ldom trot their horses. On such a
journey, an animal who naturally walks fast is of much more value than
one which has attained high speed upon the race-course. Thus pleasantly
mounted, David and his kind protector rode along together until they
came within about fifteen miles of John Crockett's tavern, where their
roads diverged. Here David dismounted, and bidding adieu to his
benefactor, almost ran the remaining distance, reaching home that
evening.

"The name of this kind gentleman," he writes, "I have forgotten; for it
deserves a high place in my little book. A remembrance of his kindness
to a little straggling boy has, however, a resting-place in my heart,
and there it will remain as long as I live."

It was the spring of the year when David reached his father's cabin. He
spent a part of the summer there. The picture which David gives of his
home is revolting in the extreme. John Crockett, the tavern-keeper, had
become intemperate, and he was profane and brutal. But his son, never
having seen any home much better, does not seem to have been aware that
there were any different abodes upon earth. Of David's mother we know
nothing. She was probably a mere household drudge, crushed by an
unfeeling husband, without sufficient sensibilities to have been aware
of her degraded condition.

Several other cabins had risen in the vicinity of John Crockett's. A
man came along, by the name of Kitchen, who undertook to open a school
to teach the boys to read. David went to school four days, but found it
very difficult to master his letters. He was a wiry little fellow, very
athletic, and his nerves seemed made of steel. When roused by anger, he
was as fierce and reckless as a catamount. A boy, much larger than
himself, had offended him. David decided not to attack him near the
school-house, lest the master might separate them.

He therefore slipped out of school, just before it was dismissed, and
running along the road, hid in a thicket, near which his victim would
have to pass on his way home. As the boy came unsuspectingly along,
young Crockett, with the leap of a panther, sprang upon his back. With
tooth and nail he assailed him, biting, scratching, pounding, until the
boy cried for mercy.

The next morning, David was afraid to go to school, apprehending the
severe punishment he might get from the master. He therefore left home
as usual, but played truant, hiding himself in the woods all day. He
did the same the next mor