Ned in the block-house

As a child growing up in Broken Hill, an isolated mining centre in inland NSW, Australia, I was a passionate reader, so much so that I had my own library. I read my books over and over which was the reason I had such a firm grip on English and history and always was top of my class in both subjects throughout primary and secondary school. Ned In The Blockhouse was one of my first books, certainly the first in an almost complete (?) series I had on Edward Sylvester Ellis's work. Ned was a young American backwoodsman who befriended an Indian by the name of Deerfoot. Deerfoot was the hero of several of my other books including Deerfoot In The Mountains.