the sole means of transport. Then, after seeding time, in the fall, the people of a neighborhood ordinarily joined in sending down a train of peltry-laden pack horses to some large seacoast or tidal-river trading town, where 5 their burdens were bartered for the needed iron and salt. The life of the backwoodsmen was one long struggle. The forest had to be felled; droughts, deep snows, freshets, cloudbursts, forest fires, and all the other dangers of a wilderness life faced. Swarms of deer-flies, mosquitoes, Io and midges rendered life a torment in the weeks of hot weather. Rattlesnakes and copperheads were very plentiful and the former, especially-constant sources of danger and death. Wolves and bears were incessant and inveterate foes of the live stock, and the cougar or panther 15 occasionally attacked man as well.

These armed hunters, woodchoppers, and farmers were their own soldiers. They built and manned their own forts; they did their own fighting under their own commanders. There were no regiments of regular troops 20 along the frontier. In the event of an Indian inroad each borderer had to defend himself until there was time for them all to gather together to repel or avenge it. Every man was accustomed to the use of arms from his childhood; when a boy was twelve years old he was given 25 a rifle and made a fort-soldier, with loophole where he was to stand if the station was attacked. The war was never-ending, for even the times of so-called peace were broken by forays and murders; a man might grow from babyhood to middle age on the border and yet never 30 remember a year in which some of his neighbors did not fall a victim to the Indians.

Thus the backwoodsmen lived on the clearings they had hewed out of the everlasting forest-a grim, stern

people, strong and simple, powerful for good and evil, swayed by gusts of stormy passion, the love of freedom rooted in their very hearts' core. Their lives were harsh and narrow; they gained their bread by their blood and sweat in the unending struggle with the wild ruggedness 5 of nature. They suffered terrible injuries at the hands of the red men, and on their foes they waged a terrible warfare in return. They were relentless, revengeful, suspicious, knowing neither ruth nor pity; they were also upright, resolute, and fearless, loyal to their friends, and 10 devoted to their country. In spite of their many failings they were of all men the best fitted to conquer the wilderness and hold it against all comers.

Resolved, That the country offers a boy better opportunities for enjoyment than the city offers,

2. Point out the significance of the following expressions:

a. Flintlock (rifle)

b. Backwoods delicacies

c. Sugar maple

3. Give examples of the following:

a. Athletic games

b. Barter

d. Regular troops

e. Everlasting forest

f. Handmade trenchers

c. Community work

d. Love of freedom

4. Explain the use of each of the following articles:

a. Sickle

d. Hand mill

b. Trencher

c. Harrow

e. Hominy block f. Loom

5. Name the most important articles of food used by the early backwoodsmen.

6. What tools did the frontiersmen find most useful?

7. Make a list of dishes and utensils used in the home. 8. State the most characteristic qualities developed in the backwoodsmen.

9. Make a list of ten articles now in common use in the home as necessities which were unknown to the early backwoodsmen.

SPECIAL ASSIGNMENTS

The following topics are suggested for talks or articles on interesting incidents of early local history. For material consult any available library books, or interview old residents.

1. Our first settlers.

2. How land was cleared.

3. The houses that were built.

4. Hardships of the pioneers.

5. How food and clothing were procured.
6. Early customs.

7. Dealings with Indians.

8. The first schools.

9. Observance of the Sabbath.

10. Interesting fragments of local history.

COLLATERAL READING

ROOSEVELT, Winning of the West; THOMPSON, Alice of Old Vincennes; PARKMAN, The Oregon Trail; STONE and FICKETT, Days and Deeds; DRAKE, Making of the Great West; EGGLESTON, Hoosier Schoolboy; GARLAND, Boy Life on the Prairie; GARLAND, Trail of the Gold Seekers; ROOSEVELT, Stories of the Great West; HOWELLS, A Boy's Town; LODGE and ROOSEVELT, Hero Tales from American History; SPARKS, The Men who made the Nation; STANLEY, The Backwoodsman; TOMLINSON, Three Colonial Boys; EGGLESTON, Life in the Eighteenth Century; GORDY, Colonial Days; CHURCHILL, The Crossing; COFFIN, Building the Nation; COOPER, Leatherstocking Tales; FISKE, Beginnings of New England; LAUT, Pathfinders of the West; BRADY, Northwestern Fights and Fighters; HOSMER, Expedition of Lewis and Clark.

RALPH CONNOR

It is one of the many limitations of a city-bred boy that he knows nothing of the life history and the culture of the things that grow upon a farm. Apples and potatoes he recognizes when they appear as articles of diet upon the 5 table; oats and wheat he vaguely associates in some mysterious and remote way with porridge and bread, but whether potatoes grow on trees or oats in pods he has no certain knowledge. Blessed is the country boy for many reasons, but for none more than this, that the world of 10 living and growing things, animate and inanimate, is one which he has explored and which he intimately knows; and blessed is the city boy for whom his wise parents provide means of acquaintance with this wonder workshop of old mother Nature, God's own open country.

15

Turnip-hoeing is an art, a fine art, demanding all the talents of high genius, a true eye, a sure hand, a sensitive conscience, industry, courage, endurance, and pride in achievement. These and other gifts are necessary to high success. Not to every man is it given to become a turnip20 hoer in the truest sense of that word. The art is achieved only after long and patient devotion, and, indeed, many never attain high excellence. Of course, therefore, there are grades of artists in this as in other departments. There are turnip-hoers and turnip-hoers, just as there 25 are painters and painters. It was Tim's ambition to be 1 From "Corporal Cameron."