was the sound of a shot, and the sound, too, of the body of the dead
Indian rolling down into the creek. That was Buffalo Bill's first Indian,
and the story of the boy who had saved the bull train went all over the
frontier country in an incredibly short space of time.
II
LITTLE BILL AT SCHOOL AND AT THE TRAPS
Now began days of trouble for the young frontier boy. The family
difficulties were not so serious as they had seemed at first. Mrs. Cody
was able to keep the farm, and realizing that her boy, while promising to
make a good frontiersman, was not getting any education, she showed him
the necessity of having the "man of the family" go to school.
Near their home some of the settlers had contributed money for the
building of a little schoolhouse and for the payment of a teacher who was
to come from the East and teach their children. Mrs. Cody made up her mind
that Bill should go there to school, and after much discussion he began
his school days.
Those must have been strange school days as we think of school now. The
little one-room shanty on the plain had nothing in it but a few boards of
the simplest kind that would serve as desks, a stove, and a few, very few,
books. The scholars were a wild lot, quite unused to any kind of
discipline. There was no idea in their minds of promptness, of getting to
school on time, of behaving while they were in school, or of studying very
hard over their lessons. In fact, their parents had had very little
education, and there was nothing in all that country that made people
believe in any discipline. Then, too, the teacher was not a very good one.
In fact, it would have been hard to get a man to go out on that wild
frontier who could make a living in the East. So the school was a somewhat
uproarious affair. The boys had numerous fights. They came when they
liked. They went hunting or fishing as they saw fit. They got a good many
beatings from the teacher and laughed over them afterward. They teased the
girls, and again and again the school teacher, unable to cope with them,
settled matters by driving them out of the little house and locking the
door.
In the midst of this crowd of youngsters young Bill began his first day.
He was known to them all and to all their parents for miles around as the
boy who had saved the bull train, as a fine shot, and as a good deal of a
hero. Besides this he was a terrible tease, not only to his own sisters,
but to every one else's sisters.
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