And so I became a kind of handy boy for the whole regiment from the Colonel down, for I was willing and glad to work.I cooked the Colonel's meals, roasting the turkey breasts and saddles of venison that the hunters brought in from the mainland, and even made him journey-cake, a trick which Polly Ann had taught me.And when I went about the island, if a man were loafing, he would seize his axe and cry, ``Here's Davy, he'll tell the Colonel on me.'' Thanks to the jokes of Terence McCann, I gained an owl-like reputation for wisdom amongst these superstitious backwoodsmen, and they came verily to believe that upon my existence depended the success of the campaign.But day after day passed, and no sign from Colonel Clark of his intentions.
``There's a good lad,'' said Terence.``He'll be telling us where we're going.''
I was asked the same question by a score or more, but Colonel Clark kept his own counsel.He himself was everywhere during the days that followed, superintending the work on the blockhouse we were building, and eying the men.Rumor had it that he was sorting out the sheep from the goats, silently choosing those who were to remain on the island and those who were to take part in the campaign.
At length the blockhouse stood finished amid the yellow stumps of the great trees, the trunks of which were in its walls.And suddenly the order went forth for the men to draw up in front of it by companies, with the families of the emigrants behind them.It was a picture to fix itself in a boy's mind, and one that I have never forgotten.
The line of backwoodsmen, as fine a lot of men as Iever wish to see, bronzed by the June sun, strong and tireless as the wild animals of the forest, stood expectant with rifles grounded.And beside the tallest, at the end of the line, was a diminutive figure with a drum hung in front of it.The early summer wind rustled in the forest, and the never ending song of the Great Falls sounded from afar.Apart, square-shouldered and indomitable, stood a young man of twenty-six.
``My friends and neighbors,'' he said in a firm voice, ``there is scarce a man standing among you to-day who has not suffered at the hands of savages.Some of you have seen wives and children killed before your eyes--or dragged into captivity.None of you can to-day call the home for which he has risked so much his own.And who, I ask you, is to blame for this hideous war? Whose gold is it that buys guns and powder and lead to send the Shawnee and the Iroquois and Algonquin on the warpath?''
He paused, and a hoarse murmur of anger ran along the ranks.
``Whose gold but George's, by the grace of God King of Great Britain and Ireland? And what minions distribute it? Abbott at Kaskaskia, for one, and Hamilton at Detroit, the Hair Buyer, for another!''
When he spoke Hamilton's name his voice was nearly drowned by imprecations.
``Silence!'' cried Clark, sternly, and they were silent.
``My friends, the best way for a man to defend himself is to maim his enemy.One year since, when you did me the honor to choose me Commander-in-chief of your militia in Kentucky, I sent two scouts to Kaskaskia.A dozen years ago the French owned that place, and St.Vincent, and Detroit, and the people there are still French.My men brought back word that the French feared the Long Knives, as the Indians call us.On the first of October Iwent to Virginia, and some of you thought again that Ihad deserted you.I went to Williamsburg and wrestled with Governor Patrick Henry and his council, with Mr.
Jefferson and Mr.Mason and Mr.Wythe.Virginia had no troops to send us, and her men were fighting barefoot with Washington against the armies of the British king.But the governor gave me twelve hundred pounds in paper, and with it I have raised the little force that we have here.And with it we will carry the war into Hamilton's country.On the swift waters of this great river which flows past us have come tidings to-day, and God Himself has sent them.To-morrow would have been too late.The ships and armies of the French king are on their way across the ocean to help us fight the tyrant, and this is the news that we bear to the Kaskaskias.
When they hear this, the French of those towns will not fight against us.My friends, we are going to conquer an empire for liberty, and I can look onward,'' he cried in a burst of inspired eloquence, sweeping his arm to the northward toward the forests on the far side of the Ohio, ``I can look onward to the day when these lands will be filled with the cities of a Great Republic.And who among you will falter at such a call?''
There was a brief silence, and then a shout went up from the ranks that drowned the noise of the Falls, and many fell into antics, some throwing their coonskin hats in the air, and others cursing and scalping Hamilton in mockery, while I pounded on the drum with all my might.
But when we had broken ranks the rumor was whispered about that the Holston company had not cheered, and indeed the rest of the day these men went about plainly morose and discontented,--some saying openly (and with much justice, though we failed to see it then) that they had their own families and settlements to defend from the Southern Indians and Chickamauga bandits, and could not undertake Kentucky's fight at that time.And when the enthusiasm had burned away a little the disaffection spread, and some even of the Kentuckians began to murmur against Clark, for faith or genius was needful to inspire men to his plan.One of the malcontents from Boonesboro came to our fire to argue.
``He's mad as a medicine man, is Clark, to go into that country with less than two hundred rifles.And he'll force us, will he? I'd as lief have the King for a master.''