passed away,
and still the boy did not make his appearance. His parents were now
greatly alarmed. The neighbors joined them in making search for the lad.
After wandering about a great while, they at length saw smoke rising
from a cabin in the distance. Upon reaching it, they found the boy. The
floor of the cabin was covered with the skins of such animals as he had
slain, and pieces of meat were roasting before the fire for his supper.
Here, at a distance of three miles from any settlement, he had built his
cabin of sods and branches, and sheltered himself in the wilderness.

It was while his father was living on the head-waters of the Schuylkill,
that young Boone received, so far as we know, all his education. Short
indeed were his schoolboy days. It happened that an Irish schoolmaster
strolled into the settlement, and, by the advice of Mr. Boone and other
parents, opened a school in the neighborhood. It was not then as it is
now. Good schoolhouses were not scattered over the land; nor were
schoolmasters always able to teach their pupils. The schoolhouse where
the boys of this settlement went was a log cabin, built in the midst of
the woods. The schoolmaster was a strange man: sometimes good-humored,
and then indulging the lads; sometimes surly and ill-natured, and then
beating them severely. It was his usual custom, after hearing the first
lessons of the morning, to allow the children to be out for a half hour
at play, during which time he strolled off to refresh himself from his
labors. He always walked in the same direction, and the boys thought
that after his return, when they were called in, he was generally more
cruel than ever. They were whipped more severely, and, oftentimes
without any cause. They observed this, but did not know the meaning of
it. One morning young Boone asked that he might go out, and had scarcely
left the schoolroom, when he saw a squirrel running over the trunk of a
fallen tree. True to his nature, he instantly gave chase, until at last
the squirrel darted into a bower of vines and branches. Boone thrust his
hand in, and, to his surprise, laid of hold of a bottle of whiskey. This
was in the direction of his master's morning walks, and he thought now
that he understood the secret of much of his ill-nature. He returned to
the schoolroom; but when they were dismissed for that day, he told some
of the larger boys of his discovery. Their plan was soon arranged. Early
the next morning a bottle of w