The people believed
themselves to have taken good precautions against these twin evils, but
now a terrible misfortune befell them. No rain fell and the well inside
the palisade ran dry. It was John Ware himself who first saw the coming
of the danger and he tried to hide it, but it could not, from its very
nature, be kept a secret long. The supply for each person was cut down
one half and then one fourth, and that too would soon go, unless the
welcome rains came; and the sky was without a cloud. Men who feared no
physical danger saw those whom they loved growing pale and weak before
their eyes, and they knew not what to do. It seemed that the place must
fall without a blow from the enemy.
CHAPTER XVI
A GIRL'S WAY
Lucy left her father's house one of these dry mornings, and stood for a
few moments in the grounds, inclosed by the palisade, gazing at the dark
forest, outlined so sharply against the blue of the sky. She could see
the green of the forest beyond the fort, and she knew that in the open
spaces, where the sun reached them, tiny wild flowers of pink and
purple, nestled low in the grass, were already in bloom.
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