predilections and political jealousies of Europe. The result
was a state of society more contented, peaceful, and pleasing than the
world had ever before exhibited. At the time of the birth of Benjamin
West the interior settlements in Pennsylvania had attained
considerable wealth, and unlimited hospitality formed a part of the
regular economy of the principal families. Those who resided near the
highways were in the habit, after supper and the religious exercises
of the evening, of making a large fire in the hallway, and spreading a
table with refreshments for such travellers as might pass in the
night, who were expected to step in and help themselves. This was
conspicuously the case in Springfield. Other acts of liberality were
performed by this community, to an extent that would have beggared the
munificence of the old world. Poverty was not known in this region.
But whether families traced their lineage to ancient and noble
sources, or otherwise, their pride was so tempered with the meekness
of their faith, that it lent a singular dignity to their benevolence.

The Indians mingled freely with the people, and when they paid their
annual visits to the plantations, raised their wigwams in the fields
and orchards without asking permission, and were never molested.
Shortly after Benjamin West's first efforts with pen and ink, a party
of red men reached and encamped in Springfield. The boy-artist showed
them his sketches of birds and flowers, which seemed to amuse them
greatly. They at once proceeded to teach him how to prepare the red
and yellow colors with which they decorated their ornaments. To these
Mrs. West added blue, by contributing a piece of indigo. Thus the boy
had three prismatic colors for his use. What could be more picturesque
than the scene where the untutored Indian gave the future artist his
first lesson in mixing paints! These wild men also taught him archery,
that he might shoot birds for models if he wanted their bright plumage
to copy.

The neighbors were attracted by the boy's drawings, and finally a
relative, Mr. Pennington, a prominent merchant of Philadelphia, came
to pay the family a visit. He thought the boy's crude pictures were
wonderful, as he was then only entering his eighth year. When he went
home he immediately sent the little fellow a box of paints, with six
engravings by Grevling. John Gait, who wrote from the artist's own
statements, describes the effect of this gift upon the boy. I