Only four children, one sickly boy and three girls, were willing to stand and repeat the lesson; others had straggled away and were shouting at their play.
Not far from where Halsey stood some fifteen of the neighbours had gathered together to put up a new wooden house; piles of sweet-smelling deal lay about them as they worked.
Just then on the road from Far West a horse bearing an old man was seen straining itself to the swiftest gallop.

The old man began to shout as he came within hearing.

No one could understand what he said.

He shouted more loudly, and many women ran out of their doors to see his arrival.

Before his words were articulate a cloud of dust was seen rising round a turning of the same road, and a large company of horsemen came swiftly into view.
The old man's voice was raised in a cry, but only the accent of terror was intelligible.