Stories of American Life and AdventureEggleston, Edward
History
Stories of American Life and Adventure
Eggleston, Edward
Readers -- History; United States -- History -- Juvenile literature
In the time of the Revolution, a regiment of Hessian soldiers hired
to fight on the British side were camped in South Carolina. They took
possession of the lower part of the house of a farmer named Gibbes. The
family were forced to retire to the upper story.
Two American boats came up the Stono River, and attacked these
Hessians. Cannon balls were soon falling all about the house. Mr.
Gibbes, who was so ill that he could hardly walk, got leave to move his
family to another place. To do this, the whole family had to cross a
field where the cannon balls were flying thick. At last they got out of
reach of the cannons. Then they remembered that a little baby had been
left behind. Neither Mr. Gibbes nor his wife was able to travel back to
the house again. The negroes were too much frightened to go. All the
rest were children.
Little Mary Anne Gibbes was only thirteen years old. The baby that had
been left was her cousin.
"I will go and get him," she said.
It was a dark and stormy night. She went back into the heat of the
battle. When she reached the house, the soldier who stood at the door
would not let her go in. But, with tears in her eyes, she begged so
hard that he let her pass. In the third story of the house she found
the baby.
Then downstairs, and out into the darkness and the crash of battle, she
went. The cannon balls scattered dust over her and the baby when they
struck near her, but she got back to her family at last, carrying the
baby safe in her arms.
A PRISONER AMONG THE INDIANS.
James Smith lived in Pennsylvania. He was taken prisoner by the Indians
just before the famous defeat of General Braddock. He was then about
eighteen years old. The Indians took him to the French fort where
Pittsburg now is. They made him run the gauntlet; that is, they made
him run between two lines of Indians, who were beating him all the way.
He was so badly beaten that he became unconscious, and was ill for a
good while after. But at length he got well, and the Indians took him
to their own country in what is now the State of Ohio.
When they arrived at their own town, they did not kill him, as he
thought they would; but an Indian pulled the hair out of his head with
his fingers, leaving only the hair that grew on a spot about the crown.
Part of this he cut off short. The rest was twisted up in Indian
fashion, so as to make him look like a savage. They pierced his ears,
and put earrings in them. Then they pierced his nose, and put in a nose
ring. They stripped off his clothing, and put on the light clothing
that an Indian wears about the middle of his body. They painted his
head where the hair had been plucked out, and painted his face and
body, in several colors. They put some beads about his neck, and silver
bands upon his arms.
All this time James thought they were dressing him up to kill him. But,
when they had decked him in this way, an old chief led him out into the
village street. Holding the young man by the hand, he cried out,--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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