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the ordinary duties of life mister daly anxious to make some return for the kindness shown him offered to act as tutor to all the children who were old enough for school duties |
but rosie put her arms about her father's neck and looking beseechingly into his eyes said she preferred her old tutor |
so they shall my darlings she answered for mamma loves to teach you the young carringtons too and their mother preferred the old way so mister daly's kind offer was declined with thanks |
and perhaps he was not sorry being weak and languid and in no danger of suffering from ennui with horses to ride |
elsie expected her children to find it a little hard to go back to the old routine but it was not so |
gathered about her for a little chat before returning to their play mamma said eddie we've had a nice long holiday and it's really pleasant to get back to lessons again so it is said vi don't you think so elsie |
stones and oh i don't know how many things that are different here from what we have at home at home why this is home isn't it mamma exclaimed eddie yes my son one of our homes yes and so beautiful said vi |
does it darling asked mamma giving her a smile and a kiss yes mamma and i love ion dearly |
i am glad my children that you love knowledge their mother said because it is useful the more knowledge we have the more good we can do if we will and then it is a lasting pleasure |
mamma how pleasant that will be said elsie thoughtfully |
won't you show them to us yes we will go now me too mamma asked harold yes all of you come i want you all to see everything that i have that once belonged to my dear mother aunt rosie wants to see them too said vi |
they shall see them afterwards i want no one but my own little children now replied mamma taking harold's hand and leading the way she led them to the room a large and very pleasant one light and airy where flowers were blooming and birds singing |
vines trailing over and about the windows lovely pictures on the walls cosy chairs and couches work tables well supplied with all the implements for sewing others suited for drawing |
quantities of books games and toys nothing seemed to have been forgotten that could give pleasant employment for their leisure hours or minister to their amusement there was a burst of united exclamations of wondering delight from the children as the door was thrown open and they entered |
mamma i don't know how to thank you and my dear father |
yes it is from his kind hand all our blessings come |
yes indeed frank is a dear good little boy and i like to have you together mamma unlocked the door of a large light closet as she spoke |
grandma's things they said softly yes these are what my dear mother played with when she was a little girl like elsie and vi said mamma |
night clothes morning wrappers gay silks and lovely white dresses |
indeed almost everything in the shape of toys that the childish heart could desire |
then begged their mother to tell them again about dear grandma they had heard the story all that mamma and mammy could tell many times but it never lost its charm yes dears i will i love to think and speak of her elsie said |
little elsie said drawing a deep sigh as the tale came to an end yes poor little girl playing up here all alone said eddie cept mammy corrected vi |
ah daughter i had jesus to love me and help me in all my childish griefs and troubles the mother answered with a glad smile and mammy to hug and kiss and love me just as she does you |
ah i am so glad so thankful that my darlings have never suffered for lack of love i too mamma and i and i |
eddie ran to open it ah i thought i should find you here daughter mister dinsmore said coming in |
you do well to preserve them with care as mementoes of your mother he remarked coming back and seating himself by her side |
o grandpa you could tell us more about her and dear mamma too when she was a little girl said little elsie seating herself upon his knee twining her arms about his neck and looking coaxingly into his face ah what a dear little girl your mamma was at your age he said |
though not dearer than she is now elsie returned the loving glance and smile while her namesake |
then went on to relate how he had first met their mother's mother then a very beautiful girl of fifteen an acquaintance took him to call upon a young lady friend of his |
what did you think the first minute you saw her grandpa asked eddie |
but she poor thing had none to love or cherish her but her mammy |
leaning on his knee and gazing affectionately into his face i'm glad you do he said patting her soft round cheek |
we saw each other daily i asked her to be my own little wife and she consented |
no one being present except the minister the sexton and her friend and mine who were engaged to each other and her faithful mammy her guardian was away in a distant city and knew nothing about the matter |
mister dinsmore's voice faltered he paused a moment |
we never saw each other again when i went back in the morning the house was closed and quite deserted |
and that was our mamma cried the children once more crowding about her to lavish caresses upon her they thanked their grandfather for his story and vi looking in at the closet door again said in her most coaxing tones mamma |
not now daughter though perhaps i may allow it some day when you are older but see here will not these do quite as well |
in sixteen sixty six robert cavalier |
came to canada and set out from his seigneurie near the rapids of montreal to find the long sought road to china instead of doing that he discovered the ohio river first of white men |
he voyaged across the great lakes and sailed down the mississippi to its mouth |
and built frontier posts in the wilderness |
louisiana in honor of king |
soon afterward this seigneur's brother |
founded new orleans and attracted many french pioneers there |
in the north they pressed westward and came in sight of the rocky mountains at that time it seemed as if france was to own at least two thirds of the continent |
in seventeen fifty five and |
years later the english general wolfe |
and france's chance was over |
soon afterward france to outwit england gave spain new orleans and her claim |
valley west of the river to which the name louisiana now came to be restricted |
could not keep his fingers from north america he planned to win back the new france that had been given away |
he meant to colonize and fortify this splendid empire but before it could be done enemies gathered against his eagles at home and to save his european throne he had to forsake his western colony |
repossessing herself of so much territory he sent robert r livingston and james monroe to paris to try to buy new orleans and the country known as the floridas |
jefferson and the people in the eastern united states were dismayed at the price paid for what they considered almost worthless land but the west was delighted owning the mouth of the great mississippi and with the country beyond it free to them to explore |
in time this purchase of louisiana or the territory stretching to the rocky mountains forming the larger part of what are now thirteen of the states of the union |
scarcely anything was known of louisiana except the stories told by a few hunters jefferson decided that the region must be explored and asked his young secretary meriwether lewis |
lewis chose his friend william clark to accompany him and picked thirty two experienced men for their party may fourteenth |
missouri river near saint louis the nearer part of this country had already been well explored by hunters and trappers and especially by that race of adventurous frenchmen who were rovers by nature |
driving their light canoes over the waters of the great rivers and often sharing the tents of friendly indians they met many had become almost more indian than white man had married indian wives and lived the wandering life of the native |
such a man captain lewis found at the start of his journey and took with him to act |
meeting small bands of indians and passing one or two widely separated frontier settlements they had to pass many difficult rapids in the river but as they were for the most part expert boatmen they met with no mishaps |
consisting of seven houses with as many families located there |
as they went up the river they frequently met canoes loaded with furs coming down day by day they took careful observations and made maps of the country through which they were traveling |
and when they met indians tried to learn the history and customs of the tribe captain lewis wrote down many of their curious traditions |
numbering about five hundred warriors the little osages who lived some six miles distant from the others and numbered half as many men |
the osages lived in villages and were good farmers usually peaceful although naturally strong and tireless captain lewis found a curious tradition |
founder of the nation was a snail who lived quietly on the banks of the osage until a high flood swept him down to the missouri and left him exposed on the shore the heat of the sun at length ripened him into a man |
but with the change in his nature he did not forget his native haunts on the osage but immediately bent his way in that direction he was however soon overtaken by hunger and fatigue when happily the great spirit appeared |
and giving him a bow and arrow showed him how to kill and cook deer and cover himself with the skins he then pushed on to his home but as he neared it he was met by a beaver |
the osage readily consented and from this happy marriage |
of the wasbasha or osages who kept a reverence for their ancestors never hunting the beaver because in killing that animal they would kill a brother of the osage |
the explorers found however that since the value of beaver skins had risen in trade with the white men these indians were not so particular in their reverence for their relatives |
on july twenty first |
and named the site council bluffs |
the indians were friendly and each day taught the white men something new |
the whip rattles made of the hoofs of goats and deer |
each tribe differed in some way from its neighbors for the first time the explorers found among the rickarees eight sided earth covered lodges and basket shaped boats made of interwoven boughs covered with buffalo skins |
besides these were antelopes beavers bears badgers deer and porcupines and the river banks supplied them with plover grouse geese turkeys ducks and pelicans |
and they lived well during the whole of the summer |
each member of this tribe was accustomed to select a particular object for his devotion and call it his medicine |
i was lately the owner of seventeen horses but i have offered them all up to my medicine and am now poor |
they were able to leave their camp at fort manden and start on again the upper missouri they found was too shallow for the large barge they had used the previous summer |
while the others embarked in six canoes and two large open boats that they had built during the winter so far |
but as they now turned westward they came into a region entirely unknown |
the party had by this time three interpreters |
the indian's skill in woodcraft and who also knew the language of the white explorers |
the bird woman who had originally belonged to the snake tribe but who had been captured in her childhood by blackfeet indians |
they were now very far north near the northwest corner of what is the state of north dakota game was still plentiful but the banks of the river were covered with a coating of alkali salts |
which made the water of the streams bitter and unpleasant for drinking occasionally they came upon a deserted indian camp but in this northern territory they found few roving tribes when there was a favorable wind they sailed along the missouri |
where they found a large number of porcupines feeding |
captain lewis christened the stream porcupine river |
now they were continually coming upon new rivers many of them broad with swift flowing currents and all of them appealing to the love of exploration the missouri was their highroad however and so they simply stopped to name the different streams they came to |
the country along this stream was bare for some distance with gradually rising hills beyond the game here was very plentiful |
one evening the men in the canoes saw a large grizzly lying some three hundred paces from the shore six of them landed and hid |
within forty paces of the bear four of the hunters fired and each lodged a ball in the bear's body the animal sprang up and roared furiously at them as he came near them the two hunters who had not yet fired gave him two more wounds |
one of which broke a shoulder but before they had time to reload their guns the bear was so near them that they had to run for the river he almost overtook them two jumped into the canoes the other four separated |
only seemed to attract his attention toward the hunters until finally he chased two of them so closely that they threw away their guns |
when one of the others on shore shot him in the head and finally killed him they dragged him to shore and found that eight balls had gone through him in different directions the hunters took the bear's skin back to camp and there they learned that another adventure had occurred |
upset the canoe the boat would have turned upside down but for the resistance of the canvas awning the other boats hastened to the rescue righted the canoe and by baling her out kept her from sinking they rowed the canoe to shore and the cargo was saved |
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