144 The Winning of the West 



for three miles; until he halted, shot the dog, and 

 thus escaped. 50 



During this comparatively peaceful fall the set- 

 tlers fared well; though the men were ever on the 

 watch for Indian war parties, while the mothers, if 

 their children were naughty, frightened them into 

 quiet with the threat that the Shawnees would catch 

 them. The widows and the fatherless were cared 

 for by the other families of the different stations. 

 The season of want and scarcity had passed forever ; 

 from thenceforth on there was abundance in Ken- 

 tucky. The crops did not fail; not only was there 

 plenty of corn, the one essential, but there was also 

 wheat, as well as potatoes, melons, pumpkins, tur- 

 nips, and the like. Sugar was made by tapping the 

 maple trees ; but salt was bought at a very exorbi- 

 tant price at the Falls, being carried down in boats 

 from the old Redstone Fort. Flax had been gen- 

 erally sown (though in the poorer settlements nettle 

 bark still served as a substitute), and the young 

 men and girls formed parties to pick it, often end- 

 ing their labor by an hour or two's search for wild 

 plums. The men killed all the game they wished, 

 and so there was no lack of meat. They also sur- 

 veyed the land and tended the stock cattle, horses, 

 and hogs, which throve and multiplied out on the 

 range, fattening on the cane and large white buf- 

 falo-clover. At odd times the men and boys visited 

 their lines of traps. Furs formed almost the only 

 currency, except a little paper money; but as there 



50 Boone's Narrative. 



