3. Read aloud the lines which best show the spirit and courage of the pioneers. Read the lines which best show their work of conquest. Read the stanza you like best.

4. Volunteer work. From the history of our country, give illustrations showing the truth of these lines about American pioneers: a. We must bear the brunt of danger.

b. All the rest on us depend.

c. We take up the task eternal.

d. All the past we leave behind.

5. Explain the fourth stanza.

6. "A Home in the Wilderness," in Book One (p. 12), is about pioneer life. What lines in this poem remind you of the experiences of the Shaws?

7. Find selections in Unit Five of Book One which illustrate this poem, wholly or in part.

8. Find in the glossary the meaning of these words: pioneer, brunt, sinewy, debouch, detachments, primeval, vexing, stemming, surveying.

9. Are there any pioneers to-day? Are there pioneers other than those who conquered the wilderness? Are there pioneers in education, industry, science? Mention examples and show how each person was a pioneer. Can you name any pioneers in your school?

10. This poem is a trumpet call to war, a war for the conquest of the wilderness. It should be read with fire and vigor, not slowly and softly like a lullaby. Choose members of the class to read it aloud.

CLASS-LIBRARY READINGS

CONTESTS WITH NATURE

1. "Captain Thomas A. Scott, Master Diver," F. H. Smith, in Stories of the Day's Work, 69-77.

2. "Billy Topsail," Norman Duncan, ibid., 120-130.

3. "The Backwoodsman," Theodore Roosevelt, ibid., 204-209.

4. "The North Pole," R. E. Peary, ibid., 283-290.

5. "The Man Who Named Mount Whitney," E. T. Brewster, Vocational Reader, 66-73.

6. "Trapped by the Wire," A. W. Tolman, ibid., 74-84.

7. "Daniel Boone, Backwoodsman," in Makers of Our History, 51-67.

8. "George Rogers Clark, Winner of the West," ibid., 80-97.

9. "Sam Houston, Pioneer," ibid., 201-215.

10. "Dr. Grenfell's Parish," Norman Duncan, in The Joy in Work,

147-158.

II. "The Habitants," S. E. White, in The Promise of Country Life,

7-14.

12. "Alone," R. Stock, ibid., 44-47.

13. "Solitude," H. D. Thoreau, ibid., 48–57.

14.

15.

'A Night Among the Pines," R. L. Stevenson, ibid., 68–72. "The Men Who First Crossed the United States," Compton's Pictured Encyclopedia, 5:1989–1991.

16. "The Great Missionary Explorer of Africa," ibid., 5: 2033-203 5. 17. "Over Wild Trails with the Trapper," ibid., 8:3527-3530. 18. "The Deep-Sea Diver," Careers of Danger and Daring, 40–86.

Who first tamed the wild grasses? Who first planted and cared for wheat, barley, and corn? The answers to these questions are in this selection. Read it through first in order to get a general view and to locate the chief parts; then read it a second time in order to fix the details in your mind.

Primitive woman, left at home to tend the fire, was the first farmer. While the man was hunting or fighting, the woman by the fire, trying to piece out the scanty fare with roots and stems, barks and leaves, began the peaceful industries of life. She was the first basket-maker; she devised pottery; she first spun fiber into thread, wove threads into fabrics, cut cloths and skins and made them into clothing. It was she, also, who began the cultivation of plants and who first tamed animals.

In her search for roots and fruits she came upon some plant noticed on account of its food value; for fear that some careless hunter might trample this plant underfoot, or that some animal might steal or harm the fruit before it ripened, she protected the plant by putting a few sticks about it. In order that it might have a better chance to grow and bear fruit she cut away or plucked out the plants which prevented

its getting a full share of air and light. This was the beginning of care for plants. Later, she transplanted some young and sprouting plant distant from the fireside in order that it might be more accessible in time of need. Still later, she began to save seed for planting, and with this custom came the clearing of the soil and true agriculture.

While agriculture began with woman, its full development came much later, after man, by irrigation and the help of beasts, perfected it. In roving tribes with flocks and herds the old and feeble men and the women and children remained in village settlements while the men swarmed out to hunt and steal. Meantime the women gathered stores and, if time allowed, raised a new crop. After harvest, all moved to some new village site.

When once brought under cultivation, a really useful plant would be carried along with a tribe in its migrations. The grains, no doubt, arose in Eurasia, and have been carried around the world. Corn, a native of our continent, has spread over the globe.

The first agricultural tool was a sharpened stick for digging up roots. This simple tool was used not only as a digging stick, but also for drilling holes in which to plant seeds. Corn-planting in Central America was, and is, a very simple process: a man going first makes a hole in the ground with his drilling stick; his wife following after him drops in a few seeds of corn; children, following after their parents, with their feet cover the grain with the earth which was loosened by the stick.

Of course, a broader implement, like an oar or paddle, is much better for working soft soil, and many a simple wooden spade has been found in use among primitive peoples. A bent stick or a branch with an offshoot trimmed down makes a simple hoe. The Delaware women used the broad shoulderblades of animals for spades and hoes.

The first harvesting and threshing was very simple. Indian women simply bent the stalks of wild rice over the edge

of their canoes, and with flat paddles beat the heads until the seeds fell from them into the boats. After animals were tamed, they were brought into service. Among the Indians in the Southwest, for example, threshing is done as follows:

A circular space some yards across is cleared and smoothed and covered with a firm floor of clay. This floor is enclosed by a circle of poles set in the ground and connected by ropes or cords. The grain to be threshed is cut and brought in from the fields; it is heaped upon the threshing floor; a drove of ponies is turned into the enclosure and kept running around and around by a man who stands in the centre with a whip. Soon the many hoofs upon the straw shake the grain from the husks; the ponies are let out, and men go in with great flat wooden shovels and with pitchforks, by means of which they toss the straw up into the air. This is done only when the wind is blowing briskly. As fast as the straw is thrown into the air, it is carried off by the wind; while the wheat or other grain, separated from the straw and chaff, falls back upon the floor.

The grain is then heaped in piles. Women come with great baskets with flaring sides. Filling these with the grain, which still contains a little chaff, they raise the baskets high above their heads, tip them slightly so that a little stream of grain flows in a steady fall, and at the same time gently shake the baskets from side to side. As the grain falls the wind carries away the dirt and chaff and the grain is clear.

It is not easy to decide what should be called the perfection of agriculture. If by perfection we mean ability to do things upon a gigantic scale; if we mean the plowing of a field miles in length by means of great steam plows; if we mean the cutting of the fall harvest by means of mammoth reapers, standing side by side and drawn by great tractors, we ourselves have reached the highest point of agriculture in the wheat-fields of the great Northwest.

There is, however, another way of looking at the matter.