taken wholly by surprise.  There was one great error, however, connected with its design—­and one that seems to have been common to most of the stations of that period—­which was, that the spring, supplying the inmates with water, had not been enclosed within the pickets.  The reader can at once imagine the misery that must have ensued from this cause, in case of their being suddenly assaulted by a superior enemy, and the siege protracted to any considerable length of time.

Within this fort, on their return from captivity, Mrs. Younker and Ella had taken up their abode, to remain until another cabin should be erected, or it should be thought safe for them to live again in a more exposed manner.  Isaac had straightway repaired to his father-in-law’s, to behold again the idol of his heart, and pour into her ear his grief for the loss of his father and friend, and receive her sympathy for his affliction in return.  The disastrous affair which had called him and his companions so suddenly from a scene of festivity to one of mourning—­the loss of so many valuable neighbors, and the result of the expedition in pursuit of the enemy—­created at the time no little excitement throughout the frontiers, and caused some of the more timid to resort to the nearest stations for security.  But as time wore on, and as nothing serious happened during the fall and winter, confidence and courage gradually became restored; and the affair was almost forgotten, save by the friends and relatives of the deceased and those particularly concerned in it.

Spring, however, revived the alarm of the settlers, by the reappearance of the enemy in all quarters, and the outrages they committed, as before mentioned; so that but very few persons ventured to remain without the walls of a fort; and these, such of them as were fortunate enough to escape death or captivity, were fain to seek refuge therein before the close of summer.

Immediately on the receipt of the alarming intelligence of Estill’s defeat, Isaac, his wife, and the family of his father-in-law, Wilson, repaired to Bryan’s Station, and joined Mrs. Younker and Ella, who had meantime remained there in security.

[Footnote 18:  McKee and Elliot.]

CHAPTER XV.

OLD CHARACTERS AND NEW.

It was toward night of a hot sultry day in the month of August, that Ella Barnwell was seated by the door of a cabin, within the walls of Bryan’s Station, gazing forth, with what seemed a vacant stare, upon a group of individuals, who were standing near the center of the common before spoken of, engaged in a very animated conversation.  Her features perhaps were no paler than when we saw her last; but there was a tender, melancholy expression on her sweet countenance, of deep abiding grief, and a look of mournfulness in her beautiful eyes, that touched involuntarily the hearts of all who met her gaze.