ain of circumstances, with which character is surrounded. The most
splendid endowments in innumerable instances, have never been brought to
light, in defect of circumstances to call them forth. The ancestors of
Boone were not placed in positions to prove, whether he did or did not
receive his peculiar aptitudes a legacy from his parents, or a direct
gift from nature. He presents himself to us as a new man, the author and
artificer of his own fortunes, and showing from the beginning rudiments
of character, of which history has recorded no trace in his ancestors.
The promise of the future hunter appeared in his earliest boyhood. He
waged a war of extermination, as soon as he could poise a gun, with
squirrels, raccoons, and wild cats, at that time exceedingly annoying to
the fields and barn-yards of the back settlers.

No scholar ever displayed more decided pre-eminence in any branch of
learning, than he did above the boys of his years, in adroitness and
success in this species of hunting. This is the only distinct and
peculiar trait of character recorded of his early years. The only
transmitted fact of his early training is presented in the following
anecdote.

In that section of the frontier settlement to which Boone had removed,
where unhewn log cabins, and hewn log houses, were interspersed among
the burnt stumps, surrounded by a potato patch and cornfield, as the
traveller pursued his cow-path through the deep forest, there was an
intersection, or more properly concentration of wagon tracks, called the
"Cross Roads,"--a name which still designates a hundred frontier
positions of a post office, blacksmith's shop, and tavern. In the
central point of this metropolis stood a large log building, before
which a sign creaked in the wind, conspicuously lettered "Store and
Tavern."

To this point, on the early part of a warm spring morning, a pedestrian
stranger was seen approaching in the path leading from the east. One
hand was armed with a walking stick, and the other carried a small
bundle inclosed in a handkerchief. His aspect was of a man, whose whole
fortunes were in his walking stick and bundle. He was observed to eye
the swinging sign with a keen recognition, inspiring such courage as
the mariner feels on entering the desired haven.

His dialect betrayed the stranger to be a native of Ireland. He sat down
on the _stoup_, and asked in his own peculiar mode of speech, for cold
water. A supply from the spring was rea