194 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



night. When every hope had fled, and they were en- 

 deavoring so to arrange themselves as in the best possible 

 manner to prevent the intense suffering that awaited 

 them, a sound breaks upon the stillness of night — another 

 and another. "Some other miserable beings, like our- 

 selves in distress. No ! See, yon glare of light" — and the 

 sweet voice of an exhausted female form cheers her com- 

 panions onward, with the expression of her unshaken 

 faith, that "Providence still guides our steps." Oh the 

 faith, hope, love, and charity that endureth all things, 

 and conquereth all things, dwelleth in the breast of a 

 virtuous woman. 



Welcome was that cheerful fireside to three suffering 

 fellow-creatures, that night — and as welcome were they 

 made to partake of its comforts as though it had been 

 their own. In fact, throughout the west, (perhaps it is 

 so in all new countries,) hospitality is not only a virtue, 

 but the exercise of it becomes a pride, which all seek 

 to gratify. The recipients of hospitality on this even- 

 ing, were an old man, who had seen some sixty years come 

 and go, and whose head was not whitened by the snow 

 that had lodged upon it, but whose limbs were stiffened 

 by cold and fatigue to that degree that he had to be lifted 

 from the wagon, and a young man of some less than half 

 his age, whose young and active blood had not been 

 effected by the cold, and a female still younger, who called 

 the old man father, and seemed to show a sisterly affec- 

 tion towards the young man, though the appellation of 

 "Mr." to his name, told that he could not claim that 

 honor. She was much overcome with the cold and fa- 

 tigue, and it is probable she would have found an end to 

 her sufferings on that night, and might have had her 

 final resting place by the side of the tenant of the "cedar 

 grave," if it had not been for the care of one who had 

 been taught to call that tenant "his white brother." Still 

 more deeply was she impressed with the idea that provi- 

 dence had a special care over her and her friends, when 

 told that no lights would have been made, or guns fired, 



