"
The five merely said that any man who was a man would help at
such a time. Then they resumed their march in a perpetual circle
about the camp.
Some women did not sleep at all that night. It is not easy to
conceive what the frontier women of America endured so many
thousands of times. They had seen their husbands, brothers, and
sons killed in the battle, and they knew that the worst of
torture had been practiced in the Indian camp. Many of them
really did not want to live any longer. They merely struggled
automatically for life. The darkness settled down thicker and
thicker; the blackness in the forest was intense, and they could
see the faces of one another only at a little distance. The
desolate moan of the wind came through the leaves, and, although
it was July, the night grew cold. The women crept closer
together, trying to cover up and protect the children. The wind,
with its inexpressibly mournful note, was exactly fitted to their
feelings. Many of them wondered why a Supreme Being had
permitted such things. But they ceased to talk. No sound at all
came from the group, and any one fifty yards away, not
forewarned, could not have told that they were there.
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