Page 29 - A Hero of Ticonderoga

CHAPTER VI

--THE YORKERS

Though the presentation of claims, under the authority of the New York
government, to the land which Seth Beeman occupied by virtue of a title

derived from the Governor of New Hampshire, had for some time been
expected and resistance fully determined upon, Seth’s heart was as hot with

anger and heavy with anxiety as if invasion had come without warning.
Tenacious of his rights, he yet hated strife and contention. Nor could he
foresee whether he must lose the home he had wrought with toil and

privation out of the savage wilderness, or whether, after a sharp, brief
contest, he would be left in peaceable possession of it, or whether he could

then hold it only by continued resistance.

Nathan had not been long away when he shouldered his axe and hastened

toward the house. When it came in view, between the tall pillars of tree
trunks that paled the verge of the clearing, the rough-walled dwelling had

never looked more homelike nor better worth keeping. It had overcome the
strangeness of new occupancy and settled to its place. The logs had begun
to gather again the moss that they lost when they ceased to be trees. Wild

vines, trained to tamer ways, clambered about the doorway and deep-set
windows, beneath which beds of native and alien posies, carefully tended,

alike flourished in the virgin soil. The young garden stuff was promising,
and the broader expanse of fall-sown wheat, grown tall enough to toss in
the wind, made a rippling green sea of the clearing, with islands of

blackened stumps jutting here and there above the surface. The place had
outgrown its uncouth newness and transient camp-like appearance and

become a home to cling to and defend.

"What is it, Seth?" asked Ruth, coming to greet him at the door, her smile

fading as she saw his troubled face.

"The Yorkers have come." And then he explained Nathan’s mission. "Our
folks’ll come to help as soon as they can, but the Yorkers’ll get here first.
Look a there," and, following his eyes, Ruth saw the surveyor’s party