Page:Barbour--Metipoms Hostage.djvu/86

74 arms and ammunition. Meanwhile the train-bands were preparing in case of need.

To David the tidings were not wholly amiss, for the prospect of bearing arms and  fighting against King Philip’s Indians was  enough to make any boy’s heart beat faster. Nathan Lindall seemed in better spirits for the news and even Obid was more cheerful  now that the die was cast. That night they sat long about the fire and cleaned the guns  with oil and fine ashes and discussed the  matter well. It was southward that the first trouble would come, they agreed, and so Nathan Lindall laid plans to remove his cattle  to Natick so soon as necessity was shown  and join the men of Dedham. Sleep did not come readily to David that night, and Obid’s  snores long made an accompaniment to the  visions of marches and bloody battles that  visited him in the darkness. And yet when the new day came life was disappointingly  much as before. There was corn to hoe and weeds to be pulled and the sun was hotter  than ever and martial glory seemed as far  away as ever.

But the frontier was stirring and men came and went by land and river, and seldom a day passed that red man or white did