"I think I know how the dead feel who are so soon forgotten." "Ye can't blame 'em," said Samson.

"They've probably heard about the Injun scare and would expect to be massacreed if they came." Indeed the scare, now abating, had spread through the border settlements and kept the people awake o' nights.

Samson and other men, left in New Salem, had met to consider plans for a stockade.
"And then there's the fever an' ague," Samson added.
"Sometimes I feel sorry I told 'em about it because they'll think it worse than it is.

But we've got to tell the truth if it kills us." "Yes: we've got to tell the truth," Samson rejoined.

"There'll be a railroad coming through here one of these days and then we can all get back and forth easy.