All within and around was silent and desolate.

No trace of a living creature was to be found throughout the house or grounds.

His nearest neighbors lived at a considerable distance, but to them he hastened, frantically demanding tidings of his family.
As he aroused them from their slumbers, one and another joined him in the search, and at length, at the house of one of them, was found the servant-maid who had effected her escape.

Her first place of refuge, she said, had been a large brewing-tub in an outer kitchen, under which she had, at the first alarm, secreted herself until the departure of the Indians, who were evidently in haste, gave her an opportunity of fleeing to a place of safety.

She could give no tidings of her mistress and the children, except that they had not been murdered in her sight or hearing.
At length, having scoured the neighborhood without success, Mr.Lytle remembered an old settler who lived alone, far up the valley.