Gershom he found a ready
and active assistant; for, by this time, the whiskey was well out of
him; and he toiled with the greater willingness, as he felt that the
palisades would add to the security of his wife and sister. Neither
did Parson Amen disdain to use the pick and shovel; for, while the
missionary had the fullest reliance in the fact that the red men of
that region were the descendants of the children of Israel, he
regarded them as a portion of the chosen people who were living
under the ban of the divine displeasure, and as more than usually
influenced by those evil spirits, whom St. Paul mentions as the
powers of the air. In a word, while the good missionary had all
faith in the final conversion and restoration of these children of
the forests, he did not overlook the facts of their present
barbarity, and great propensity to scalp. He was not quite as
efficient as Gershom, at this novel employment, but a certain inborn
zeal rendered him both active and useful. As for the Indians,
neither of them deigned to touch a tool. Pigeonswing had little
opportunity for so doing, indeed, being usually, from the rising to
the setting sun, out hunting for the support of the party; while
Peter passed most of his time in ruminations and solitary walks.
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