Hannah of Kentucky - James Otis |
We were hardly settled down in our new home when, one day, just as mother was calling out to Colonel Boone to know how soon the boys would be allowed to go to the creek for water, one of the men in the watch-house nearest the big gate cried out that a company of white people was coming toward the fort.
In an instant men, women, and children were running here and there, some to scramble up on the long shelf of puncheons near the top of the stockade, a sort of platform for the marksmen, and others to gather near the gate to get a glimpse of the newcomers when our people swung back the heavy barrier.
"It's Colonel Callaway!" I heard Jemima's father cry as he ran into one of the watch-houses, and shortly afterward we knew that the entire Callaway family, together with William Poague, John B. Stager, and their wives and children, had followed us over the Wilderness Road.
What a time of rejoicing that was! I had seen Elizabeth Callaway once, while we were living on the Clinch River, and had almost as much of a liking for her as for Jemima.
Soon we girls, meaning all the Poagues, Stagers, Callaways, and Boones, got together in father's cabin, while our mothers were helping the other women settle down, and what a nice time we had!