----- 伍兹的尼克
These remarks will serve as an explanation, and, if it be necessary, as an apology for some of the characters that figure in the following pages, particularly that of the hon est colonel of militia. In a story written to illustrate the early period in which those men were busily engaged in strengthening and securing their little State — a period the darkest and stormiest in the annals of the Indian border it was both fitting and necessary that some representative of the race should appear. The outlines may be ruder than was proper or just; but they will be the better foil to the generous qualities of spirit, common at that day to all the men of Bruce's class.
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