Page:Six months in Kansas.djvu/124

120 I, hardly daring to close my eyes, at last, half-asleep, hearing the most fiendish outcry ever borne upon the moon-lit night air, call aloud, "Wake up, quickly! there is trouble of some kind, for nothing but a Missourian could utter such sounds this side of the infernal regions!" and the cabin is astir in an instant,—only to laugh at me, because the unearthly sounds are only those of a party of wolves taking a survey of the city at midnight.

Dec. 5th. Mother of mine, I can hardly settle down to the details of our own matters. Everything over the town, and every rumor borne in to us from outside of it, is more and more dark and fearful. We now have an armed force of five hundred men, who are under the command of Dr. Robinson, now commander-in-chief, and Col. Lane, both of whom have had experience in actual battle, in Mexico and California. Out of my south window I can see them drilling ; far off it is, on the prairie ; but you know we have a wide scope of observation. There is not a tree anywhere to be seen ; and, as I look, the expected Indian tribe rides in, single file, at full gallop.