You may be sure that Richard Jennifer's bitter reproachings came home to me in sharpest fashion, the more since now I saw how we had lost our chance by neglecting the commonest precautions. Having determined¹ to attack, the merest novice² of a general would have moved his forces to the nearest point; would have had his scouts³ search out the ford⁴ beforehand; and, above all, would never have delayed the blow beyond the earliest moment of the enemy's unwatchfulness.  
So now, when all was lost, I fell to kneading out this sodden⁵ dough⁶ of afterwit with Ephraim Yeates; but when I sought to carry off the blame as mine by right, the old borderer would not give me leave.
 
"Fair and easy, Cap'n John; fair and easy," he protested. "Let's give that old sarpent, which is the devil and Satan, his dues. Ez I allow, there was the whole enduring passel of us to ricollact all them things. To be sure, we had our warnings, mistrusting all along that this here dad-blame' hoss-captain had his finger in the pie. But, lawzee! we had ne'er a man o' God 'mongst us to rise up and prophesy⁷ what was a-going to happen if we didn't get up and scratch gravel⁸ immejitly, if not sooner; though I won't deny that Cap'n Dick did try his hand that-away."
 
"True; and I would now we had listened to him," said I, gloomily enough. "We have lost our chance, and God knows if we shall ever have another. Falconnet must have half a hundred men, red and white, in the powder train; and by this time he has learned from the Indian who reconnoitered us on the mountain that we are within striking distance. With the enemy forewarned, as he is, we might as well try to cut the women out of my Lord Cornwallis's headquarters."
 
The old man chuckled⁹ his dry little laugh, though what food for merriment he could find in the hopeless prospect¹⁰ was more than I could understand.
 
"Ho! ho! Cap'n John; I reckon ez how ye're a-taking that word from yonder down-hearted boy of our'n. Wait a spell till ye're ez old ez I be; then you'll never say die till ye're plumb¹¹ dead."
 
Now, truly, though I was dismally¹² disheartened, I could reassure¹³ him on the point of perseverance¹⁴. 'Tis an Ireton failing to lose heart and hope when the skies are dark; but this is counterbalanced in some of us by a certain quality of unreasoning persistence¹⁵ which will go on running long after the race is well lost. My father had this stubborn virtue¹⁶ to the full; and so had that old Ironside Ireton from whom we are descended¹⁷.
 
"That's the kind o' talk!" was the old man's comment. "Now we'll set to work in sure-enough arnest. Ez I said a spell back, my stummick is crying cupboard till I can't make out to hear my brain a-sizzling. Maybe you took notice o' me a-praying down yonder that the good Lord'd vouchsafe¹⁸ to give us scalps and provender¹⁹. For our onfaithfulness He's seed fit to withhold²⁰ the one; but maybe we'll find a raven²¹ 'r two, or a widder's mite²² 'r meal-bar'l, somewheres in this howling wilderness²³, yit."
 
So saying, he summoned the Catawba with a low whistle, and when Uncanoola joined us, told him to stay with Jennifer whilst we should make another effort to find the ford.
 
"There's nobody like an Injun for a nuss when a man's chin-deep into trouble," quoth this wise old woodsman, when we were feeling our way cautiously along the margin²⁴ of the swift little river. "If Cap'n Dick rips and tears and pulls the grass up by the roots, the chief'll only say, 'Wah!' If he sits up and cusses till he's black in the face, the chief'll say, 'Ugh!' And that's just about all a man hankers for when his sore's a-running in the night season, and all Thy waters have gone over his head. Selah!"
 
Now you are to remember the sky was overcast²⁵ and the night was pitchy dark, and how the old borderer could read a sign of any sort was far beyond my comprehension. Yet when we had gone a scant²⁶ half-mile along the river brink²⁷ he stopped short, sniffed²⁸ the air and stooped to feel and grope on the ground like a blind man seeking for something he had lost.
 
"Right about here-away is where they made out to cross," he announced; "the whole enduring passel of 'em, ez I reckon—our seven varmints and the hoss-captain's powder train. Give me the heft o' your shoulder till we take the water and projec' 'round a spell on t'other side."
 
We squared ourselves, wholly by the sense of touch, with the river's edge, locked arms for the better bracing²⁹ against the swift current, and so essayed the ford. It was no more than thigh³⁰ deep, and though the water lashed³¹ and foamed³² over the shoal like a torrent³³ in flood, there was a clean bottom and good footing. Once safe across, we turned our faces down-stream, and in a little time came to the

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