Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans - Edward Eggleston
STORIES OF GREAT AMERICANS FOR LITTLE AMERICANS
BY
EDWARD EGGLESTON
AUTHOR OF "TRUE STORIES OF AMERICAN LIFE AND ADVENTURE"
"A FIRST BOOK IN AMERICAN HISTORY" AND "A HISTORY
OF THE UNITED STATES AND ITS PEOPLE FOR
THE USE OF SCHOOLS"
1895
PREFACE.
The primary aim of this book is to furnish the little learner reading
matter that will excite his attention and give him pleasure, and thus
make lighter the difficult task of learning to read. The ruggedness of
this task has often been increased by the use of disconnected
sentences, or lessons as dry and uninteresting as finger exercises on
the piano. It is a sign of promise that the demand for reading matter
of interest to the child has come from teachers. I have endeavored to
meet this requirement in the following stories.
As far as possible the words chosen have been such as are not
difficult to the little reader, either from their length or their
unfamiliarity. The sentences and paragraphs are short. Learning to
read is like climbing a steep hill, and it is a great relief to the
panting child to find frequent breathing places.
It is one of the purposes of these stories to make the mind of the
pupil familiar with some of the leading figures in the history of our
country by means of personal anecdote. Some of the stories are those
that every American child ought to know, because they have become a
kind of national folklore. Such, for example, are "Putnam and the
Wolf" and the story of "Franklin's Whistle." I have thought it
important to present as great a variety of subjects as possible, so
that the pupil may learn something not only of great warriors and
patriots, but also of great statesmen. The exploits of discoverers,
the triumphs of American inventors, and the achievements of men of
letters and men of science, find place in these stories. All the
narratives are historical, or at least no stories have been told for
true that are deemed fictitious. Every means which the writer's
literary experience could suggest has been used to make the stories
engaging, in the hope that the interest of the narrative may prove a
sufficient spur to exertion on the part of the pupil, and that this
little book will make green and pleasant a pathway that has so often
been dry and laborious. It will surely serve to excite an early
interest in our national history by giving some of the great
personages of that history a place among the heroes that impress the
susceptible imagination of a child. It is thus that biographical and
historical incidents acquire something of the vitality of folk tales.
The illustrations that accompany the text have been planned with
special reference to the awakening of the child's attention. To keep
the mind alert and at its best is more than half the battle in
teaching. The publishers and the author of this little book believe
that in laying the foundation of a child's education the best work is
none too good.
The larger words have been divided by hyphens when a separation into
syllables is likely to help the learner. The use of the hyphen has
been regulated entirely with a view to its utility. After a word not
too difficult has been made familiar by its repeated occurrence, the
hyphens are omitted.
CONTENTS.
The First Governor in Boston
Marquette in Iowa
Indian Pictures
William Penn and the Indians
One Little Bag of Rice
The Story of a Wise Woman
Franklin his own Teacher
How Franklin found out Things
Franklin asks the Sunshine something
Franklin and the Kite
Franklin's Whistle
Too much for the Whistle
John Stark and the Indians
A Great Good Man
Putnam and the Wolf
Washington and his Hatchet
How Benny West learned to be a Painter
Washington's Christmas Gift
How Washington got out of a Trap
Washington's Last Battle
Marion's Tower
Clark and his Men
Daniel Boone and his Grapevine Swing
Daniel Boone's Daughter and her Friends
Decatur and the Pirates
Stories about Jefferson
A Long Journey
Captain Clark's Burning Glass
Quicksilver Bob
The First Steamboat
Washington Irving as a Boy
Don't give up the Ship
Grandfather's Rhyme
The Star-spangled Banner
How Audubon came to know about Birds
Audubon in the Wild Woods
Hunting a Panther
Some Boys who became Authors
Daniel Webster and his Brother
Webster and the Poor Woman
The India-rubber Man
Doctor Kane in the Frozen Sea
A Dinner on the Ice
Doctor Kane gets out of the Frozen Sea
Longfellow as a Boy
Kit Carson and the Bears
Horace Greeley as a Boy
Horace Greeley learning to Print
A Wonderful Woman
The Author of "Little Women"
My Kingdom
A Song from the Suds
STORIES OF GREAT AMERICANS.
[Illustration: THE FIRST GOVERNOR IN BOSTON]
Before the white people came, there were no houses in this country but
the little huts of the In-di-ans. The In-di-an houses were made of
bark, or mats, or skins, spread over poles.
Some people came to one part of the country. Others started
set-tle-ments in other places. When more people came, some of these
set-tle-ments grew into towns. The woods were cut down. Farms were
planted. Roads were made. But it took many years for the country to
fill with people.
The first white people that came to live in the woods where Boston is
now, settled there a long time ago. They had a gov-ern-or over them.
He was a good man, and did much for the people. His name was John
Win-throp.
The first thing the people had to do was to cut down the trees. After
that they could plant corn. But at first they could not raise
any-thing to eat. They had brought flour and oat-meal from England.
But they found that it was not enough to last till they could raise
corn on their new ground.
Win-throp sent a ship to get more food for them. The ship was gone a
long time. The people ate up all their food. They were hungry. They
went to the sea-shore, and found clams and mussels. They were glad to
get these to eat.
At last they set a day for every-body to fast and pray for food. The
gov-ern-or had a little flour left. Nearly all of this was made into
bread, and put into the oven to bake. He did not know when he would
get any more.
Soon after this a poor man came along. His flour was all gone. His
bread had all been eaten up. His family were hungry. The gov-ern-or
gave the poor man the very last flour that he had in the barrel.
Just then a ship was seen. It sailed up toward Boston. It was loaded
with food for all the people.
The time for the fast day came. But there was now plenty of food. The
fast day was turned into a thanks-giving day.
One day a man sent a very cross letter to Gov-ern-or Win-throp.
Win-throp sent it back to him. He said, "I cannot keep a letter that
might make me angry." Then the man that had written the cross letter
wrote to Win-throp, "By con-quer-ing yourself, you have
con-quered me."
MARQUETTE IN IOWA.
The first white men to go into the middle of our country were
French-men. The French had settled in Can-a-da. They sent
mis-sion-a-ries to preach to the Indians in the West. They also sent
traders to buy furs from the Indians.
The French-men heard the Indians talk about a great river in the West.
But no French-man had ever gone far enough to see the Mis-sis-sip-pi.
Mar-quette was a priest. Jo-li-et was a trader. These two men were
sent to find the great river that the Indians talked about.
They trav-eled in two birch canoes. They took five men to paddle the
canoes. They took some smoked meat to eat on the way. They also took
some Indian corn. They had trinkets to trade to the Indians.
Hatchets, and beads, and bits of cloth were the money they used to pay
the Indians for what they wanted.
The friendly Indians in Wis-con-sin tried to per-suade them not to go.
They told them that the Indians on the great river would kill them.
The friendly Indians also told them that there was a demon in one part
of the river. They said that this demon roared so loud that he could
be heard a long way off. They said that the demon would draw the
trav-el-ers down into the water. Then they told about great monsters
that ate up men and their canoes.
But Mar-quette and the men with him thought they would risk the
journey. They would not turn back for fear of the demon or
the monsters.
The two little canoes went down the Wis-con-sin River. After some days
they came to the Mis-sis-sip-pi. More than a hundred years before, the
Spaniards had seen the lower part of this river. But no white man had
ever seen this part of the great river. Mar-quette did not know that
any white man had ever seen any part of the Mis-sis-sip-pi.
The two little canoes now turned their bows down the river. Some-times
they saw great herds of buf-fa-loes. Some of these came to the bank of
the river to look at the men in the canoes. They had long, shaggy
manes, which hung down over their eyes.
For two weeks the trav-el-ers paddled down the river. In all this time
they did not see any Indians. After they had gone hundreds of miles in
this way, they came to a place where they saw tracks in the mud. It
was in what is now the State of I-o-wa.
Mar-quette and Jo-li-et left the men in their canoes, and followed the
tracks. After walking two hours, they came to an Indian village. The
Frenchmen came near enough to hear the Indians talking. The Indians
did not see them.
Jo-li-et and Mar-quette did not know whether the Indians would kill
them or not. They said a short prayer. Then they stood out in full
view, and gave a loud shout.
The Indians came out of their tents like bees. They stared at the
strangers. Then four Indians came toward them. These Indians carried a
peace pipe. They held this up toward the sun. This meant that they
were friendly.
The Indians now offered the peace pipe to the French-men. The
French-men took it, and smoked with the Indians. This was the Indian
way of saying, "We are friends."
[Illustration: Marquette and Joliet]
Mar-quette asked the Indians what tribe they belonged to.
They told him that they were of the tribe called the Il-li-nois.
They took Jo-li-et and Mar-quette into their village. They came to the
door of a large wig-wam. A chief stood in the door. He shaded his eyes
with both hands, as if the sun were shining in his face. Then he made
a little speech.
He said, "French-men, how bright the sun shines when you come to see
us! We are all waiting for you. You shall now come into our houses
in peace."
The Il-li-nois Indians made a feast for their new friends. First they
had mush of corn meal, with fat meat in it. One of the Indians fed the
Frenchmen as though they were babies. He put mush into their mouths
with a large spoon.
Then came some fish. The Indian that fed the vis-it-ors picked out the
bones with his fingers. Then he put the pieces of fish into their
mouths. After they had some roasted dog. The French-men did not like
this. Last, they were fed with buf-fa-lo meat.
The next morning six hundred Indians went to the canoes to tell the
Frenchmen good-by. They gave Mar-quette a young Indian slave. And they
gave him a peace pipe to carry with him.
INDIAN PICTURES.
When Mar-quette and his men left the Il-li-nois, they went on down the
river. The friendly Il-li-nois had told them that the Indians they
would see were bad, and that they would kill any one who came into
their country.
The Frenchmen had heard before this that there were demons and
monsters in the river. One day they saw some high rocks with pictures
painted on them. The ugly pictures made them think of these monsters.
They were painted in red, black, and green colors. They were pictures
of two Indian demons or gods.
Each one of these monsters was about the size of a calf. They had
horns as long as those of a deer. Their eyes were red. Their faces
were like a man's, but they were ugly and frightful. They had beards
like a tiger's. Their bodies were covered with scales like those on a
fish. Their long tails were wound round their bodies, and over their
heads, and down between their legs. The end of each tail was like that
of a fish.
The Indians prayed to these ugly gods when they passed in their
canoes. Even Mar-quette and his men were a little frightened when they
saw such pictures in a place so lonely. The Frenchmen went down the
river about twelve hundred miles. Some-times the Indians tried to kill
them, but by showing the peace pipe they made friends. At last they
turned back. Jo-li-et went to Can-a-da. Mar-quette preached to the
Indians in the West till he died.
WILLIAM PENN AND THE INDIANS.
The King of England gave all the land in Penn-syl-va-ni-a to William
Penn. The King made Penn a kind of king over Penn-syl-va-ni-a. Penn
could make the laws of this new country. But he let the people make
their own laws.
Penn wanted to be friendly with the Indians. He paid them for all the
land his people wanted to live on. Before he went to Penn-syl-va-ni-a
he wrote a letter to the Indians. He told them in this letter that he
would not let any of his people do any harm to the Indians. He said he
would punish any-body that did any wrong to an Indian. This letter was
read to the Indians in their own lan-guage.
Soon after this Penn got into a ship and sailed from England. He
sailed to Penn-syl-va-ni-a. When he came there, he sent word to the
tribes of Indians to come to meet him.
The Indians met under a great elm tree on the bank of the river.
Indians like to hold their solemn meetings out of doors. They sit on
the ground. They say that the earth is the Indian's mother.
When Penn came to the place of meeting, he found the woods full of
Indians. As far as he could see, there were crowds of Indians. Penn's
friends were few. They had no guns.
Penn had a bright blue sash round his waist. One of the Indian chiefs,
who was the great chief, put on a kind of cap or crown. In the middle
of this was a small horn. The head chief wore this only at such great
meetings as this one.
When the great chief had put on his horn, all the other chiefs and
great men of the Indians put down their guns. Then they sat down in
front of Penn in the form of a half-moon. Then the great chief told
Penn that the Indians were ready to hear what he had to say.
Penn had a large paper in which he had written all the things that he
and his friends had promised to the Indians. He had written all the
promises that the Indians were to make to the white people. This was
to make them friends. When Penn had read this to them, it was
explained to them in their own lan-guage. Penn told them that they
might stay in the country that they had sold to the white people. The
land would belong to both the Indians and the white people.
Then Penn laid the large paper down on the ground. That was to show
them, he said, that the ground was to belong to the Indians and the
white people to-geth-er.
He said that there might be quarrels between some of the white people
and some of the Indians. But they would settle any quarrels without
fighting. When-ever there should be a quarrel, the Indians were to
pick out six Indians. The white people should also pick out six of
their men. These were to meet, and settle the quarrel.
Penn said, "I will not call you my children, because fathers
some-times whip their children. I will not call you brothers, because
brothers sometimes fall out. But I will call you the same person as
the white people. We are the two parts of the same body."
The Indians could not write. But they had their way of putting down
things that they wished to have re-mem-bered. They gave Penn a belt of
shell beads. These beads are called wam-pum. Some wam-pum is white.
Some is purple.
They made this belt for Penn of white beads. In the middle of the belt
they made a picture of purple beads. It is a picture of a white man
and an Indian. They have hold of each other's hands. When they gave
this belt to Penn, they said, "We will live with William Penn and his
children as long as the sun and moon shall last."
[Illustration: Penn jumping with the Indians.]
Penn took up the great paper from the ground. He handed it to the
great chief that wore the horn on his head. He told the Indians to
keep it and hand it to their children's children, that they might know
what he had said. Then he gave them many presents of such things as
they liked. They gave Penn a name in their own language. They named
him "O-nas." That was their word for a feather. As the white people
used a pen made out of a quill or feather, they called a pen "o-nas."
That is why they called William Penn "Brother O-nas."
Penn sometimes went to see the Indians. He talked to them, and gave
them friendly advice. Once he saw some of them jumping. They were
trying to see who could jump the farthest.
Penn had been a very active boy. He knew how to jump very well. He
went to the place where the Indians were jumping. He jumped farther
than any of them.
When the great gov-ern-or took part in their sport, the Indians were
pleased. They loved Brother O-nas more than ever.
ONE LITTLE BAG OF RICE
The first white people that came to this country hardly knew how to
get their living here. They did not know what would grow best in
this country.
Many of the white people learned to hunt. All the land was covered
with trees. In the woods were many animals whose flesh was good to
eat. There were deer, and bears, and great shaggy buf-fa-loes. There
were rabbits and squirrels. And there were many kinds of birds. The
hunters shot wild ducks, wild turkeys, wild geese, and pigeons. The
people also caught many fishes out of the rivers.
Then there were animals with fur on their backs. The people killed
these and sold their skins. In this way many made their living.
Other people spent their time in cutting down the trees. They sawed
the trees into timbers and boards. Some of it they split into staves
to make barrels. They sent the staves and other sorts of timber to
other countries to be sold. In South Car-o-li-na men made tar and
pitch out of the pine trees.
But there was a wise man in South Car-o-li-na. He was one of those men
that find out better ways of doing. His name was Thomas Smith.
Thomas Smith had once lived in a large island thousands of miles away
from South Car-o-li-na. In that island he had seen the people raising
rice. He saw that it was planted in wet ground. He said that he would
like to try it in South Car-o-li-na. But he could not get any seed
rice to plant. The rice that people eat is not fit to sow.
One day a ship came to Charles-ton, where Thomas Smith lived. It had
been driven there by storms. The ship came from the large island
where Smith had seen rice grow. The captain of this ship was an old
friend of Smith.
The two old friends met once more. Thomas Smith told the captain that
he wanted some rice for seed. The captain called the cook of his ship,
and asked him if he had any. The cook had one little bag of seed rice.
The captain gave this to his friend.
There was some wet ground at the back of Smith's garden. In this wet
ground he sowed some of the rice. It grew finely.
He gathered a good deal of rice in his garden that year. He gave part
of this to his friends. They all sowed it. The next year there was a
great deal of rice.
After a while the wet land in South Car-o-li-na was turned to rice
fields. Every year many thousands of barrels of rice were sent away
to be sold.
All this came from one little bag of rice and one wise man.
[Illustration: Rice Plant.]
THE STORY OF A WISE WOMAN.
You have read how Thomas Smith first raised rice in Car-o-li-na. After
his death there lived in South Car-o-li-na a wise young woman. She
showed the people how to raise another plant. Her name was
Eliza Lucas.
The father of Miss Lucas did not live in Car-o-li-na. He was
gov-ern-or of one of the islands of the West Indies. Miss Lucas was
fond of trying new things. She often got seeds from her father. These
she planted in South Carolina.
Her father sent her some seeds of the in-di-go plant. She sowed some
of these in March. But there came a frost. The in-di-go plant cannot
stand frost. Her plants all died.
But Miss Lucas did not give up. She sowed some more seeds in April.
These grew very well until a cut-worm found them. The worm wished to
try new things, too. So he ate off the in-di-go plants.
But Miss Lucas was one of the people who try, try again. She had lost
her indigo plants twice. Once more she sowed some of the seed. This
time the plants grew very well.
Miss Lucas wrote to her father about it. He sent her a man who knew
how to get the indigo out of the plant.
The man tried not to show Miss Lucas how to make the indigo. He did
not wish the people in South Carolina to learn how to make it. He was
afraid his own people would not get so much for their indigo.
So he would not explain just how it ought to be done. He spoiled the
indigo on purpose.
But Miss Lucas watched him closely. She found out how the indigo ought
to be made. Some of her father's land in South Carolina was now
planted with the indigo plants.
[Illustration: Indigo Plant.]
Then Miss Lucas was married. She became Mrs. Pinck-ney. Her father
gave her all the indigo growing on his land in South Carolina. It was
all saved for seed. Some of the seed Mrs. Pinck-ney gave to her
friends. Some of it her husband sowed. It all grew, and was made into
that blue dye that we call indigo. When it is used in washing clothes,
it is called bluing.
In a few years, more than a million pounds of indigo were made in
South Carolina every year. Many people got rich by it. And it was all
because Miss Lucas did not give up.
FRANKLIN HIS OWN TEACHER.
Few people ever knew so many things as Franklin. Men said, "How did he
ever learn so many things?" For he had been a poor boy who had to work
for a living. He could not go to school at all after he was ten
years old.
His father made soap and candles. Little Ben Frank-lin had to cut
wicks for the candles. He also filled the candle molds. And he sold
soap and candles, and ran on errands. But when he was not at work he
spent his time in reading good books. What little money he got he used
to buy books with.
He read the old story of "Pil-grim's Prog-ress," and liked it so well
that he bought all the other stories by the same man. But as he wanted
more books, and had not money to buy them, he sold all of these
books. The next he bought were some little his-to-ry books. These were
made to sell very cheap, and they were sold by peddlers. He managed to
buy forty or fifty of these little books of his-to-ry.
Another way that he had of learning was by seeing things with his own
eyes. His father took him to see car-pen-ters at work with their saws
and planes. He also saw masons laying bricks. And he went to see men
making brass and copper kettles. And he saw a man with a turning lathe
making the round legs of chairs. Other men were at work making knives.
Some things people learn out of books, and some things they have to
see for them-selves.
As he was fond of books, Ben's father thought that it would be a good
plan to send him to learn to print them. So the boy went to work in
his brother's printing office. Here he passed his spare time in
reading. He borrowed some books out of the stores where books were
sold. He would sit up a great part of the night sometimes to read one
of these books. He wished to return it when the book-store opened in
the morning. One man who had many books lent to Ben such of his books
as he wanted.
It was part of the bargain that Ben's brother should pay his board.
The boy offered to board himself if his brother would give him half
what it cost to pay for his board.
[Illustration: Franklin at Study.]
His brother was glad to do this, and Ben saved part of the money and
bought books with it. He was a healthy boy, and it did not hurt him
to live mostly on bread and butter. Sometimes he bought a little pie
or a handful of raisins.
Long before he was a man, people said, "How much the boy knows!" This
was because--
He did not waste his time.
He read good books.
He saw things for himself.
HOW FRANKLIN FOUND OUT THINGS.
Frank-lin thought that ants know how to tell things to one another. He
thought that they talk by some kind of signs. When an ant has found a
dead fly too big for him to drag away, he will run off and get some
other ant to help him. Frank-lin thought that ants have some way of
telling other ants that there is work to do.
One day he found some ants eating mo-las-ses out of a little jar in a
closet. He shook them out. Then he tied a string to the jar, and hung
it on a nail in the ceiling. But he had not got all the ants out of
the jar. One little ant liked sweet things so well that he staid in
the jar, and kept on eating like a greedy boy.
[Illustration: Ants talking (magnified)]
At last when this greedy ant had eaten all that he could, he started
to go home. Frank-lin saw him climb over the rim of the jar. Then the
ant ran down the outside of the jar. But when he got to the bottom, he
did not find any shelf there. He went all round the jar. There was no
way to get down to the floor. The ant ran this way and that way, but
he could not get down.