284 The Winning of the West 



bad faults, "especially in a woman's hackney." In 

 terms of endearment that showed he had not sunk 

 the lover in the husband, he spoke of his delight at 

 being again in the house where he had for the first 

 time seen her loved face, "from which happy mo- 

 ment he dated the hour of all his bliss," and be- 

 sought her not to trouble herself too much about 

 him, quoting to her Solomon's account of a good 

 wife, as reminding him always of her ; and he ended 

 by commending her to the peculiar care of Heaven. 

 It was a letter that it was an honor to a true man 

 to have written ; such a letter as the best of womea 

 and wives might be proud to have received. Yet 

 in the middle of it he promised to bring a strange 

 trophy to show his tender and God-fearing spouse. 

 He was speaking of the Indians; how they had 

 murdered men, women, and children near-by, and 

 how they had been beaten back; and he added: "I 

 have now the scalp of one who was killed eight or 

 nine miles from my house about three weeks ago. 

 The first time I go up I shall take it along to let 

 you see it." Evidently it was as natural for him to 

 bring home to his wife and children the scalp 

 of a slain Indian as the skin of a slain deer. 11 



The times were hard, and they called for men 

 of flinty fibre. Those of softer, gentler mold would 

 have failed in the midst of such surroundings. The 

 iron men of the border had a harsh and terrible 

 task allotted them ; and though they did it roughly, 

 they did it thoroughly and on the whole well. They 



11 See Preston's pamphlet on Mrs. Russell, pp. 11-18. 



