224 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 



William Smith had always exhibited a remarkable disinclina- 

 tion for scenes of bloodshed, considering the character of the 

 times. He did not, even now, join the patriot army; but, as 

 the chief of the Vigilance Committee, did far better service with 

 his prompt sagacity and profuse liberality than he could 

 probably have done in the field. We cannot follow him 

 through the details of the acts of this noblest period of his 

 career ; suffice to say, that when the war ended in our dear- 

 bought independence, he first took time to look upon the 

 condition of his own affairs ; the survey exhibited himself to 

 to himself a beggar ! 



Everything had been swallowed up in the vortex, except 

 some few fragments of landed estate ; and they had only been 

 spared him because nothing could be raised on them in such 

 troublous times. He smiled upon Mattie as he looked around 

 proudly upon five handsome, manly boys and three daughters, 

 ail pleasant variations upon her, and patting her still fresh 

 cheek, said gaily, 



" Missus, it's all gone ! I am proud of the way it went 

 we've gained our holy cause, I am content ! what say 

 you, woman ?" 



" Dear Billy, what should I say ! Am I not proud of it 

 as you !" 



" Well, missus, neighbor Daniel Boone has g'ot back from 

 Kan-tuck-ee, across the mountains, as he calls it. He says 

 it's a great country, greater and more beautiful than any on 

 this side the Alleghanies, and Daniel's a reliable man, you 

 know ! and that plenty of splendid land is to be had for the 

 settling and defending it ; our boys are good riflemen, 

 what say you, Mattie ?" 



Mattie turned a little pale, and laid her cheek against that 

 of her husband, but answered in a firm, round voice, 



"I am ready, Billy, to follow you !" 



And this is all that was said between them ; it was settled ! 



This was a few years afte* the time that Daniel Boone and 



