Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans — John Shaqi
Stories of Great Americans for Little AmericansEggleston, Edward
History
Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans
Eggleston, Edward
United States -- Biography -- Juvenile literature
When they turned toward the other shore, the Indians fired at them. But
Stark knocked up two of their guns. They did not hit the white men.
Then some of the other Indians fired. Stark knocked up their guns also.
But the man that was with his brother was killed.
John now called to his brother, “Run! for all the Indians’ guns are
empty.”
His brother got away. The Indians were very angry with John. They did
not kill him. But they gave him a good beating. These Indians were from
Can-a-da. They took their pris-on-ers to their own village. When they
were coming home, they shouted to let the people know that they had
prisoners.
[Illustration: Stark running the Gauntlet]
The young Indian war-ri-ors stood in two rows in the village. Each
prisoner had to run between these two rows of Indians. As he passed,
every one of the Indians hit him as hard as he could with a stick, or a
club, or a stone.
The young man who was with Stark was badly hurt in running between
these lines. But John Stark knew the Indians. He knew that they liked a
brave man.
When it came his turn to run, he snatched a club from one of the
Indians. With this club he fought his way down the lines. He hit hard,
now on this side, and now on that. The young Indians got out of his
way. The old Indians who were looking on sat and laughed at the others.
They said that Stark was a brave man.
One day the Indians gave him a hoe and told him to hoe corn. He knew
that the Indian war-ri-ors would not work. They think it a shame for a
man to work. Their work is left for slaves and women. So Stark
pre-tend-ed that he did not know how to hoe. He dug up the corn instead
of the weeds. Then he threw the hoe into the river. He said, “That is
work for slaves and women.”
Then the Indians were pleased with him. They called him the young
chief.
After a while some white men paid the Indians a hundred and three
dollars to let Stark go home. They charged more for him than for the
other man, because they thought that he must be a young chief. Stark
went hunting again. He had to get some furs to pay back the money the
men had paid the Indians for him. He took good care that the Indians
should not catch him again.
He af-ter-wards became a great fighter against the Indians. He had
learned their ways while he was among them. He knew better how to fight
them than almost any-body else.
In the Rev-o-lu-tion he was a gen-er-al. He fought the British at
Ben-ning-ton, and won a great vic-to-ry.
A GREAT GOOD MAN.
Some men are great soldiers. Some are great law-makers. Some men write
great books. Some men make great in-ven-tions. Some men are great
speakers.
Now you are going to read about a man that was great in none of these
things. He was not a soldier. He was not a great speaker. He was never
rich. He was a poor school-teacher. He never held any office.
And yet he was a great man. He was great for his goodness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account