Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1893-12-22
EVENTFUL CHRISTIANS DAYS IN
AMERICAN HISTORY.
DaHieI Boone's Christmas in the Track
less Forest.

DANIEL lbOont's Nhristrnns III the Track
less Forest.
think / see Christmas day which
should not care 10 experience myself but
which doubt not will appeal o. the imug-
nation of every boy who loves o. read stl-
ries Of adventure and who think that some
day he viii turn scout and Indian slayer
Just for the fun of It-as /; there ever were
tuu in the reality.
Daniel Boone was such a lad ! cannot
assert that be- was much Of reader of
half dime novels fer IN PENNSYLVANIA
about tine year 100 am afraid they did
not have those modern aids TO education,
and besides Daniel was not much on read
ing or writing
From the day that he ran away as a hoy
and was thought to be lost, hut was found
after several days search living IN wig
wan of his own make and toastiuI wild
meat ON a stick. to the time of his death, at
eigh y-fve, when hc hunted wild turkeys
and bee trees IN place Of Indians, Boone
seemed 10 court trouble as other men court
ease and he found what he sought in pleu-
ty.
And then Christmas meand found this
fearless hunter all alone in the trackless
forest. with the giant walls of the Ale
ghanIes between him and the nearest white
man, with panthers and wolves and men
more fierce than either, hemmlug him I'm on
every side as if they had "A premoniriou
that he was the iureruuuerol "A great race,
destined 10 wipe them out of existence,
and bound TO extiuguish him at any cost
Not a great Christmas dHv, You think .
IL seems to me 1t was a great Christmas
day-a day marking an epoch only less i'm
portant to the America of todny than those
marked 10y the VOYAGES of Columbus and
the lauding Of the Pilgrim Fathers. 1t
was the Booues, strangers to fear almost
as wild and cunning as the savages with
whom they had to cope, who made the set
tlement of the country possible, and led the
way not only to the blue grass riches Of
| Kentucky and Iennessee-laud Of the
| hravest and grandest homes we have-but
/ of the great imperial West beyond.
/ WRshington's Christmas at Trenton,
1870.
The spirit of Christmas flies back to the
state where Daniel Boone was born. aud
again on the banks oilthe Delaware We find
the day Of peace REDEEMED with a drama
of blood with which every school boy is ia
mlar
1t is not with Indians that there is fight
ing now, but with hirelings of the Hessian
army whose arms are purchased in order
that rebellious subjects of King George
may be put down and a most unfatherly
tyranny iDdorsed.
1t is an awful day, and the half-clad sol
ders OF Washington gather close around
the camp fires at Kckonkey's Ferry, nine
miles above the little village of Trenton.
awaiting the command of their chief, but
with scarcely more of courage in their
hearts than they have warmth in their
bodies or substantial food in their stomachs.
They had no thought OF Santa Claus or
other nonsense of that sort these poor.
half-starved fellows. If you had asked
them what they wanted most for Christmas
they would probably have told you warm
clothes and plenty of grub, and perhaps
some token that they were not to be forever
lodging, lodging the hosts of the wei
equipped enemy.
They had not yet lost all faith in the gen
ius Of their commander, though it was Ger.
tainly on the wane. They did not know
that in his heart and mind Christmas had
stored a gift which should set their courage
back to concert pitch and prove that Wash