The lads had eaten and drunk themselves into such condition that I already looked upon them as hors tie combat; and the frequent visits of the whisky bottle to the ugly mouth of their dam I hoped would soon reduce her to a like state.  Judge of my astonishment, reader, when I saw this incarnate fiend take a large carving-knife and go to the grindstone to whet its edge.  I saw her pour the water on the turning machine, and watched her working away with the dangerous instrument, until the cold sweat covered every part of my body, in spite of my determination to defend myself to the last.  Her task finished, she walked to her reeling sons, and said, “There, that’ll soon settle him!  Boys, kill yon—­, and then for the watch.”

I turned, cocked my gunlocks silently, touched my faithful companion, and lay ready to start up and shoot the first one who might attempt my life.  The moment was fast approaching, and that night might have been my last in the world, had not Providence made preparations for my rescue.  All was ready.  The infernal hag was advancing slowly, probably contemplating the best way of dispatching me, while her sons should be engaged with the Indian.  I was several times on the point of rising and shooting her on the spot;—­but she was not to be punished thus.  The door was suddenly opened, and there entered two stout travelers, each with a long rifle on his shoulder.  I bounced up on my feet, and making them most heartily welcome, told them how well it was for me that they should have arrived at that moment.  The tale was told in a minute.  The drunken sons were secured, and the woman, in spite of her defense and vociferations, shared the same fate.  The Indian fairly danced with joy, and gave us to understand that as he could not sleep for pain, he would watch over us.  You may suppose we slept much less than we talked.  The two strangers gave me an account of their once having been themselves in a somewhat similar situation.

Day came, fair and rosy, and with it the punishment of our captives.  They were now quite sobered.  Their feet were unbound, but their arms were still securely tied.  We marched them into the woods off the road, and having used them as Regulators were wont to use such delinquents, we set fire to the cabin, gave all the skins and implements to the young Indian warrior, and proceeded, well pleased, towards the settlements.

During upward of twenty-five years, when my wanderings extended to all parts of our country, this was the only time at which my life was in danger from my fellow-creatures.  Indeed, so little risk do travelers run in the United States, that no one born there ever dreams of any to be encountered on the road, and I can only account for this occurrence by supposing that the inhabitants of the cabin were not Americans.

Will you believe, good-natured reader, that not many miles from the place where this adventure happened, and where fifteen years ago, no habitation belonging to civilized man was expected, and very few ever seen, large roads are now laid out, cultivation has converted the woods into fertile fields, taverns have been erected, and much of what we Americans call comfort is to be met with!  So fast does improvement proceed in our abundant and free country.