They could see ahead
of them the long dark line, coiling farther into the woods, but
they could also see to right and left towers of smoke rising in
the clear morning sunlight.
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