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+Project Gutenberg's Little Folks of North America, by Mary Hazelton Wade
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Little Folks of North America
+       Stories about children living in the different parts of North America
+
+Author: Mary Hazelton Wade
+
+Release Date: August 31, 2011 [EBook #37280]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE FOLKS OF NORTH AMERICA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Canada Team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: A Little Indian Boy.]
+
+                            Little Folks of
+                             North America
+
+                    STORIES ABOUT CHILDREN LIVING IN
+                         THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF
+                             NORTH AMERICA
+
+                                   BY
+                           MARY HAZLETON WADE
+
+             Illustrated by reproductions from Photographs
+
+                          W. A. WILDE COMPANY
+                         BOSTON        CHICAGO
+
+
+
+
+                            Copyright, 1909
+                         By W. A. Wilde Company
+
+                         _All Rights Reserved_
+
+                     Little Folks of North America
+
+
+
+
+                                CONTENTS
+
+          CHAPTER                                          PAGE
+               I. Little Folks of Iceland                    13
+              II. Little Folks of Greenland                  26
+             III. Little Folks of Alaska                     55
+              IV. Little Folks of Canada                     80
+               V. Little Folks of Labrador                  116
+              VI. Little Folks of Newfoundland              120
+             VII. Little Folks of the United States         128
+            VIII. Little Folks of Mexico                    179
+              IX. Little Folks of Central America           206
+               X. Little Folks of the West Indies           214
+
+
+
+
+                         LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+                                                               PAGE
+    A Little Indian Boy                                Frontispiece
+    An Eskimo Mother and Baby                                    30
+    An Eskimo Village in Summer                                  52
+    An Eskimo Village in Alaska                                  60
+    An Alaskan Village Showing Indian Totem Poles                74
+    Little Canadian Indian Children                              96
+    Picking Cotton on a Georgia Plantation                      144
+    How They Harvest Wheat on the Prairies                      152
+    Children Working in the Cotton Factory in a Big City        174
+    A Mexican Village                                           190
+
+
+
+
+                                Foreword
+
+You all know the story of Columbus--how, more than four hundred years
+ago, he sailed from Spain out into the west; and also how the people, as
+they watched his ships fading from sight, believed they would never look
+upon the fleet again, for the brave sailors who manned it were moving
+into an unknown world whose dangers no one could measure.
+
+You also remember what happened before Columbus returned from that long
+voyage--that a new continent was discovered where strange people of a
+race before unheard-of were living the life of savages, and that the
+great sailor, believing he had entered the waters of India, named these
+red men, Indians.
+
+Instead of reaching India, as he supposed, he had brought to light a new
+and great continent--so vast that it embraced all climates; rich,
+moreover, in mines and forests, lakes and rivers, high mountains,
+fertile plains and valleys. And there were none to enjoy all these
+beautiful gifts of God save tribes of red men, except in the far north
+the Eskimos in scattered villages. They, too, like the Indians, were
+savages who knew nothing of the ways of white men. They lived in small
+settlements along the ice-covered shores of the ocean.
+
+After Columbus had crossed the Atlantic and discovered this New World,
+other ships soon followed in the course he had marked, and the people of
+Europe settled in one place after another. At first they made their
+homes near the shores of the ocean. This was partly through fear of the
+red men who were not pleased at the thought of these new neighbors, so
+different from themselves. As years went by, however, the newcomers
+moved farther and farther into the west, driving the Indians and the
+wild beasts before them, until now the homes of the white men are found
+throughout the land. People of unlike faiths and speaking different
+languages cross the ocean in shiploads, for they feel that when America
+is reached they will find freedom and happiness.
+
+The Indians who are still left in the country are slowly learning the
+ways of the white men. They are taught in schools by white teachers.
+They live in houses instead of the wigwams which were their former
+homes. They dress in white men's clothes. They even plant gardens and
+care for their farms in the way of civilized people.
+
+There are many Negroes in North America also, but they are found mostly
+in the southern part of the United States. They were first brought as
+slaves from Africa, but are now free and independent. Although they were
+once savages like the Indians, they have been quick to imitate and have
+easily fallen into the ways of the white men. Thus the red and the black
+races, the white and the yellow, can all be found at home in North
+America, abiding together in peace and comfort as the children of One
+Great Father should do.
+
+
+
+
+LITTLE FOLKS OF NORTH AMERICA
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I--Little Folks of Iceland
+
+
+In the far northeast corner of North America lies the island of Iceland
+where little Danish children live far from the rest of the world. It is
+very cold in that northern country, yet the presence of volcanoes there
+and the lava that spreads over much of the country tell the story that
+ages ago the island was slowly built up from the lava that flowed from
+volcanoes rising up out of the bed of the ocean.
+
+However that may be, the boys and girls of Iceland are happy little
+people who laugh and sing, dance and play as merrily as children who
+live where the sun shines all the year round and the seasons chase each
+other so rapidly that Mother Nature is constantly preparing new delights
+for them.
+
+Away back in the ninth century a great chief called Nadodd left Europe
+in search of adventure. When he had sailed for a long time he came in
+sight of a land covered with snow. It seemed a cold, bleak place, but he
+landed, nevertheless, and gave the country the name of Snowland.
+
+After Nadodd came two Norse chiefs who had quarreled with their king and
+left Norway to seek a new home. Although they found Snowland or rather
+Iceland, as it is now called, cold and desolate as Nadodd had done, they
+decided to settle there and other people from Norway followed them and
+built homes for themselves and their families along the coast.
+
+These things and many more are written down in a big book treasured by
+the Icelanders to-day,--how little children were born to the settlers,
+how they were ruled by their chiefs, and how, after a while, one of
+their people went back to Europe and listened to the teachings of the
+Christian religion. He gave up his belief in heathen gods, and when he
+came back to Iceland he converted the settlers. From that time they,
+too, were Christians and had Christian ministers among them who taught
+and helped their little ones and themselves.
+
+As time went by Norway, and with it Iceland, came under the rule of
+Denmark. Afterwards it became separate again, but Iceland did not, and
+is to this day looked upon as belonging to the Danes. Most of the
+children, however, by reading in the famous old book of their people,
+can trace their families back to the two Norwegian chiefs and their
+followers who were the first settlers in Iceland.
+
+The children of Iceland live so far north that they know only a short
+summer. The days then are very long and there is scarcely any night. In
+the month of June there is really no night at all and there is no way of
+telling, except by the clock and their own sleepiness, when it is time
+to go to bed. The winters are quite the opposite. They are very long and
+bitter cold. Scarcely any of the time does the sun shine, yet the long
+nights are beautiful, for the moon and stars shine brightly and the
+northern lights, or aurora borealis, flash over the heavens in a
+wonderful way not seen in warmer lands.
+
+On the long winter evenings the boys and girls are never happier than
+when listening to the stories that have been handed down from father to
+son for hundreds of years. They call these stories sagas. Some of them
+are legends, and others tell about the lives of people who lived in
+Iceland from the beginning of its history. There are many poems, too,
+which the little Icelanders learn "by heart," and which they repeat in a
+half-singing tone, after the way of their people. These were written in
+the long-ago by warriors called "skalds." They tell of battles and brave
+deeds and lovely ladies, and the children of to-day think them so
+beautiful that many of them try to write little poems themselves. This
+pleases their parents greatly and makes them feel quite proud that their
+own little ones are following in the steps of their ancestors.
+
+
+Geysers and Glaciers.
+
+Iceland is never without snow and ice. On the warmest summer day the
+children can look on glaciers, or rivers of ice, that flow so slowly
+toward the sea from the inland country that one does not see them moving
+at all.
+
+These glaciers look like broad fields of broken ice, piled up in
+strange, rough shapes. The summer sun melts the ice ever so little, and
+those who venture near the edge find rills of water flowing down the
+sides of the great cakes and boulders. As the glaciers enter the sea
+masses of ice sometimes break away, and turning over and over in the
+deep water, right themselves at last and sail out to sea as the icebergs
+that are often met by sailors on their way across the ocean.
+
+"We have geysers as well as glaciers," the children of Iceland will tell
+you, and they are glad to show their knowledge of them to the travelers
+who visit that distant land. A geyser is a boiling spring which bursts
+up out of the ground like a fountain, sometimes with such force that the
+water rises into the air higher than the tallest building you have ever
+seen.
+
+There are other kinds of hot springs, too, in the country, where the
+water simply bubbles up. There is one large town in Iceland called
+Reikjavik, which is the capital of the island, and about a mile and a
+half away there is a hot spring where the washing is done for the people
+of the town.
+
+Almost every day women go there from Reikjavik with hand-carts filled
+with soiled clothing. When they reach the spring they roll up their
+sleeves, tuck up their skirts, and begin the scrubbing and rinsing, the
+boiling and wringing that end in making the clothes as white as snow.
+From time to time they stop to drink coffee and have a friendly chat,
+but all the washing is done in the open air, without need of stove or
+fire to help the workers.
+
+Sheds have been built near the spring where the ironing is afterwards
+done. Then the clothes are neatly packed in the little carts and taken
+back to the town to be returned to the owners.
+
+The little Icelanders are very fond of their waterfalls, some of which
+are very beautiful. The country is so rough and rocky that the streams
+often plunge over steep lava cliffs and fall with a loud roar to the
+depths below.
+
+There are so few sounds to be heard, because there are no railroads or
+large factories in the whole country, that the children like to visit
+these waterfalls and listen to the water as it plunges downwards over
+the cliffs. Then they return to the quiet farmhouses to play with their
+lambs and dogs, and to dream of the children of other lands far away
+where life is so different.
+
+
+In the Homes.
+
+The fathers of the little Icelanders support their families by fishing,
+by raising cattle and sheep, and by hunting the birds that make their
+homes on the island during the summer.
+
+Few trees grow in that cold land, so the homes are generally built of
+turf and lava, neatly painted red and thatched with sod. Small gardens
+are planted as soon as the long winter is over, and there the boys help
+in planting cabbages and lettuce, radishes and parsley, flax and
+turnips. A few potatoes are sometimes raised, too, but only those
+vegetables that will grow fast ripen in that cold northern land. Short,
+thick grass grows near the little homes, which are usually built in the
+valleys protected from the cold winds by the hills around them. There
+the men tend their flocks of sheep and herds of cattle which graze on
+the grass in summer and in winter eat the hay which their masters have
+gathered for them.
+
+The children of Iceland are rather small, but they are quite strong for
+their size. They have yellow hair and blue eyes and are brought up to be
+gentle and polite. On week-days they go to school where they are taught
+very carefully, and on Sundays they go to church with their fathers and
+mothers, where they sing hymns very slowly and listen to long sermons by
+their good pastor. Sometimes the church is too far away to walk the
+whole distance. Then the whole family ride on ponies to the place of
+worship, and often, if they have come a very long ways, they are treated
+to cake and coffee at the minister's house before they start out again
+for home.
+
+The people are obliged to dress very warmly, and so the women of each
+household are busy, early and late, carding and spinning the wool from
+the sheep and weaving it into soft, thick garments for their families.
+
+In every home you will be sure to find the women's fingers moving busily
+at their work, while the loom and spinning-wheel seems to be constantly
+in motion.
+
+Almost every home contains many children, who eat fish and drink milk
+day after day, with little change of food throughout the year. Only the
+richer families can have bread, for the flour out of which it is made,
+as well as the coffee and chocolate which even the poorest people manage
+to buy, must come in ships from Europe. Every one, however, can have
+cakes made of a kind of moss, or lichen, which grows on the island. Some
+of it is sent to other countries to use in medicine, and is known as
+Iceland moss. The children are often sent to gather it for their
+mothers, who dry it and grind it to powder and then make it into cakes
+which are boiled and then eaten with milk.
+
+In the summer time the boys and girls hunt for birds' eggs of which they
+are very fond, and sometimes their fathers kill a sheep or cow, which
+furnishes fresh meat for several days.
+
+The children love their dogs which are often very pretty and are petted
+a good deal. They help their masters care for the sheep and are very
+faithful. Sometimes the cows wander a long ways in search of grass, but
+with the approach of night they come home to be milked and cared for.
+The ewes are milked, too, and their young masters and mistresses have no
+idea how strange this must seem to many travelers. Even the little
+children learn to ride the stout, patient ponies, and if they have an
+errand to do for their parents they seldom think of walking, but on to
+the ponies' backs they spring, and away they go across the snowfields
+and over the roads till they reach the place for which they are bound.
+
+The little girls are taught to knit and spin and do fine needle work.
+They help make the clothes for the family, which are of the same
+fashion, year after year. The mother always wears a black cloth dress
+with white under waist showing in front, a snowy apron, and on her head
+is sure to be a black cap with long tassel and a silver ornament. If it
+is very cold she winds a shawl around her head. Her daughters dress much
+as she does, except that they wear no caps till they are thirteen or
+fourteen years old.
+
+The boys help in the work of the farm and go hunting and fishing with
+their fathers. Herds of reindeer wander over the island and their flesh
+makes a pleasant change in the daily fare, while the skins furnish
+thick, warm coats for the Icelanders. There are also foxes, but they and
+the reindeer are almost the only wild creatures, with the exception of
+the birds, found in the whole country.
+
+There are many kinds of birds,--gulls, ptarmigans, swans, and wild geese,
+all come to the island to lay their eggs and raise their young, but the
+most precious of all are the eider-ducks whose bodies are covered with
+soft thick down. The mother eider-duck lines her nest with this down
+which she plucks out from her own breast, thus making a soft and
+comfortable home for the baby birds. After they are hatched the hunters
+go about from nest to nest, collecting the down which is taken home and
+spread out in the sun to dry. Then it is tied up in bags and sold in the
+town. Some of it is sent away to other countries and made into the
+eider-down quilts which are sold for a large price.
+
+
+Getting Fish.
+
+During the summer every village along the coast is full of busy people.
+The men and boys sail or row out to the places were cod and halibut are
+plentiful, and there they fish from morning till night, when they bring
+home the "catch" which they give into the care of their wives and
+daughters. At these times the women wear long waterproof aprons and
+thick woolen gloves. They, too, are busy all day long cleaning and
+splitting the fish at large tanks near the water's edge, then salting
+and drying them for their own use during the coming year, or to be
+packed and sent to Reikjavik from which they are shipped to other
+countries. The fish, together with butter and ponies, are the principal
+things sent out from Iceland, and the ships that come to receive them
+bring the sugar, coffee and chocolate, the dishes and tools necessary to
+the simple housekeeping of the Icelanders.
+
+
+The Cave of Surtur.
+
+There are many caves in Iceland, some of which are used by the farmers
+for storing their hay and housing their cattle. The most wonderful of
+them all is the large cave of Surtur, whose floor is carpeted with snow
+and ice.
+
+The visitor enters a long hall and the dim light of his torch makes him
+think at first that he is looking at rows of statues. But they are
+pillars of ice and snow which reach up from the floor and have taken
+upon themselves many queer forms. Farther on in the hall bars of ice
+form a large screen before the eyes of the traveler. On every side new
+wonders meet his eyes as he goes farther and farther underground till at
+last he longs for the daylight and turns back, glad indeed when he has
+reached the mouth of the cave once more.
+
+Many people who have visited Iceland say that the grandest sights in the
+whole world are to be seen in that island. The hills of lava with the
+ice-fields stretching between them, the geysers bursting forth out of
+the ground with a sound of thunder, the lofty volcanoes that look like
+sleeping giants of snow and ice, the great caves whose stalactites are
+coated with ice, all these things and many more make Iceland a land of
+wonder to those who visit that lonely island.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II--Little Folks of Greenland
+
+
+
+The Coming of Eric the Red
+
+West of Ireland is the largest island in the world. It is called
+Greenland, but the boys and girls who live there have little reason to
+know it by such a name, for it is a country of snow and ice where fierce
+winds are blowing the greater part of the year and where the frost king
+rules even in the summer-time.
+
+Long ago there were brave sailors in northern Europe called Norsemen,
+who ventured out into the western waters farther than any other known
+people at that time. Some of them, as you know, sailed as far as Iceland
+where they settled and made a home for themselves.
+
+By and by one of these settlers sailed still farther into the west.
+Fierce storms arose and strong winds blew his ship till he came in sight
+of a land whose shores were bound in ice. At last the storm passed; then
+he turned his ship about and sailed for home.
+
+When he reached Iceland he told of what he had seen. Among those who
+listened to him was another daring sailor, Eric the Red.
+
+Not long afterwards Eric the Red killed another man in a quarrel, and on
+account of this wrong deed he was told that he could not stay in
+Iceland, but must leave his home for two years at least.
+
+He now thought of the story he had heard of a land farther west. He said
+to himself, "I will seek that country and perhaps I will find a home
+there to my liking."
+
+He set out with a brave heart and sailed on till at last he saw before
+him a bare and desolate land. He steered his ship past great icebergs
+and floating masses of ice and entered a harbor.
+
+It was not a pleasant country in which to make a home. There was no
+person to greet him; not a single tree to offer its shade. Yet he made
+himself as comfortable as possible and built a house of stone against
+the side of a steep cliff. He fished in the icy waters and hunted over
+the snow-covered fields; thus he and his few companions got enough food
+to keep themselves from starving.
+
+Two winters passed in this new home and Eric the Red, who had been used
+to hardship, enjoyed himself because he was free to do as he pleased and
+there were no enemies to disturb him. In fact, all the time he and his
+followers were in Greenland they met no other people, and so they
+believed they were the only ones living in that ice-bound country. In
+their wanderings, however, they discovered that there were many high
+mountains, deep and narrow bays, and glaciers.
+
+The time came when Eric the Red could go back to Iceland. On his return
+he said to himself, "I will say that I found a pleasant home in the
+west. I will give the place the pleasant name of Greenland. Then some of
+the people will wish to go back with me and settle there."
+
+Eric the Red painted such a delightful picture of his stay in the
+distant land that a goodly company started out with him in twenty-five
+ships when he returned to Greenland. Some of these ships were wrecked;
+others were driven back by fierce winds. Fourteen, however, managed to
+pass the dangerous icebergs and the great masses of floating ice and
+entered a narrow harbor.
+
+The people landed on the desolate shore and were soon busy building
+houses in which to live. There was no lumber because there were no
+trees, so they had to use stones.
+
+Afterwards small gardens were dug and planted. Sheds were built of stone
+where the sheep and oxen the people had brought with them could be
+protected from the biting cold of the long winter and the fearful storms
+that raged there.
+
+Other settlers followed the first ones and made new homes for themselves
+on the western coast of Greenland, not far from the place chosen by the
+first-comers. Here, in rough stone houses, little children were born and
+grew up to be men and women.
+
+These children did not know the taste of bread. They lived mostly on the
+meat of seals, walruses, and reindeer, the berries they picked in
+summer, and the eggs of the wild birds that flew in great flocks over
+the country when the long, cold winter was over.
+
+They had many a good time, though. They romped in the frosty air; they
+slid on the ice; they petted their lambs and played games; and then,
+when evening came, they gathered about their fathers to listen to
+wonderful tales of adventures with wild animals and of fights for life
+among icebergs and glaciers. Often they must have held their breath, and
+their blood must have been stirred as they thought, "Soon we will grow
+up and we, too, will dare what our fathers have dared."
+
+
+The Eskimos.
+
+More than three hundred years passed by. Then the children of the
+settlers suddenly discovered that they were not the only ones living in
+Greenland. Not far to the north there were other boys and girls with
+yellow skins, black eyes, round faces and mouths ever ready to stretch
+in smiles. Far different, indeed, they looked from the Norse children
+with their fair hair and blue eyes.
+
+These little strangers spoke an odd-sounding language and when they
+pointed to themselves they said, "Innuits," meaning "people." No doubt
+they and their parents had thought themselves the only people in the
+world. The Norsemen called them Skraellings; but long afterwards, when
+other white men came to Greenland and noticed the manner of living of
+the natives, they gave them the name of Eskimos which means, "Eaters of
+raw meat." To this day we know them as Eskimos.
+
+[Illustration: An Eskimo Mother and Baby.]
+
+Not long after they met with the Eskimos the white settlers, with their
+wives and children, disappeared from Greenland. No one knows the reason.
+Perhaps they all died from a terrible sickness that visited them at that
+time. There are some who think they were killed by the natives. At any
+rate, there were no more white people in Greenland for two hundred years
+and the little Eskimos lived on as they always had done.
+
+The homes of these children are built to-day just as they were in that
+far-away time when the Norsemen first saw them. They spend the long cold
+winter in stone huts. The stones are packed closely together and the
+chinks are stuffed so tightly with turf that the sharpest wind can not
+make its way inside. A low passage into the house is also built of
+stones, but it is so low that even the little children must crawl on
+their hands and knees when they go in and out of the house.
+
+Can you think of the reason for this? It is because the wind must be
+kept out of the home at all costs.
+
+When the children have once crept inside, there is not much room over
+their heads even now, since the house-walls themselves are not more than
+six or eight feet high. The light is very dim, for the small windows are
+made of the bowels of seals, as the Eskimos do not have the glass we
+think so necessary; so they take the best thing they can procure.
+
+A little more light is given by queer, smoky lamps which are stoves as
+well. Women are busy tending these all the time, or they would smoke so
+badly that even the Eskimos, who are used to them, could not breathe the
+air without choking.
+
+Each one of these stove-lamps is made of a piece of sandstone hollowed
+out somewhat in the shape of a dustpan. Pieces of blubber are placed in
+the bottom and strips of dried moss are set up along one side for wicks.
+Here the mothers of the Eskimo children do all their cooking, and here
+the boys and girls must gather when they wish to warm their fingers if
+Jack Frost has pinched them.
+
+Heavy seal or bear skins which have been cured and made ready for use
+hang down from the walls, making them doubly warm.
+
+Along the sides of the hut are platforms where the children sit with
+their parents and where they stretch themselves among piles of furs for
+the night's rest. These platforms are usually made of wood, one of the
+most precious things the Eskimos possess. Since no trees grow in
+Greenland, the only wood the people had in the long ago drifted to their
+shores. Often it came from the wrecks of vessels that ventured into the
+dangerous northern waters after whales. Now-a-days, however, the Eskimos
+get lumber from white traders in exchange for oil and furs. For about
+four months of the winter the sun does not show his face at all. The
+children must be very glad that during that period the moon shines
+brightly one week out of every four. That is the time for the best
+fun,--skating and coasting by moonlight when the snowfields and the
+ice-bound shores glisten like the most wonderful fairyland you can
+possibly imagine.
+
+Before they venture from their homes their loving mothers see that they
+put on their bird-skin shirts with the soft feathers worn next to the
+skin. Then there are stockings of hare or dog skin, and high boots of
+sealskin.
+
+It would be rather hard at first for you to tell an Eskimo girl from a
+boy for all the people of the snowland wear trousers which are, of
+course, much warmer than skirts would be. These trousers, like the
+boots, are made of heavy skins with the fur on the inside.
+
+The upper part of the body is covered with a short fur blouse. A fur
+hood and mittens complete the outdoor dress. No suit could be better for
+traveling over the snow or playing on the icy hillsides than the
+Greenland mothers make for their little ones.
+
+
+Hunting for Food.
+
+Sometimes the little Eskimos and their parents feast nearly all day
+long. This is when their fathers have been successful in the hunt and
+there is plenty of seal and walrus meat on hand. But there are other
+times when many hours pass by without food and they do not know how much
+longer they must wait before they can satisfy their hunger.
+
+Sometimes the men are away from home for days together, searching the
+shore for the food their wives and little ones need so much. When at
+last they have been successful and returned with their loads, the
+children run out with their mothers to meet the hunters and take care of
+the precious prize. The women are armed with long knives with which they
+quickly cut away the skins. The meat is cut up, and with shouts of
+laughter the children crawl through the narrow passage into the hut and
+gather around their mothers, as pieces of the meat are placed in stone
+dishes and hung over the lamps to cook.
+
+It may be, that while the children sit eagerly watching for some
+seal-blood soup to be prepared, the women throw them pieces of blubber
+which they eat greedily.
+
+All this time the men are stretched about on the low platforms, joking
+and telling stories while they wait for the feast to begin. As they
+wait, some of them busy their fingers carving toys out of walrus-teeth
+for the children,--tiny reindeer, seals, sledges, birds or muskoxen.
+
+When the dinner is ready a large dish of food is placed in the middle of
+the floor, the big folks and little sit around in a circle and help
+themselves with their fingers. After dinner come songs and dances in
+which the children take their part.
+
+It is very likely that over on a low shelf a mother dog is lying with
+her puppies, and the children go to her from time to time and play with
+their cunning little pets. The Eskimos are fond of their dogs, and are
+very careful of the puppies, which are brought up in the house with
+their own children from the time when they are born till they are big
+enough to take care of themselves.
+
+
+Eskimo Dogs.
+
+The boys and girls of the far north would be very lonely without their
+trusty dogs. They play with the puppies during the long winter days.
+Then, as soon as their little pets are old enough, the boys begin to
+train them. First, the animal must be taught to obey their young
+masters. Then collars are made, and with long straps of leather, these
+are fastened to low sledges made of drift wood and walrus lines. The
+sledge is drawn by a number of dogs, each of which is fastened by a
+separate strap.
+
+When the master of the pack is ready for a ride, he throws himself upon
+the sledge, cracks his whip, and the dogs start wildly off with leaps
+and bounds.
+
+On goes the sledge, now over a smooth sheet of frozen snow, and again
+bumping up and down as the dogs dash over rough hillocks of ice. It is
+enough to take one's breath away.
+
+An Eskimo boy is much pleased when his father tells him he is getting
+old enough to have a team of dogs for his very own. He picks out the
+brightest and smartest one of his puppies to be the leader of the new
+pack and trains him with the greatest care. The young dog in his turn
+seems proud of the honor paid him and soon begins to rule among his
+fellows like a king.
+
+Poor Eskimo dogs! They have a hard lot. All through the long winter they
+are seldom fed more than three or four times a week. Only the mother
+dogs with their puppies are allowed in the house. The rest of the pack
+spend most of the time outdoors although they are sometimes allowed in
+the passageway, or a snow hut is built for them near the house of their
+master. Their hair, however, is long and thick and warm, and this
+protects them from the winds and storm. They will stretch out on a bed
+of snow and sleep comfortably hour after hour in the coldest weather.
+One of their favorite resting places is the top of their master's hut;
+but when the wind blows hard they prefer to creep into their snow house
+and stay there till the weather is once more calm.
+
+As soon as the Eskimo boy is old enough to hold a tiny bow his parents
+put one in his chubby hands. He is so pleased when he is able to set an
+arrow and send it speeding against a mark on the wall of the hut. When
+he strikes it for the first time the place rings with his shouts of
+delight. When he is a little older he takes lessons from his father in
+shaping harpoons and spearheads. He is now getting ready for the hunting
+that is to be his work in life.
+
+While he is learning the ways of a hunter, his sister also has her
+lessons. Her mother and grandmother are busy women, tanning the skins
+the men bring in, and making them into warm garments for the family. The
+girls must therefore learn to sew with coarse bone needles and heavy
+thread made from the sinews of the reindeer. They must also help in
+chewing skin with their strong white teeth. This is to make the skin
+soft and comfortable for the wearer, but it is a long, hard task. Many
+an Eskimo woman wears her teeth down to stubs by the time she is an old
+woman.
+
+After Seals.
+
+When autumn sets in, the head of the family watches the ice in the bay.
+As soon as it is frozen hard enough, he will begin his hunt for seals.
+He clothes himself in fur from head to foot, takes his lance from the
+wall, and hangs over one arm a little stool made of small pieces of wood
+bound together with leather straps. He must not forget his hunting
+knife, nor a fur blanket which he throws over his shoulders. At last he
+is off. He walks quickly down to the edge of the bay and looks keenly
+about over its surface. Perhaps he decides to follow the coast for some
+distance, as farther along the ice seems firmer.
+
+On he moves till he comes to a place where he can trust himself. With
+leaps and bounds he springs from one cake of ice to another till he
+reaches a place where the water of the outer bay is frozen solid. He
+keeps his eyes fastened on the ice. Ah! he has discovered a small hole.
+He thinks, "Now I have found the home of a family of seals. This is
+certainly their breathing place."
+
+He spreads his fur blanket on the ice close to the hole. In the middle
+of it he puts his stool, and then, with lance in hand, he sits down to
+watch and wait.
+
+It may be that in a short time a seal's nose will appear at this hole to
+get a breath of fresh air, or perhaps hours will pass before this
+happens.
+
+At last the watching hunter is rewarded. He thrusts his lance suddenly
+down through the hole, and if he has made no mistake it has pierced the
+seal below. The lance disappears under the ice, but the hunter has taken
+care to fasten leather lines to the blunt end, and this he holds tightly
+in his hands.
+
+Now he must be very careful. He takes his hunting knife from his sheath
+and carefully cuts away the ice from around the breathing hole. He must
+make a place so large that the seal's body can be drawn up through, to
+the surface. At last his prey lies before him but the animal is still
+alive and must be killed.
+
+As soon as this is done, the man hastens back to the shore near his home
+where some of his faithful dogs have been harnessed to the sledge and
+are patiently awaiting him.
+
+He unties the strap by which they are fastened to a rock. Then, with
+delighted howls, the dogs rush along with their master to the place
+where the dead seal is lying. It is placed on the sledge, and in a short
+time is in the hands of the hunter's wife, who takes off the skin and
+cuts up the meat for the hungry family.
+
+
+Nannook, the Bear.
+
+During the long evenings the children are never tired of listening to
+the stories of the big white bear. It is Nannook who makes her winter
+home against the side of a steep cliff. Here the snow drifts about her
+and shuts her in from the outside world; at the same time the warm
+breath from her great body melts the snow next to her, leaving a small
+empty space. Here she sleeps and here her little cubs are born.
+
+Sometimes the bear is caught by means of a trap which the Eskimo hunter
+has built of stone set up in a square. There is a small opening inside
+of which a piece of blubber is placed. When Nannook snaps at the
+blubber, down falls a heavy stone and the animal is made a prisoner.
+
+Sometimes the hunter comes upon the track of a bear when he has no
+companion except his trusty dogs. But he is not afraid. He urges them on
+and the sledge dashes along with the greatest speed. The master of the
+team hardly needs to guide, for the dogs are eager to follow the scent.
+And now the prey is in sight. Perhaps it is a mother bear with two cubs.
+She sees her enemy and turns to flee, but her little ones cannot run
+fast and she stops again and again for them. Every moment the dogs are
+gaining upon her. At last she sees it is of no use and takes her stand
+to meet the attack.
+
+The team is upon her now. The hunter leaps from the sledge and rushes
+towards the mother bear with spear in hand. She rises upon her hind legs
+and opens her mouth with an angry growl. One blow of her paw would be
+enough to kill the man if he gave her time to strike, but he makes a
+sudden thrust into her heart with his spear before she has a chance to
+do this.
+
+It may be that the spear fails to reach its mark, or that the bear
+breaks it with one angry blow. She is furious now, and it would go hard
+with the hunter if the faithful dogs were not already springing upon the
+huge animal like a pack of wolves. With their help she is overcome, and
+falls at last dying to the ground. Then it is an easy matter to kill the
+poor little cubs, which all through the fight have been crying
+piteously.
+
+Many a time an Eskimo hunter has met his death when on a bear hunt. Many
+a time, too, he has received fearful wounds that have made him a cripple
+for the rest of his life. Yet he is a brave man and is ever ready to
+join a hunt in search of Nannook, the big white bear.
+
+
+After the Walrus.
+
+The Eskimo boys are not only eager for bear stories, but they love to
+hear their fathers tell of the battles with the big walrus, whose home
+is in the sea. It weighs nearly a thousand pounds. It has a thick, tough
+skin, and long tusks of ivory. When a number of walruses are together
+they will often turn on the hunters with fury. Then the men must move
+quickly and fight bravely, or they may lose their lives.
+
+The best time for a walrus hunt is when the moon is shining brightly.
+The children look on eagerly while the men get knives and lances ready,
+for perhaps news has just come that walruses have been seen on the ice
+floes miles away up the coast. The dogs are harnessed to the sledges and
+the party start off.
+
+One, two, and even three days may pass with no sign of the returning
+hunters. At last the sound of barking dogs is heard in the distance. The
+women and children rush out of the huts, and if the moon has set or the
+clouds have hidden her light, they carry torches and hurry to meet the
+hunters.
+
+The news may be good and the sledges loaded with ivory and walrus meat.
+But perhaps the men have not been successful, and have only to tell of a
+long search, with no prize gained. It may be that one of the men has
+been wounded by an enraged walrus, or has been drawn into the icy water
+and has narrowly escaped drowning. At any rate, there is much to tell to
+the eager listeners.
+
+A walrus is much larger and heavier than a seal. Besides this, it has
+two strong tusks with which to defend itself; and although it is hunted
+in much the same way, it is far more dangerous work to kill a walrus and
+land it safely on the ice. One man seldom hunts walruses alone.
+
+
+The Narwhal.
+
+Eskimos never live far from the shore. It would not be safe to do so,
+for most of their food is obtained from the sea. Besides seals and
+walruses, other large creatures are hunted there. There are different
+kinds of whales; there are porpoises and swordfish; more important still
+is the narwhal with its long ivory tusk pointing straight out from its
+head. It is an ugly-looking creature, but the Eskimos think only of the
+beautiful white ivory and the oil to be obtained, besides abundance of
+delicious meat.
+
+As soon as November comes, the men begin to look for narwhals. A party
+of hunters get into their boats and paddle out into the deep waters of
+the bay. As they paddle along, as soon as a narwhal appears in sight
+they hurry toward it with all the speed possible. Each one is eager to
+be the first one to attack, for he is the one to receive most honor when
+the fight is over and the prize gained. Great care must be used as the
+hunters draw near the narwhal for that long tusk could make a hole
+through a boat in an instant.
+
+
+Springtime.
+
+The long winter is over at last. The men have hunted many of the days,
+but they have spent much time making lines and traps for the warmer days
+to come; also in mending and sharpening their weapons. The women have
+been busy making clothes for the family and tending the lamps, while the
+happy, loving children have helped their parents a little, but mostly
+they have been coasting and playing games on the snowfields. They have
+paid visits to friends in other villages; they have had many a feast;
+sometimes, alas! they have gone without food for days at a time. They
+have sung and danced, and watched the beautiful northern lights flash
+over the sky. They have listened to legends of their big brother, the
+moon, and his sister the sun. Sometimes, too, they have heard stories
+about the great ice-sheet that stretches all over the mountains and
+plains of the inland country. They trembled as they were told that
+terrible beings have their home on that inland ice and they are quite
+sure they would not venture there for the world.
+
+Now that spring has come, they are ready for a season of sunshine. They
+are glad, too, to seek a new home and new adventures. Yes, the spring
+has come and flocks of birds are flying overhead to bring the good news.
+
+The boys help their fathers take off the roofs of the winter houses and
+open them up to the sunshine and fresh air. All the people in the
+village are going to move.
+
+Skin tents are packed on the sledges, together with lamps and the few
+stone dishes they possess. For four whole months the Eskimos will camp
+out and move from place to place in search of reindeer and birds on the
+land, or fish in the waters of the bay.
+
+Sometimes in the early spring or fall the Eskimo children live in still
+different homes from their winter huts of stone or the summer tents.
+These are the snow houses, which the men can build very quickly.
+
+If they are off on a long hunt, these snow houses are useful, for they
+are warm and comfortable in the worst storm or the coldest weather. Big
+blocks of solid snow are cut and piled up in the shape of a bee-hive. A
+small doorway is left open which can be filled with another snow-block
+when the people wish it. When the house is finished loose snow is sifted
+over it and every crack filled up so that the wind cannot make its way
+inside. The stone lamp is set up in the middle or at the side of the
+hut. A bench is made of snow and covered with furs, and the family are
+ready to go to housekeeping.
+
+As soon as the Eskimo children see the birds flying in the springtime
+they begin to think of the fun they will have hunting for eggs. The boys
+get their bows and arrows ready at this time, for they will shoot dozens
+and dozens of the birds before the summer is over.
+
+There are many kinds of these birds, most of which like to build their
+nests on the sides of steep cliffs along the shore. Best of all are the
+eider ducks with their soft and beautiful feathers. Shirts of eider-duck
+skin with the feathers worn next to the body are the best and warmest of
+all, both for the babies of the household and their fathers.
+
+An Eskimo hunter will climb up the sides of the steepest cliff in his
+search for birds' eggs. If he lose his foothold, he may fall a great
+distance and be dashed to pieces on the rocks below. But he does not
+seem to think of danger. His one idea is to get something good on which
+his family and himself may feast.
+
+
+The Skin-boat, or Kayak.
+
+The boats of the Eskimos are called kayaks and are like no others in the
+world. The boys take many lessons before they can be trusted to help in
+making a kayak. It is long and narrow and has room for only one person.
+Its frame is of bone or wood and it is pointed at both ends. When it is
+finished, the boat-maker stretches over it a seal skin which his wife
+has tanned. It is an excellent covering, for the water cannot pass
+through it. In the middle of the top the man leaves an opening as large
+as his body is round. He steps inside and sits down, stretching his legs
+in front of him. Yes, the opening is of the right size; the water of the
+wildest sea cannot enter and sink the boat when once the Eskimo has
+fitted the rim around the bottom of his coat over the rim he has made
+about the opening in the skin covering. With his stout paddle he will
+dare to travel for miles over the rough sea.
+
+The short summer-time is one long day, for the sun does not set. The
+children go to bed when they are tired and sleepy and get up when they
+please. They feast to their hearts' content during this time, for there
+are usually fish and birds and eggs in plenty. Then, too, these children
+of the north go berrying and bring home many a dish of delicious black
+crow-berries.
+
+The greatest dainty of all is the paunch of a reindeer's stomach. It
+consists of the moss and shrubs the animal has eaten, and is a little
+acid. It is no wonder then that the Eskimos are fond of it, as they have
+neither bread nor vegetables, and no fruit except the berries they are
+able to pick during a few weeks out of each year.
+
+
+The Reindeer.
+
+As soon as the spring opens the older boys look forward to the hunt.
+Perhaps a herd of reindeer has been seen not far away, and the hunters
+start out over the fields still well-covered with snow to look for
+traces of them. They carry bows and arrows, also knives. They must not
+forget to take fur soles for their feet, too. As soon as they are within
+range of their game they will bind these soles under their kamiks so
+that the reindeer cannot hear them as they draw near.
+
+Even now the herd may take fright while the hunters are still too far
+off to shoot. Then thud, thud, sound their feet as they scud away over
+the fields. But the hunters will not despair even then. They will give
+chase for hours together if it be necessary.
+
+Sometimes the keen eyes of the Eskimos will find only prints on the snow
+to show that a herd of reindeer has been lately feeding there.
+
+"We will stay here and watch for them to return," they say to each
+other. Then they go to work to make a little fort of stones, behind
+which they sit down to watch and wait.
+
+They may have to stay there a long time before the sound of reindeer
+hoofs is heard, but they are patient. They amuse each other with
+story-telling and the hours pass quickly.
+
+At last a herd draws near. The antlers of these Arctic reindeer are
+broad and branching. They plant their short legs firmly on the ground
+as, with heads bent down, they search for moss beneath the snow. They
+seem to know just where to paw away the snow to find the food they love.
+
+The right moment comes and the hunters send their arrows flying into the
+midst of the herd. One of the reindeer falls to the ground while the
+others dash wildly away.
+
+When a number of animals have been killed in a hunt and there is too
+much meat to carry at once, some of it is buried under a pile of stones,
+so that the wolves and foxes cannot get it. Then the hunters trudge home
+for the dog team to help them.
+
+
+New Settlers.
+
+You remember that Eric the Red went to live in Greenland before a white
+person had stepped on the mainland of North America. You also have
+learned that his followers lived in Greenland for a long time and then
+disappeared shortly after they met with the Eskimos.
+
+From that time no more white people went to Greenland till the year
+1585, when an Englishman named Davis sailed for many miles along its
+coast and visited among the Eskimos. Then he went away.
+
+After his visit, there were no settlers from other lands for nearly a
+hundred years. Then a good minister in Denmark left home with his wife
+and children and went to a place in southwestern Greenland which he
+called God Havn or, Good Haven. Hans Egede, for this was the minister's
+name, wished to teach the Eskimos the Christian religion.
+
+[Illustration: An Eskimo Village in Summer.]
+
+He had hard work before him. A long time passed before he could
+understand the strange words of the Eskimo language and the only way he
+could teach the people was by the pictures he brought with him. Yet he
+stayed in Greenland for many years and his own children grew up with the
+little Eskimos for playmates.
+
+Then Hans Egede's wife died and he went back to Denmark. By this time,
+however, he had a grown-up son who loved the work his father had begun.
+He said, "I will remain here and keep on with your teaching."
+
+So he stayed. Other people from Denmark joined him, and now there are
+several settlements of Danes in Greenland. They have brought lumber with
+them with which to build their houses, as well as furniture and dishes
+from their old home across the sea. Even the sound of the piano may be
+heard now in this frozen land of the north. Tiny gardens have been dug
+where a few vegetables are raised each summer. Best of all, churches
+have been built where Eskimo children sit side by side with their
+fair-haired brothers and sisters of Denmark.
+
+Once in a while a ship draws near bringing papers and letters, canned
+food and clothing from across the sea. It is a time of great excitement
+for the settlers. They have been getting ready for the coming of the
+ship for a long time, filling vessels with oil and fish, and packing the
+furs they have got in barter from the Eskimos. All these things are to
+be sold in other lands, besides many tons of cryolite which is very
+useful in making aluminum. The white settlers get it from a large mine
+and receive a good price for it, since Greenland and one other country
+are the only places in the world where it can be obtained.
+
+Although the Eskimo children of southern Greenland have white playmates
+among them, yet above them in the north there is many a little village
+where people from other lands have never been seen or even heard of.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III--Little Folks of Alaska
+
+
+
+The Coming of Behring
+
+Close your hand together tightly, leaving the forefinger pointing
+straight out. You now have before you the general shape of the peninsula
+of Alaska, which lies in the northwestern part of North America.
+
+The children of Alaska have a much more comfortable home than the little
+Greenlanders. Their shores, except in the far north, are not bound in
+ice the year around; the winters are not so cold and the summers are
+warmer; trees grow in thick forests over a great part of the country,
+and many flowers bloom there.
+
+The reason for this is, that warm winds blow over the country from the
+west, and these winds are due to a broad stream of water flowing through
+the Pacific ocean, called the Japanese current. It makes its way from
+the south and keeps its warmth during its long journey through the
+colder waters of the main ocean. And so it is that the children of
+Alaska who feel the warm winds blowing eastward from the Japanese
+current, do not need the heavy furs worn by the Greenlanders, neither do
+they require as much fat meat to give heat to their bodies, nor as close
+and stuffy homes to live in.
+
+The boys and girls of Alaska belong to several different races. There
+are the yellow-skinned Eskimos of the far north and west; there are the
+copper-colored Indians who are found in the south, and along the banks
+of the rivers of the inland country; there are the Aleuts, who live on a
+chain of islands stretching westward towards Asia, and who are like
+Indians in some ways and like the Japanese in others. No one really
+knows what these Aleuts are, nor where they came from. Perhaps in the
+long-ago they made their way to these islands from Asia, for the
+distance is not great, and small boats could have crossed over safely in
+good weather. Besides these Aleuts and the Indians and Japanese, there
+are white children from the United States whose fathers are busy trading
+for furs or digging gold in the mines.
+
+Early in the eighteenth century, a brave seaman named Vitus Behring was
+sailing under the orders of Peter the Great of Russia. He crossed the
+Pacific ocean from Asia and traveled far into the north. He passed
+through a strait and entered a sea, both of which were named in his
+honor, Behring. Then he coasted along the shores of a land whose
+mountains often rose up out of the ocean. He was the first white man to
+look on the peninsula of Alaska.
+
+A dreadful storm arose during this voyage and Vitus Behring and his men
+were wrecked on a small island to which also the name of the commander
+was given. Here he died, and here his men built a vessel out of what
+they saved from the wreck, and sailed away for home to tell of what had
+been discovered.
+
+Time went by and other Russian ships visited Alaska and began to trade
+with the natives for the furs which they got from the wild animals
+roaming through the country. After a while they built small stations
+here and there on the coast, for the purpose of trading, and to these
+stations ships came regularly to receive loads of seal and fox, beaver
+and martin skins which the Indians and the Eskimos were glad to trap and
+kill, when they found they could get bright-colored blankets, tobacco,
+and many other things in exchange for them.
+
+In this way it came about that a few Russian children with blue eyes and
+yellow hair found their way to Alaska, and lived in rough log houses
+with wild-looking Indians and Eskimos for their neighbors. About fifty
+years ago the children of the United States began to hear many stories
+of Alaska. Their parents told them that Russian fur-traders had made
+fortunes there. Moreover, Russia was willing to sell the country for a
+few million dollars.
+
+Some people said, "Why should not Americans buy it? Besides the valuable
+furs, there are rich forests in Alaska."
+
+At this time a statesman by the name of Seward was urging the United
+States to purchase that far-away peninsula, for he was quite sure this
+country would be well repaid for doing so. People listened to his
+reasons, and at last they decided to follow Mr. Seward's advice, and
+Russian America, as it had been called up to that time, received its new
+name of Alaska, and became a territory of the United States. There were
+many, however, who thought it a most foolish purchase and often spoke of
+it as "Seward's folly." To-day everyone looks upon it, instead, as
+"Seward's wisdom," for it has made many an American child's father rich,
+not only through its furs, but also through the salmon caught in its
+waters and the gold found in its mines.
+
+
+The Little Eskimos.
+
+Along the northern and western shores of Alaska, in the coldest part of
+the country, are scattered villages of the Eskimos. They are much like
+their brothers and sisters of Greenland. They dress in furs, and live
+chiefly on the fat meat of the seal and walrus. They seldom go far from
+the shore, because most of their food is obtained from the sea.
+
+Their winter homes are small stone huts built partly underground, and
+with long tunnel-like entrances dug out of the earth and leading down
+into them. Turf and mud are plastered over the cone-shaped roofs, while
+in the middle, at the top of each, there is a small opening to let out
+the smoke. Directly under this opening is the family fireplace where
+wood is burnt except in the most northern homes. There the Eskimo
+children help their mothers tend just such lamps of seal-oil as the
+Greenlanders use, since it is too cold for trees to grow on the frozen
+marshes that stretch along the shores of the Arctic ocean. Oil is the
+one thing that they can obtain, and of this they must make use. In the
+short summer the little Eskimos of Alaska delight in the skin tents
+which their mothers stretch over light frames, while from time to time,
+during the spring and fall, they camp out in snow-houses.
+
+They have their teams of dogs, which they pet and train. They have their
+skin-covered kayaks made in much the same way as those of the Greenland
+Eskimos, although it is very probable that they have never heard of
+their relations in that distant island. Mother Nature has provided
+certain things to maintain life in the frozen lands of the north,--not
+many to be sure; but the minds of those who dwell in places far distant
+from each other seem to have thought out much the same way of using
+them.
+
+[Illustration: An Eskimo Village in Alaska.]
+
+In these far northern regions the little Eskimos are often treated to a
+most beautiful sight. It is the northern lights, which flash over the
+heavens during the long cold winter nights, and are far brighter than
+are ever seen in Greenland or Iceland. Think of the most glorious
+rainbow you can imagine,--the brilliant green, yellow, blue, and violet
+spreading out in great waves of light over the sky. For a few moments it
+is as light as day. Then the colors fade away and all is darkness once
+more. It is not strange that the little Eskimos who stand watching are
+filled anew with wonder and think of it as the work of great and
+powerful spirits.
+
+
+Among the Indians.
+
+Along the southern shores of Alaska and on the banks of the rivers of
+the inland country are many Indian villages. They belong to several
+different tribes, but their way of living is much the same. Their huts
+are generally built of logs and bark, and they like best to dress in the
+bright-colored blankets, with red and yellow handkerchiefs on their
+heads, which they get in barter from the white traders. The red children
+have broad faces, black eyes, and black hair. Long ago, before the white
+men lived among them, these little Indians believed that they could make
+themselves more beautiful by tattooing their bodies. As these poor
+children grew up, they suffered many an hour of pain while the red or
+blue lines were marked on their chins by threads drawn along under the
+skin. Now, however, as the red men learn more and more of the ways of
+the white people, this cruel fashion is passing away. Many of the little
+Indians of Alaska go to school, where they take delight in learning to
+read and write. They are rather slow, but they are very patient, and
+proud indeed are they when they have mastered a hard lesson.
+
+Most of them, however, are still in Mother Nature's school alone, but
+their bright eyes are continually learning new things about the trees
+and the flowers, and the wild animals that roam through the forests and
+over the snowfields. These children of the red men delight in the water.
+The rivers of Alaska are the roadways, and here as well as on the coast,
+the boys paddle in their canoes for many a mile, hunting, fishing, and
+racing. Many an Indian has a morning bath in the ice-cold river, or in
+the ocean. "It will make my child strong," his mother thinks, and so,
+whether it be a bright summer day, or a dark and freezing winter
+morning, in he goes for his daily plunge.
+
+In front of many homes of the red children are tall, straight posts.
+Horrible-looking faces are carved upon these posts, as well as the
+figures of birds, fishes and wild animals.
+
+"It is the totem-pole," the Indian child will tell you with pride. The
+totem is the mark of his family. It is even more to him than is the
+coat-of-arms to many an Englishman. Suppose a wolf is the principal
+carving upon the pole. The child's parents tell him it is their
+guardian, and the child learns to look upon it with reverence. Perhaps
+his grandfather or his great-grandfather dreamed of the wolf while he
+was fasting alone in the forest. He thought it was a vision from heaven,
+and he chose it henceforth to be the totem of his tribe or of his
+family.
+
+
+Candle Fish.
+
+Since Alaska lies so far north, the winter must be long and dark. No
+lamps are needed to light the huts, however, if the children and their
+parents have provided themselves with enough candle-fish. These fish are
+about ten inches long, but quite thin. Strange to say, they are full of
+oil, and after being carefully dried, they will burn like torches. One
+of them will give as much light as two or three candles. At certain
+times of the year, schools of candle-fish enter the mouths of the rivers
+which empty into the ocean. The Indian children watch for their coming,
+and as soon as they appear, they and their parents go down to the shore
+and rake them out of the water by the bushel.
+
+The Indian mothers not only dry the candle-fish for lighting their
+winter homes, but they also boil great numbers of them, for in this way
+they get a supply of hardened oil that takes the place of butter. The
+older and the more rancid this oil is, the better they like it.
+
+In the short Alaskan summer the fruits and flowers grow very fast. It
+seems as though they must make the best possible use of the sunshine. In
+the southern part of the country the children can pick the most
+beautiful bouquets of white clover, maiden-hair ferns, and
+bright-colored wild flowers. They go berrying to their hearts' content,
+too. There are fields and fields filled with tall blueberry bushes;
+there are the juicy yellow salmon berries; there are cranberries,
+blackberries, red and white currants, and bilberries, but the best of
+all are the sweet, wild strawberries that almost melt in the mouth.
+Certainly the children of the greater part of Alaska can feast on good
+things in summer. Why, the berries are so plentiful that not only the
+boys and girls, but the birds of the country get fat with the rich
+living. Many of the wild geese, indeed, can hardly fly after the
+summer's feast, and are then easily caught by the boys and their
+fathers.
+
+Even in winter there are berries to add to the dinner of fish and oil,
+for during the summer the children gather many bushels for their mothers
+to dry and store away. Berries, fish and oil! Surely, think the people,
+a person should be content if he has plenty of these three dainties.
+There are deer and bears, mountain goats, wild ducks and geese. All
+these are good for a change, but they cannot compare with fish, either
+fresh or dried, with an abundance of hardened oil spread over them.
+
+Along the coasts there are clams and oysters, mussels and crabs. The
+natives like these, too; they dry and string them on long blades of
+grass for the winter season. Thus they have more variety of food than
+the people of Greenland.
+
+
+Catching Salmon.
+
+The boys of southern Alaska spend much time along the shores of the
+waters which teem with cod and halibut, besides many smaller fish. But
+most plentiful of all are the salmon that leave the ocean as spring
+opens and enter the mouths of the rivers. How busy the people are then!
+The men and boys have nets all ready, and with these they paddle out
+into the water in their canoes. After the season has well opened, they
+load their boats again and again in one day, and before the season is
+over there is many a time when they simply scoop the fish on to the
+shore with the blades of their paddles. Salmon are so sweet and fat,
+that the Indians are very fond of them. They can feast on fresh fish
+during the summer, while the women split up great numbers of them and
+hang them up on racks to dry for the coming winter.
+
+Many years ago the white people learned that salmon are plentiful in
+Alaska, so that now the Indians are busy, not only in getting the fish
+for themselves, but for the factories where tin boxes and casks are made
+by the hundreds and packed with the delicious fish which are sent to the
+people of the United States and elsewhere. Sometimes the children of the
+white men who are in the salmon business go to live in Alaska and there
+they see many a strange sight. They look with wonder at the half-naked
+Indian boys and girls, with their wild bright eyes. They watch with envy
+as the red children glide over the water in their light bark canoes, and
+race with one another on the rivers. They shudder at the hideous faces
+carved on the totem poles. They look on with delight at the dances and
+the odd games of their red neighbors, and they laugh when they hear of
+Mr. Bruin and his way of catching fish. They would rather not be alone,
+however, when the bear is creeping down through the woods to get his
+dinner. They think he might possibly prefer a white child to the
+delicate pink salmon, but in this they are quite mistaken.
+
+
+Bears.
+
+The bears seem to know when the salmon arrive as well as the human
+beings do. They leave their homes in the woods and make their way down
+to the quiet little coves along the shore. When the fish come crowding
+in, out go the bears' paws into the water, scooping in the salmon of
+which they are so fond. Mr. Bruin swallows one after another until he
+has had his fill; then he creeps away as quietly as he came, to seek
+safety once more among the trees of the forest. Sometimes, alas, the
+white hunter discovers the trail and follows the bear to the shore. Then
+bang! bang! sounds through the air and Bruin's salmon feasts are over.
+
+There are many bears in Alaska,--black, cinnamon, and in the far north
+the dangerous grizzly; but the red boy's father teaches him that it is
+best not to kill these animals. He has an idea that the bear's spirit
+will be angry and harm him if he does so. The white traders, however,
+want the skins and are willing to pay a good price for them, so the
+Indians sometimes go bear hunting, although after they meet with
+success, they go through strange rites, hoping thus to make peace with
+the bear's spirit.
+
+
+Whales and Sea Otters.
+
+As the children who live along the shores of Alaska look out to sea,
+they sometimes notice what appears to be a water spout, then another and
+another far away in the distance. It is the blowing of a school of
+whales, which have come up to the surface for fresh air. They run to
+tell the news to the older folks of the village, for nothing could be
+more delicious than a dinner of whale. The men get their lances ready at
+once and hurry down to their canoes. Then away they paddle with all
+their might in the direction in which the monsters have been seen.
+
+If they succeed in coming upon the whales, there is busy and dangerous
+work for a while. The hunters must not think of fear as they draw near
+to the huge creatures to throw their spears in such a way as to inflict
+dangerous wounds. Then away they must paddle for dear life so as not to
+be swamped by the whales as they dive below. Before the men threw their
+lances they carefully fastened sealskin buoys to them. As the whales
+plunge after being wounded, these buoys on the surface make it hard for
+them to stay below and they are soon worn out. When the hunters have
+wounded a whale as much as possible, they go home and wait for the tide
+to bring the dead animal ashore. Then there is a great feast in the
+village and all make merry. Many years ago white men fitted out big
+ships to sail into the northern waters after whales. In those days the
+oil was burnt in lamps; but now, since kerosene is plentiful, whale-oil
+with its unpleasant odor is little used. Whale-bone, however, is still
+valuable, and for this reason many ships are still engaged hunting these
+monsters of the sea.
+
+The Alaskan boys are ever on the watch for sea-otters. These shy
+creatures never leave the ocean, except when they have little ones to
+care for. Even then, it is said, the mother sea-otter sometimes chooses
+a bed of sea-weed out on the waves and there she floats, with her babes
+beside her. It is a curious sight. More curious still is it to see one
+of these huge creatures asleep on her back, floating along on the
+surface of the water, with her little ones held in her close embrace. A
+party of Indians often go on a sea-otter hunt, for the animal is covered
+with fine black fur, through which are scattered long white hairs. It is
+very beautiful, and the white traders are always willing to pay a large
+sum for a sea-otter skin.
+
+The hunters must paddle quite a distance out to sea before they begin to
+look for an otter's nose to appear above the surface of the water as the
+creature comes up to breathe. The moment it is seen, they swing their
+canoes around in a wide circle. Then, with spears in hand, they watch
+eagerly for the right moment to hurl them. Many days sometimes pass
+before the patient watchers are rewarded with even the sight of the
+longed-for prize, and even then the hunters may fail to secure it, yet
+it is worth all the time they spend, for the fur is among the richest
+and the rarest in the world. Indeed, the sea-otter is rarely found
+except in the waters which wash the shores of Alaska.
+
+More than once an Indian child has tried to raise a sea-otter, but he
+has never succeeded, for he cannot make the little creature eat, and it
+soon starves to death.
+
+
+Seal-Hunting.
+
+You remember that on the islands reaching out into the west from Alaska,
+many children are living who are neither Indians nor Eskimos. They are
+called Aleuts. Before the coming of the white people the Aleuts looked
+much like the Japanese, but afterwards the Russians married among them,
+so that many of their children to-day have lost much of the appearance
+of the yellow race.
+
+Few trees grow around the homes of the Aleuts but enough wood drifts
+over from the forests of the mainland to furnish fuel for their fires.
+They live in dark, damp huts built mostly underground, so it is no
+wonder that they love best to be out-of-doors when the hills and the
+fields are covered with pretty grasses, mosses, and bright flowers in
+the summer time. Many blue foxes run wild through the islands and these
+are hunted by the men, for the fur is very valuable and the white
+traders are always ready to buy the skins.
+
+The little Aleuts love the sea, where they paddle about in their light
+canoes, or fish in the clear waters. Northward from the Aleutian islands
+are two others called the Pribylov or Seal Islands. Thick fogs shut them
+in during the summer, while in the winter the shores are surrounded with
+drift ice. They are very important, however, because they are the
+greatest hunting grounds for seals in the whole world. The Aleuts are
+the only people who live on these islands, except for a few white men
+who oversee the work of killing the seals. The villages are scattered
+here and there, close to the sea, each with its church and its
+school-house, and during the winter the little Aleuts pass their time
+quietly in play and study.
+
+But when the spring comes, they are full of excitement, as they watch
+the seals, big and little, old and young, gather on their shores. No one
+knows how far these creatures have traveled, nor in what distant waters
+they have passed the winter. Come they do, however, by hundreds and
+thousands, and on the shores of these islands the baby seals are born.
+They are graceful little creatures, and play and frolic together like
+kittens. When they are born they are quite blind, but they begin to see
+after a few days. When they are about six weeks old their mother leads
+them down to the water for their first swim. At first they are afraid,
+but their mother coaxes and urges them on, so that in a short time they
+are able to swim about with ease. Before long they enjoy this new
+water-life as much as their fathers and mothers do, and are soon able to
+hunt for the small fishes and kelp which are the seals' principal food.
+The hunting season lasts about six weeks, and begins early in June, soon
+after the arrival of the seals. The men arm themselves with clubs, and
+then drive the seals up into a cleared space away from the shore, where
+the animals are helpless, because they are clumsy and move slowly when
+out of the water. A single blow on the seal's head is enough to end his
+life, and to give the hunter the beautiful soft skin he wishes.
+
+Year after year goes around and each summer brings herds of seals to
+these islands, with no understanding that thousands of their number are
+coming only to die at the hands of the hunters. Sometimes the Indian
+boys catch baby seals and keep therm for pets. They are gentle little
+creatures, and soon learn to love their young masters, and to follow
+them about. They bark much like puppies and are often taught to do
+tricks.
+
+
+Hunting in Alaska.
+
+The Indian boys of Alaska could tell you many stories about the wild
+animals they hunt with their fathers. There are martens, with their soft
+brown fur, black and silver foxes, beavers, muskrats, mountain-goats,
+moose, deer, otter and many others which roam in great numbers over the
+hills and through the valleys. The Yukon River, one of the largest in
+the world, is the most important one in Alaska, and through the country
+on either side of it the wild animals are found in great numbers. The
+hunters get many of them in traps. There, on the banks of that great
+river, hundreds of canvas-back ducks lay their eggs on the platforms of
+grass and twigs which they build on the low marshes, and the Indian
+children go in parties to hunt for their eggs and the baby ducklings.
+
+[Illustration: An Alaskan Village Showing Indian Totem Poles.]
+
+The older boys trap many a fox and musk-rat, whose skins they proudly
+give to their fathers who will sell them to the white traders, and get
+sugar, tea, and blankets in exchange. They spend hours in hunting along
+the banks of the stream for beaver villages, and taking these little
+creatures unawares.
+
+
+The Gold Mines.
+
+Not many years ago it was found that not only furs and salmon could be
+obtained in Alaska, but in some places the rocks were rich with precious
+gold. The Treadmill gold-mine is one of the most valuable in the world.
+The men who work there do not have to leave the sunlight and dig far
+down under the earth, for the mine, or rather quarry, is above ground,
+and there the workers are kept busy, breaking away the masses of rock
+which are afterwards crushed in heavy stamps, to separate the gold from
+the quartz. When darkness falls, electric lights make everything as
+bright as day. There are more than two hundred of these stamps at the
+Treadmill mine, so you can imagine that when all are at work crushing
+the great masses of rock, the noise is enough to deafen one's ears.
+
+As the gold is separated, it is made up into bricks, each one of which
+is worth between fifteen and eighteen thousand dollars! These bricks are
+afterwards sent in ship loads to the mint at San Francisco.
+
+
+Sitka.
+
+On an island off the southern shore of Alaska, lies Sitka, the capital
+of the territory. It was built long ago when the Russians owned the
+country, and even now you may visit the moss-grown Castle, where the
+governors always lived. There they held many a feast and dance, to which
+the savage Indian chiefs from the country around were sometimes invited.
+Fine glass and silver, which had come all the way from Russia, sparkled
+at these feasts. Grand ladies in silks and satins laughed and chatted
+beneath the soft light of hundreds of candles, trying perhaps to forget
+their longing for home.
+
+Now that Alaska belongs to the United States, many things have been done
+to make Sitka healthful and comfortable. The new governors chose Indians
+for policemen. Very grand they must have thought themselves when they
+first put on their blue uniforms, with gilt letters on their caps and
+silver stars on their breasts.
+
+Among other wise things, the governor made the law, that the children
+must go to school. Now, there were many Indians in Sitka, and they did
+not understand what a fine thing it is to have learning. But the
+governor directed that all the houses must be numbered. Not only this,
+but each child of the house was given a number, and this was stamped on
+a tiny, round plate which he was obliged to wear on a string tied around
+his neck. He had to show this number to the school-teacher and in this
+way one could keep track of him.
+
+Whenever an excursion steamer enters the harbor, the people of Sitka
+make ready for a holiday, while the Indians hasten to get out their
+blankets to sell to the visitors. Many people travel in Alaska in the
+summer time, on purpose to see the wonderful sights there,--the high
+mountains covered with snow, the valleys filled with flowers, the wild
+Indians, the strange huts before which the totem poles rise high in the
+air; but most interesting of all are the glaciers, whose beginning is
+far up in the snow-covered mountains. Slowly but surely, they make their
+way down to the sea, growing larger as other and smaller glaciers join
+themselves to them. There is a certain bay in Alaska which the summer
+visitors are sure to visit if they can possibly do so. It is called
+Glacier Bay, because of an immense glacier which enters it. Imagine
+yourself on a steamer entering this bay on a bright sunshiny day of
+mid-summer. Yet you shiver, for the air begins to grow colder and
+colder. It is no wonder, for icebergs meet your eyes on every side. They
+are clear as crystal and are lighted with the most beautiful
+colors,--delicate pinks and blues. As you look, you fancy that they have
+the shapes of different animals or of grand castles. Some of them,
+indeed, seem like great lonely beings. From time to time flocks of birds
+pass overhead and light on the bergs for a short rest.
+
+Whence did these bergs come, and whither are they drifting so slowly?
+You look ahead and there before you is the Muir glacier entering the
+sea. As you draw nearer it seems like a mighty fortress. The captain of
+the steamer tells you that its face is three miles wide, and that all
+these icebergs, among which the ship has to be steered so carefully,
+have broken away from this one glacier. He does not dare to carry his
+passengers too near, for some time, without any warning, a fresh berg
+may break away. As it plunges into the bay, with a noise like thunder,
+it will stir the waters into an angry whirlpool.
+
+There are many other glaciers in Alaska, but this one is the largest and
+the most wonderful of them all. Geysers and volcanos are also to be
+found in the country. One of the mountains, named Mt. McKinley, is the
+highest peak in North America. Another, Mt. Elias, rises almost out of
+the ocean, and its cloak of snow and ice reaches nearly to its base.
+When boys and girls wish to travel where they can see many strange and
+wonderful sights, they would do well to take a summer's trip to
+Alaska,--the land of gold and fur, of waterfalls, geysers and glaciers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV--Little Folks of Canada
+
+
+
+The First White Settlers
+
+If you look at the map of North America, you will find that nearly the
+whole upper half, with the exception of Alaska, bears the name of the
+Dominion of Canada. Its northern shores are bathed by the cold waters of
+the Arctic Ocean. On the east is the great Atlantic, and on the west is
+the stormy Pacific. The boys and girls who live in this vast country can
+travel for hundreds of miles along mighty rivers; they can sail on lakes
+so great that they may lose sight of land and grow seasick from the
+motion of the boat as it moves through the waves; they can climb high
+mountains capped with snow in the hottest summer weather; they can
+wander over vast prairies for days and even weeks at a time with no view
+of anything as far as the eye can see, save miles and miles of grass;
+they can lose themselves in thick forests where only wild animals and
+Indian hunters have ever ventured before. All these things are possible
+for the Canadian child without moving out of the land which he calls
+home.
+
+Once upon a time, less than fifty years after Columbus discovered the
+New World, a brave Frenchman named Jacques Cartier left his sunny home
+in France, and sailed into the west. The king of France had heard of the
+wonderful land which Columbus had discovered, and which the Spaniards
+had begun to settle. He wished to have some part of it for himself, so
+he directed Cartier to go farther north than the Spaniards had done.
+When he reached a good place for a home, he was to land and set up the
+flag of France.
+
+Cartier, with two ships, each of which bore sixty-one men, set out. They
+crossed the ocean and arrived on the coast of a large island. Its shores
+were still blocked with ice, although it was the month of April. To-day
+we know this island as Newfoundland or New-found-land. The Frenchmen
+were not pleased with the country, for it looked bare and rocky. When
+they landed, they were met by savages with red skins and black hair tied
+on the top of their heads, "Like a wreath of hay," as Carter said. He
+was quite sure that this was not a fit place for a home; so the ships
+were turned northward. They soon entered a large gulf which received the
+name of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
+
+On the shores of this gulf the white men were also met by Indians, whose
+homes were their upturned canoes. The savages wore little or no
+clothing; they lived on fish and flesh that was scarcely cooked; they
+seemed poor and very savage. The country, which was the mainland of
+Canada, looked pleasant, and Carter set up a tall cross and took
+possession of it in the name of France. He induced the Indian chief to
+allow his two sons to go back to France with him. Then he set sail for
+home, eager to tell his friends of the land he had visited.
+
+The next year Cartier returned to Canada with a goodly company. They
+entered the gulf of St. Lawrence, as they had done before, but they
+sailed on until they came to the mouth of a wide river.
+
+"It flows from afar off," said the two Indians who had gone to France
+with Cartier, and who had returned with him. "No man has ever seen its
+beginning," they continued.
+
+"Perhaps," thought Cartier, who had no idea how vast was the new land
+that he had discovered, "it is not a river. It is so broad and so deep,
+it may be an arm of the ocean, and if I follow it, I may find the short
+way to India, about which so many have dreamed."
+
+So he and his men kept on their way up the St. Lawrence River, stopping
+from time to time to admire the beautiful country and the wonderful
+sights that met them on every hand. Wild grape vines hung from the trees
+along the banks, and the delicious fruit was even now ripening.
+Water-fowls flew over their heads, and they got glimpses of wild animals
+such as they had never seen before. Most interesting of all were the
+little Indian villages scattered here and there along the shore.
+
+From one of the settlements Cartier was passing, the people came out in
+their canoes to get a better sight of the white men, but they were
+afraid to come close to the ships, till Cartier's two young Indian
+friends spoke to them and told them not to fear. Then they came on board
+and listened to the story of the visit the two Indian youths had made in
+France, and of the wonderful things that had happened to them. The
+Indians were now quite sure that the strangers meant only good to them,
+and that there was nothing to fear.
+
+They hastened to bring presents to the visitors and show friendship in
+every way that they knew. Cartier did not stay long in the place,
+however. He sailed on till he came to a fine harbor beneath steep, high
+cliffs. An Indian village stood here. To-day it is the site of the city
+of Quebec.
+
+"Farther on, up the river, is a still larger town of our people, and it
+is ruled over by a very powerful chief," the Indians there told him.
+
+"But the way is long and dangerous," added their own chief. "You had
+better not go there."
+
+When he said this, he was thinking of the store of knives,
+bright-colored beads, and tiny looking-glasses the white men had shown
+him. A few of these strange and beautiful things had been given to him.
+He could not bear to think of that other chief also receiving some.
+
+But Cartier was not to be frightened. He set sail once more and for
+thirteen days the ships kept on their way up the river. From time to
+time they stopped at Indian villages where the red children and their
+parents came dancing about them, bringing presents of fruit and fish.
+The savages told many stories about the country beyond; gold and
+precious stones were to be found there, and there were strange beings
+who lived without food. Still Cartier traveled on until he reached a
+village of at least fifty huts.
+
+There was a three-fold wall of stakes around it, and fields where leaves
+of corn were waving in the autumn wind. Behind this village was a hill
+which Cartier called Mount Royal. To-day, in the very spot where the
+Indian village once stood, is the large city of Montreal, the most
+important one in the country. Cartier and his men stayed in Canada for
+several months. They built two forts on the banks of the St. Lawrence;
+they made gardens, and marked out a road. They were of good heart until
+the long, cold winter was upon them, longer and colder than they had
+ever known. Many grew homesick with longing for sunny France; others
+fell ill. At last they decided to give up the settlement and to return
+home.
+
+After that French ships visited Canada from time to time. They stopped
+to get loads of furs which the Indians were glad to sell, but no one
+came to settle in the country for many years.
+
+At last the king of France said to himself, "I cannot hold the land on
+the other side of the ocean, unless I send people there to settle, and
+it is worth while to keep it because of the furs we can get in trade
+from the Indian hunters."
+
+He sent over a colony of settlers who came sailing one bright day into
+the harbor of Port Royal. They landed on the beautiful shore and were
+soon busy building a chapel and a fort, as well as homes for themselves.
+A good priest came with them. He was so kind and gentle that even the
+savages loved him, and were quite willing to listen to the stories that
+he told them of a heavenly Father, and Jesus, the Savior of men.
+
+
+The Explorer Champlain.
+
+Among the settlers was the brave Champlain, who advised building a fort
+above the steep cliffs under which Cartier had anchored his ships years
+before. Workmen were soon at work on a fort, a chapel, and homes for the
+settlers. It was the beginning of the strong fortress and city of
+Quebec.
+
+After these first settlers, came other Frenchmen and their families, and
+before many years, the red children and the white were playing merrily
+together.
+
+"You must love each other," the gentle French priest had told them.
+"Though you are of different races, yet you are the children of the one
+Father."
+
+So it was that the sons and daughters of the Frenchmen grew up with no
+fear of the little savages. Why, their priests often went to live in the
+Indian villages, that they might better show their friendship. Indians
+were often invited to feasts held in the white men's homes and joined in
+their sports. Moreover, the children's own relatives often chose Indian
+maidens for their wives, and were very happy with them. And because of
+this last, there came in time to be many people in Canada who were
+called halfbreeds, as they were partly French and partly Indian.
+
+
+The Coming of the English.
+
+Many years passed quietly by. The French people in Canada lived
+peacefully with their red neighbors. They built trading stations out in
+the country, and here furs were brought in great numbers by the Indian
+hunters. Forts were also built along the banks of the St. Lawrence, and
+still farther into the wilderness, on the shores of the Five Great
+Lakes, which separate Canada from the United States.
+
+The French explorers and priests went even farther, for they made their
+way from these lakes down into the United States, never stopping till
+they had sailed the whole length of the Mississippi River. Everywhere
+they went they planted the French flag and claimed the country in the
+name of the king across the ocean. Now, the English, who had settled on
+the southern side of the Great Lakes, did not like the idea of the
+French becoming so powerful in North America; thus it came about after a
+while that there were wars between the two peoples.
+
+The Indians of Canada took the part of their French friends. Terrible
+battles were fought; brave soldiers were killed; cruel deeds were done
+to women and little children by the savage Indians. Years passed by and
+the troubles did not come to an end. It seemed as though there was no
+way of settling matters and making peace.
+
+All this time a little boy was growing up in England. His name was James
+Wolfe. He was delicate and sickly, yet his bright, clear eyes showed
+that he had a strong will. He longed with all his heart to be a soldier.
+And soldier he became, though it seemed as if he would never be able to
+bear such a hard life.
+
+When he was only sixteen he fought for his country in Flanders. He soon
+showed how brave he was, and became a high officer in the army. He was
+sent to America to fight against the French and Indians. If he could
+only get to Quebec, he thought. It was the strongest fortress of all the
+enemy held. But that seemed impossible, for no one dreamed that an army
+could scale the steep crags above which the fortress was built.
+
+Yet Wolfe kept thinking, thinking. By this time he was the commander of
+a whole fleet of English ships. At last there came a day when he sailed
+boldly up the St. Lawrence, and landed his men on the shore opposite to
+Quebec. He set up great cannons which should fire upon the fortress
+across the river. The siege began. In the midst of it heavy rain fell;
+Wolfe and many of his men became ill. Though he was burning with fever
+he still kept planning. One day, as he looked through his telescope, he
+saw something that he had never noticed before. It was a narrow path,--O,
+so very narrow--that wound in and out, yet ever upward, to the top of the
+crags that guarded Quebec.
+
+He said to himself, "My men and I shall climb that path and take the
+fortress by surprise."
+
+Soon afterwards, on a dark night, they did climb it. Wolfe himself rose
+from his sick bed and led them. As the sun rose the next morning the
+English army appeared on the Plains of Abraham, behind the fort, and one
+of the great battles of the world was fought. Before night fell, Quebec
+was in the hands of the English. Both Wolfe, and Montcalm, the French
+commander were killed. Henceforth, not only Quebec, but all Canada would
+be ruled over by the English.
+
+
+Henry Hudson and the Great Lone Land.
+
+It was in the year 1610, that a brave seaman named Henry Hudson, sailed
+northward along the shores of North America. He had already discovered
+the Hudson River in the United States, and traded with the Indians there
+for furs. He had tried to find a short way to India but had failed. Now
+he hoped by going still farther he might yet discover it. On and still
+on he sailed till he entered a large bay on the northern shore of
+Canada, which ever since has been called Hudson Bay. Here, in the midst
+of ice and snow, he and his men were obliged to pass the winter. There
+was little to eat, and it was bitter cold.
+
+His men blamed him for bringing them to such suffering, and at last rose
+against him. They set him adrift in a small boat, with his young son and
+a few faithful followers. Then, leaving him to die of cold and hunger,
+they sailed for home, to tell of the large bay that had been discovered,
+and of the wild country around it. As time went by other Englishmen
+visited Hudson Bay, but they had no wish to stay long in its icy waters
+or on its lonely shores.
+
+At last, however, a number of English merchants formed themselves into
+the Hudson Bay company.
+
+They said, "We will send men to North America who shall build forts
+along the shore of Hudson Bay. They shall buy furs of the Indians, and
+send them to us here in England. The furs of the wild animals there are
+rich and beautiful, and will bring us riches."
+
+In this way it came about that English ships brought to Canada men who
+at once set to work building forts and trading stations in the
+neighborhood of the bay discovered by Henry Hudson. They had with them
+knives and hatchets, beads and bright colored blankets,--everything that
+an Indian might wish in exchange for his furs. They treated the red men
+kindly, for they wanted to trade peaceably with them, but at the same
+time they kept their guns ready in case of an attack by the savages.
+
+
+Alexander Mackenzie and his long Journey.
+
+Even after the English had won the country for themselves, they did not
+know how large it was, for no one had explored the country from north to
+south or from east to west. At last a brave Scotchman named Alexander
+Mackenzie came to settle in Canada. He was fond of adventure and liked
+nothing better than roaming for miles through the wilderness, hunting
+the wild animals in the forest, and skimming over the lakes and down the
+streams in an Indian canoe. He visited many a settlement where the red
+children had never before looked upon a white man; he discovered rivers
+and lakes of which the French and English knew nothing before. He
+arrived in his wanderings on the shore of the Great Slave Lake in the
+very heart of the country. A large river flowed out of it. Where did it
+go, and how far? The Indians could not tell him.
+
+At the beginning of the summer, he set out with a small party of white
+men and an Indian guide. At first it was very pleasant paddling down the
+river in their canoes, but after a few days they came to rapids. Then
+they had to take to the land and carry their canoes and their supplies
+on their shoulders. As they traveled onward they came to still other
+rapids which stopped their course again and again.
+
+The farther north they traveled, the colder it became. The days were
+much longer, too, for it was nearing mid-summer. It seemed very strange
+to them to have the midnight as bright as daylight. The wild animals
+were scarce now.
+
+"Suppose," thought Mackenzie, "we are unable to shoot enough for our
+food," but still he kept on. He passed Indian villages on his way, and
+at last met with Eskimos who were wandering about on their summer hunt.
+
+The wild animals were different now from what the explorers had met
+before; they had reached the home of the polar bear and the arctic fox.
+The river was full of broken ice and there were whales in the water.
+They were close to the shores of the Arctic Ocean, and had traveled a
+thousand miles down the great river, which they named Mackenzie in honor
+of their brave leader. The party did not remain long in the bleak,
+northern country, but turned about and journeyed homeward as quickly as
+possible.
+
+Three years afterwards Mackenzie made up his mind to cross Canada to the
+westward. Slowly but surely he made his way, now gliding along a stream
+or over a lake in his canoe; now cutting a path through a thick forest;
+again finding himself stopped by high cliffs or by a rushing torrent.
+But he kept on until he came to the Rocky Mountains, whose snowy tops
+reached far up towards the heavens.
+
+"Not far beyond those mountains is the sea," Mackenzie's Indian guide
+told him.
+
+He still pushed on, through narrow passes, between walls of rock, up
+steep slopes and down through deep valleys. At last he reached the other
+side, launching his boats in a stream flowing to the west. In a short
+time the Pacific Ocean lay stretched before his eyes.
+
+
+Among the Eskimos and Indians.
+
+The middle of Canada is a great plain, which ends in the north in frozen
+marshes, where the homes of the little Eskimos are to be found. There,
+in the midst of the ice and snow they work and play, in much the same
+way as their brothers and sisters in Greenland and Alaska.
+
+Farther south, yet still where the summer is short, and the winter is
+long and cold, Indian children camp out on the prairies and on the
+borders of the forests. Most of these red children live in tents, or
+tepees, as they call them. The winter tents are lined with heavy skins,
+and a large fire burns in the middle, around which they sleep during the
+cold winter nights. They dress in the skins of the wild animals their
+fathers have killed, and they wear soft moccasins on their feet. They
+run many a mile in these moccasins without getting tired or losing their
+breath.
+
+Sometimes the little Indians have great feasts when ducks and geese,
+deer and hares are to be found, or when the berries and birds' eggs are
+plentiful. But many a time during the long winter game is scarce, and
+there is no food to be had. Then the children must not complain, though
+they are faint with hunger. If an Indian child hopes to grow up and be a
+brave man, he must learn to bear many things and show no one how much he
+is suffering.
+
+Fearful storms rage about his home in the winter. The snow falls hour
+after hour and the fierce winds drive it in great gusts. Sometimes in
+summer the winds blow hard too, but then they are hot and dry and they
+scorch the faces of those who are exposed to them.
+
+The red children learn many things not to be found in books. They look
+at the grass,--the way the blades turn shows them where to look for the
+east and west. The flight of birds warns them of a coming storm and in
+what direction to look for it. A broken twig tells them that a wild
+animal has passed by.
+
+They have many sports. In winter they bind snow-shoes on their feet and
+skim over the snowfields. In summer they ride over the prairies on their
+ponies with pads of deer skin beneath them.
+
+[Illustration: Little Canadian Indian Children.]
+
+Sometimes they let their ponies move along at a slow walk; but more
+often they gallop wildly along, with black hair waving in the air, and
+with bright and eager eyes. Then, too, the red children have canoes, in
+which they paddle on the lakes or streams near home.
+
+The canoe of the Canadian Indian is the best possible boat for the kind
+of life he follows, just as the Eskimo's kayak suits the icy waters of
+the north. Everything he needs for it can be found in the forest. He
+cuts down the cedar for its ribs, he gathers birch-bark with which to
+cover it, he gets resin from the pine to make it water-tight. When the
+ice begins to break up in the springtime and the wild swans and geese
+fly overhead, then he takes it from its winter resting place beneath the
+snow and launches it on the lake or stream near his home. With his birch
+canoe he can travel a long way through the wilderness, for when he has
+hunted or fished all day long, he can bring his canoe up on the shore
+and turn it bottom upwards. In an instant he has a roof to shelter him
+while he takes his night's sleep.
+
+The Indian children are sure to have dogs about their home. These are
+long-legged, sharp-nosed creatures, and they always look lean and
+hungry. Sometimes a puppy is cared for tenderly. Then, perhaps, it grows
+up full of love for its young master. But generally the dogs are only
+half-fed, and they are ever ready to fight with each other, and rob the
+stores of their masters. Yet they are very helpful to the Indian, as
+well as to many a white traveler in Canada. They drag the sledges over
+the snow in the winter and the little carts in the summer.
+
+Many a time they stop to quarrel among themselves; many a time the
+sledge is over-turned and the rider is landed in a bank of snow. Many a
+time the dogs refuse to obey the word of the driver. Then the long whip
+flies right and left among them, and with angry howls they get back into
+order.
+
+
+Wild Animals of the Forest and Prairie.
+
+Out on the prairies and among the forests are many wild animals which
+the Indian boy delights to hunt. He has a bow and arrows of his own, and
+when he his older, his father promises him that he will buy him a gun
+from the white traders. Perhaps the most clever of all the animals
+hunted in Canada is the beaver. It might well be called the
+animal-carpenter. Its favorite home is a shallow lake or stream. The
+children of the wilderness are ever on the lookout for small earth
+mounds along the banks. Whenever they find these, they also notice that
+trees have been cut down nearby. It was certainly the work of beavers.
+These little mounds, then, are the roofs of store houses where the wise
+little creatures have placed piles of tender wood and roots, for their
+winter's supply.
+
+From these store-houses, tunnels have been dug out for some distance
+under the shallow water of the pond or stream, to the very doors of the
+beavers' homes, which have been made very carefully out of twigs and
+brush, and plastered with mud. The tops can generally be seen above the
+surface of the water. Inside there are beds of boughs covered with soft
+grass and bark, and here the beavers sleep most of the hours during the
+winter. If the hunters come upon a beaver village in cold weather, there
+is no sign that the animals are near, for the beavers are all inside
+their homes. This is the time to get them, however, for then the soft
+thick fur is at its best.
+
+In the autumn the men and boys generally catch the animals in traps, but
+in the winter, when the ice is frozen quite solid, the hunters stop up
+the passage from the beaver's home to his store-house on the bank. Then
+with their axes, they break into the lodges, and dragging out the fat
+sleepy animals, they kill them, one by one. The sledges are soon packed
+and the hunters start for home, thinking as they go, of the feast of fat
+meat they will soon have. The beautiful furs must be tanned and put away
+for the traders, but the flesh of the animals they will enjoy
+themselves.
+
+Besides beavers, there are martens, minks and fishers to be hunted and
+trapped, as well as muskrats and skunks. As soon as autumn comes the men
+and boys begin to put their traps in order, for with the first cold of
+November, they will carry them out to the pine forests. The Indian
+children would tell you that they cannot imagine why the fisher is so
+called. They know its ways and that it never goes near to the water
+except when it has to cross over to the other side. It has a long bushy
+tail and its fur is even richer than the costly sable.
+
+As for the mink, they have discovered it is quite different from either
+the marten or the fisher, and its fur is not as beautiful. It lives near
+the streams and feeds upon crabs and fish. Many a time the young Indian
+has caught a mink by baiting his trap with fish.
+
+Sometimes, as the children are playing around the camp in the evening,
+they hear a sudden screech in the distance. It is the cry of a wild-cat,
+or lynx. They would not care to have it take them by surprise, for it is
+a fierce creature, and its teeth and claws are very sharp. The men,
+however, hunt wild-cats and get many of them every year, because they
+are well paid for the skins.
+
+Then there are foxes, silver and black and red. Many thousands of these
+sly creatures are shot or trapped every year in Canada. Sometimes a
+fox-cub is brought into the camp to amuse the children. It is a gentle,
+pretty creature at first, but before long it will show the ugly cunning
+of its parents.
+
+The boys sometimes search for muskrats, whose homes are much like those
+of the beavers, a number of them always found together.
+
+
+Off for the Hunt.
+
+There are many half-breed children in Canada, as you already know. They
+grow up with a love of hunting like their Indian brothers. They dress in
+Indian fashion, wearing moccasins and leggings. Many of them live in
+rough log huts and sleep on piles of brush covered with fur robes. When
+the cold weather sets in, the Indian, and the half-breed boy as well,
+does what he can to help the men of the household get ready for the
+busiest work of the year, as the trapping and hunting season is at hand.
+
+By the first of November the lakes and streams are frozen, and the
+winter coats of the wild animals are at their best. On a bright, frosty
+morning, often with the thermometer below zero, the trapper dresses
+himself in his thickest socks and moccasins, warm leggings and cloak. He
+fastens a fur cap down over his head and draws on his long fur mittens
+which reach up to his elbows. A hatchet, hunting knife, and fire-bag
+hang from his belt.
+
+While he is dressing, his wife is busy preparing his pack, for he may be
+gone several days. The pack consists of a blanket, a kettle and cup,
+sugar and salt, tea, of which the Indians are very fond, and enough
+pemmican to last several days. Pemmican is dried meat ground fine and
+mixed with fat. If the trapper is not very poor he has steel traps and a
+gun to add to his pack. When it is ready, it is bound to a hand sledge
+which is simply a thin board curled up at one end. It is easily drawn
+over the snow, and at the end of the hunt is loaded with furs and game
+to carry home.
+
+Now for the snow shoes! When these have been bound on his feet, the
+trapper can skim over the snow fields with the greatest ease, drawing
+his sledge behind him. He must not sing nor make any noise as he moves
+along; nor if he has any company can there be any loud talking.
+Otherwise the animals whom he seeks, might take fright and flee from
+danger, and this must not happen on any account.
+
+Ah, how cold it is! the breath freezes as it leaves the mouth and
+nostrils, the eye-lashes become stiff with frost, but the hunter is too
+busy watching for signs of the prey he seeks, to think of these things.
+His hands and feet become numb with the biting cold, but this is only
+what he expected, and he trusts to his quick movements to keep them from
+freezing. At last the forest is reached and he turns his eyes in every
+direction for signs that animals have been near. A white man would see
+nothing, where an Indian or a half-breed reads whole pages in Mother
+Nature's wonderful book.
+
+Yes, a marten was here only an hour or two since and is still not very
+far away. A trap must be set up in this very spot and baited with dried
+meat, or with a tender piece of squirrel. Then the hunter creeps away,
+to seek places where there are other signs of life and to set up new
+traps while he waits. If he is after foxes or minks, he visits the
+shores of the lakes and swamps. He looks carefully about him now for the
+foot-marks of the fox, or the sharp, clear track of the mink.
+
+When the evening comes the trapper looks about him for some place that
+is sheltered from the wind. There he makes a roaring fire, over which he
+brews a pot of tea. When this is ready, he enjoys his hot drink,
+together with a share of the pemmican brought from home. Next he gathers
+soft pine boughs for a bed, covers them with a blanket, and with his
+feet towards the fire, lies down for his night's rest. Toward morning
+the fire burns low, and the cold grows so bitter that the man cannot
+sleep. He gets up, piles on more wood, and warms himself by the bright
+flames. Once more he stretches himself on his bed of boughs, hoping to
+sleep until the morning sunshine shall awaken him.
+
+
+Winter Sports.
+
+A great many of the white children of Canada live in Quebec and Ontario.
+Although these provinces lie in the southern part, yet the winter is
+very cold even there. The children enjoy it, however, because the air is
+clear and dry, and there is plenty of snow on the ground. Even the
+little folks learn how to use snow-shoes, and with these on their feet,
+they skim over the crusted snowfields like the wind.
+
+They have many toboggan rides, too. Nothing could be pleasanter for a
+party of merry children, than to spend the morning coasting down the
+steep hillside on wooden sleds called toboggans, which are shaped much
+like the Indian hand-sledges. They move so fast over the snow, that the
+riders must hold on tightly lest they tumble out. Sometimes there is a
+sudden upset as the toboggan strikes a rough spot on the hillside. Then
+there is much laughing and shouting as the children pick themselves up,
+and make ready for a fresh start.
+
+Perhaps the greatest sport of all is a ride on an ice-boat which is
+raised on large iron skates, and in a good wind will sail very swiftly.
+When the St. Lawrence River is frozen over, one can see numbers of
+ice-boats skimming along with their loads of happy passengers.
+
+Of course the children of Canada skate and play hockey. The lakes and
+ponds are frozen over for many months, so that parties are continually
+made up for skating and games on the ice.
+
+One must certainly not forget to mention sleigh-rides. There is no place
+in the world where the people enjoy sleigh-riding more. They wrap
+themselves up in warm furs, and spring into the pretty sleighs to which
+gaily decked horses are harnessed. Jingle, jingle, sound the bells, and
+when the word is given, away move the sleighs filled with their merry
+loads.
+
+
+The Big Cities.
+
+Although Canada has been under English rule for a long time, yet many
+French people have continued to live there. In fact, in the province of
+Quebec there are more French than English. The old part of the city of
+Quebec looks much to-day as it did in the long ago, when Wolfe climbed
+the cliff and took the French army by surprise. Along the narrow streets
+there are many quaint old houses with peaked roofs, in whose gardens
+French-Canadian children play the games and sing the songs of France.
+Here and there you will see an altar on which flowers have been placed,
+and people bowing before the image of the Virgin Mary.
+
+If you visit Quebec, you will certainly go to the citadel. Far above the
+water it stands, on the summit of the cliff, while just below it lies
+the old city, with its high, pointed roofs, and queer gates opening into
+old-fashioned gardens. Far, far below lies the beautiful St. Lawrence,
+where ships of many countries lie at anchor. Immense rafts of lumber
+come floating down the river, to be sent on the waiting ships to other
+lands. On some of these rafts are tiny houses for the men who have rowed
+them from the forests, hundreds of miles up the river.
+
+Before you leave the city you will walk out on the Plains of Abraham
+which stretch into the country back of the citadel. There the great
+battle was fought that gave Canada to the English; and there in the
+summer of 1908 a great celebration was held. Three hundred years ago the
+city of Quebec was founded, and in memory of this, many thousands of
+people gathered to see the pageants, representing the great things that
+have happened there. The city was gay with flags and bright-colored
+banners. There were concerts, balls and grand dinners. The Prince of
+Wales himself was there to take part in the good time. The pageants were
+the best part of the celebration, of course. They were given on the
+Plains of Abraham, and hundreds of men, women and children took part.
+Thousands of people gathered in the open-air theatre to look on.
+
+Montreal is another beautiful city. It is built on an island in the St.
+Lawrence River. Most of the children there are of French blood, but
+there are also many boys and girls of Irish, Scotch and English
+families. They are all proud of the wonderful bridge, nearly two miles
+long, that crosses the river at Montreal, and of the beautiful cathedral
+that will hold ten thousand people. They, as well as the children of
+Quebec, see ships of many countries anchored near their homes. Many of
+these ships have crossed the ocean to receive the lumber and furs that
+Canada wishes to send to other lands.
+
+The capital of Canada is Ottawa, in the province of Ontario. It is also
+on the St. Lawrence. High up above the water, on the river banks, stand
+many beautiful buildings, where all the business of the government of
+Canada is carried on. Ottawa is a beautiful place for a home and the
+children who live there should be very happy. They have the winter
+sports of Quebec, while on the hot summer days they can sail in and out
+among the islands of the river, or picnic under the trees of the forests
+only a short distance away.
+
+
+On the Farms.
+
+In your grandfather's time, few people except the Indians and
+halfbreeds, were living on the prairies over which Mackenzie made his
+way on his journey westward. There were no roads there in those days; no
+tracks over which trains filled with passengers went flying by. Great
+herds of buffaloes wandered about, feeding on the tall prairie grass,
+while here and there little red children ran in and out of their
+wigwams, and danced about the camp-fires.
+
+To-day scarcely a buffalo is left in the land, the shriek of the steam
+engine is often heard, while many comfortable farm houses can be seen.
+In the summer time there is much to do, even for the little folks. The
+boys help weed the vegetable gardens, and care for the cows and the
+horses, while their fathers are busy in the fields of wheat and oats
+that stretch over many acres. The girls learn to darn and sew, as well
+as wash dishes and help their mothers make bread and pies for the hungry
+workmen.
+
+Sometimes the farmer raises only hay, but the big crops must be cared
+for very carefully and the boys do their share of the work. Ranches
+where cattle and horses are raised are also found on the prairies.
+Certainly no place could be better for this work, since the broad acres
+of tall grass make the best feeding-grounds possible.
+
+When August comes, the men and boys get out their guns and watch for the
+coming of the prairie chickens. Later on, the wild ducks and geese
+appear in large flocks. This is the time for the boys to take their
+canoes and a few supplies, and camp out on the shores of the lakes and
+ponds, for they know that the birds love the water and are sure to seek
+it. There will be feasting in the big farmhouses now, because there will
+be plenty of tender wild ducks to roast, and the cellars are full of the
+vegetables raised in the gardens.
+
+Besides the autumn shooting and the feasts that follow, there are many
+other good times for the young folks on the big farms. They meet
+together for singing and dancing, they play tennis, they have games of
+hockey, both on land and ice, they have jolly sleigh rides in the frosty
+air, they skate and they curl, and, of course, the small boys and girls
+make snow-forts and houses that will last without melting for a month at
+a time. If you who live in warmer lands should pity them for having such
+long, cold winters and so much snow, the children would laugh at the
+idea. They would tell you that they love the winter and hate to have it
+come to an end. They can have such jolly times out of doors, and then,
+when they are tired of their rough sports, they can gather around
+roaring fires in the big living-rooms of the houses, and listen to the
+stories the older folks tell them of the days of long ago.
+
+
+In a Lumber Camp.
+
+For many years the white settlers in Canada have been busy cutting down
+trees in the big pine forests, yet they still stretch for many miles
+through the country. When the autumn comes the children of the
+lumber-men hear their fathers tell of the winter's work before them.
+They are going out into the forests to live, and will not be home again
+for many months. A party of these lumber-men start out together. They
+carry everything they will need for their rough housekeeping,--a few
+kettles and dishes for cooking, some heavy blankets, a supply of flour
+for bread, salt-pork, tea and molasses.
+
+The last good-bye is said and they start out on their long journey to
+the forests. As soon as they reach the place for the winter camp they
+set to work to build a house of logs. In the middle of the roof a place
+is left open, to let out the smoke when a fire is burning inside. Around
+the side of the big room, the men build bunks in which to sleep at
+night, and in the middle they make a fireplace, where the blazing logs
+on winter evenings will send out such warmth and cheer, that Jack Frost
+will not dare to venture through the cracks in the walls.
+
+The lumber-men are happy in their work. All day long the sound of their
+axes rings through the forest, while they vie with each other in cutting
+down the big trees. Then when night comes and their supper of bread, tea
+and fried pork is finished, they gather around the fire to smoke and
+tell stories. The weeks pass quickly, and with the coming of spring,
+immense piles of logs are ready to go to the saw-mills.
+
+When the ice begins to break up, it is a sign to the men to bind the
+logs into cribs. Thirty or forty logs are enough for one crib. The cribs
+are fastened together to form rafts, which are set floating down the
+rivers. Some of the men ride on the rafts and guide them by means of
+long poles tipped with steel, to prevent them from running aground.
+Others of the party go at once to the saw-mills, to be ready to receive
+the logs when they arrive. Buzz-z-z sounds through the air, as the big
+wheels turn and the trees of the forest are rapidly changed into strong
+lumber.
+
+
+Beyond the Mountains.
+
+Let us now cross the Rocky Mountains, and make a short visit in British
+Columbia. It is the most beautiful province in Canada, with its
+mountains covered with forests and its rivers stocked with fish. The
+children who live near the Fraser River, can tell wonderful fish
+stories, for at a certain time of the year, millions of salmon leave the
+ocean and make their way up this river. Then big folks and little are
+busy with nets, hauling in the fish and carrying them to the canneries.
+
+Gold is also found on the Fraser River, while the mountains nearby are
+rich in other minerals.
+
+
+The Klondike Mines.
+
+Far up in the northwest of Canada, near the borders of Alaska, are the
+famous Klondike mines. You have probably heard of them, and of the long,
+hard journey a person must take to get there. Such wonderful stories
+have been told of the riches one can bring away from these mountains,
+that many a young man has left home and friends to seek his fortune
+there. Now-a-days it is easier to reach the Klondike mines than it was a
+few years ago, but the country is cold and dreary and most of the food
+must be brought from a distance, so that few white children have found
+their way there. Yet as they sit in their cosy homes, they are glad to
+listen to the stories of that wild country, told to them by the brave
+men who have been to the Klondike gold regions.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V--Little Folks of Labrador
+
+
+East of the large bay where Henry Hudson lost his life is the peninsula
+of Labrador. Although it is farther south than Greenland or Alaska, its
+shores are very bleak and bare, because of cold winds that blow inland
+from the ocean. You can easily guess that this country is the home of
+Eskimos who seem the best fitted of all people to live in the lands of
+ice and snow.
+
+Some white children are to be found there, however. Their fathers are
+fishermen who get a living for their families out of the icy waters of
+the ocean. Sometimes, too, they hunt the deer, or set traps for other
+wild animals. In the summer time the children search for birds' eggs,
+and in the autumn the men and boys keep on the lookout for eider-ducks,
+wild swans, ducks, geese and ptarmigan. The meat of these birds is sweet
+and tender, while the feathers make warm beds, pillows and quilts.
+
+The children of the fishermen paddle about in the rough waters in their
+canoes when many other children would be afraid to venture out from the
+shore. They ride over the snow in low sledges drawn by half-tamed, surly
+dogs. They spend many a day fishing for cod and salmon. They hunt for
+the berries, ripening in the sunshine of the short summer. They play
+with their Eskimo neighbors whom they meet once a week to study their
+Bible lessons with the kind missionaries, who have come to live among
+them.
+
+Each Eskimo house is entered by a long, low passage, made of logs and
+turf. The floor of the one big room is covered with boards, and a long,
+wooden platform at one end is the sleeping place for the whole family.
+On another side is a fireplace lined with pebbles, where the mother
+cooks the food for the family. There is a window in the house or maybe
+there are two, so that altogether the Eskimos of Labrador can be far
+more comfortable than their brothers and sisters of Greenland.
+
+They live in much the same way, however. They dress in furs; they fish;
+they kill seals; they hunt the deer; they ride over the country in low
+sledges drawn by unruly dogs; they make kayaks, in which they paddle
+about among the islands near to the shore. They are not obliged to build
+snow or stone houses like their brothers in Greenland. Cold as it is,
+forests of spruce and pine grow not very far inland; so that they are
+able to get plenty of logs for the walls of their houses. These they
+plaster so thickly with turf, that the wind cannot make its way inside.
+
+
+The Indians of Labrador.
+
+As you leave the coast, and travel inland, you will find that the air
+becomes warmer and that there are more trees and plants. The country is
+much pleasanter, and no doubt this is the reason that the Indians of
+Labrador prefer to live here in winter rather than on the coast. The
+redmen are great hunters, too, and as there are many wild animals in the
+forests, they spend the autumn and winter trapping and shooting. Here
+and there along the ponds and streams you may see the bark wigwams of
+the redmen.
+
+Children dressed in skins go skimming past you over the snow fields.
+They wear snow-shoes on their feet, so they can travel fast. When they
+are tired of this sport, they can take a ride on a dog-sledge, or play
+with their puppies. The boys help their fathers set traps for martens
+and foxes; they go on porcupine hunts; they search for beaver villages,
+and sometimes they come hurrying home to say that they have come upon a
+bear or the tracks of a lynx or an otter.
+
+The girls learn to embroider moccasins and leggings with beads and
+porcupine quills; they bring wood for the fires and drinking water from
+the streams; they weave baskets. After a deer-hunt they dry the meat and
+grind it to make pemmican. Indeed, they learn all those things that
+Indians think are necessary for the making of good and helpful women. So
+the days pass and the years follow each other in bleak Labrador.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI--Little Folks of Newfoundland
+
+
+You remember that when Cartier went to Canada hoping to find a
+comfortable place where his people could settle, he stopped first at a
+large island off the eastern coast, giving it the name of Newfoundland.
+But he did not stay there. The high crags reaching out into the sea and
+the rocky shores seemed to frown upon him and he decided to go farther
+where Mother Nature should give him a more friendly welcome. At that
+time Indians were living along the coast, getting their food by catching
+fish and trapping wild animals. No white men came to settle in
+Newfoundland till many years after Cartier's visit, for like him, they
+chose to make their homes in a more inviting country.
+
+Now, however, many rosy-cheeked boys and girls live on the island. Their
+fathers are fishermen who have settled there because they have found it
+is one of the best fishing-grounds in the world. Off the southeast coast
+stretches a sandbank at least three hundred miles long, and in the
+waters nearby millions of cod and haddock are found every year. It is no
+wonder, therefore, that not only the fishermen who live in Newfoundland,
+but people from Canada and the United States, and even from countries
+across the ocean, gather on the shores of the island every year to fish.
+
+Heavy fogs hang over these shores for a large part of the year, and are
+caused in a curious way. There is a warm current that flows northward
+through the Atlantic Ocean, making the western coast of Greenland so
+much warmer than the eastern that most of the people there choose to
+live on that side of the island. But there is also a very cold Arctic
+current flowing southward, filling the air along the eastern coast of
+Labrador with frost. These two currents meet off the Newfoundland shore,
+and as the warm and cold come together, clouds of vapor rise in the air.
+It is the smoke of a water battle.
+
+Notwithstanding the fogs and the dampness, the children of Newfoundland
+love their home dearly. They love the deep and narrow bays that reach
+far into the land, and they often make up sailing parties to the small
+islands that dot the clear, deep waters. They love the blue sky of the
+summer. They watch with delight the icebergs that float by from time to
+time in their journey from the frozen north. When winter comes these
+children search along the shore for the seals that play on the floating
+cakes of ice and bask in the sunlight. Best of all they enjoy the famous
+"silver thaw" of Newfoundland, perhaps the most beautiful sight in all
+the world.
+
+This "silver thaw" or ice-storm, is seen only in winter. It is caused by
+a heavy fall of rain when the air is very cold. As the rain falls, it
+turns to ice on everything it touches. The branches of the trees and the
+tiniest twigs upon them are coated with garments of ice which grow
+thicker and thicker as the storm continues. Every bush and shrub
+receives the same beautiful dress. At last the clouds pass and the sun
+shines out in all his glory. Then the world around is changed in an
+instant into a wonderland of beauty. It seems as though one were
+surrounded by myriads of diamonds, each one glowing with all the colors
+of the rainbow. The riches of Aladdin seem nothing beside them.
+
+Neither the fishermen nor the children care to explore the inland
+country very far. There are many high hills there, but they are bare and
+rocky. Cattle could not be raised easily in such places, nor could
+gardens be planted. So the people are content to stay near the shores
+and get a living from the waters near by.
+
+During winter the men and boys are busy mending their nets and putting
+their boats in order. They also go out in the woods to cut down the
+trees to get fuel enough for the coming year. Yet they have much spare
+time, so there is a good deal of visiting between the homes, and many
+merry parties are held where both old folks and young dance and sing and
+play games.
+
+As soon as the spring opens the fishing season begins. The boats are
+brought out from winter quarters, the sails are spread, and the harbors
+seem alive once more. There is work enough for everyone now. The men and
+boys are on the water from morning till night, while the women and girls
+are as busy as bees curing the fish after it is brought on shore.
+
+The children of Newfoundland are taught to salute the English flag
+because they, as well as Canada, are under the rule of Great Britain.
+Yet Newfoundland and the peninsula of Labrador never became a part of
+the Dominion of Canada.
+
+The capital of Newfoundland is the city of St. Johns. Its deep harbor is
+very beautiful. High cliffs of red sandstone rise on each side and
+protect the ships anchored in the waters below from the fiercest gales.
+The city is built on the slope of a hill on the northern side of the
+harbor. On the summit of the hill, above the rows of houses in the
+streets below is a beautiful cathedral where many of the people go to
+worship on Sunday. In good weather the children of the city, who wake
+early enough, can turn their eyes out towards the ocean and watch the
+lovely clouds of the sunrise,--fairy palaces of crimson and gold which
+vanish from their sight as they are looking.
+
+
+After the Birds.
+
+Great numbers of visitors come to Newfoundland every year. Many of them
+are hunters who have heard of the game to be found in the forests and
+along the shores of the lakes and ponds. The ptarmigan, the wild duck
+and goose, the plover, the curlew, and still other birds are to be found
+there.
+
+The best time for bird hunting is after the flies and mosquitoes have
+said good-by to the country. Then it is that many strangers step off the
+steamer at St. Johns. With guns and game-bags they make their way
+towards the "barrens" of the inland country. These barrens are often
+stretches where there are no trees, and little else grows. The wild
+birds flock there in great numbers, for they have found that there are
+wild berries to be had for the picking even in that barren country, and
+they feast and feast till they are plump and fat and ready for the
+sportsman's game-bag.
+
+It seems so quiet and safe out on the lonely barrens that the birds are
+not on the lookout for danger, when suddenly bang, bang! sounds through
+the air and some of the birds out of a happy flock fall to the ground,
+while the rest fly away in great fright.
+
+Herds of reindeer wander over the lonely parts of the country in search
+of the moss that is their favorite food. They have beautiful branching
+horns and their short legs are very strong. They have a wonderful scent,
+which warns them of danger, and they easily take fright. Often, when a
+hunter has crept upon them ever so softly, they have discovered his
+nearness and away they scudded over the hills and rocks where he would
+not dare to venture, and he has been obliged to give up the chase for a
+time, at any rate.
+
+The Indians of the island do much better than the white hunters. They
+know how to outwit the reindeer and to approach them from such a
+direction that the wind will not carry the scent. For this reason the
+white sportsmen have learned that if they wish to be successful they had
+best take an Indian guide with them. Even then they have to be so
+careful that they think it great sport, and are very proud when they can
+show their friends some fine antlers which they have brought home after
+a hunting trip in Newfoundland.
+
+
+The Copper Mines.
+
+On the eastern coast of Newfoundland there is a beautiful bay to which
+the French gave the name of Notre Dame or, Our Lady. It has many arms
+which reach far into the land; some of these are so deep that they make
+good places for ships to anchor. Others are very small and the water is
+so smooth that little children can paddle about in it without fear.
+
+This bay of Notre Dame is now famous for something besides its beauty,
+as copper mines have been discovered on its shores. One of the richest
+of these is at Bett's Cove and many men are now at work getting the
+precious ore and shipping it to other lands.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII--Little Folks of the United States
+
+
+Canada is partly separated from the country south of it by a chain of
+beautiful lakes called the "Five Great Lakes." They are so large that a
+person can sail many days on them, passing from one to another and
+sometimes losing sight of land. At times the water is so rough that the
+traveler becomes ill from the rolling of the big steamer and says, "I am
+seasick," although he is far from the ocean. The northern waters of
+these lakes wash the shores of Canada, while on the south the children
+of the United States play on the beaches and swim in the waves.
+
+These children are proud of the fact that they live in the United
+States, and call their country "The land of the free and the home of the
+brave." Their people have come from many lands. French, German, Irish,
+Polish and Jewish boys and girls, besides those of many other countries,
+sit side by side in the schoolrooms and play happily together with their
+tops and dolls.
+
+The United States of America, for that is the full name of this country,
+reaches from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from Canada on the north
+to Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico on the south. It is a country of high
+mountains, fertile valleys, broad plains and mighty rivers. Its children
+know neither the terrible cold of the far north nor the burning heat of
+the equator, for they live in the temperate belt of the earth. No season
+of the year is long enough to tire them, for spring follows close upon
+the winter, and is soon followed by the pleasant warmth of summer. Then
+comes the autumn when the leaves change their color and Mother Nature
+makes ready for her winter's rest. At last the snow falls and covers the
+earth with her white mantle.
+
+
+The Mound Builders.
+
+In the long ago a strange people lived in the United States. They left
+no books to tell their story, but here and there through the country
+mounds of earth which they built are still standing. Some of them are
+shaped like birds with wings outspread, others have the forms of fishes,
+snakes, and human beings. Still other mounds show that they must have
+been used as altars upon which sacrifices were burned, and others,
+again, contain tools, dishes, idols and ornaments. Some of the ornaments
+and dishes were decorated with the finest carvings. Heads of people,
+frogs and birds are still to be seen on the pipes that have been
+preserved in the mounds all these years. Tools have been found to show
+the mound-builders, as we call these people, knew how to work metal, and
+other things tell the story that the men of that long ago were wise in
+many ways and could not have been savages. There are earthworks near
+some of the mounds that seem to have been built as forts, so they
+probably fought in wars. Yet we can only guess as to their life, for no
+one knows their history.
+
+
+The Indians.
+
+When the first white men visited America they found Indians living
+throughout the country, along the banks of the rivers and on the shores
+of the ocean. Their homes were for the most part tents covered with bark
+or the skins of animals. When the boys were still tiny little fellows
+they learned to use bows and arrows so that as they grew up they would
+be good hunters and warriors like their fathers.
+
+In some parts of the country the girls helped their mothers tend fields
+of maize which to this day is called Indian corn. Cakes were made of
+this and eaten with the fish and game killed by the men.
+
+In other places the women and children gathered the wild rice that grew
+in the shallow ponds. This, together with the berries picked by the
+girls, the honey taken from the nests of wild bees by the boys, and the
+sap from the maple trees, added a good deal to the daily fare of meat
+and fish.
+
+The red children were taught to bear cold and hunger without
+complaining. There were days when they feasted and had all the good
+things to eat they could wish for. But their parents did not understand
+the need of looking ahead. During the summer the berries and the honey,
+the fish and the game were plentiful, and the people did not seem to
+remember that winter would soon follow when the earth's mantle of snow
+and the ice on the rivers would make it harder for them to get food. So
+there were times when they and their little ones went hungry to bed and
+woke up in the morning with no breakfast before them.
+
+The boys grew up with a love of war, and looked admiringly at the men
+when they went away from the village with hideous, painted faces, and
+with tomahawks and hatchets at their sides, to take other unfriendly
+tribes by surprise and to scalp as many of their enemies as possible.
+
+While the boys were busy with mock battles and hunts in the forests
+after game with their fathers, the girls worked with their mothers
+weaving baskets and tanning the skins of the wild animals brought home
+by the men. They also got wood for the fires and helped in the simple
+cooking. They played games with their brothers, too, and both boys and
+girls were never so happy as when sitting around the lodge fire,
+listening to the fairy tales told by their grandmothers and to stories
+of war and the chase by the "braves," as they called their warriors.
+
+The parents of these red children did not need to work so hard for food
+and clothing as did the Indians of Canada, because summer in the United
+States is longer and warmer, and winter is not so cold.
+
+With soft moccasins on their feet the Indians stole noiselessly over the
+forest paths, and in their light birch canoes they glided along the
+streams, with never a hat on the head and with light clothing on the
+body. They feared nothing save the war-whoop of enemies.
+
+There came a day when a white man and his followers appeared in the
+country. It was Leif, the son of Eric the Red, who had left his home in
+Greenland and started out in search of adventure. He steered his course
+southward and came in time to Newfoundland, but the country did not
+please him. So he continued on his way till he reached the eastern coast
+of the United States, and there he landed. During his stay Leif and his
+companions met no other people, but to their great delight they found
+vines from which hung large clusters of grapes, and for this reason they
+called the place Vinland. When they were ready to leave they loaded
+their vessel with grapes, together with lumber from the forests, which
+was even more precious to them than the grapes, because as you know,
+there were no trees in Greenland. Then they set sail for home to tell of
+the land they had visited which had seemed so warm and beautiful to
+them.
+
+After Leif, other Norsemen came who settled along the shore of this
+country and lived here for a while. They met the dark-skinned natives
+with whom they had trouble. After a while they went away, never to come
+again. During their stay here a Norse baby was born, to whom the name
+Snorri was given, and this boy was, no doubt, the first white child born
+in the United States.
+
+
+After Many Years.
+
+More than four hundred years passed by and the red men lived on in their
+own savage way, hunting, fishing, and making war upon each other. Then
+something happened which led in time to great changes for the red
+children. It was in the year 1492 that Columbus discovered a small
+island of the West Indies, lying southeast of the United States. The
+natives, who were gentler and less war-like than the other Indians of
+North America, greeted him with delight and brought him presents of
+fruit and gold.
+
+Not long after the coming of Columbus many Spaniards, hearing of the
+rich treasures of the West Indies, followed him there and settled. One
+of them, named Ponce de Leon, stayed long enough to gain great riches.
+But he was fast growing old and all his wealth could not keep him young.
+Then he began to listen to the stories the Indians told him of a land
+not far away, in which there was such a wonderful fountain that a person
+had but to drink of its waters to live forever. They called it "The
+fountain of youth."
+
+Ponce de Leon's eyes grew bright. If only he could find that fountain!
+He set sail with a few followers, and one beautiful Easter Sunday he
+came in sight of a land rich in flowers. Such a land, he thought, must
+be the one to contain the fountain he was seeking.
+
+The sails were furled and the Spaniard and his friends stepped on shore.
+"Let us call the place Florida, for it is a land of flowers," he said,
+and so this peninsula, reaching out from the southeastern part of the
+United States, has been called Florida to this day.
+
+Ponce de Leon remained in the country for some time, wandering about and
+drinking the water of stream and lake, yet as you may believe, he failed
+to discover the fountain he sought. And, alas! instead of youth, he met
+death, for, as he was about to leave, he was pierced by the poisoned
+arrow of an Indian who did not trust the white men like his brothers of
+the West Indies.
+
+Through Ponce de Leon's discovery on that beautiful Easter Sunday other
+Spaniards followed him to Florida and settled there with their wives and
+children.
+
+
+The Coming of the English.
+
+French settlers followed the Spaniards to the New World, but except in
+Canada, they did not stay long.
+
+Nearly a hundred years passed when at last English ships began to visit
+the country north of Florida. They carried home wonderful stories of
+necklaces set with pearls as big as peas and worn commonly by the Indian
+maidens, of countless hares and deer in the woods, of delicious grapes,
+cucumbers and melons that grew wild on the vines, and of rich forests of
+oak trees that grew larger and better than those of England. Then, too,
+a strange plant grew abundantly in the fields. This plant the Indians
+put in pipes and smoked.
+
+"A colony should certainly be planted in that beautiful country," Sir
+Walter Raleigh told the queen.
+
+She listened thoughtfully to what he said, and not long afterwards a
+party of men and women sailed from England and crossed the ocean to live
+in Virginia, as the new home was called in honor of the virgin queen,
+Elizabeth. Governor Dare was the leader.
+
+The colony settled on an island near the shore, and here was born the
+first English white child of the United States. The new baby, whose
+grandfather was Governor Dare, was called Virginia like her home, but
+sad to say, no one knows how long she lived nor what befell her, for
+Governor Dare went back to England for a time, and when he returned
+little Virginia and her people had disappeared and there was no one to
+tell where they had gone. Perhaps the Indians had killed them, or had
+made slaves of them and taken them far inland. At any rate, none of the
+neighboring red men would tell what had happened to the white strangers
+who had come to live among them.
+
+Other English settlers followed soon afterwards, however, and built
+villages among the Indians; and among the oak forests of Virginia little
+white children were born in rough log houses and played on the beaches
+along the shore. Their fathers planted fields of corn, and tobacco which
+they had learned to smoke. They hunted deer, hares, and wild turkeys in
+the forests.
+
+These early English settlers built walls around their villages in case
+of sudden attack, for they could not trust their red neighbors, who were
+not pleased to have the white strangers settling in the country around
+them.
+
+The little English children were generally happy. The country around
+them was beautiful, the birds sang sweet songs in the trees near by, and
+there were flowers and fruits in plenty. When Christmas came they
+watched the Yule log burn in the big fireplace, and gathered around
+tables loaded with roasted turkeys, venison and other good things to
+eat.
+
+Years passed by, and other settlers came to America. Most of them were
+from England, but there were some from Holland and Sweden and other
+countries of Europe.
+
+Among the newcomers were the Quakers under William Penn, who called
+their new home in America Pennsylvania, meaning, Penn's woods. They were
+gentle and peaceful and had little trouble with their Indian neighbors.
+
+Then there were the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth in New England one
+bleak November day. They were quiet and sober-faced. They left their old
+home to seek one in which they would be free to worship God in the way
+they thought best. As it happened, they chose for themselves the coldest
+corner of the United States in which to settle and they had before them
+years of struggle and hard work.
+
+They found the winters in New England colder than those they had known
+in England and the sharp winds crept in between the cracks in the walls
+of their rough log houses, chilling their backs even when they were
+gathered around the blazing logs in the big fireplaces. The crops of
+corn and beans were often scanty, because the soil was poor, and around
+them not far away were the Indians, some of whom scowled and muttered
+ugly words when they spoke of the white settlers who were hunting the
+game in the forests, and planting gardens on the land to which they
+thought they alone had the right.
+
+The children of the Pilgrims were taught to be very quiet and sober in
+their ways. They loved to listen to the squirrels chattering in the
+trees, and to watch the rabbits scamper across the paths. They gathered
+blueberries and blackberries in summer and chestnuts and hickory nuts in
+the autumn. The boys dragged their sisters on rough sleds over the snow
+in winter and waded with them in the brooks as the days grew warmer, and
+at such times they laughed and chattered like all happy children. But
+when they reached home their faces became sober and their voices low,
+for they were taught that among older folks children should be seen and
+not heard.
+
+When evening came they sat in straight chairs in the big kitchen which
+was the "living room" as well, while the men talked over the day's work,
+and the women knit socks for the family.
+
+Sometimes as the little Pilgrims settled themselves for the night's
+sleep they were roused by the howling of wolves outside. They shuddered
+as they thought, "Suppose that had been the war whoop of the Indians
+coming to attack our village."
+
+On Sunday when the Pilgrims went to church the men led the way armed
+with muskets which might be needed at any moment in defending their
+families.
+
+After the Pilgrims, the Puritans came to New England. They were even
+more sober and strict in their ways than the Pilgrims, and they, too,
+had trouble with their Indian neighbors.
+
+Perhaps the jolliest people who came from Europe were the Dutch, who
+settled on the Hudson River in New York. You remember poor Henry Hudson
+who was left to his sad fate in Hudson Bay. Before he went there he
+discovered the beautiful river of that name, and when he went back to
+Europe he told the king of Holland about the Indians he had met, and of
+the loads of rich furs which they brought home from their hunting trips.
+
+His words were not forgotten, and so it came to pass that the thrifty
+Dutchman made settlements in that part of the New World which they
+claimed through the discovery of Henry Hudson. They were not poor, like
+the Pilgrims east of them. They brought chests of linen and silver from
+Holland, and they built comfortable homes for themselves on the banks of
+the Hudson River, with porches where they sat with their children on
+summer evenings, telling fairy stories and laughing together in their
+own jolly way. The children's eyes grew bright as they listened to the
+stories, and as they looked out on the woods and fields in the silvery
+moonlight, they fancied they could see fairies in gauzy green robes
+dancing on the grass and little brown gnomes stepping out from under the
+rocks.
+
+The Dutch children had the grandest time at Christmas. They hung up
+their stockings by the fireplace the night before and then, as they lay
+in their beds, too much excited to sleep, they fancied they heard the
+reindeer of the good Santa Claus pawing away the snow on the roof
+overhead. Of course there were presents the next morning and a lovely
+Christmas tree, followed by a feast of all good things that grew about
+the new home. Yes, Christmas was the best day in all the year to the
+rosy-cheeked roly-poly Dutch children with blue eyes and flaxen hair.
+
+While they were having such good times, their fathers were trading with
+the Indians with whom they had less trouble than the Pilgrims and
+Puritans. They sold the red men beads and blankets, guns and trinkets,
+and in exchange took furs of the marten and mink, the beaver and otter,
+which the Indians shot or trapped in the country around. Once in a while
+a big ship from Holland sailed into New York Harbor, bringing tea and
+sugar, blankets and dress-goods for the Dutchmen and their families, and
+were then reloaded with the furs obtained from the Indians.
+
+As time passed by the settlements along the shores of the United States
+grew larger and more numerous. The Indians scowled more and more deeply
+and there were dreadful wars between them and the white men. In their
+spare time the settlers made roads through the country and cleared away
+some of the forests. In the north they traded with the Indians for furs
+and planted fields of corn and other grains and vegetables. Farther
+south tobacco and cotton were raised on the plantations. Sheep were
+tended on the hillsides and the wives of the settlers carded and spun
+the wool and wove it in hand-looms into clothing for their families.
+Cargoes of Negro slaves were brought from Africa to work on the
+plantations. The cotton that was raised there was sent across the
+Atlantic to be made into cloth in the factories of Europe.
+
+During all these years the white men did not move far inland because of
+the Indians, and of mountains which must be crossed. At last, however,
+some brave men ventured out alone into the wilderness beyond. They found
+there were valleys between the mountains, and through these they passed
+to the other side. They often had to hide from the watchful Indians, not
+daring even to make camp-fires lest they should be discovered.
+
+These explorers found that on the other side of the Appalachian
+Mountains, for that was the name given to them, was a beautiful country,
+richer by far than that on the eastern side where they had been living.
+There were also many rivers flowing westward, making the soil rich and
+fertile. Forests of maple and elm trees, as well as pines, spruces, and
+oaks which were abundant along the coast, were to be seen there.
+
+[Illustration: Picking Cotton on a Georgia Plantation.]
+
+When the explorers returned home they told such bright stories of the
+country to the west that the families of some of them agreed to go there
+and live. In those days there were no trains to carry them and not a
+single road through the mountain passes. The journey had to be made on
+foot or on horseback, and few household goods could be carried. At any
+moment the travelers might be surprised by Indians, so the men were
+obliged to keep their muskets loaded and ready to shoot every moment of
+the way.
+
+When the place for the new home was reached the men and boys set to work
+to cut down the trees and make a clearing, while the women prepared the
+meals. Everyone must eat and sleep outdoors while a rough log house was
+being built. All through the night a big fire was kept blazing to keep
+the wolves and other wild animals at a distance.
+
+The new house was easily furnished. A few chairs, a rough table, and
+some bedsteads were made from the trees that had been cut down. The
+feather beds brought from the old home were spread on the slats of the
+bedsteads; the family Bible was laid on the table; the kettles, also
+brought from home, were hung on cranes over the fireplace, and
+housekeeping in the wilderness began.
+
+Notwithstanding the hard life, the girls and their brothers grew up
+brave and strong and ready to push still farther into the wilderness
+than their fathers had done. West of them,--far west as it seemed
+then--was a mighty river flowing from north to south through the country.
+It was the Mississippi, or Father of Waters, as the Indians well called
+it, because so many large streams flowed into it on either side. The
+Frenchmen from Canada had long since sailed along the Great Lakes and
+down the whole length of the Mississippi, and for this reason had
+claimed the land on both sides and made settlements at different places.
+
+Now, as the English settlers moved westward, they did not wish the
+French to own any part of the country. By and by there was a great war
+between the two peoples--the French who held Canada and the Mississippi,
+and the English colonies who were living in the eastern part of the
+United States. Then came the battle of Quebec and the French gave up
+their rights in North America.
+
+But there were other troubles still, for wars took place with the
+Indians who had become bitter enemies, but they were beaten again and
+again, and driven still farther west till few tribes were left east of
+the Mississippi.
+
+Then there was another war--a very great one this time--and with England
+herself. The Revolution was fought through seven long years. With
+General Washington as their leader, the people fought on to victory,
+when they in truth made their country the free and independent United
+States of America.
+
+After this more and more men took their wives and children and traveled
+west in search of new homes. They had found by this time that in many
+places there were great plains where they did not need to make a
+clearing, for the ground was covered with grass for miles in every
+direction. Some of these grassy plains, or prairies, were quite level.
+Others stretched in long, low waves of earth. The soil was rich and the
+grass grew long and thick. There could be no better place in the world
+for raising corn, wheat and hay, or feeding cattle.
+
+Rough roads had been built through the wilderness by this time, so the
+women and children, together with the bedding and dishes, were bundled
+into big clumsy wagons with rounded, canvas tops called
+prairie-schooners. Horses or oxen were harnessed to the wagons and cows
+were hitched behind. Then away started the family for the distant
+prairies.
+
+All day long the people traveled, but when evening came the animals were
+unhitched from the "schooner" and allowed to feed on the grass; supper
+was cooked over the camp-fire, and beds were made upon the bottom of the
+wagon, where the family would sleep during the night.
+
+Many days were often spent on the journey, but like everything else, it
+came to an end at last. Think if you can, of a sea of grass stretching
+around you as far as the eyes can see; not a building of any kind in
+sight; not even the smoke of a passing train to remind you that there
+are other people in the world; no sound in the air except the chirping
+of the crickets or the howling of the wolves; in summer, the blinding
+sun dazzling your eyes and turning the grass a withered brown; in
+winter, a carpet of snow stretching around you over the earth in every
+direction. This was the life in store for the boys and girls who went
+out on the prairies to seek a home in the early days of this country.
+
+To be sure a herd of bison sometimes appeared near the children's home,
+and then the men hurried out with their guns to kill as many as possible
+before the animals were put to flight. Before the coming of the white
+men these bison roamed together in thousands and the Indians of the
+plains made their tents and clothing from their skins and feasted on the
+flesh of the bison. Every year since that time they have grown scarcer
+till only a few are left in the country, and these are on exhibition in
+the parks of the west.
+
+After the sun set in the evening sky the children of the prairie did not
+venture far from home, both on account of prowling wolves, and for fear
+of the Indians who might be skulking near by.
+
+
+Lewis and Clark, and What They Saw.
+
+Not many years after the Revolution Thomas Jefferson, the third
+president, did many things for the good of the United States. Through
+his advice the people purchased a great deal of land in the southern
+part of the country from France, to whom it had been given by Spain. It
+was called the Louisiana Purchase.
+
+Jefferson was not satisfied yet. He thought, "There is a vast country
+beyond us of which we know nothing. No one of our people has yet crossed
+it and reached the Pacific. This should certainly be done."
+
+He knew it would be a dangerous journey, for it was a wild country,
+roamed over by tribes of fierce Indians. Two men, however, offered to
+lead the expedition. Their names were Meriwether Lewis and William
+Clarke.
+
+In the summer of 1803 they started out at the head of a party of men,
+carrying with them presents for the Indians they might meet, three
+canoes, two horses which should help them in hunting game, and a few
+blankets and cooking utensils.
+
+During the winter they camped on the banks of the Mississippi, and with
+the coming of spring they began their journey up a broad river which
+emptied into it and which we know now as the Missouri. As the men
+followed the course of the river they moved farther and farther into the
+west. All summer long they slept under the stars, but as the cold winter
+set in and deep snows fell, they made rough cabins in which to live, and
+went no farther on their journey for several months. They killed bison
+and other game which furnished them with food, but they could not keep
+the biting cold out of their huts, and they suffered with the cold.
+Fierce Indian tribes were around them on all sides, friends were far
+away, but they had no thought of turning back. So, with the second
+spring, they pushed on.
+
+When they reached the source of the Missouri there were high mountains
+before them, much higher than the Appalachian, and with their summits
+crowned with snow. After a long, hard journey they reached the other
+side, and launched their canoes on a small stream which grew ever
+broader till it entered a large river. This was the Columbia, along
+which they traveled till the Pacific Ocean lay spread before their eyes.
+They had journeyed more than four thousands miles since they left the
+banks of the Mississippi and were the first white men to cross the
+United States. They had visited the homes of Indians who had never seen
+a white person before or even known there were such beings. They had
+crossed broad plains where thousands of bison fed on the rich grass.
+They had discovered broad rivers shaded by lofty forests and crossed
+mountains containing mines of gold and silver, which before long would
+be opened up to give their rich stores to the people of the United
+States. They still had before them the long and dangerous journey home,
+which they reached two years and four months after they had left it.
+
+There was great rejoicing among the people when the news spread of the
+safe return of the travelers and of the wonders they had to tell. From
+that time many boys and girls looked forward to moving into the great,
+far-western country with their parents.
+
+
+On a Wheat Farm.
+
+Many of the children of the prairies live on farms where wheat is
+raised. As the sun shines down on the broad fields, the tiny grains
+sprout and grow with astonishing quickness. Then, when the heavy dews
+fall at night and the earth cools, they get new strength for the next
+day, so that the farmers gather abundant crops.
+
+As the summer days pass by and the wheat ripens, the children in the big
+farm house get ready for an exciting time. Their mother makes dozens of
+pies and loaves of bread and cake. A cow and perhaps a hog or two, are
+killed and cut up, for an extra number of "hired hands" begin to arrive.
+The farmer himself is unusually busy. Big machines and engines are
+brought out from the barns to be cleaned and oiled, for the wheat is
+about to be harvested.
+
+[Illustration: How They Harvest Wheat on the Prairies.]
+
+It is interesting to watch the work go on in the fields, it is so
+different from that of the old days before the threshing and binding
+machines were invented. It seems almost like magic to the watching
+children as acre after acre of waving grain is cut down, bound into
+sheaves and threshed, almost in the "twinkling of an eye."
+
+Then away it is whisked in big wagons to the flour mills in the town
+near by from which it is sent far and wide to be made into delicious
+bread for hungry boys and girls.
+
+
+The Cornfields.
+
+In the northern part of the prairies wheat grows best because it can
+bear a great deal of cool weather. But corn is different; warm, moist
+nights suit it well. So, although we can see corn growing all over the
+eastern part of the United States, it thrives best in the southern part
+of the prairies where the weather is much warmer than in the north.
+
+Corn is very fattening, so the farmers who raise this grain usually keep
+herds of cattle and many hogs. He stores much of the harvest in the
+barns to feed the "live stock" and raise them for market.
+
+
+On a Cattle Ranch.
+
+The boys of the prairie help their fathers, not only in the wheat and
+corn fields, but also in raising herds of cattle, flocks of sheep, and
+great numbers of hogs.
+
+Beyond the prairies, yet east of the Rocky Mountains, are wide stretches
+of land called the Western Plains. Grass grows on these plains, but the
+soil is not so rich as on the prairies and is therefore not so good for
+farming.
+
+As the people moved farther west, settling on the prairies, they began
+to think what use could be made of the plains beyond. They decided that
+cattle could be raised there. But first the tribes of Indians who were
+roaming freely about must be forced to stay in certain parts of the
+country which the government of the United States reserved for them.
+
+Sad to say, many a little red child growing up on such a reservation had
+hate in his heart for the white men who had seized the land that was
+once the free hunting ground of the Indians. Again and again the red
+children watched their older brothers and fathers go out to attack the
+men who had ventured into the "wild west." Again and again the soldiers
+of the United States were sent against them.
+
+It was a dangerous life for the ranchmen, so that many of those who
+undertook to raise cattle on the Western Plains, left their families
+behind them. It was not a safe place for women and little children. The
+ranchmen had to live in the roughest manner. They had immense herds of
+cattle which were allowed to roam for miles over the grassy plains and
+were rounded up from time to time by "cowboys," as they are called.
+
+These cowboys were bold and daring fellows who carried pistols at their
+belts, rode half-wild horses called mustangs, and were ever ready for
+danger, since at any moment a stampede might arise among the cattle.
+
+Imagine a herd of untrained cattle feeding together. An unusual sound is
+heard which fills them with a sudden fright. They toss their heads, kick
+up their heels and dash wildly away. This is called a stampede. Now, if
+the cowboy in charge is not quick to use his wits he will be knocked
+down and trampled to death by the hoofs of the fleeing cattle.
+
+On Lake Michigan, one of the Five Great Lakes, is the large city of
+Chicago. The children who live there grow up in the midst of noise and
+bustle, for a great deal of business is going on about them all the
+time. Every day long trains of cars come rolling into the stations
+bringing wheat and corn, cattle and hogs. All of these have been raised
+on the plains and prairies south and west of Chicago. Many of the
+animals are killed and dressed in the city and then sent away to be sold
+in the eastern markets. Others are loaded on big steamers waiting at the
+wharves and sent on a long journey through the Great Lakes and St.
+Lawrence River and across the ocean to Europe.
+
+
+Down South.
+
+The children who live in the southern part of the United States have
+warm weather nearly all the year. They need few of the woolen garments
+or the furs which feel so comfortable in winter to the people north of
+them. Their clothing is mostly of cotton or linen, and they eat less
+meat and more fruit than their northern brothers. Their homes require
+little heat, and even the cooking is often done in a small building
+separate from the house so that it shall not be made uncomfortably warm.
+
+Let us make a short visit to a cotton plantation "down south." We shall
+be made welcome, without a doubt, because the southern people are very
+hospitable. The planter has been told when to expect us and a low,
+comfortable carriage drawn by a span of beautiful horses is at the
+station when we arrive. A black coachman in livery helps us into our
+seats, cracks his whip, and away start the horses at a lively trot. We
+pass forests of yellow pine trees, and possibly some tobacco fields. The
+air is fragrant with the odor of flowers and we listen to the songs of
+the blackbirds and mocking birds. All too soon the horses are turned
+into a driveway shaded by tall trees, at the end of which is a large
+house with broad verandas. Our host and his family are awaiting us and
+give us a cordial greeting.
+
+After we have rested and eaten a delicious dinner, the children of the
+home show us over the cotton fields where Negro workmen are busy among
+the long rows of plants. The cotton would not ripen in a short summer.
+It must have months of heat and moisture. Then the flowers will go to
+seed and long fibers will reach out and wrap them in blankets of cotton.
+
+The cotton is separated from the seeds by the work of a machine, called
+the cotton gin. The seeds are ground into meal which is used in
+fattening cattle. Many herds of cattle in the south are fed on
+cotton-seed meal which takes the place of the corn given them in other
+parts of the country.
+
+As we walk about over the fields the children of the planter tell us
+many stories of the Negro workmen, what fun-loving creatures they are,
+and how fond they are of good things to eat. Water melons please them
+especially and a group of "darkies" is never so happy as when they can
+sit around a pile of the juicy melons and feast to their hearts'
+content. In many of the Negro cabins there is sure to be some one who
+plays the banjo, to whose music big folks and little dance merrily when
+the day's work is over. Once the Negroes were the slaves of the white
+planters, but they are now free and support themselves like other
+workmen.
+
+Our little southern friends ask us if we have ever seen 'possums, as the
+black people call the animals. After everyone on the plantation has gone
+to sleep, then the cunning opossum steals from his home in the woods to
+pay a visit to the hen-house. He springs up and seizes one after another
+of the fowls on the roost, whose blood he sucks till no more is left in
+their bodies.
+
+The Negroes are very fond of a 'possum hunt. Soon after dark they arm
+themselves with clubs and axes and go into the woods with a few dogs to
+scent the game, carrying torches to light the way. The axes are used to
+chop down the trees where the animals climb to get out of the way of the
+hunters.
+
+A mother opossum with her little ones is a queer sight. The babies are
+scarcely larger than mice and they hang on to their mother's body by
+winding their own tiny tails around her larger one. The Negroes go on
+'coon hunts too, for they can sell the skins, while the meat is nearly
+as delicious as that of the opossum. Raccoons have long bushy tails and
+belong to the bear family, though they are much smaller. They catch
+birds in the trees, sucking their blood and eating the eggs whenever
+they find them. They like green corn, too, which they steal at night as
+it is growing in the fields.
+
+Our little friends go with us to the stables and show us their ponies,
+telling us of the lovely morning rides we may have through the country
+if we will stay with them for a few days. But we must bid them good-by
+and travel to the busy towns of the east where many of the people work
+in factories and stores and have little time to spend in the beautiful
+outdoor world. Before we leave the sunny south we would like to take a
+peep at a rice plantation in the low marshy country, and to watch the
+men gathering tobacco leaves and hanging them to dry in large sheds, but
+the northern train is waiting and we cannot linger.
+
+
+Among the Factories.
+
+The children of a factory town often know little of the free, happy days
+that a farm gives to its boys and girls. Long rows of houses where the
+workmen live, and large brick buildings where the machines are noisily
+running from Monday morning till Saturday night--these are what a person
+sees on every hand.
+
+The country settled by the Pilgrims and Puritans, and much more east of
+the Appalachian Mountains has such poor and stony soil that it is not
+good for farms. In such places we find the manufacturing towns where the
+cotton raised in the south and the wool from the sheep of the western
+plains are made into cloth for millions of people in the United States.
+Here also are large tanneries where the hides of cattle are prepared for
+harnesses, shoes, bags and many other things for which leather is used.
+In New England there are many factories where thousands of boots and
+shoes are made for the boys and girls of America.
+
+
+Fishing.
+
+Long ago, before the days of the factories, many ships sailed away from
+New England ports after whales in the Arctic waters. Now-a-days
+whale-bone is still valuable, but the oil is not needed so much as in
+the old times before gas and electricity came into use, so that whaling
+is not so common. But many men are still busy fishing for herring,
+halibut and cod, which are plentiful in the waters along the northeast
+coast and off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. Many a boy living on the
+coast goes on fishing trips with his father and becomes so fond of the
+free life of the sea that he decides to be a sailor for the rest of his
+life.
+
+Many lobsters and clams are also obtained along the coast, and farther
+south are rich beds of oysters. In Chesapeake Bay more than one-third of
+all the oysters eaten in the world are grown, and most of these are
+shipped from the beautiful city of Baltimore, at the head of the bay.
+Thousands of men and women there are busy, day after day, opening the
+shells and taking out the oysters which are then put into tubs and cans
+for shipment.
+
+
+In a Lumber Camp.
+
+When the white men first came to the United States, almost all the land
+between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mississippi River was covered with
+forests. Most of these were cut down to make clearings for the settlers'
+homes. Some of them, fortunately, were left. Among the largest forests
+still standing to-day are those near the Great Lakes, where the
+lumber-men work in much the same way as their Canadian brothers. When
+the snow is thick over the ground, they leave home with their teams of
+oxen and horses and go to the distant woods, where they build log-houses
+for themselves and stables for the animals. There they live during the
+cold months of the year. Sometimes they stop long enough in their work
+to go bear and deer hunting and so get fresh meat which makes a little
+change in their daily fare of bread, beans and salt-pork.
+
+The logs are carried to the nearby streams on sledges which move easily
+over the ice and snow. When spring comes they are floated along the
+streams and lakes to the saw-mills where they are made into lumber.
+
+
+Getting Coal.
+
+Many of the children living in the Appalachian Mountains to-day have
+their homes near coal mines and their fathers are busy digging out the
+coal that brings warmth and comfort during the winter to so many people.
+In some places the rocks have been washed away, but in others the coal
+is still so far underground that the miners have to work day after day
+where the sunlight never shines.
+
+Iron is also found in large quantities near the coal mines, and trains
+of freight cars carry both these minerals to cities not far away where
+they are used together in making steel.
+
+
+Among the Rocky Mountains.
+
+Great quantities of iron are found in the low mountains near Lake
+Superior, where the miners are constantly at work with the help of steam
+engines and powerful machines.
+
+The richest copper mines of the United States are also found near the
+shores of Lake Superior. A pig, we are told, discovered the best one of
+all in a curious way. It had strayed from home and fallen into a pit,
+where it scratched and rooted in its struggle to get out. In doing this,
+it laid bare some copper, which was discovered by its master when he
+went to look for the missing pig.
+
+Hunters are fond of visiting the Rocky Mountains, where they still find
+the fierce puma, or mountain lion, with its sharp teeth and claws, and
+bright eyes. Night is its favorite time to roam and it is then that the
+mountain goat needs to beware, for the cat-like puma shows no mercy.
+Children who live in the western part of the United States have
+sometimes seen a grizzly bear brought home by a friend after a hunting
+trip among the Rocky Mountains. It is the strongest and most dangerous
+of all the bear family. One blow of its paw is powerful enough to kill,
+yet if it is not disturbed a person has little to fear. It does not care
+for the flesh of other animals but is contented with a dinner of berries
+and tender shoots like its brothers, the brown and black bears.
+
+One of the most graceful animals the children of the west have ever seen
+is the bighorn, or Rocky Mountain sheep. It browses on the grass found
+on the steep slopes where the hunter has hard work to reach it. Its ears
+are quick to hear the slightest sound, when it will toss its head and
+flee from possible danger with long leaps.
+
+Among the Rocky Mountains are mines of silver, gold, and copper which
+have brought fortunes to many people of the United States. The silver
+mines especially are among the richest in the world. The men who work in
+them generally leave their families at home, and go away to "rough it"
+as they say, for a mining town seldom has many comforts and the boys and
+girls who do go there to live miss the good schools, and many other
+things to which they have been used.
+
+About fifty years ago gold was discovered in the state of California
+which lies on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. The news filled the
+country with excitement. As time passed by the gold mines did not prove
+as rich as the people expected, but they discovered that the country was
+valuable in other ways. Trees grew to enormous size there and the warm,
+moist climate of the western coast was the best possible for raising
+fruit. To-day the children of California feast on pears, plums,
+apricots, grapes, peaches, oranges, and still other fruits which grow
+very large and beautiful. There are many wheat farms, too, in California
+where rich harvests reward the men who own them.
+
+Beyond the Rocky Mountains and lying between them and a lower range
+called the Sierra Nevada, is a high plateau, where the rain falls into
+streams which dry up or form lakes before they can make their way to the
+sea.
+
+The largest of these is called the Great Salt Lake whose water is four
+times as salty as that of the sea.
+
+
+The Colorado Canyon.
+
+There are still other plateaus southeast of the Great Basin where the
+streams have worn away deep valleys called canyons. The largest of these
+rivers is the Colorado, whose canyon is so wonderful that travelers in
+the west always wish to visit it.
+
+In some parts of the canyon the steep cliffs rise on either side for
+about a mile up into the air. As the traveler in the valley below looks
+up he can see the stars shining in broad daylight. The rocks at the
+sides are of different colors--gray, brown, red and purple. The best time
+to visit the canyon is at sunrise or sunset. Then the light from above
+falls first upon one color and then upon another, making a beautiful
+sight as the shadows change from moment to moment.
+
+
+The National Park.
+
+The United States is a great country, as its people believe, and
+certainly no others in the world can boast of a park so large as theirs.
+
+When Lewis and Clark had traveled a long distance up the Missouri River
+they reached that part of the country which is now called the
+Yellowstone Park. A better name would be "Wonderland" for such it is to
+the thousands of people from all over the world who visit it every year.
+
+This great reservation is sixty-five miles from north to south and
+fifty-five miles from east to west. It contains not one, but many
+charming parks, lovely valleys, sparkling waterfalls, high mountains,
+deep valleys and one beautiful lake, called the Yellowstone Lake.
+
+We can travel in a comfortable parlor car to the very entrance of the
+Wonderland where we will first visit the Mammoth Hot Springs whose
+waters are as clear as a mirror. They contain lime and iron, and for
+this reason many people drink the water which they take as medicine.
+
+The largest of the Hot Springs bursts out of the ground near the summit
+of a high hill, from which it pours down over the slope and as it falls,
+makes deep basins in the earth below.
+
+Some of these basins are tiny and others quite large. They are of
+different colors--red, green, and yellow, and the edges are worn away
+into the prettiest sort of beadwork by Mother Nature.
+
+Now let us leave the Hot Springs and visit the geysers about fifty miles
+away. Each has a name of its own. There is the Giantess, which from time
+to time throws up a great quantity of water for a short distance. You
+must be careful not to venture too near when the Giantess wakes up, or
+you will be soaked with water in an instant.
+
+Another geyser is called Old Faithful, because you can depend on his
+appearance at just such a time. He shows off his accomplishments once
+every sixty-five minutes. Old Faithful sends up a few little jets of
+water at first but every moment they become larger and stronger, till
+suddenly, with a tremendous roar, the water spouts up one hundred and
+thirty feet in the air. By the end of five minutes the water subsides
+and only a small stream rises.
+
+Still another geyser is called the Beehive, on account of the shape of
+its cone. The water does not fall to the ground again but moves up
+through the air as fine spray.
+
+One of the most interesting of all the geysers is the Castle. As you
+near it, the air around may be perfectly quiet. Then, all at once, you
+you will hear a loud rumbling noise as though quantities of stones were
+rolling over each other, and at the same time the lashing of water is
+heard under the earth. The noise becomes almost deafening, the earth
+trembles under your feet, and if you are wise you will hasten to some
+spot quite a distance away. Suddenly a column of water rises straight up
+into the air at least one hundred and fifty feet. The spray from it
+falls over the ground around like heavy rain and those who have not been
+wise enough to flee like yourself are drenched with hot water.
+
+We must not leave the Wonderland without visiting Yellowstone Lake. It
+is very beautiful and stretches its long arms in among the mountains as
+though to embrace them. On the western shore of this lake you may catch
+trout if you will. Then, if you are hungry, you may take a few steps and
+drop the fish, still on the hook, into a boiling spring. Behold! your
+dinner of delicious trout is ready for your eating.
+
+Yellowstone River flows out of this wonderful lake and at first moves
+smoothly and quietly. Then, as it is about to make its way through a
+mountain-pass, it makes leaps and bounds in the form of cascades and
+waterfalls, wearing the earth into a deep canyon, which is as full of
+interest as that of the Colorado.
+
+In your visit to the Rocky Mountains you will, no doubt, wish to climb
+Pikes Peak. It is named for Major Pike, who tried to climb to the summit
+but failed.
+
+"Only a bird could succeed," he afterwards said. Now-a-days, however,
+hundreds of travelers go every year to the top of Pikes Peak.
+
+
+Niagara Falls.
+
+Nearly every one who travels over the United States takes a trip up the
+beautiful Hudson River, and goes to the top of Mount Washington in New
+England, by using the railroad built up the side of the mountain, and
+over which the train moves slowly with the help of a double engine.
+
+Perhaps the most wonderful and interesting of all sights are the Falls
+of Niagara, between Canada and the United States. Out of Lake Erie, one
+of the Five Great Lakes, flows the Niagara River, which soon reaches a
+cliff over which it pours its whole body of water with a sound like
+thunder. If you stand near the foot of the falls you must wear
+waterproof garments, or the dashing spray will drench you in a few
+moments. The longer you look, the more wonderful the sight appears and
+before long you feel as though you would like to stay there forever,
+watching those mighty waters falling, ever falling, and never resting in
+their course for a single moment.
+
+In winter the spray covers every bush and tree near the foot of the
+Falls and as it freezes almost instantly, strange forms are built up on
+the twigs and branches. Then in the bright sunlight the world around
+seems like fairyland. Masses of ice are carried along with the water of
+the cataract and become piled up below, making a bridge of ice across
+the river.
+
+The children who visit Niagara Falls are sure to wish to enter the deep
+cave in the cliff directly under the falling waters. No matter how
+carefully they may enter, they will be drenched by the spray unless they
+are clad in waterproof from head to foot. They have a strange feeling
+while they are in the cave. The loud rumbling of the water and the
+trembling of the earth fill them with a sort of fear and they are glad
+when they are once more out in the sunlight and at a safe distance from
+the mighty cataract.
+
+
+A Peep at Big Cities.
+
+There are many large and beautiful cities in the United States, each of
+which is particularly dear to the children who live there. Sometimes
+they think of their brothers and sisters of a hundred years ago who
+warmed themselves in winter before burning logs in big fireplaces, who
+traveled in lumbering stage-coaches and were lighted to bed by home-made
+candles or smoky whale-oil lamps. Many of the children of to-day have
+steam-heated houses, lighted by gas or electricity; they travel short
+distances in electric cars or automobiles, and longer ones in
+comfortable trains moved by steam-engines; or perhaps they take water
+trips in roomy steamboats where they can move about as freely as in
+their own homes. They talk with distant friends by merely taking down
+the receiver of a telephone. Steam, gas, electricity--all these
+conveniences are found not only in the cities of the United States, but
+on the distant prairies for the use of farmers and their families.
+
+Washington is the capital of the United States. It is the place where
+the business of the country is attended to and the laws are made for the
+protection of the people. It is a wonderfully clean and beautiful city,
+and has many grand buildings which may well be called palaces. The White
+House, the home of the president, is the copy of a palace in Ireland
+which was built for the Duke of Leinster. The National Library is very
+large and some people think the building devoted to it is the most
+beautiful in the world. The Rogers Bronze Door which opens into the
+Capital is a great work of art. The most important things in the life of
+Columbus and the discovery of America are pictured in the bronze. This
+one door cost thirty thousand dollars.
+
+There are large art galleries in Washington and many other buildings
+where you can pass day after day and constantly find new things to
+interest you. But before you leave the city you must be sure to visit
+the beautiful marble monument built in honor of George Washington.
+
+[Illustration: Children Working in the Cotton Factory in a Big City.]
+
+At the mouth of the Hudson River is the great city of New York, next to
+the largest in the whole world. It contains many beautiful homes, fine
+churches, lovely parks, and business buildings many stories in height
+which, like others in Chicago, are called "sky scrapers." On an island
+in New York Harbor stands the famous Statue of Liberty given to this
+country by France. Persons who wish to do so may climb up into the head
+of this statue which is in the form of a beautiful woman with a torch in
+her uplifted hand. The crown on the head is composed of windows from
+which there is a fine view of New York Harbor.
+
+Another island in the harbor is called Ellis Island, where most of the
+emigrants who have left their homes in other countries, land when they
+reach the United States. Irish and Poles, Italians and Russians, men
+with children clinging to their sides, and women with arms clasped
+around tiny babies, all dressed in the fashion of their old homes, step
+from the big ships and take their first breath of the free air of
+America almost under the shadow of the Statue of Liberty.
+
+New York is the greatest manufacturing centre in the United States.
+Clothing, books, cigars, furniture, leather goods and many other things
+are made here for the people of this and other countries.
+
+The good old city of Boston is on the eastern coast of Massachusetts. It
+has a fine harbor like its sister city in New York, and many large ships
+from all over the world are seen at its wharves.
+
+Ten years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth the Puritans founded
+Boston. It is a quaint city with narrow, winding streets, much unlike
+Chicago and New York and many other cities built later on. The State
+House on Beacon Hill has a gilded dome which can be seen in the sunlight
+for miles around. This is often called "Boston's breastpin." There are
+many old buildings in the city, around which are woven interesting
+stories of the early days of this country. Here stands Faneuil Hall
+where many stirring words were spoken. For this reason it is spoken of
+as the Cradle of Liberty. Then there is the Old South Church a "meeting
+house" of the olden times from which the Boston Tea Party started out to
+throw the tea which had come from England into Boston Harbor. The
+cemeteries, in which some of the greatest men of the early days of the
+country were buried, are still kept with the greatest care and are
+visited by travelers throughout the year. Boston is a manufacturing city
+and is the largest market in the world for boots, shoes and leather
+goods.
+
+In the state of Pennsylvania, settled as you know by the Quakers, is the
+city of Philadelphia. This name was chosen for it by William Penn
+because of its meaning, "brotherly love," and the peaceful spirit of
+that great man is felt even now in the quiet streets, lined with quaint
+old houses.
+
+Philadelphia was once the largest city in the United States. It is still
+a very busy one. Quantities of coal from the mines not far away are sent
+to this city and from there shipped to other places. Iron and steel
+goods are made in its factories and many of its people are busy in the
+cotton mills. On the river front near by there are large shipyards where
+ships have been built for the United States navy.
+
+The children of Philadelphia are especially proud of Independence Hall
+where the famous Declaration of Independence was signed and the bell
+rang out to tell of what brave men had dared to do. This "Liberty Bell"
+has been carefully preserved and may be seen even now after all these
+years.
+
+There are many other large and beautiful cities in the country. One of
+these, San Francisco, lies on the far western coast, on the borders of
+the Pacific Ocean. It has a deep harbor, into which come sailing many
+ships from China and Japan, bringing cargoes of silk and tea. Many
+Chinamen are to be seen on the streets of the city, and pretty Japanese
+children with black eyes and soft yellow skins play in the parks with
+the little Americans. More wheat is exported from the city of San
+Francisco than from any other in the United States.
+
+There is so much to tell of this great country and of the children who
+live here in happy homes, that it is hard to stop, but we must leave it
+for the present and travel south to Mexico.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII--Little Folks of Mexico
+
+
+Long ago, when we ended our visit in Canada and Newfoundland, we left
+behind us the polar bears and the icebergs and all those things which
+are to be found in the cold parts of the earth. Then we traveled over
+the United States with its temperate climate, where neither heat nor
+cold are severe. Still moving south, we come to Mexico.
+
+At the time Columbus discovered America Mexico was the home of gentle
+little Indian children. Their skins were not as red as the rest of their
+people in North America, but were of a brownish tint. Their lips were
+rather thick, and their voices were soft. They called themselves Aztecs.
+
+These children went to school and learned lessons while the other
+Indians of North America were living like savages. They were taught
+music and painting and the history of the Aztecs. They studied
+strange-looking books written in pictures, each of which stood for a
+certain word.
+
+As they grew up they were taught to worship many gods, some of whom they
+believed to be very cruel. They feared these gods and offered sacrifices
+of human beings to them. It was a dreadful belief indeed that could make
+people do this.
+
+A great king named Montezuma ruled over the whole country. He lived in a
+magnificent palace far up on a lofty plateau in the middle of the
+country, with mountains on either hand, as though to guard him. He wore
+rich garments which he changed many times a day. He ate the choicest
+food from dishes of silver and gold. Hundreds of people waited upon him,
+ever ready to do his bidding.
+
+Montezuma made the city where he lived very beautiful. There were
+gardens filled with flowers, and ponds stocked with different kinds of
+fish. There were menageries where birds of brilliant plumage were cared
+for so tenderly that they could not miss their free homes of the forest,
+and there were wild animals of both hot lands and cold. Altogether, the
+city was the wonder of all who visited it.
+
+There came a time, however, when all this was changed. A few years after
+Columbus discovered the New World a Spaniard named Fernando Cortez
+sailed along the shores of Mexico with his fleet of ships. He entered a
+harbor and landed. The simple Indians who stood watching, bent low
+before the strange white men, for they thought them gods from heaven who
+had come to visit them, and they gladly told all they knew about the
+country. Gold and silver? Yes, there was plenty to be had in Mexico.
+Furthermore, they described the wonderful city on the plateau above,
+where the great Montezuma held his court.
+
+Cortez listened with great interest. He was a brave man; he was also
+cruel and greedy. His eyes flashed as he thought of all the riches to be
+gained if he could conquer the natives. But he used only soft words and
+begged to be shown the way to the wonderful city among the mountains
+above him. He declared that he wished to pay respect to the ruler of the
+country.
+
+The Indian guides led the way while Cortez and his train of knights
+followed.
+
+On, yet ever upwards they climbed, soon leaving the hot, damp lowlands
+behind them. The air became cooler and fresher, and the fruits that grow
+only where the heat is great, were soon passed. On, yet ever upwards!
+The pathway now became steep and rough, but it brought the Spaniards at
+last out upon a broad plain on which stood the city described by the
+natives of the lowlands. The king came to meet the strangers in all his
+glory. He lavished gifts upon them, too--gold and silver and precious
+stones,--all those things which he thought valuable in the eyes of his
+guests. He entertained them royally and gave feasts in their honor.
+
+While the cruel Spaniard was looking at the rich gifts, he was planning
+how to conquer Montezuma and his subjects and get all the wealth of the
+country into his hands.
+
+It was not long before this was done. Montezuma's reign was brought to
+an end; the beautiful buildings of the city of which he was so proud
+were destroyed, and the Indians of Mexico became the slaves of the
+Spaniards.
+
+For nearly three hundred years Spain ruled over the country, during
+which time many boys and girls crossed the ocean to make their home in
+Mexico.
+
+Some of the Spaniards married gentle Indian maidens and their children
+were called half-castes, to show that they were half-white and
+half-Indian. For this reason there are three kinds of children who call
+Mexico home,--first, creoles, whose people came in the beginning from
+Europe; second, the Indians, and third, the half-castes. Many of these
+last are so fair in the skin that one would scarcely think they could
+have any Indian blood whatever.
+
+Although the white people came in the beginning from Spain, they have
+lived so long in Mexico that they now have a name of their own. Many of
+their children are very beautiful. They have soft black eyes which grow
+sharp and piercing as they become excited. They are usually very gentle,
+but if they are crossed they show a quick, unruly temper. They are not
+fond of work, but like to be waited on by their servants. Many of them
+are rich and live in grand houses built around courtyards whose
+fountains play all day long. The air of these courtyards is filled with
+the odor of lovely flowers growing there.
+
+The mothers of the little creoles dress in dainty lawns and laces,
+following the latest fashions from Paris. They are proud of their tiny
+hands and feet and are careful to do no hard work that may spoil their
+shape. They embroider, and do other fancywork, and they sing and play.
+They are very loving, and bring up their little ones to be polite and
+respectful. They, as well as their husbands, are ever ready to show
+kindness to visitors and strangers.
+
+The Indian children of Mexico lead a very different life from their
+creole brothers and sisters. After the Aztecs were conquered by the
+Spaniards they lived the life of slaves for such a long time that it
+became a habit with them to look up to the white men as higher beings,
+so that to this day they are as humble as slaves although they are now
+free and the country is a republic.
+
+The little Indians have few clothes, but that does not matter, for they
+do not need more in the warm climate in which they live. As for shoes,
+their people in the good old times before the coming of the Spaniards
+wore none, so why should they? Sandals are certainly far more
+comfortable, besides being the best foot-gear possible for mountain
+climbing.
+
+In the warm lowlands the Indians live in simple huts of wood or bamboo,
+with thatched roofs of palm leaves. Farther up on the table-land where
+it is cooler the homes are still small and easily made, but they are of
+unburnt brick, called adobe. The roofs are flat and covered with clay.
+No matter how poor the family may be the home is not complete unless it
+has an oven large enough for a person to sit in, also made of adobe.
+Stones are piled in this oven and heated. Then water is poured over
+them, which makes a heavy steam rise, in which the people take their
+baths.
+
+"It is good," the little Indians would tell you. "So good, that as the
+sweat bursts out over your body, it will take out all the badness, and
+make you feel well and strong."
+
+The poorest children need not be hungry, for fruits and vegetables are
+cheap and plentiful. Besides these, there are the tortillas the Indian
+mothers make every day for their families.
+
+Outside of every house there is sure to be a field of maize, big enough
+to furnish the family with all they need during the year. When the maize
+is ripe it is gathered and put away for future use. Every evening the
+women of the household take some of it and place it in jars of hot
+water. They add a little lime to soften it. When morning comes, they
+take it from the jar, and spreading it on a stone bench, make it into
+paste with a stone roller. Now it is put into a dish, and enough water
+added to make it into a batter thick enough for pancakes. One by one
+these are baked before a fire of charcoal. Hours are spent each day
+preparing tortillas. Even the rich people of Mexico are fond of
+tortillas, and hire special cooks to prepare them for the table.
+
+The Indian children are very strong. The boys practice running and learn
+to carry heavy loads on their backs with ease. Many of the men are
+porters, or work in the silver mines carrying out the ore; some of them,
+however, are busy on the farms. As the boys grow up, they generally
+follow the same trade as their fathers. The pay is small and the work is
+hard, but it seems easier for the Indians to keep to the same old habits
+that were formed under their masters, the Spaniards.
+
+Wherever you may travel in Mexico, you will meet Indian porters with
+heavy loads on their backs, moving along at a steady trot. Hour after
+hour they will keep this up, carrying seventy-five or a hundred pounds
+at a time. The Indian farmers may be fifty or even a hundred miles from
+a market for their goods, but it does not seem to trouble them that the
+vegetables they wish to sell must be carried all the way on their backs.
+
+Besides the Indian and creole children are the half-castes whose skins
+are darker than those of their white brothers and sisters, though many
+of them have rosy cheeks. They are pleasant and good-natured, but are
+apt to be sly and lazy.
+
+The fathers of the little half-castes are generally farmers or mule
+drivers. Their older brothers and sisters are often servants in the
+homes of the wealthy creoles, where they learn the ways and fashions of
+the white people and try to copy them.
+
+Most of the boys and girls of Mexico go to school which they must reach
+by seven o'clock in the morning, and where they spend about ten hours of
+each day. The seats and desks are not comfortably arranged as they are
+in most places in the United States. Those children who can have chairs
+are fortunate, for many of them sit on benches and even on the floor.
+They study aloud, so you can imagine what a chattering there is. It is
+hard to understand how they manage to get their lessons.
+
+There are many holidays in Mexico, when the tiresome schools are closed
+and both big folks and little give themselves up to feasting and
+dancing.
+
+One of these, Good Friday, is celebrated in a curious way. All day long
+men go through the streets carrying figures of the traitor Judas hanging
+from long poles. They stop from time to time as children come running up
+to them to buy a Judas. Now comes the sport, for the figures can be
+blown up. Bits of lighted punk are held against the figures, when they
+suddenly burst like fire-crackers and make noise enough to deafen the
+ears of the passer-by. It is no wonder the children save up their money
+for Good Friday so that they can buy numbers of Judases.
+
+The evening is the best part of the whole day, for then immense Judases
+are hung up on lines across the streets and crowds of people gather to
+watch them while they are blown up and exploded. At the same time the
+city bells ring out the glad news that Judas has been destroyed. The
+strangest part of all is the crackling noise that now follows,
+representing the breaking of the bones of the two thieves who were
+crucified at the same time as Jesus. The Mexicans certainly have a queer
+way of celebrating Good Friday.
+
+
+On the Coast.
+
+Although a part of Mexico lies in or near the torrid zone, all kinds of
+climate are to be found in the country. Let us see how this is. Along
+the shores of the Pacific on the west, and of the Gulf of Mexico on the
+east the land is low and the air is hot and moist, and for this reason
+there is much illness there. The children of these lowlands know only
+two seasons, the wet and the dry. Many of them live on ranches where
+herds of cattle feed on the high, coarse grass. Here and there small
+streams flow through the land from the mountains above, and there are
+lakes shaded by tall palm trees. These are the places where the tropical
+fruits of Mexico grow,--vanilla, spices, bananas, cacao, and oranges.
+Mangoes, cocoanuts, and alligator pears, besides many others seldom sent
+to temperate lands, also grow here in plenty.
+
+The lowlands are not perfectly flat, but slope upwards toward high hills
+where the air is clear and much cooler. The children here can gather
+yellow oranges and clutches of bananas, like their brothers and sisters
+of the lowlands, while they may also pick peaches and apples in their
+orchards. Flowers and trailing vines grow everywhere about them. The
+palms of the hot lands wave in the breeze on one side, while the roses
+and honeysuckles of the temperate zone bloom on the other. It is a
+strange and beautiful country.
+
+Slowly we bid good-by to the little homes nestled among the trees, and
+with the help of a big double-engine we climb up the steep slopes to
+still higher lands. The trees are of a different kind now, for strong
+pines and oaks are about us everywhere.
+
+The long climbing comes to an end at last. The double-engine has done
+its work and is used no longer, for we move out upon the plateau of
+Mexico where cactus plants spread over many acres, and wheat and barley
+fields greet us like old friends from the United States.
+
+[Illustration: A Mexican Village.]
+
+
+Vera Cruz.
+
+When Cortez arrived on the coast of Mexico his ships entered the only
+good harbor on the eastern side of the country. He and his men landed at
+a place to which the Spaniards gave the name of Vera Cruz, or "True
+Cross." Afterwards they built a city there, which to-day is one of the
+two principal ports of Mexico. Every year many ships are loaded at the
+wharves of Vera Cruz with limes and hammocks, silver and copper, which
+they carry to the United States and other countries.
+
+Vera Cruz is a beautiful city. Tall palm trees shade many a lovely home,
+in whose gardens children are playing throughout the year. Before it
+stretches the Gulf of Mexico, while at its back the lofty volcano
+Orizaba reaches far up toward the sky. The people of Vera Cruz work hard
+to make it a clean city, and they are helped by the vultures--big,
+ugly-looking birds who are ever ready to swoop down into the streets and
+house-yards to devour any decaying matter to be found. Bits of fruit and
+vegetables, scraps of meat, and dead animals whether big or little, are
+greedily eaten. Although the city is kept clean from one end to the
+other, it is not a healthy place for a home. Fever is in hiding
+everywhere and visitors find it wise to make only a short stay in the
+place.
+
+
+Getting Vanilla.
+
+Few people live in the low country around Vera Cruz except Indians and
+half-castes. Here and there on the banks of the streams you may find a
+group of palm-thatched huts with Indian children running in and out
+among the trees. The weather is so warm here throughout the year that
+they wear scarcely any clothing and many times in the day they plunge
+into the river to cool themselves. Sometimes the boys take long tramps
+into the forests on the slopes above them in search of pods filled with
+vanilla beans. They must seek only dark and moist places, for vanilla
+plants do not grow well in the sunlight. Swarms of mosquitoes buzz about
+the boys' bare legs, and snakes and lizards often cross their path. Many
+times they are obliged to crawl between tangled vines and push thick
+underbrush aside. But they care little for these things. Their minds are
+set on finding enough vanilla plants to yield them a goodly load of
+pods, which they will carry home and dry with the greatest care before
+sending them to market.
+
+
+Acapulco.
+
+On the western coast of Mexico is the city of Acapulco, with its deep
+and beautiful harbor. Many large steamers are loaded with cattle and
+hides, timber and fruit at its wharves.
+
+
+The Mexican Farms.
+
+Many of the children of Mexico have their homes on tobacco and sugar
+plantations which are found on the slopes rising from the lowlands along
+the shore. Still other children live on the plateau of Mexico on large
+farms which stretch over miles of country and seem like small towns in
+themselves. The men on these farms are busy in various ways. Some of
+them have the care of large fields of wheat or barley. Others tend herds
+of cattle or flocks of sheep.
+
+The owner of such a farm is usually a rich man who lives with his family
+in a large stone house surrounded by high walls. There is a courtyard
+where beautiful trees and plants are growing and fountains are playing.
+The wife and children of the owner wear dainty garments and are waited
+upon by many servants. They have the choicest food,--fruits of many
+kinds, chicken cooked in different ways, tortillas of course, besides
+all sorts of delicacies prepared by excellent cooks.
+
+The workmen have very different homes. They live in small huts of one or
+two rooms, and built of mud or adobe. Inside are rough stone fireplaces,
+and a few mats are spread on the floor. Here the children and their
+parents sit while they eat their simple meals of tortillas and black
+beans, and here they stretch themselves at night for sleep. They are
+quite happy, however. Outdoors are the birds, the flowers, and the
+beautiful sunshine. They need few clothes and they do not go hungry.
+
+There are usually large dairies on these farms where women are busy
+making the rich milk into butter and cheese. Thousands of pounds are
+often sent to market from one such farm during the year.
+
+You have probably seen century plants in the hot-houses you have
+visited, and have been told that they belong to the aloe family. When
+the Spaniards first came to Mexico they saw the Indians making paper
+from the pulp of the leaves of the aloe plant and twine from its fibers.
+The sharp thorns on the edges of the leaves furnished needles for the
+Indian women, and the sap of the aloe was made into pulque, the favorite
+drink of the natives. They also made hammocks from the fibers and
+thatched the roofs of their huts with the big leaves, lapping one over
+the other like shingles. In fact, the Indians made so many uses of the
+aloe plant that the Spaniards thought it worth while to raise it in
+large quantities for themselves.
+
+The aloe has thick, pointed leaves sometimes ten feet long. It blossoms
+about once in ten years, when it sends a flower stalk twenty or thirty
+feet up into the air. At the very top an immense cluster of
+greenish-yellow blossoms appears. All the strength of the plant goes
+into these blossoms for, as they open, the leaves wither and die.
+
+The Indians have learned to tell when the plant is getting ready to send
+up its giant flower-stalk. Just before it appears they cut out the heart
+with a sharp knife, leaving only the thick, outside rind of the stem.
+The sweet sap that should have gone to feed the flower-stalk begins to
+ooze into the hollow and continues to do so for several weeks. The
+Indians, who have discovered the right time to cut into the plant to
+prevent its flowering, have also learned that the sap can be used in
+making the drink which they call pulque.
+
+The city of Mexico is a beautiful one, with high stone walls around it,
+a large square in the centre, and broad streets running at right angles
+to each other. Nearly all the houses are built of stone, with flat roofs
+on which the people sit in the evening to enjoy the cool breezes and
+watch the stars twinkling merrily in the heavens above.
+
+The children of the big stone houses can play in inner courtyards among
+flowering plants and fountains. But when they leave their homes to go
+out into the city they must pass through heavy doors studded with nails
+and heavily chained. The house windows that face the street have iron
+bars across them, so that at first these houses seem like fortresses.
+But when one passes to the back part of such a building and looks out
+through the windows there upon the pretty courtyard with its fountains
+and flower-beds, or takes a comfortable chair on one of the balconies,
+with its gilded balustrades covered with trailing vines, he begins to
+feel as though he were in a beautiful palace.
+
+The great square in the middle of the city is beautiful with trees and
+flowers, statues, and walks paved with snowy marble. In the long-ago a
+temple stood here where hundreds of people were sacrificed to the gods
+in whom the Aztecs believed. On one side of the square stands the house
+of the president, and on another there is a grand cathedral where the
+Mexicans and their children go to worship. The cathedral doors are
+always open so that any day you may go inside and find people kneeling
+there. Rich and poor, grand ladies in delicate muslins and jewels, and
+the poorest Indians with their packs of fruit or coops filled with
+chickens still on their backs, kneel in prayer side by side.
+
+Many of the children who have been to the cathedral to worship, stop as
+they leave it before the flower-decked stands under the trees, where
+women are busy selling cool drinks and sweetmeats. Or perhaps they are
+more interested in the Indians wandering about with cages of
+humming-birds and parrots, and they beg their parents or older friends
+who are with them to buy one of the birds to carry home.
+
+As the children go on their way they pass many a horseman riding through
+the streets with broad hat shading his face, and with leggings trimmed
+with buttons and silver braid. Silver spurs shine brightly at his side
+in the sunlight, as also do the gorgeous trappings of his horse.
+
+There are all sorts of people to be seen on the streets of Mexico. There
+are Indians with packs of all sorts on their backs. There are girls in
+gaily striped skirts selling fruit. There are water-carriers in leather
+aprons with large earthen jars on their backs and smaller ones hanging
+down in front; there are bird-sellers with flower-trimmed cages; there
+are the Indian policemen who carry lanterns at night, which they place
+in the middle of the street while they nap in the doorways close by.
+These naps must be very short, however, because every fifteen minutes it
+is the business of the policemen to blow shrill whistles, and at every
+hour to call the time.
+
+
+The Big Market.
+
+The boys and girls of the city often visit the big market which is only
+a short distance from the cathedral. It is surrounded by high stone
+walls and on every side there is a gateway through which the people are
+constantly passing.
+
+The sides of the market are lined with shops where people are busy
+selling all sorts of goods. There are the stalls of butchers where only
+meats are to be seen. There are stands of fruit that fill the air with
+sweet odors. There are vegetables of many kinds, furniture, and
+dress-goods of all colors. There are shops where fried meats are sold to
+hungry people in need of a lunch. There are great piles of cocoanuts and
+bananas heaped upon the ground. There are fish from both lake and ocean.
+Strangest of all are the cakes made out of marshflies. These flies are
+found in great numbers along the muddy banks of the Mexican lakes. There
+they lay their eggs among the flags and rushes and are killed by the
+Indians and made into a paste.
+
+The middle of the market is filled with Indians who shade themselves and
+their wares from the hot sun by large squares of matting perched on
+poles. Here is one man with coops filled with chickens, and another with
+a stack of earthen dishes made at home. Just beyond him is a woman with
+a baby on her back. She is standing by the side of a patient donkey with
+panniers filled with melons or peaches, hanging from its sides, and a
+happy little two-year old child on its back. Some of the people who are
+busy selling their wares have come many miles and left their homes
+before sunrise. They have brought their families along with them, so
+that half-naked children and babies of all ages are to be seen
+everywhere. Some of them are munching fruit, others playing
+hide-and-seek among the crowds, while many a tiny baby is nodding itself
+to sleep on its mother's back or crying with all its might for a little
+attention.
+
+
+The Museums.
+
+The children of the city are fond of visiting the museums, for there
+they can see many of the wonderful things made by the Aztecs in the time
+of their great ruler, Montezuma.
+
+First of all they stop before a large bed of flowers in the court, in
+the center of which is the "sacrificial stone" where, in the old days
+before the coming of the white men, people were offered up to the gods
+in whom they believed. Near by are the hideous statues of two of these
+gods. They are not pleasant to look at, so the visitors pass quickly
+into the building where they can see Aztec vases ornamented with strange
+carving, masks of volcanic glass, the wonderful feather shields of
+Montezuma, books filled with picture-writing, and images made of wax and
+representing all kinds of life in Mexico. There is the Indian with his
+pack, the charcoal-seller with his donkey beside him laden with coal,
+the flower-vender with bouquets of flowers in her hands.
+
+Children are never tired of looking at these wax figures, but however
+long they may stay, they do not like to leave the museum without at
+least a peep at the feather pictures made in the time of Montezuma.
+
+These pictures are entirely of birds' delicate feathers, laid over each
+other so carefully that if you were to examine them ever so closely you
+would not be able to tell how the work was done. The pictures are as
+wonderful in their way as fine paintings. Only few Indians know the
+secret of making them, which is guarded carefully and handed down from
+father to son.
+
+
+The Floating Gardens.
+
+Most of the vegetables raised for the people of Mexico are brought in
+the early morning from the floating gardens a short distance from the
+city, where there are some lakes. A kind of water-plant grows in these
+lakes very fast and mats together, making marshy beds.
+
+Long ago, in the time of Montezuma, the Aztec farmers learned to make
+gardens out of these floating masses of weeds. They cut out large
+squares which they covered with mud drawn up from the bottom of the
+lake. The soil was rich and moist so that no place in the world could be
+better for plants. Flower and vegetable seeds were sown and in a short
+time beautiful gardens were growing.
+
+From that day to this Indians have been busy tending these floating
+gardens. They pass from one to another in canoes, gathering vegetables
+and flowers for the city market. One boat will be filled with lettuce,
+another with luscious red tomatoes, while still another will be loaded
+with bright-colored flowers. It is a pretty sight to see them as they
+move slowly along through the Viga Canal that leads from the lakes to
+the city. Again and again the Indians paddling along with their loads
+are passed by pleasure boats filled with young people, who make the air
+resound with the odd sweet songs of the country.
+
+
+Volcanoes.
+
+South of the city of Mexico there is a range of hills, and beyond these
+is a chain of volcanoes, two of which bear the names of Popocatapetl and
+Iztacsihuatl. It is much easier, however, to think of them as "Smoking
+Mountain" and "The Woman in White," for such are the meanings of these
+long words. Both these volcanoes wear garments of snow and they look so
+peaceful that the children of Mexico are not troubled with the thought
+of what might happen if they should awake in fiery anger some day and
+send out streams of red-hot lava over the country below.
+
+The slopes of Popocatapetl are dotted with the huts of Indians who earn
+their living by getting loads of sulphur from the crater of the volcano.
+
+The highest mountain peak in Mexico is Orizaba, or the "Star of the
+Sea." As you sail towards the eastern shore of Mexico and when you are
+still so far away that no other part is in sight, the lofty volcano
+Orizaba appears before you with its summit in the clouds. The Indians
+chose a fitting name for it, because it certainly seems to rise out of
+the sea.
+
+
+Among the Mines.
+
+When the Spaniards became the rulers of Mexico they found themselves the
+owners of the richest silver mines in the world. A great part of the
+silver used to-day came from those mines. Although immense fortunes have
+been made in the country for hundreds of years, yet the mines are still
+rich in the precious ore. They are owned by white men, but the work of
+getting the silver is done mostly by Indians. Mules are sometimes used
+to carry the ore from the dark caverns underground to the bright world
+outside, but much of even this work is done by the Indians themselves,
+who climb up the steep sides of the mines with heavy loads on their
+backs day after day.
+
+When the silver is found it is generally mixed with sulphur, but
+sometimes a lump of the pure metal is turned up. One of these lumps
+weighed four hundred and twenty-five pounds, and was worth eight
+thousand dollars.
+
+The miners sometimes try to steal the silver by hiding it in their hair,
+their ears, or between their toes. They are carefully watched for this
+reason, so they seldom succeed.
+
+Copper is also found in the mines of Mexico and some of it is sent to
+the United States.
+
+The children of Mexico never need to leave their country for the sake of
+a change, for by traveling a few miles, they can enjoy either cold
+weather or hot; they can see the trees and plants, can hear the birds,
+and can pick the flowers belonging to lands that stretch from the frozen
+north to the burning regions of the equator.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX--Little Folks of Central America
+
+
+Now let us make a short visit to the children of Central America.
+Perhaps it would not be well for us to stay with them long unless they
+live in the high valleys of the mountain country along the western
+shore, for the lowlands are hotter and even more moist than those of
+Mexico. Fever lies in waiting for strangers in the lowlands; swarms of
+mosquitoes are ready to attack us on every hand, centipedes and
+scorpions are hidden in the grass at our feet, so that we are quite
+willing to hasten towards the hill country as quickly as possible. Even
+here we feel in danger, for the high valleys we enter lie hidden under
+the very shadow of a row of volcanoes that stretch from north to south
+through the land. Many of these are quite wide-awake and show this in
+various ways, some by the clouds of smoke that rise out of their
+craters, or by the odor of sulphur that reaches our noses, or perhaps by
+the shaking of the earth beneath our feet.
+
+One of the highest of these peaks is called Agua which, from time to
+time, sends out jets of boiling water.
+
+The children of Central America are quite used to earthquakes, which
+they feel many times during the year. At any moment, in the midst of
+their play, at dinner time, or during a walk through the streets, the
+ground may suddenly tremble under their feet, they become dizzy and
+light-headed, and perhaps there is a rumbling sound in the air around
+them. If they are away from home, they hurry back to seek safety beside
+their mothers.
+
+A minute afterwards the danger may pass by and the play or dinner or
+walk goes on as before. Yet there are ruined cities in the country to
+tell the story that there have been terrible earthquakes in past times
+when homes were destroyed, and men, women and children lost their lives
+before they had time to flee for safety.
+
+The children of Central America are much like their brothers and sisters
+of Mexico. There are the Indians who are little troubled by the heat and
+mosquitoes, there are the white boys and girls whose people came from
+Spain, and there are the little half-castes.
+
+Some of these children live near dense forests where their fathers are
+busy cutting down valuable mahogany and logwood trees, which are shipped
+to other lands to be made into elegant furniture. It is so hot in many
+of these forests that the men do their work at night with flaming
+torches to give them light.
+
+It is a strange sight. All around is heavy darkness except in the
+cleared space among the trees where the torch-lights show patient oxen
+plodding along with their heavy loads, and their half-naked drivers
+snapping their whips and calling in loud voices to the animals and each
+other. Through it all comes the sound of the whip and axe, and the
+snapping of the big trunks as they fall to the ground.
+
+Logwood, from which a valuable dye is obtained, is the name of another
+valuable tree found in the forests of Central America, as also is the
+lignum vitae, or wood of life. From both logwood and lignum vitae are
+extracted medicines which physicians often use.
+
+In Central America people need to be careful when they are wandering
+through the thick grass or along the edge of a forest, for poisonous
+snakes lurk about and the bites of some of them may cause much pain and
+suffering.
+
+Sometimes the boys bring home winged squirrels which they have caught
+while flying from tree to tree, but these little creatures do not enjoy
+being made captive. They love their wild life in the woods, where they
+are free to scamper over the ground; or spreading their legs, to fly
+about among the branches of the trees as they will.
+
+Along the southern coast of Central America the children find beautiful
+mother-of-pearl shells on the water's edge. As the sunlight falls upon
+these shells the loveliest colors are seen on the clear
+surface,--delicate pinks and blues and violets. After the children are
+tired of playing with the shells they can easily sell them, for
+travelers are ever ready to buy them as remembrances of their stay in
+the country.
+
+In the forests of Central America there are many rubber trees, where
+Indian boys help their fathers gather the sap which will afterwards be
+made into storm coats and shoes to protect the children of the United
+States from rain and snow.
+
+In the lowlands and on the slopes there are many banana orchards, which
+furnish all the fruit the little folks and their parents wish for, as
+well as many a shipload for the people of other lands.
+
+Some of the white children of the country live on coffee plantations
+where Negro and Indian workmen care for the trees and pick the berries
+for market.
+
+There are also places in Central America where the indigo plant is
+raised on account of the blue dye that is obtained from it. This, too,
+is sent away from the country in ships, as well as coffee and mahogany,
+bananas and rubber.
+
+Central America is divided into several republics, each one of which is
+quite independent of the others. As you travel through them southwards,
+the country becomes more and more narrow till you come at last to the
+Isthmus of Panama, which joins North and South America.
+
+The people of the United States are now very busy building a canal
+through this isthmus to join together the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
+As you look at the map it seems an easy enough matter.
+
+You think, "Why, that canal ought to be finished in a short time and
+should not cost much, either, for the distance across the canal is not
+more than twenty-six miles at the narrowest part."
+
+But you must remember in the first place that the canal can not be dug
+in a straight line; also, that it must pass through the heart of high
+mountains and that solid masses of rock must be broken up, bit by bit.
+Then again, the climate of the lowlands is very unhealthy during the wet
+season of the year and the workmen suffer from fever and other kinds of
+sickness. Besides, it has been hard to get men who understand the work
+to go there. For these reasons and still others the building of this
+canal is a tremendous undertaking and will cost billions of dollars
+before it is finished.
+
+The people of France began it many years ago, but gave it up after
+two-fifths of it had been dug. The people of the United States undertook
+to finish it, and at present everything is going on well. They paid
+France for what she had already done on the canal and bought the land
+through which it is to pass. Moreover, they have built comfortable homes
+for the workmen and have done many things to prevent the fevers that
+attack persons so easily on account of the damp, hot climate.
+
+So it has come about that on the Isthmus of Panama there are now many
+American children whose fathers are busy on the canal and have brought
+their families to live with them there. Schools have been built where
+these children study the same lessons as their playmates at home. Mother
+Nature gives them other lessons too, for they see many curious sights in
+the country around them, different trees and plants, different flowers
+and birds from those of their homeland. If they enter the forests they
+can see the parrots and monkeys among the tree-tops, and possibly wild
+hogs among the underbrush. They can pick flowers which are beautiful,
+but without fragrance. They can tap milk trees and get a thick, creamy
+liquid which will satisfy their hunger. They must be watchful, however,
+in this strange country, for immense ants are ever ready to sting their
+tender toes, and poisonous snakes lie hidden in the thick grass.
+
+Not far from the homes of the little Americans there are villages where
+Chinese children are living with their parents, since many Chinamen are
+at work on the canal. There are Negroes, too, as well as the white men
+and the native Indians.
+
+By and by, when the great undertaking is finished and big ships from all
+parts of the world are constantly passing through the canal, it will be
+a very lively place and many will be the visitors to that part of North
+America.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X--Little Folks of the West Indies
+
+
+When Columbus discovered the New World he landed on a small island
+southeast of North America where the gentle red people greeted him as a
+god from heaven. You probably know the story,--how Columbus thought he
+had reached India, the land of silks and spices, and how he accordingly
+called the red men whom he met, Indians. In fact India was far away, and
+instead of landing on its shores, the great sailor had reached one of a
+long chain of islands reaching from North to South America, which we
+know to-day as the West Indies.
+
+The red people who greeted Columbus did not live long after the coming
+of the Spaniards who followed him. They were made to dig gold in the
+mines for their cruel masters, and to do other hard work to which they
+were not used. They soon sickened and died under the hard treatment.
+Many of them, alas, were killed by the white men in sport, so that
+before long not an Indian was left in all the islands.
+
+To-day many white children, whose people came from Spain long ago, are
+living in happy homes in the West Indies. Besides them, there are
+hundreds of little Negroes with kinky hair and rolling eyes, whose homes
+are tiny huts thatched with palm leaves, and who wear little or no
+clothing. They bask in the sunshine and play in the clear waters along
+the shore and are as happy as the day is long.
+
+The beautiful islands of the West Indies lie in the hot belt of the
+world, and the people who live there know but two seasons, a wet and a
+dry. For several months rain falls every day,--not all day long, however,
+keeping the boys and girls indoors, but there are heavy showers every
+morning, after which the world looks lovelier than ever. It is far
+pleasanter then than in the dry season, when the trees and plants lose
+their freshness and the dust is thick upon everything around.
+
+Although the West Indies lie in the hot belt, yet cool breezes from the
+ocean blow over the land throughout the year so that the people who live
+there do not suffer from the heat. The white children wear thin linen
+and cotton garments, and instead of the meat and blood soup so necessary
+to the little Eskimo, they have cooling drinks made with limes and
+lemons, and they eat freely the delicious fruits that are so plentiful.
+They are not fond of lively games like football and baseball, which are
+such favorites with many American children. Instead, they spend many
+hours in hammocks among groves of orange and breadfruit trees.
+
+These children go to school for two hours of the early morning and two
+in the late afternoon, but when the sun is bright in the heavens and the
+air is hot they stay at home to rest and sleep. In many of the homes of
+the richer people the children take their breakfast of rolls, and coffee
+or chocolate in bed, then get up to study their lessons with a governess
+who lives with the family.
+
+Some of the islands of the West Indies have been built up, bit by bit,
+by the little coral insects of the sea. Others are the tops of mountains
+resting on the bed of the ocean; most of them are broken up into deep
+valleys and high hills, among which are many strange plants and animals.
+
+Not many years ago there was a war between Spain and the United States.
+It lasted but a short time, and when it came to an end Spain agreed to
+give up her rights in the West Indies. Porto Rico, one of the most
+important islands, became a part of the United States, and Cuba, the
+largest island of all, was made a republic. Since that time many
+Americans have gone to live in the West Indies to carry on business in
+the cities, or raise sugar and coffee on the plantations.
+
+When the Spaniards had no more Indians to work for them, they sent ships
+to Africa for Negroes who should serve them as slaves on their
+plantations. Now, however, the Negroes have all been freed. Hayti, one
+of the islands, is divided into two small republics of black people. In
+the other islands most of the workmen are black, for these people can
+bear a great deal of heat and can stay all day long in the sugar and
+tobacco fields without harm, when white men would suffer from sunstroke.
+
+
+Hurricanes.
+
+There is one time of the year which the children of the West Indies do
+not enjoy. This is the season of hurricanes. It is because of these that
+most of the houses are only one story high, for the winds are so strong
+and terrible then that the strongest buildings are in danger.
+
+As the time draws near when hurricanes are expected, boats are drawn up
+along the shore, roofs are patched and made tight, and everyone watches
+the sky for the dread signs. Then, as the clouds gather and the birds
+take flight into the depths of the forest, the children run home to
+their parents for safety. If they live in the country the whole family
+will sometimes leave the house and seek safety in a stone cavern, built
+on purpose for their protection in the hurricane season. There the
+people will stay till the wind has done its work and passed on. When
+they leave their hiding-place they often find that great harm has been
+done; noble trees lie stretched on the ground, the crops have been
+destroyed, and the glass of the house windows is shattered. They look
+about them at the world that is once more so beautiful and peaceful, and
+take long breaths as they think, "Perhaps there will be no more danger
+for us for another long year and that is a long way off. We will not
+worry."
+
+
+In the Woods.
+
+There are no large animals in the forests of the West Indies to frighten
+the children, but among the grasses and beautiful plants that grow
+everywhere about them there are many insects that might do them harm.
+Scorpions, which belong to the spider family, may give painful bites,
+and centipedes with their hundred legs, must also be watched for. Then
+there are mosquitoes without number, and chigos as the children call
+them, which creep between the tender skins of the white people's toes
+and make poisonous sores, but seldom trouble those of the Negroes.
+
+"I must not go far into the woods when I am alone," think many small
+boys and girls, for they are afraid they may meet a wild dog which they
+are quite sure is a most fierce and dangerous animal. But the children
+have little to fear on this account, for wild dogs are so scarce that
+few people have ever met them. Long ago in Mexico, in the time of the
+Aztecs, and in the West Indies before the coming of the white men there,
+it is said there were such creatures in the forests, but now they are
+rare indeed.
+
+Sometimes the children meet a strange kind of army when they are walking
+in the woods or driving along the country roads. This army is composed
+of huge land crabs who go once a year from their home on the mountain
+sides to the sea. There are often hundreds in this army, which marches
+slowly but steadily onward, through patches of woods, across roads, and
+over fields of tobacco. After the journey is once begun, it is said that
+the crabs do not rest till the ocean lies before them.
+
+The children of the West Indies spend much time training beautiful
+parrots caught in the woods not far from their homes; they gather
+firebugs so brilliant that on summer evenings the tiny insects light up
+their gardens, making them appear like fairyland; they can listen to the
+singing-tree that makes a soft cooing noise when the breeze stirs its
+branches; they can gather limes and lemons, breadfruit and oranges in
+their own groves.
+
+
+Among the Sugar-canes.
+
+Many children of the West Indies live on large plantations where tobacco
+and sugar are raised. As you drive along through the country you will
+pass broad fields covered with tobacco plants whose glossy leaves spread
+out in the sunlight. Workmen are constantly busy caring for the plants
+and watching lest troublesome insects injure the leaves.
+
+Again, you will see before you wide fields of what seems at first to be
+corn, but as you draw nearer you discover that the stalks are much
+taller. It is the sugar-cane which grows so high that a man on horseback
+may hide himself in its midst. A great deal of the West Indian sugar is
+raised in Cuba where the plantations are so large that they seem like
+small villages in themselves.
+
+Let us visit the children of a sugar planter. We pass through a wide
+driveway of beautiful trees and arrive in front of a large, one-story
+house with wide verandas. Flowering vines trail over the trellises. The
+door is opened by a smiling Negro maid with a gaily-colored 'kerchief
+wound around her woolly head. She shows you into the drawing-room where
+a dark-eyed lady in white is sitting in a lounging chair. It is the
+mother of your little Cuban friends, whom you have come to visit. She
+speaks to you in a sweet, low voice and smiles so pleasantly that you
+feel at home at once.
+
+A moment afterwards the children appear. They are slim and dark-skinned
+like their mother; perhaps they are bare-footed, or they may have
+sandals on their feet. They take delight in making you welcome, and in
+showing you over the plantation. First, they wish you to see their
+gardens, where roses and lilies, oleanders and jessamines fill the air
+with sweetness.
+
+After this, it may be, they call to a young Negro not much older than
+themselves, who leads some ponies from the stable so that you may all
+ride over the plantation, since it stretches over the country for
+several miles.
+
+In a few minutes you are out in the sugar fields where you are obliged
+to look up to see the tops of the canes. They are jointed like
+corn-stalks, and contain a sweet liquid, as you find out after breaking
+off a young cane and chewing it. The white overseer is riding here and
+there, directing the Negroes at their work, for the cane is ripe and the
+men are busy cutting it down and piling it in loads to be taken to the
+mill.
+
+You follow one of these loads and soon reach the sugar mill where iron
+rollers crush the canes and squeeze out the juice. In another building
+near by there are big fires over which the sweet syrup is kept boiling
+in copper pans until it is so thick that it will form into crystals.
+Then it is poured into wooden coolers; last of all, when it is quite
+cold, it is placed in hogsheads with holes in the bottom. There it is
+left for several weeks while the molasses drips, drop by drop, through
+the holes, leaving the clear sugar inside.
+
+Your little Cuban friends may tell you with much pride that their island
+home is the largest sugar market in the world and that the hogsheads of
+sugar you have just seen will be sent to the city of Havana not far away
+and there be loaded on ships which will carry the sugar to the United
+States and other countries.
+
+No doubt the little Cubans will ask you if you have seen the big
+fortress called Morro Castle which defends the harbor of Havana. It is
+so strong they feel quite sure that enemies would be afraid to pass it.
+
+Before you leave the plantation your friends take you to visit the homes
+of the Negro workmen, which are only small huts. Many of them have small
+gardens where melons and sweet potatoes are sure to be found. Although
+the huts are small, the families who live in them are large, and groups
+of little "darkies" some of whom are quite naked, are playing about and
+smile as you pass them, showing broad rows of white teeth, and rolling
+their eyes in such a funny way that you laugh in spite of yourself.
+
+The children of the West Indies have good reasons to be happy and
+loving. The people do not need to work hard; a little food and a few
+clothes, a simple home and a hammock to swing in, are enough to make
+anyone comfortable in the hot lands. How different such a life is from
+the toiling and struggle of the people of the far north, who meet danger
+and trouble every day in their search for the wild animals which furnish
+them with all they have,--food, fuel, and clothing.
+
+                   *       *       *       *       *
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+1. All images in the printed book included the notice: "From Copyrighted
+Stereograph by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y."
+
+2. Inconsistent hyphenation has been normalized.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Little Folks of North America, by
+Mary Hazelton Wade
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