This etext was produced by Gardner Buchanan with help from
Charles Franks and Distributed Proofers.
HARDSCRABBLE; or, The Fall of Chicago
A Tale of Indian Warfare
by John Richardson
CHAPTER I.
It was on a beautiful day in the early part of the month
of April, 1812, that four persons were met in a rude
farm-house, situated on the Southern Branch of the Chicago
river, and about four miles distant from the fort of that
name. They had just risen from their humble mid-day meal,
and three of them were now lingering near the fire-place,
filled with blazing logs, which, at that early season,