Note 206 — XIX THE SETTLERS FLEE FROM SPRINGFIELD

One version of the flight of these refugees tells us that Smith and Henderson were not, at first, left behind but were taken for some distance on hand sleds. This proved impracticable and the men were abandoned. Miss Agnes C. Laut has this plainly in mind when she refers to Mrs. Smith as the “one dame, who abandoned an injured husband on a hand sleigh” and hence does not need to “be preserved as a heroine of the West.” This, however, is unfair to Mrs. Smith.—See Miss Laut’s Heroines of Spirit Lake in the Outing Magazine, Vol. LI, p. 692.