Part 6

If you had gone into this school some day, you might have seen a boy sitting on a punishment bench, all alone. This was a fellow who had told a lie or used bad language. 20 He was put there as not fit to sit near anybody else. If he committed the offense often, a yoke would be put round his neck, as if he were a brute. Sometimes, however, the teacher would give the scholars their choice of a blow on the hand or a seat on the punishment bench. They usually 25 preferred the blow.

The old schoolmaster in Skippack wrote one hundred rules of good behavior for his scholars. This is perhaps the first book on good manners written in America. But rules of behavior for people living in houses of one or two rooms, 30 as they did in that day, were very different from those needed in our time. Here are some of the rules:

"When you comb your hair, do not go out in the middle of the room," says the schoolmaster. This was because families were accustomed to eat and sleep in the same room.

"Do not eat your morning bread on the road or in school," he tells them, "but ask your parents to give it to you at 5 home." From this we see that the common breakfast was bread alone, and that the children often ate it as they walked to school.

"Put your knife upon the right and your bread on the left side," he says. Forks were little used in those days, 10 and the people in the country did not have any. He also tells them not to throw bones under the table. It was a common practice among some people of that time to throw bones and scraps under the table, where the dogs ate them.

As time passed on, Christopher Dock had many friends, 15 for all his scholars of former years loved him greatly. He lived to be very old, and taught his schools to the last. One evening he did not come home, and the people went to look for the beloved old man. They found their dear old master on his knees in the schoolhouse. He had died 20 while praying alone.

--_Stories of American Life and Adventure._

1. How was Christopher Dock's school different from most pioneer schools of that day?

2. How did he teach good behavior? What inducements were offered for scholarship? You often hear people say that only the "three R's" were taught when they went to school. What do they mean?

3. What information about pioneer home life does this article give you?

4. You will be interested to know that the pupils in the early schools studied their reading aloud at the top of their voices. They learned reading by singing "ab," "ba," etc. Later, when geography was taught, the capitals of the states were sung.

FRENCH LIFE IN THE NORTHWEST

BY JAMES BALDWIN

You will recall that the French explorers Marquette, Joliet, La Salle, and others established missions and trading posts in the Illinois country. It was due to these early explorations that the French got control of a large part of the Northwest Territory.

The following narrative tells of the simple life of the French settlers in that territory.

It is interesting to learn how the French people in the Illinois country lived in friendship with the savage tribes around them. The settlements were usually small villages on the edge of a prairie or in the heart of the woods. They were always near the bank of a river; for the watercourses 5 were the only roads and the light canoes of the _voyageurs_ were the only means of travel. There the French settlers lived like one great family, having for their rulers the village priest and the older men of the community.

The houses were built along a single narrow street and so 10 close together that the villagers could carry on their neighborly gossip each from his own doorstep. These houses were made of a rude framework of corner posts, studs, and crossties, and were plastered, outside and in, with "cat and clay"--a kind of mortar, made of mud and 15 mixed with straw and moss. Around each house was a picket fence, and the forms of the dooryards and gardens were regulated by the village lawgivers.

Adjoining the village was a large inclosure, or "common field," for the free use of all the villagers. The size of 20 this field depended upon the number of families in the settlement; it sometimes contained several hundred acres. It was divided into plots or allotments, one for each household, and the size of the plot was proportioned according to the number of persons in the family. Each household 5 attended to the cultivation of its own ground and gathered its own harvest. And if anyone should neglect to care for his plot and let it become overgrown with weeds and thistles, he forfeited his right to any part of the common field and his ground was given to another. 10

Surrounding the common field was a large tract of cleared land that was used as a common pasture ground. In some cases there were thousands of acres in this tract, and yet no person was allowed to use any part of it except for the pasturage of his stock. When a new family came 15 into the settlement or a newly married couple began housekeeping, a small part of the pasture ground was taken into the common field, in order to give the new household its proper allotment.

The priest occupied the place of father to all the villagers, 20 whether white or red. They confided all their troubles to him. He was their oracle in matters of learning as well as of religion. They obeyed his word as law.

The great business of all was fur trading and the care of their little plots of ground. The women kept their homes 25 in order, tended their gardens, and helped with the plowing and the harvesting. The men were the protectors of the community. Some were soldiers, some were traders, but most were engaged in hunting and in gathering beaver skins and buffalo hides to be sold to the traders. 30

The traders kept a small stock of French goods--laces, ribbons, and other articles, useful and ornamental--and these they exchanged for the products of the forest. The young men, as a rule, sought business and pleasure in the great woods. Some of them became _voyageurs_, or boatmen, in the service of the traders. In their light canoes they explored every rivulet and stream and visited the distant 5 tribes among the sources of the Mississippi and Missouri. Others took to the forest as woods rangers, or _coureurs de bois_, and became almost as wild as the Indians themselves. They wandered wherever their fancy led them, hunting game, trapping beavers, and trading with their dusky 10 friends. Those who roamed in the Lake regions built here and there small forts of logs and surrounded them with palisades. In one of these forts a company of two or three _coureurs_ would remain for a few weeks and then leave it to be occupied by anyone who might next come that way. 15 A post of this kind was built at Detroit long before any permanent settlement was made there; and scattered long distances apart on the Lake shore and in the heart of the wilderness, were many others.

The northern _coureurs_, when returning from the woods, 20 resorted to Mackinac as their headquarters; or loaded with beaver skins they made their way to Montreal, where they conducted themselves in a manner that would have shamed a Mohawk or a Sioux. But the rangers of the Illinois country were in the habit of returning once 25 each year to their village homes. There they were welcomed with joy, balls and festivals were given in their honor, and old and young gathered around them to hear the story of their adventures.

Thus in the heart of the wilderness, these French settlers 30 passed their lives in the enjoyment of unbounded freedom. They delighted in amusements and there were almost as many holidays as working days. Being a thousand miles from any center of civilization they knew but little of what was taking place in the world. In their hearts they were devoted to their mother country; they believed that "France ruled the world and therefore all must be right." 5 Further than this they troubled themselves but little. They were contented and happy and seldom allowed themselves to be annoyed by the perplexing cares of business.

They had no wish to subdue the wilderness--to hew 10 down the forest, and make farms, and build roads, and bring civilization to their doors. To do this would be to change the modes of living that were so dear to them. It would destroy the fur trade, and then what would become of the traders, the _voyageurs_, and the _coureurs 15 de bois_? These French settlers were not the kind of people to found colonies and build empires.

We are indebted to Father Marest for a description of the daily routine of life among the converts and French settlers at Kaskaskia. At early dawn his pupils came to 20 him in the church, where they had prayers and all joined in singing hymns. Then the Christians in the village met together to hear him say Mass--the women standing on one side of the room, the men on the other.

The French women were dressed in prettily colored 25 jackets and short gowns of homemade woolen stuffs or of French goods of finer texture. In summer most of them were barefooted, but in winter and on holidays they wore Indian moccasins gayly decorated with porcupine quills, shells, and colored beads. Instead of hats they wore 30 bright-colored handkerchiefs, interlaced with gay ribbons and sometimes wreathed with flowers.

The men wore long vests drawn over their shirts, leggings of buckskin or of coarse woolen cloth, and wooden clog shoes or moccasins of heavy leather. In winter they wrapped themselves in long overcoats with capes and hoods that could be drawn over their heads and thus serve for 5 hats. In summer their heads were covered with blue handkerchiefs worn turbanlike as a protection from mosquitoes as well as from the rays of the sun.

After the morning devotions were over, each person betook himself to whatever business or amusement was 10 most necessary or congenial; and the priest went out to visit the sick, giving them medicine and consoling them in whatever way he could. In the afternoon those who chose to do so came again to the church to be taught the catechism. During the rest of the day the priest walked about 15 the village, talking with old and young and entering into sympathy with all their hopes and plans. In the evening the people would meet together again to chant the hymns of the church. This daily round of duty and devotion was often varied by the coming of holidays and festivals 20 and sometimes by occurrences of a sadder nature--death, or misfortune, or the threatened invasion of savage foes.

--_The Discovery of the Old Northwest._

1. Contrast the life of these French communities with the life of the Dutch settlers as described in pages 70-72. How did it differ from pioneer life in Ohio (pages 62-67)?

2. Why did the French communities not make progress? Why did the English colonists finally overcome them?

3. Longfellow's _Evangeline_ describes French life in Nova Scotia. If you have read it, tell your classmates how Evangeline lived.

4. Find from your histories what parts of North America were settled by the French. What parts of it are still peopled largely by French?

A BEAR STORY

BY MAURICE THOMPSON

Not the least of the perils of the pioneers were the wild animals of the forest. Bears, wolves, and panthers were the worst terrors. Mothers were in constant fear of their children straying away from the cabin into the woods where four-footed danger lurked.

A man and his wife with three children--a boy aged nine and two little girls, the elder seven and the younger five years old--lived in a comfortable cabin not far from the eastern line of Indiana. Their nearest neighbor was six or seven miles distant, and all around their little clearing 5 stood a wall of dense forest. The father tended a small field of corn and vegetables, but their main dependence for food was upon the game killed by him, so he was often absent all day in the woods, hunting deer and turkeys.

The children were forbidden to go outside the inclosure 10 while their father was away, and the mother, at the slightest hint of danger, was instructed to close the door and bar it and shut the portholes. But even in times of such danger, people grew careless and permitted themselves to take risks in a way quite incredible to our minds. Children 15 were restless when confined to a cabin or within a small yard, when the green woods were but a few steps away, with flowers blooming and rich mosses growing all around. They constantly longed to be free, if only for a few moments, to wander at will and make playhouses in the dusky shade, 20 to climb upon the great logs and watch the gay-winged birds flit about in the foliage on high.

One day in early spring the father went to the woods to hunt. Before setting forth with his rifle on his shoulder, he particularly charged his wife not to permit the children, no matter how much they begged and cried for it, to go outside the yard. 5

"At this time of the year," he said, "bears and all other wild beasts are cross. They wander everywhere and are very dangerous when met with. Watch the children."

The wife did try faithfully to keep her eyes upon her darlings; but she had many household duties to perform, 10 and so at last she forgot.

The spring was very early that year, and although it was not yet May, the green tassels were on the maples and the wild flowers made the ground gay in places. All around the clearing ran a ripple of bird song. The sunshine was 15 dreamy, the wind soft and warm.

The little boy felt the temptation. It was as if a sweet voice called him to the wood. Nor were the little girls less attracted than he by the thought of gathering mosses and flowers and running at will under the high old trees. 20

Before their mother knew it, they were gone. She had not yet discovered their truancy when a cry coming from some distance startled her; it was her little boy's voice screaming lustily, and upon looking out she saw all three of the children running as fast as they could across the 25 clearing from the wood toward the house. Behind them, at a slow, peculiar lope, a huge bear followed.

Frightened almost to death, the poor woman scarcely knew what she was doing; but she had the fighting instinct of all backwoods people, and her first motion was to snatch 30 off the wall, where it lay in a deer's-horn rest, a large horse pistol. With this in hand she ran to meet her children. Some hunter had broken the bear's fore leg with a bullet a few days before, which accounted for its strange, waddling gait; but it was almost within reach of the hindmost child when the mother arrived. The bear at once turned its attention to the newcomer, and with a terrific snarl rushed 5 at her. On sped the children, screaming and crazy with fright. It was a moment of imminent peril to the mother, but she was equal to the occasion. She leveled the pistol and fired. Six leaden slugs struck the bear in the head and neck, knocking it over. 10

Not very far away in the woods at the time, the man heard the loud report, and fearing that Indians were murdering his family, he ran home to find his wife just reviving from a swoon. She had fainted immediately after seeing the effect of her shot. 15

The bear was not yet dead, but a ball from the rifle finished him. He was a monster in size. Doubtless the wound in his fore leg had made it difficult for him to get food, and he had attacked the children on account of sheer hunger. But had he not been in that maimed condition, 20 his attack would have been successful and the hindmost child would have been torn to pieces and eaten up in the shortest time and with little show of table manners.

--_Stories of Indiana._

1. There must be in your community some older person who knows stories of the pioneer days. Ask your teacher to have him tell your class about the life of an earlier day.

2. What other bear stories have you read or heard?

3. Maurice Thompson (1844-1901) knew life in the Middle West at first hand. His home was in Indiana. He was the author of several stories, his widest-read novel being _Alice of Old Vincennes_.

A PATRIOT OF GEORGIA

BY JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS

Many of the most interesting incidents of the Revolutionary War are buried in old state documents, in family records, or in stray personal letters. Others are largely traditional; for our ancestors of pioneer days were doers rather than chroniclers of their doings.

The following event is largely legendary, but none the less true. It is dramatically told here by the author of the Uncle Remus stories.

The Revolutionary War in Georgia developed some very romantic figures, which are known to us rather by tradition than by recorded history. First among them, on the side of the patriots, was Robert Sallette. Neither history nor tradition gives us the place of his birth or the 5 date of his death; yet it is known that he played a more important part in the struggle in the colony than any man who had no troops at his command. He seems to have slipped mysteriously on the scene at the beginning of the war. He fought bravely, even fiercely, to the end; and 10 then, having nothing else to do, slipped away as mysteriously as he came.

Curious as we may be to know something of the personal history of Robert Sallette, it is not to be found chronicled in the books. The French twist to his name makes it 15 probable that he was a descendant of those unfortunate Acadians who, years before, had been stripped of their lands and possessions in Nova Scotia by the British, their houses and barns burned, and they themselves transported away from their homes. They were scattered at various 20 points along the American coast. Some were landed at Philadelphia, and some were carried to Louisiana. Four hundred were sent to Georgia. The British had many acts of cruelty to answer for in those days, but none more infamous than this treatment of the gentle and helpless 5 Acadians. It stands in history to-day a stain upon the British name.

Another fact that leads to the belief that Robert Sallette was a descendant of the unfortunate Acadians was the ferocity with which he pursued the British and the Tories. 10 The little that is told about him makes it certain that he never gave quarter to the enemies of his country.

His name was a terror to the Tories. One of them, a man of considerable means, offered a reward of one hundred guineas to any person who would bring him the head of 15 Robert Sallette. The Tory had never seen Sallette, but his alarm was such that he offered a reward large enough to tempt some one to assassinate the daring partisan. When Sallette heard of the reward, he disguised himself as a farmer, and provided himself with a pumpkin, which 20 he placed in a bag. With the bag swinging across his shoulder, he made his way to the house of the Tory. He was invited in, and deposited the bag on the floor beside him, the pumpkin striking the boards with a thump.

"I have brought you the head of Robert Sallette," said 25 he. "I hear that you have offered a reward of one hundred guineas for it."

"Where is it?" asked the Tory.

"I have it with me," replied Sallette, shaking the loose end of the bag. "Count out the money and take the head." 30

The Tory, neither doubting nor suspecting, counted out the money and placed it on the table.

"Now show me the head," said he.

Sallette removed his hat, tapped himself on the forehead, and said, "Here is the head of Robert Sallette!"

The Tory was so frightened that he jumped from the room, and Sallette pocketed the money and departed. 5

1. Who was Sallette? What guess does the author make as to his nationality? Why?

2. Relate the incident told.

3. Explain the meaning of: Tory, Acadians, chronicled, "never gave quarter," assassinate, partisan.

4. Joel Chandler Harris (1848-1908) was born, and spent most of his life, in Georgia. For many years he was editor of _The Atlanta Constitution_. You are doubtless acquainted with his charming Uncle Remus stories.

SONG OF THE PIONEERS

BY W. D. GALLAGHER

A song for the early times out West, And our green old forest home, Whose pleasant memories freshly yet Across the bosom come; A song for the free and gladsome life, 5 In those early days we led, With a teeming soil beneath our feet, And a smiling heaven o'erhead! Oh, the waves of life danced merrily, And had a joyous flow, 10 In the days when we were pioneers, Seventy years ago!

The hunt, the shot, the glorious chase, The captured elk or deer; The camp, the big, bright fire, and then The rich and wholesome cheer: The sweet, sound sleep, at dead of night, 5 By our camp fire, blazing high, Unbroken by the wolf's long howl, And the panther springing by. Oh, merrily passed the time, despite Our wily Indian foe, 10 In the days when we were pioneers, Seventy years ago!

Our forest life was rough and rude, And dangers closed us round; But here, amid the green old trees, 15 Freedom was sought and found. Oft through our dwellings wintry blasts Would rush with shriek and moan; We cared not--though they were but frail, We felt they were our own! 20 Oh, free and manly lives we led, 'Mid verdure or 'mid snow, In the days when we were pioneers, Seventy years ago!

1. In your own community how many years past are the days of pioneering?

2. What pleasant things about pioneer life does the author recall?

3. Imagine that you are a pioneer man or woman. Tell what one day of your life is like.

_SPECIAL DAYS_

_There come days in the lives of men, of nations, of races, and in the life of civilization itself which are of such conspicuous importance that they are set apart from the ordinary run of days and the events they stand for are duly remembered each recurring year on the proper date. Birthdays, religious feast days, days of battle--many are the occasions commemorated. The value to us of such special days is in their observance--that we dedicate ourselves to the spirit they perpetuate._

[Illustration: WASHINGTON'S GREATEST BATTLE

(_See page 116_)]

COLUMBUS AND THE ECLIPSE

BY JAMES JOHONNOT