Page:The Poets and Poetry of the West.djvu/106

 90 OTAV AY CURRY. [1830-40. ling hair, as if driven. The family, concluding that Indians wei'e near, prepared to fight as well as pray. The old lady, in marshaling her forces, stationed young Otway at the bars, and placing a loaded gun upon a rest, charged him to take aim and lire as soon as he saw an Indian. Fortunately, there was no attack made upon the domestic fort. As the young poet grew up he began to read the books of his father's library, which, though very small, was very choice, consisting of the writings of Milton, Locke, and other great minds. Before he attained majority he had an opportunity of attend- ing a school of improved character. There lived in the neighborhood of Pleasant Valley a Mr. C, who, though a farmer, had a good English education. He drafted deeds, wills, and articles of agreement, gave counsel, and settled controversies, and during the winter taught a select school in his own house. Of this opportunity Otway availed himself, and thus received instruction in grammar and geography. He> soon after, in company with a brother, made a trip to Cincinnati, traveling on foot through the woods. Whether he had any other object than improvement, I am not advised, but he soon returned with his appetite for travel unabated. But how should it be gratified ? To accumulate money by agricultural pursuits, at that time, was im- possible ; the clearings were small, the mode of farming laborious ; merchandise was very high, and produce very low ; while coffee was twenty-five cents a pound, tea a dollar and fifty, coarse muslin twenty-five cents a yard, indigo fifty cents an ounce, and camphor worth its weight in silver ; butter and maple-sugar were six cents a pound, corn fifteen cents a bushel, and wheat twenty-five cents. Ginseng and bees- wax were the only articles that would bear transportation to the east. Young Curry, therefore, determined to learn a trade. Tliis could be done without much expense, and would enable him to travel where he pleased, and earn a living in any location. Accordingly, in 1823, he went to Lebanon and learned the art of car- pentry ; four or five months afterward he went to Cincinnati, and continued there, working at his trade, for nearly a year. We next hear of him at the city of Detroit, where he spent a summer, busily plying his hammer and driving his plane, all the while reserving time for study, pondering the pages of science and poetry ; sometimes by the light of shavings, at the lone hours of night, or the more propitious period that precedes the dawn. Returning to Ohio, he passed some time at work m the vil- lage of Marion. Moved by romantic impulses, he, in company with a Henry Wilson, made a skiff, and launching it at Millville — a small village on the Scioto — when the waters were swelled with rains, descended that stream to its mouth, surmounting mill-dams, rocks, and all other obstructions. He then descended the Ohio to Cincinnati. Here he determined to visit the rice fields and orange groves of the South. Procuring a pas- sage on a flat-boat, for himself and a chest of tools, he proceeded down the Oliio and Mississippi, and spent a year at Port Gibson before he returned. About this time he summoned courage to offer anonymously some verses to the newspapers, among which were his sweet poems "My Mother," and "Kingdom Come." It is probable that he had written poetr}- long before, but we are not able to trace the