Posted by Druncle Mark on March 24, 2000 at 08:18:23:
As Dr. Uncle walked into the living room, he was taken aback. All the chairs and couches had been moved into one corner and Hiram was lobbing cush balls over the tops of the furniture. He heard screams from inside and Hannah's voice shout, "We will not surrender, Montcolm, take your heathen French back to Canada!"
Hiram shouted (with a French accent!), "Colonel Munro, we will allow you to keep your colors if you surrender now. None of the Huron allies will harm your troops!"
Dr. Uncle laughed, "Oh, you two are just precious little Mohicanites! What are you up to?"
Hannah peeked out from above the makeshift furniture wall. "We are pretending the Fort William Henry scene from our favorite movie, Dr. Uncle Mark. We think forts are really neat!"
Hiram asked, "Were there a lot of forts in Penns Woods during the Seven Years' War, Dr. Uncle? Did our cousins MacWilliam and Gunn, Seamus, Flags and Tales play in the forts?"
Dr. Uncle sat down on the floor since all the furnture was piled in the corner. "Come here you two", he said. "Let me tell you about the Pennsylvania forts."
"You see, there were two main lines of forts that were shared by the provincial government of Pennsylvania and the British government in the 1700s. The line of provincial forts also had some settlers' forts mixed in with them. Let's see, there were forts that followed the Susquehanna River starting in the north. There were Forts named Freeland, Boone, a big fort called Augusta, McKee's Trading Post, Halifax and Fort Hunter right near John Harris's ferry where there was a small stockade.
"Then there were the big forts that went west from Fort Carlisle to Fort Duquesne. There were Forts Morris, Loudoun, Lyttleton, Bedford, and Ligonier. These were run by the British government.
"You know, I should take you two little monkeys to Ligonier sometime and show you the fort there. The 77th was there with Colonel Bouquet in 1758 as they went west to take Fort Duquesne."
"Woweee, Dr. Uncle Mark! You sure know a lot about those forts," shouted the nephew and niece as they jumped up and down. "Let's go this summer to Ligonier!"
"Ok, Ok, my little buckeroos! We can do that. You know, we ought to go to Bushy Run, too. We could see the reenactment of the 1763 battle of Pontiac's Rebellion. It's held in August. All your cousins were there for that. Malcolm and Davey were with the 77th, Many Flags and Three Tales were scouts for the army, and Seamus.....well, he was along for the adventure! What say ye, my little fort snorts!"
"Yippee!", Hannah and Hiram shouted! "We're ready now! On to the forts. Huzzah and Pax Aye!"