dians and crafty French. Report was made of the
trained eye with which the young commander had noticed the military
qualities of the country and of the courage he had shown in all sorts of
perils. More than that, the governor of Virginia and other men in power
realized that Washington had prudence, good judgment, and resolution to
a remarkable degree, and told each other that here was a man worthy to
uphold the interests of the colony. From the date of this trip George
Washington became a prominent figure. It was not long before he was to
be the mainstay of Virginia.

Every one knows the story of Washington's life. From being the mainstay
of Virginia and fighting with General Braddock against the French and
Indians, he became the mainstay of the United Colonies and fought
through seven long and trying years against the veterans of England. Who
can overestimate the great patience and courage and determination that
heroic struggle required of him?

We see him taking command of the raw recruits at Cambridge, leading his
men in victory at Trenton, sustaining them in defeat at Monmouth,
cheering them through the desperate winter at Valley Forge. Later we see
him as first President of the United States guiding the new republic
through its first troubled years, and later still as the simple
gentleman of Mount Vernon, glad to escape to the peace of the river and
fields he loved.

There are few figures in history quite so self-reliant as that of this
"Father of his Country." The qualities which made him so remarkable a
boy were the same as those which made him so great a man.

VII

Daniel Boone

The Boy of the Frontier: 1735-1820

Many people were riding to the big red barn that belonged to a
Pennsylvania farmer who lived on the outskirts of the little town of
Oley in Berks County. It was a Sunday morning early in the summer of
1742, and people from all the neighborhood were heading for that barn.
Almost all of them came on horseback, sometimes man and wife riding
separate steeds, sometimes the woman seated behind the man, her hands
grasping his coat. A few families, father, mother and a flock of
children, covered the road on foot, the father with a gun usually
strapped across his back. A very few people drove up in primitive
carriages, something like old-fashioned English chaises. Those who drove
were very proud, because such elegant carriages were rarely seen outside
of Philadelphia, and betokened much social