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PAGE 4. THE. FUTURE CITIZEN. No ! Settling 1 The East And Exploring The it= Hi West f 1 From Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans II L«__ American Book Co., New York. =irsaii=Jl A LONG JOURNEY A long time ago, when Thomas Jefferson was President, most of the people in this country lived in the East. Noboddy knew any thing about the Far West. The only people that lived there were Indians. Many of these Indians had never seen a white man. The President sent men to travel into this wild part of the country. He told them to go up to the upper end of the Missouri River. Then they were to go across the Rocky Mountains. They were to keep on till they got to the Pacific Ocean. Then they were to come back again. They were to find out the best way to get through the mountains. And they were to find out what kind of people the Indians in that country were. They were also to tell about thea nimals. There were two captains of this company. Their names were Lewis and Clark. There were forty- five men in the party. They were gone two years and four months. For most of that time they did not see any white men but their own party. They did not hear a word from home for more than two years. They got their food mostly by hunting. They killed a great ma ny buffaloes and elks and deer. They also shot wild geese and large birds. Sometimes they had noth ing but fish to eat. Sometimes they had to eat wolves. When they had no other meat, they were glad to buy dogs from the Indians and eat them. Sometimes they ate horses. They became fond of the meat of dogs and horses. When they were very hungry, they had to live on roots if they could get them. Some of the Indi ans made a kind of bread out of roots. The white men bought this when they could not get meat. But there were days when they did not have anything to eut. They were very friendly with the Inidans. One day some of the men went to make a visit to an Indian village. The Indians gave them something to eat. In the Indian wigwam where they were there was a head of a dead buffalo, when dinner was over the Indians filled a bowl full of meat. They set this down intront of the head. Then they said to the head, “Eat that. ” The Indians believed, that, if they treated this buffalo head po litely, the live buffalos would come to their hunting ground. Then they would have plenty of meat. They think the spirit of the buffalo is a kind of a god. They are very careful to please this god. CAPTAIN CLARK’S BURNING GLASS The Indians among whom Cap tain Clark and Captain Lewis traveled had many strange ways of doing things. They had nothing like our matches tor making fire. One tribe of Indians had this way of lighting a fire. An Indian would lay down a dry stick. He would rub this stick with the end of ano ther stick. After a while this rub bing would make something like sawdust on the stick that was lying down. The Indian would keep on rubbing till the wood grew hot. Then the fine wood dust would smoke. Then it would burn. The Indian would put a little kindling Wood on it. Soon he would have a large fire. In that time the white people had not yet found out how to make matches. They lighted a fire by striking a piece of flint against a piece of steel. This would make a spark of fire. By letting this spark fall on something that would, burn easily, they started a fire. White men had another way of lighting a fire when the sun was shining. They used what was called a burning glass. This was a round piece of glass. It was thick in the middle, and thin at the edge. When you held up a burning glass in the sun, it drew the sun’s heat so as to make a little hot spot. If y»u put paper under this spot of hot sun shine, it would burn Men could light the tobacco in their pipes with one of these glasses. Captain Clark had something funny happen to him on account of his burning glass. He had walked ahead of the rest of Lis men. He sat down on a rock. There were some Indians on the other side of the river. They did not see the captain. Captain Clark saw a large bird culled a crane flying over his head. He raised his gun and shot it. The Indians on the other side of the river had never seen a white man in their lives. Tney had never heard a gun. They used bows and arrows. They heard the sound of Clark’s gun. They looked up and saw the large bird falling from the sky. It fell close to where Captain Clark sat. Just as it fell they caught sight of Captain Clark sitting on the rocks. They thought they had seen him fall out of the sky. They thought that the sound of his gun was a sound like thunder that was made when he cam# down. The Indians all ran away as fast as they could. Thev went into their wigwams and closed them. Captain Clark wished to be friendly with them. So he got a canoe and paddled to the other side of the river. He came to the Indi an houses. He found the flaps which they use for doors shut. He opened one of them and went in. The Indians were sitting down, and they were all crying and trembling. Among the Indiaus the sign of peace is to smoke together. Cap tain Clark held out his pipe to them. That w*s to say, “I am your friend.” He shook hands HAVE YOU A LITTLE FUTURE CITIZEN IN YOUR HOMET-WELL. YOU SHOULD,