How this was done we
shall see if we turn our attention to those early hunters and backwoodsmen
who did great service to our country as pioneers in opening up new lands.
One of the most famous of these was Daniel Boone. He was born in
Pennsylvania, and, like many of the heroes of the Revolution, he was born
in the "thirties" (1735).
As a boy, Daniel liked to wander in the woods with musket and fishing-rod,
and was never so happy as when alone in the wild forest. The story is told
that while a mere lad he wandered one day into the woods some distance
from home and built himself a rough shelter of logs, where he would spend
days at a time, with only his rifle for company.
[Illustration: Daniel Boone.]
As he was a "good shot," we may be sure he never went hungry for lack of
food. The game which his rifle brought down he would cook over a pile of
burning sticks. If you have done outdoor camp cooking, you can almost
taste its woodland flavor. Then at night as he lay under the star-lit sky
on a bed of leaves, with the skin of a wild animal for covering, a prince
might have envied his dreamless slumber.
This free, wild life made him thoroughly at home in the forests, and
trained him for the work he was to do later as a fearless hunter and
woodsman.
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