In those days the children of the frontier grew up with but slight store of such education as is obtainable from books. The open volume of nature, however, they carefully conned. The ways of the wilderness they knew full well--concerning the storms and floods, the trees and hills, the wild animals and the Indians, they were deeply learned; well they knew how to live alone in the forest, and to thrive happily although surrounded by a thousand lurking dangers. This quiet, mild-mannered, serious-faced Quaker youth, Daniel Boone, was an ardent lover of the wild woods and their inhabitants, which he knew as did Audubon and Thoreau; but of regular schooling he had none. When he was about fourteen years of age, his brother Samuel, nearly seven years his senior, married Sarah Day, an intelligent young Quakeress who had more education than was customary in this neighborhood. Sarah taught Daniel the elements of "the three R's." To this knowledge he added somewhat by later self-teaching, so that as a man he could read understandingly, do rough surveying, keep notes of his work, and write a sensible although badly spelled letter--for our backwoods hero was, in truth, no scholar, although as well equipped in this direction as were most of his fellows. In time Squire Boone, a man of enterprise and vigor, added blacksmithing to his list of occupations, and employed his young sons in this lusty work. Thus Daniel served, for a time, as a worker in iron as well as a hunter and herdsman; although it was noticed that his art was chiefly developed in the line of making and mending whatever pertained to traps and guns. He was a fearless rider of his father's horses; quick, though bred a Quaker, to resent what he considered wrong treatment;[3] true to his young friends; fond of long, solitary tramps through the dark forest, or of climbing hilltops for bird's-eye views of the far-stretching wilderness. Effective training this, for the typical pioneer of North America. FOOTNOTES: [1] Not an abbreviation of "esquire," as has been supposed, but given because of some old family connection. This name was transmitted through several generations of Boones. [2] Edward was killed by Indians when thirty-six years old, and Squire died at the age of seventy-six. Their brothers and sisters lived to ages varying from eighty-three to ninety-one. [3] Indeed, it is a matter of record that other members also of this stout-hearted Devonshire family were "sometimes rather too belligerent and self-willed," and had "occasionally to be dealt with by the meeting." Daniel's oldest sister, Sarah, married a man who was not a Quaker, and consequently she was "disowned" by the society. His oldest brother, Israel, also married a worldling and was similarly treated; and their father, who countenanced Israel's disloyal act and would not retract his error, was in 1748 likewise expelled. CHAPTER II THE NIMROD OF THE YADKIN