Though there was great excitement to be found in hunting, there was but little if any danger.

The deer and all smaller game were harmless.

And even the grizzly bear had but few terrors for a marksman who, with unerring aim, could strike him with the deadly bullet at the distance of many rods.
But the massacre at Fort Mimms roused a new spirit in David Crockett.
He perceived at once, that unless the savages were speedily quelled, they would ravage the whole region; and that his family as well as that of every other pioneer must inevitably perish.

It was manifest to him that every man was bound immediately to take arms for the general defence.

In a few days a summons was issued for every able-bodied man in all that region to repair to Winchester, which, as we have said, was a small cluster of houses about ten miles from Crockett's cabin.
When he informed his wife of his intention, her womanly heart was appalled at the thought of being left alone and unprotected in the vast wilderness.