They’d made her promise to take care of her brother and that promise gave her strength. But her parents had told her of the dangers and had warned such a day might come. When she saw the burned bodies of her parents, she shielded Elias from the sight, wanting to scream from the horror of it. Hearing no sounds, they slowly emerged, lifting what remained of the floor boards and pushing away the remnants of the bed. There were dried apples in their hole, which Eliza jammed in her pockets after giving him one. They remained in the hole, finally falling asleep, and she only awoke when Elias demanded food.

Her back stung where her dress had charred. They struggled to breathe, as the smoke filtered down, and Eliza covered her brother’s body with hers to keep him from burning. Then silence, except for the noise of the flames consuming the house. After that, there were footsteps overhead, pacing here and there. The noise of ransacking luckily covered his crying, and she heard a struggle, accompanied by her mother’s screams. The Indians hadn’t found her, perhaps because of the bed placed over the floor, but she nearly suffocated Elias when he started to whimper.

When Indians had attacked their home in Kentucke, near Harrod’s Town, her parents dropped her and her four year old brother Elias heard into a deep dug-out space beneath the cabin. Eliza finally had to stop their mad flight, putting her arms around her little brother, both of them panting for breath.

The Last Pilgrim by Noelle A. Granger