They devoted, beside, much of their time and labor to preparing a
comfortable cabin to shelter them during the approaching winter.
They were in want of many things. Clothing and moccasins they might
supply. With bread, sugar, and salt, though articles of the first
necessity, they could dispense. But ammunition, an article absolutely
indispensable, was failing them. They concluded, too, that horses would
be of essential service to them. They finally came to the resolution
that the elder Boone should return to North Carolina, and come out to
the new country with ammunition, horses, and supplies.
The character of Daniel Boone, in consenting to be left alone in that
wilderness, surrounded by perils from the Indians and wild beasts, of
which he had so recently and terribly been made aware, appears in its
true light. We have heard of a Robinson Crusoe made so by the necessity
of shipwreck; but all history can scarcely parallel another such an
instance of a man voluntarily consenting to be left alone among savages
and wild beasts, seven hundred miles from the nearest white inhabitant.
The separation came. The elder brother disappeared in the forest, and
Daniel Boone was left in the cabin, so recently cheered by the presence
of his brother, entirely alone. Their only dog followed the departing
brother, and Boone had nothing but his unconquerable spirit to sustain
him during the long and lonely days and nights, visited by the
remembrance of his distant wife and children.
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