[Footnote: Perrin Du Lac, p. 131; Michaux, 95, etc.] It must always be
remembered, however, that even the most friendly outsider is apt to
apply to others his own standards in matters of judgment. The average
traveller overstated the drunkenness of the backwoodsman, exactly as he
overstated his misery.

Roughness and Poverty of the Life.
Its Attractiveness.

The frontiersman was very poor. He worked hard and lived roughly, and he
and his family had little beyond coarse food, coarse clothing, and a
rude shelter. In the severe winters they suffered both from cold and
hunger. In the summers there was sickness everywhere, fevers of various
kinds scourging all the new settlements. The difficulty of communication
was so great that it took three months for the emigrants to travel from
Connecticut to the Western Reserve near Cleveland, and a journey from a
clearing, over the forest roads, to a little town not fifty miles off
was an affair of moment to be undertaken but once a year. [Footnote:
"Historical Collections of Ohio," p. 120; Perrin Du Lac, p. 143.] Yet to
the frontiersmen themselves the life was far from unattractive. It
gratified their intense love of independence; the lack of refinement
did not grate on their rough, bold natures; and they prized the entire
equality of a life where there were no social distinctions, and few
social restraints. Game was still a staple, being sought after for the
flesh and the hide, and of course all the men and boys were enthralled
by the delights of the chase. The life was as free as it was rude, and
it possessed great fascinations, not only for the wilder spirits, but
even for many men who, when they had the chance, showed that they
possessed ability to acquire cultivation.

One old pioneer has left a pleasant account of the beginning of an
ordinary day's work in a log cabin [Footnote: Drake's "Pioneer Life in
Kentucky." This gives an excellent description of life in a family of
pioneers, representing what might be called the average frontiersman of
the best type. Drake's father and mother were poor and illiterate, but
hardworking, honest, God-fearing folk, with an earnest desire to do
their duty by their neighbors and to see their children rise in the
world.]:

Life in a Log Cabin.

"I know of no scene in civilized life more primitive than such a cabin
hearth as that of my mother. In the morning, a buckeye back-log, a
hickory forestick, resting on stone and irons,