Those years on the frontier developed a race of men accustomed
to danger and ready for any chance; and towering head and shoulders
above them all stands the mighty figure of Daniel Boone, the most famous
of American pioneers. About him cluster legends and tales innumerable,
some true, many false; but one thing is certain; for boldness, cunning
and knowledge of woodcraft and Indian warfare he had no equal.
Born in Pennsylvania, but moving at an early age to the little frontier
settlement of Holman's Ford, in North Carolina, the boy had barely
enough schooling to enable him to read and write. His real books were
the woods, and he studied them until they held no secrets from him. He
was a born hunter, a lover of the wild life of the forest, impatient of
civilization, and truly at home only in the wilderness. The cry of the
panther, the war-whoop of the Indian, were music to him; that was his
nature--to love adventure, to court danger, to welcome the thrill of the
pulse which peril brings. Understand him: he was not the man to incur
foolish risks; but he incurred necessary ones without a second thought.
He was near death no doubt a hundred times, yet lived to die in his
bed. But he was at his best, he really lived, only when the wilderness
held him and when his life depended upon his care and watchfulness.
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