156 The Winning of the West 



the death of the men, some brawny frontierswoman, 

 accustomed to danger and violent physical exertion, 

 and favored by peculiar circumstances, herself beat 

 off the assailants. 



In one such case, two or three families were living 

 together in a block-house. One spring day, when 

 there were in the house but two men and one woman, 

 a Mrs. Bozarth, the children who had been playing 

 in the yard suddenly screamed that Indians were 

 coming. One of the men sprang to the door only 

 to fall back with a bullet in his breast, and in an 

 other moment an Indian leaped over the threshold 

 and attacked the remaining man before he could 

 grasp a weapon. Holding his antagonist the latter 

 called out to Mrs. Bozarth to hand him a knife; 

 but instead she snatched up an axe and killed the 

 savage on the spot. But that instant another leaped 

 into the doorway, and firing, killed the white man 

 who had been struggling with his companion; but 

 the woman instantly turned on him, as he stood 

 with his smoking gun, and ripped open his body 

 with a stroke of her axe. Yelling for help he sank 

 on the threshold, and his comrades rushed to his 

 rescue; the woman, with her bloody weapon, cleft 

 open the skull of the first, and the others fell back, 

 so that she was able to shut and bar the door. Then 

 the savages moved off, but they had already killed 

 the children in the yard. 



A similar incident took place in Kentucky, where 

 the cabin of a man named John Merrill was attacked 

 at night. He was shot in several places, and one 



