Thither he and his friends immediately repaired, and from him they learned that, being at work in his field just before sunset, he had seen a party of strange Indians passing at a short distance from his cabin.

As they wound along the brow of the hill, he could perceive that they had prisoners with them--a woman and a child.

The woman he knew to be a white, as she carried her infant in her arms, instead of upon her back, after the manner of the savages.
Day had now begun to break, for the night had been passed in fruitless searches, and the agonized father, after a consultation with his kind friends and neighbors, accepted their offer to accompany him to Fort Pitt to ask advice and assistance of the commandant and Indian Agent at that place.
Proceeding down the valley, as they approached a hut which the night before they had found apparently deserted, they were startled by observing two children standing upon the high bank in front of it.

The delighted father recognized two of his missing flock, but no tidings could they give him of their mother and the other lost ones.

Their story was simple and touching.
They were playing in the garden, when they were alarmed by seeing the Indians enter the yard near the house.