Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans Part 11

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 came down.

The Indians all ran away as fast as they could. They went into their wig-warns 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 Indian 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 Indians the sign of peace is to smoke to-geth-er. Captain Clark held out his pipe to them. That was to say, "I am your friend."

He shook hands with them and gave some of them presents. Then they were not so much afraid.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Lighting a Pipe with a Burning Gla.s.s.]

He wished to light his pipe for them to smoke. So he took out his burning gla.s.s. He held it in the sun. He held his pipe under it. The suns.h.i.+ne was drawn together into a bright little spot on the tobacco.

Soon the pipe began to smoke.

Then he held out his pipe for the Indians to smoke with him. That is their way of making friends. But none of the Indians would touch the pipe. They thought that he had brought fire down from heaven to light his pipe. They were now sure that he fell down from the sky. They were more afraid of him than ever.

At last Captain Clark's Indian man came. He told the other Indians that the white man did not come out of the sky. Then they smoked the pipe, and were not afraid.

QUICKSILVER BOB.

Robert Fulton was the man who set steam-boats to running on the rivers. Other men had made such boats before. But Fulton made the first good one.

When he was a boy, he lived in the town of Lan-cas-ter in Penn-syl-van-ia. Many guns were made in Lancaster. The men who made these guns put little pictures on them. That was to make them sell to the hunters who liked a gun with pictures. Little Robert Fulton could draw very well for a boy. He made some pretty little drawings. These the gun makers put on their guns.

Fulton went to the gun shops a great deal. He liked to see how things were made. He tried to make a small air gun for himself.

He was always trying to make things. He got some quick-sil-ver. He was trying to do something with it. But he would not tell what he wanted to do. So the gun-smiths called him Quick-sil-ver Bob.

He was so much in-ter-est-ed in such things, that he sometimes neg-lect-ed his lessons. He said that his head was so full of new notions, that he had not much room left for school learning.

One morning he came to school late.

"What makes you so late?" asked the teacher.

"I went to one of the shops to make myself a lead pencil," said little Bob. "Here it is. It is the best one I ever had."

The teacher tried it, and found it very good. Lead pencils in that day were made of a long piece of lead sharpened at the end.

Quick-sil-ver Bob was a very odd little boy. He said many cu-ri-ous things. Once the teacher punished him for not getting his lessons. He rapped Robert on the knuckles with a fer-ule. Robert did not like this any more than any other boy would.

"Sir," said the boy, "I came here to have something beaten into my head, not into my knuckles."

In that day people used to light candles and stand them in the window on the Fourth of July. These candles in every window lighted up the whole town. But one year candles were scarce and high. The city asked the people not to light up their windows on the Fourth.

Bob did not like to miss the fun of his Fourth of July. He went to work to make something like rockets or Roman candles. It was a very dan-ger-ous business for a boy.

"What are you doing, Bob?" some one asked him.

"The city does not want us to burn our candles on the Fourth," he said. "I am going to shoot mine into the air."

[Ill.u.s.tration]

He used to go fis.h.i.+ng with a boy named Chris Gumpf. The father of Chris went with them. They fished from a flat boat. The two boys had to push the boat to the fis.h.i.+ng place with poles.

"I am tired of poling that boat," said Robert to Chris one day when they came home.

So he set to work to think out a plan to move the boat in an easier way than by poles. He whittled out the model of a tiny paddle wheel.

Then he went to work with Chris Gumpf, and they made a larger paddle wheel. This they set up in the fis.h.i.+ng boat. The wheel was turned by the boys with a crank. They did not use the poles any more.

THE FIRST STEAMBOAT.

The first good steam-boat was built in New York. She was built by Robert Fulton. Her name was "Clermont." When the people saw her, they laughed. They said that such a boat would never go. For thousands of years boat-men had made their boats go by using sails and oars. People had never seen any such boat as this. It seemed foolish to believe that a boat could be pushed along by steam.

The time came for Fulton to start his boat. A crowd of people were standing on the sh.o.r.e. The black smoke was coming out of the smoke-stack. The people were laughing at the boat. They were sure that it would not go. At last the boat's wheels began to turn round. Then the boat began to move. There were no oars. There were no sails. But still the boat kept moving. Faster and faster she went. All the people now saw that she could go by steam. They did not laugh any more. They began to cheer.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Seeing the First Steam boat]

The little steam-boat ran up to Al-ba-ny. The people who lived on the river did not know what to make of it. They had never heard of a steam-boat. They could not see what made the boat go.

There were many sailing vessels on the river. Fulton's boat pa.s.sed some of these in the night. The sailors were afraid when they saw the fire and smoke. The sound of the steam seemed dreadful to them.

Some of them went down-stairs in their s.h.i.+ps for fear. Some of them went ash.o.r.e. Perhaps they thought it was a living animal that would eat them up.

But soon there were steam-boats on all the large rivers.

WAs.h.i.+NGTON IRVING AS A BOY.

The Revolution was about over. Americans were very happy. Their country was to be free.

At this time a little boy was born in New York. His family was named Ir-ving. What should this little boy be named?

His mother said, "Was.h.i.+ngton's work is done. Let us name the baby Was.h.i.+ngton." So he was called Was.h.i.+ngton Ir-ving.

When this baby grew to be a little boy, he was one day walking with his nurse. The nurse was a Scotch girl. She saw General Was.h.i.+ngton go into a shop. She led the little boy into the shop also.

The nurse said to General Was.h.i.+ngton, "Please, your Honor, here is a bairn that is named for you."

"Bairn" is a Scotch word for child. Was.h.i.+ngton put his hand on the little boy's head and gave him his blessing. When Irving became an author, he wrote a life of Was.h.i.+ngton.