It looks like an awful thing, but--if they die we are here to avenge them and die with them, if they don't die we are all saved because we can hold this fort, if we have water; without it every soul here from the oldest man down to the littlest baby will be lost." Mr.Upton covered his face with his hands.
"I do not like to think of it, Tom," he said.
The other men waited in silence.
Lucy looked appealingly at her father, but he turned his eyes away.
"See what the women say about it, Tom," he said at last.
The women thought well of it.

There was not one border heroine, but many; disregarding danger they prepared eagerly for the task, and soon they were in line more than fifty, every one with a bucket or pail in each hand.

Henry Ware, looking on, said nothing.

The intended act appealed to the nature within him that was growing wilder every day.
A sentinel, peeping over the palisade, reported that all was quiet in the forest, though, as he knew, the warriors were none the less watchful.
"Open the gate," commanded Mr.Ware.
The heavy bars were quickly taken down, and the gate was swung wide.
Then a slim, scarlet-clad figure took her place at the head of the line, and they passed out.
Lucy was borne on now by a great impulse, the desire to save the fort and all these people whom she knew and loved.

It was she who had suggested the plan and she believed that it should be she who should lead the way, when it came to the doing of it.
She felt a tremor when she was outside the gate, but it came from excitement and not from fear--the exaltation of spirit would not permit her to be afraid.