FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72  
73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   >>   >|  
e English general thought so much of William Penn that he set a guard of soldiers round the great elm, to prevent any one from chopping it down. Not long after the great meeting under the elm, Penn visited some of the savages in their wigwams. They treated him to a dinner--or shall we say a lunch?--of roasted acorns. After their feast, some of the young savages began to run and leap about, to show the Englishman what they could do. When Penn was in college at Oxford he had been fond of doing such things himself. The sight of the Indian boys made him feel like a boy again; so he sprang up from the ground, and beat them all at hop, skip, and jump. This completely won the hearts of the red men. [Illustration: STATUE OF WILLIAM PENN. (On the Tower of the new City Hall, Philadelphia.)] From that time, for sixty years, the Pennsylvania settlers and the Indians were fast friends. The Indians said, "The Quakers are honest men; they do no harm; they are welcome to come here." In New England there had been, as we have seen,[8] a terrible war with the savages, but in Pennsylvania, no Indian ever shed a drop of Quaker blood. [Footnote 5: Founds: begins to build.] [Footnote 6: Treaty: an agreement; and see paragraph 69.] [Footnote 7: See Rev. i. 11 and iii. 7.] [Footnote 8: See paragraph 90.] 100. How Philadelphia grew; what was done there in the Revolution; William Penn's last years and death.--Philadelphia grew quite fast. William Penn let the people have land very cheap, and he said to them, "You shall be governed by laws of your own making." Even after Philadelphia became quite a good-sized town, it had no poor-house, for none was needed; everybody seemed to be able to take care of himself. When the Revolution began, the people of Pennsylvania and of the country north and south of it sent men to Philadelphia to decide what should be done. This meeting was called the Congress. It was held in the old State House, a building which is still standing, and in 1776 Congress declared the United States of America independent of England. In the war, the people of Delaware and New Jersey fought side by side with those of Pennsylvania. William Penn spent a great deal of money in helping Philadelphia and other settlements. After he returned to England he was put in prison for debt by a rascally fellow he had employed. He did not owe the money, and proved that the man who said that he did was no better than a thief.
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72  
73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Philadelphia

 

Footnote

 

Pennsylvania

 

William

 

savages

 
England
 

people

 

Indians

 

Indian

 

Revolution


Congress
 

paragraph

 

meeting

 

making

 

country

 

needed

 

governed

 
chopping
 

prevent

 

decide


returned

 

prison

 

rascally

 

settlements

 

helping

 

fellow

 
employed
 
proved
 

soldiers

 
building

called

 

independent

 

Delaware

 
Jersey
 

fought

 

America

 

States

 

standing

 
declared
 

United


roasted

 

completely

 

ground

 

acorns

 

hearts

 

WILLIAM

 
Illustration
 
STATUE
 

sprang

 

Oxford