I had visited the valley many times when on scouting
or escort duty, and had seen the Arnold cabins gradually substituted
for their tents, and their acres slowly redeemed from grazing ground
to cultivated fields; but since my last visit Mr. Arnold had adopted
an ingenious means of defence in case of an Indian attack.
The house and stables from the first had been provided with heavy
shutters for windows and doorways, and loop-holes for fire-arms had
been made at regular four-foot intervals. These the proprietor had not
considered ample, and had constructed, twenty yards from the house, an
ingenious earthwork which could be entered by means of a subterranean
passage from the cellar. This miniature fort was in the form of a
circular pit, sunk four feet and a half in the ground, and covered by
a nearly flat roof, the edges or eaves of which were but a foot and a
half above the surface of the earth. In the space between the surface
and the eaves were loop-holes. The roof was of heavy pine timber,
closely joined, sloping upward slightly from circumference to centre,
and covered with two feet of tamped earth.
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