Beginners' Book in Language. A Book for the Third Grade

by Harry Jewett Jeschke

Long ago there were no cities and no railroads in our country. The white men had not yet come. Only Indians lived here. As you probably know, their houses were tents made of skins. They had no guns, but hunted with bows and arrows. Their clothes were very different from those we wear.

Oral Exercise. 1. You have probably read or heard interesting things about the Indians. What can you tell your classmates about them?

2. Of course you know that Indian children were not sent to school as you are. They did not learn to read books. Do you know what they did learn? Tell the class what you know about it.

3. Read what an Indian says in the following true story. When this Indian boy grew to be a young man, he learned English. He has written a number of books about his boyhood. As you read what follows, notice how many things you are told which you never heard of before. Perhaps you had thought that little Indian boys were never afraid of the dark. This story tells how they get over it. What else does it tell that is interesting to you?

AN INDIAN BOY'S TRAINING [B]

My uncle was my teacher until I reached the age of fifteen years. He was strict and good. When I left the tepee in the morning, he would say: "Boy, look closely at everything you see." At evening, on my return, he used to question me for an hour or so.

He asked me to name all the new birds that I had seen during the day. I would name them according to the color, or the shape of the bill, or their song, or their nest, or anything about the bird that I had noticed. Then he would tell me the correct name.

One day he told me what to do if a bear or a wild-cat should attack me. "You must make the animal fully understand that you have seen him and know what he is planning to do. If you are not ready for a battle, that is, if you are not armed, the only way to make him turn away from you is to take a long, sharp-pointed pole for a spear and rush toward him. No wild beast will face this unless he is cornered and already wounded."

[B] Copyright, 1913, by Little, Brown and Company.