"And yet Samuel loved the forest now. He knew the sounds and smells and images like he knew his own mind, his own yard. Each time he had entered he'd gone farther, learned more, marked more trees with his knife, until he always knew where he was. Now he thought of the deep forest as his home, as much as their cabin." (Chapter 1, p. 10).

"The only thing that came easy to people of the frontier was land. A single family could own hundreds, even thousands of acres simply by claiming them. If getting the land was easily accomplished, using the land was a different matter." (Frontier Life, p. 19).

"Samuel smelled it before he saw anything. Not just the smoke from the fires. But the thick, heavy smell. Blood. Death. No." (Chapter 4, p. 26).

"Young British officers in England, when they were being shipped out to fight in the colonies...