Page:How and Why Library 040.jpg

34

It was a cold morning in mid-winter, one hundred years ago. Around the little log cabin the snow lay deep among the stumps of trees in the clearing. A zig-zag fence of rails was around the field and the cabin. Blue smoke rose from the chimney of sticks and clay. You could easily have gone into the cabin because there was no door. A buffalo robe was hung before the doorway for a curtain. Wild beasts from the forest—bears and wolves and wildcats—could have gone in, too, but wild animals will not go near a fire. A big fire of logs burned in the fire-place.

What a wretched place to live! It was not much better than an Indian wigwam. The fire was the only splendid thing in the cabin. No, another beautiful thing was there. It was a pale young mother with a new baby. They lay on a bed of corn husks. It was raised from the floor on a frame work of poles. Over the mother and baby was a bear skin to keep them warm. The mother was not strong, but she was brave and sweet. She was glad the baby boy was big and strong, for he would have to work hard.

Presently, they had a visitor. It was a ten year old boy. His cheeks were red with the cold, and he was out of breath. He had run two miles, through the woods, to see the new baby. There were more wild-cats than babies in the woods of Kentucky. Besides, this baby was his cousin. He said that he was "tickled to death" to have a boy cousin. The boy was dressed in yellow deer-skin like an Indian. He wore moccasins, and a coon-skin cap with the tail hanging to his neck. A woman came and dressed the baby in yellow flannel and tow linen. She cooked some hominy and deer meat. She stewed some dried blackberries in wild honey. Then she went back to her own cabin, miles away through the woods. The boy stayed. At night he rolled up in a bear skin and slept by the fire place. The father went hunting so they could all have food.

Little boys had to grow up very fast in the back woods of Kentucky. When this baby was five years old he could catch fish, set traps for rabbits, get wood for his mother, and drop corn in the furrows, behind his father's plow. He went on coon hunts with men and dogs. He followed flying bees and found their honey in hollow trees. His father was a good carpenter, but nobody had