Page:Barbour--Metipoms Hostage.djvu/84

72 the river in the long evenings, paddling up to the falls and dropping his line in the deep, black pools there. He had brought some English hooks back with him from Boston  and liked them well. No more news came from the outer world save that at Boston  there was much uneasiness of an uprising of  the Indians and drilling of the militia each  day. If Philip meant mischief he bided his time.

The days grew very hot and the river dwindled in its bed. The brook through the clearing was no more than a trickle, for the  spring had been unusually dry and the little  showers no more than dampened the soil. One night David awoke in the darkness with the sound of great thunder in his ears and  saw the window flash glaring white with the  lightning. But the storm passed them by, rumbling off at last into the north, leaving  the ground as parched as before. The kitchen garden must be watered by hand, and, lest  the well go dry, David carried water in  buckets from the small pool that lay in the  swamp to the west, stumbling so frequently  on his way back that the pails were seldom  more than half-filled when he arrived. William Vernham came one day past the middle