I will now take you to the place of William Tecumseh’s birth. Lancaster is in Fairfield County, Ohio, on the Hockhocking River, twenty-eight miles east of Columbus, the capital of the State. The valley is very beautiful. It was the home of the Wyandots less than a century ago, and was called Tarh or Crowtown, from the name of the principal chief. His wigwam was on the bank-border of a prairie, near a clear and living spring, from whose gushing waters he slaked his thirst for many years. In 1800 a Mr. Fane laid out Lancaster on Mount Pleasant, called by the Indians, who at that time still lingered there, “Standing-Stone,” because the summit was formed of masses of sandstone. It was a place of popular resort on account of the extensive and magnificent views of the surrounding country. Duke Saxe Weimar, who travelled in this country about forty years since, carved his name on its rock. For several years after Lancaster was settled, the people had a curious regulation, of which I must tell you, and something like which would not be a bad arrangement at the present day. Stumps of the forest trees so lately there, were scattered along the streets; and when a man was caught intoxicated, the penalty was, the _removal of a stump_. The drunkards and the stumps both were thinned out; for whenever a citizen went staggering among the remnants of the primeval woods, he was watched till sober enough to go to work, then set to digging at the roots. Tipplers were careful to walk abroad in straight lines; and if one failed to keep within the limits of _temperate_ drinking, he must take good exercise at the stump, which was both a public exposure and a blessing to the village. Lancaster is now a handsome city, full of western activity, and keeping step to the music— “Westward the star of empire takes its way.” Such was and is the birthplace of William Tecumseh Sherman. [Illustration: WILLIAM TECUMSEH IN THE SAND BANK.] CHAPTER II. The Eventful Call—“Cump” in the Sandbank—The Unexpected Summons —He obeys—His new Home—School days—A Studious and Reliable Boy—Is appointed Cadet—Leaves Home for West Point—His Life in the Academy—Graduates and goes to Florida. “MOTHER, may I go and play in the sand?” said a bright boy one day, cap in hand, ready to bound into the open air. Almost before the expected “yes” had ceased to echo in the room, “Cump,” as he was familiarly called, hastened to a bank in which excavations had been made, and the sand taken away. He was soon “busy as a bee,” throwing up miniature fortifications and heaps in various forms, after the models of his own juvenile invention.