Page:Barbour--Metipoms Hostage.djvu/19

Rh possessed more of an education than was common in those days for a boy of his position. It may be said of Obid that he was a better farmer than teacher and a better cook  than either!

It was a lonely life that David led. although he was never lonesome. There was work and study always, and play at times. His play was hunting and fishing and fashioning things with the few rude tools at hand. Of hunting there was plenty, for at that time and for many years later eastern Massachusetts abounded in animals and birds valuable  for food as well as many others sought for  pelt or plumage. Red deer were plentiful, and beyond the Sudbury Marshes only the  winter before some of the Natick Indians  had slain a moose of gigantic size. Wolves caused much trouble to those who kept cattle  or sheep, and in Dedham a bounty of ten  shillings had lately been offered for such as  were killed within the town. Foxes, both red and gray, raccoons, porcupines, woodchucks,  and rabbits were numerous, while the ponds  and streams supplied beavers, muskrats, and  otters. Bears there were, as well, and sometimes panthers; and many lynxes and martens. Turkeys, grouse, and pigeons were