Page:Messages and Letters of William Henry Harrison Vol. 1.djvu/93

Rh  labor. It is necessary that the grain should be deposited in the earth, and the intruding beasts kept off and noxious weeds destroyed; the munificent Deity performs the rest. He sends the rain and the dew to fertilize the soil and give vigor to the tender plants, and causes the sun to ripen and perfect the fruit.

There is nothing so pleasing to God as to see his children employed in the cultivation of the earth. He gave command to our ancestors to increase and multiply until the whole earth should be filled with inhabitants. But you must be sensible my Children that this command could not be obeyed if we were all to depend upon the chase for our subsistence. It requires an immense extent of country to supply a very few hunters with food, and the labor and fatigue which the wives of hunters undergo and their constant exposure to the inclemency of the seasons make the raising of a very few children a matter of the greatest difiiculty.

My Children, you may perhaps think that the plan I have recommended is too difilcult to be effected; but you may depend upon it that with the proper exertions on your part there is no doubt of its success. The experiment has been fairly tried with your brothers the Creeks and Cherokees. Many individuals of the former have herds of cattle consisting of some hundreds together with an abundance of corn and vegetables. This has had a most happy effect on their population and all their wigwams are already filled with children.

At any rate let me entreat you to make the experiment, for the sake of the rising generation; although it may be difficult for an old man to change entirely the mode of life in which he has been brought up, with children it is otherwise; they can be formed to any thing, can be made to assume any shape like the young shoots of the willow or the tender branches of the vine.