The rooms were in two groups, which were connected by a covered porch--a "dog alley," as old settlers still call it, because the dogs are apt to sleep there at night.

Here he kept open house to all comers, for he was lavishly hospitable, and every one was welcome to bed and board, to apple-jack and cider, hominy and corn-bread, beef, venison, bear meat, and wild fowl.

When there was a wedding or a merrymaking of any kind he feasted the neighborhood, barbecuing oxen--that is, roasting them whole on great spits,--and spreading board tables out under the trees.

He was ever on the alert to lead his mounted riflemen against the small parties of marauding Indians that came into the country.

He soon became the best commander against Indians that there was on this part of the border, moving with a rapidity that enabled him again and again to overtake and scatter their roving parties, recovering the plunder and captives, and now and then taking a scalp or two himself.