Daniel did not return to his home. Another day and night passed away,
and still the boy did not make his appearance. His parents were now
greatly alarmed. The neighbors joined them in making search for the lad.
After wandering about a great while, they at length saw smoke rising
from a cabin in the distance. Upon reaching it, they found the boy. The
floor of the cabin was covered with the skins of such animals as he had
slain, and pieces of meat were roasting before the fire for his supper.
Here, at a distance of three miles from any settlement, he had built his
cabin of sods and branches, and sheltered himself in the wilderness."

"It was while his father was living on the head-waters of the
Schuylkill that young Boone received so far as we know, all his
education. Short indeed were his schoolboy days. It happened that an
Irish schoolmaster strolled into the settlement, and, by the advice of
Mr. Boone and other parents, opened a school in the neighborhood. It was
not then as it is now. Good school-houses were not scattered over the
land; nor were schoolmasters always able to teach their pupils. The
school-house where the boys of this settlement went was a log-cabin,
built in the midst of the woods. The schoolmaster was a strange man;
sometimes good-humored, and then indulging the lads; sometimes surly and
ill-natured, and then beating them severely. It was his usual custom,
after hearing the first lessons of the morning, to allow the children to
be out for a half hour at play, during which time he strolled off to
refresh himself from his labors. He always walked in the same direction,
and the boys thought that after his return, when they were called in, he
was generally more cruel than ever. They were whipped more severely, and
oftentimes without any cause. They observed this, but did not know the
meaning of it One morning young Boone asked that he might go out, and
had scarcely left the school-room when he saw a squirrel running over
the trunk of a fallen tree. True to his nature, he instantly gave chase,
until at last the squirrel darted into a bower of vines and branches.
Boone thrust his hand in, and, to his surprise, laid hold of a bottle of
whiskey. This was in the direction of his master's morning walks, and he
thought now that he understood the secret of much of his ill-nature. He
returned to the school-room; but, when they were dismissed for that day,
he told some of the larger boys of his discovery. Their pla