For some years its muzzle had been seen, by all the straggling
aborigines who visited the valley, frowning through one of those openings
which were now converted into glazed windows; and there is reason to
think, that the reputation which the little piece of ordnance thus
silently obtained, had a powerful agency in so long preserving unmolested
the peace of the valley.
The word unmolested is perhaps too strong. More than one alarm had in fact
occurred, though no positive acts of violence had ever been committed
within the limits which the Puritan claimed as his own. On only one
occasion, however, did matters proceed so far that the veteran had been
induced to take his post in this warlike attic; where, there is little
doubt, had occasion further offered for his services, he would have made a
suitable display of his knowledge in the science of gunnery. But the
simple history of the Wish-Ton-Wish had furnished another evidence of a
political truth, which cannot be too often presented to the attention of
our countrymen; we mean that the best preservative of peace is preparation
for war.
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