were miles and miles of green meadows, with bright rivers and giant trees. The park was full of deer and other game.
The white men made up their minds to stay in this fair wilderness. They built some cabins inside a log fort More men, and a few women and children were hurried over the Gap, and into the rude fort. A white baby was born there. There was even a wedding in the fort. Then began a life of daring and danger of many years. The earliest Puritans had not lived so hard a life as these hunters in Kentucky and Tennessee. They were hundreds of miles from the French towns on the Mississippi. The mountain wall was behind them. Ships could not come to them. They could neither buy nor sell anything.
Some years they dared not go outside the forts to grow corn. The men slipped out to hunt. Sometimes they did not come back. The Indians followed them and killed them. Sometimes painted red warriors danced around a fort. Very little boys had to learn to shoot, to protect their mothers and sisters. But more white people came. A hundred came for every one killed. They found another trail over the mountains to the Ohio River. They came down this river in keel boats. The Indians shot at them from the banks. Fleets of canoes followed the keel boats. Then soldiers came and fought battles with the Indians, so white people could live in that country. At last, after thirty-five years, there were little log towns and lonely cabins, scattered all through Kentucky and Tennessee.
Daniel Boone was one of the hunters who built the first forts. Find the story about him. Then we will tell you the story of a boy who was born when Daniel Boone was more than seventy years old. He was born in one of the lonely cabins in the woods of Kentucky. That was one hundred years ago. We will learn how he lived, what he did, and what kind of a man he became.
