The Log School-House on the Columbia

The Log School-House on the Columbia, by

Hezekiah Butterworth
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Title: The Log School-House on the Columbia
Author: Hezekiah Butterworth
Release Date: February 2, 2005 [eBook #14881]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE LOG SCHOOL-HOUSE ON THE COLUMBIA
A Tale of the Pioneers of the Great Northwest
by
HEZEKIAH BUTTERWORTH
Author of the Zigzag Books
ILLUSTRATED
1890

[Illustration]
New York D. Appleton and Company
[Illustration: _Gretchen at the Potlatch Feast._]

PREFACE.
A year or more ago one of the librarians in charge of the young people's books in the Boston Public Library called my attention to the fact that there were few books of popular information in regard to the pioneers of the great Northwest. The librarian suggested that I should write a story that would give a view of the heroic lives of the pioneers of Oregon and Washington.
Soon after this interview I met a distinguished educator who had lately returned from the Columbia River, who told me the legend of the old chief who died of grief in the grave of his son, somewhat in the manner described in this volume. The legend had those incidental qualities that haunt a susceptible imagination, and it was told to me in such a dramatic way that I could not put it out of my mind.
A few weeks after hearing this haunting legend I went over the Rocky Mountains by the Canadian Pacific Railway, and visited the Columbia River and the scenes associated with the Indian story. I met in Washington, Yesler, Denney, and Hon. Elwood Evans, the historian; visited the daughter of Seattle, the chief, "Old Angeline"; and gathered original stories in regard to the pioneers of the Puget Sound country from many sources. In this atmosphere the legend grew upon me, and the outgrowth of it is this volume, which, amid a busy life of editorial and other work, has forced itself upon my experience.
H.B.
28 WORCESTER STREET, BOSTON, July 4, 1890

CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
I.
GRETCHEN'S VIOLIN
II. THE CHIEF OF THE CASCADES
III. "BOSTON TILICUM"
IV. MRS. WOODS'S TAME BEAR, LITTLE "ROLL OVER"
V. THE NEST OF THE FISHING EAGLE
VI. THE MOUNTAIN LION
VII. THE "SMOKE-TALK"
VIII. THE BLACK EAGLE'S NEST OF THE FALLS OF THE MISSOURI
IX. GRETCHEN'S VISIT TO THE OLD CHIEF OF THE CASCADES
X. MRS. WOODS MEETS LITTLE "ROLL OVER" AGAIN
XI. MARLOWE MANN'S NEW ROBINSON CRUSOE
XII. OLD JOE MEEK AND MR. SPAULDING
XIII. A WARNING
XIV. THE POTLATCH
XV. THE TRAUMEREI AGAIN
XVI. A SILENT TRIBE
XVII. A DESOLATE HOME AND A DESOLATE PEOPLE
XVIII. THE LIFTED CLOUD--THE INDIANS COME TO THE SCHOOLMASTER
HISTORICAL NOTES.
I. Vancouver
II. The Oregon Trail
III. Governor Stevens
IV. Seattle the Chief
V. Whitman's Ride for Oregon
VI. Mount Saint Helens

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Gretchen at the Potlatch Feast E. J. Austen (Frontispiece)
Indians spearing fish at Salmon Falls
"Here were mountains grander than Olympus." The North Puyallup Glacier, Mount Tacoma
In the midst of this interview Mrs. Woods appeared at the door of the cabin A. E. Pope
The eagle soared away in the blue heavens, and the flag streamed after him in his talons E.J. Austen
The mountain lion D. Carter Beard
An Indian village on the Columbia
Afar loomed Mount Hood
A castellated crag arose solitary and solemn
At the Cascades of the Columbia
Multnomah Falls in earlier years. Redrawn by Walter C. Greenough
The old chief stood stoical and silent. E. J. Austen
Middle block-house at the Cascades
CHAPTER I.
GRETCHEN'S VIOLIN.
An elderly woman and a German girl were walking along the old Indian trail that led from the northern mountains to the Columbia River. The river was at this time commonly called the Oregon, as in Bryant's poem:
"Where rolls the Oregon, And no sound is heard save its own dashings."
The girl had a light figure, a fair, open face, and a high forehead with width in the region of ideality, and she carried under her arm a long black case in which was a violin. The woman had lived in one of the valleys of the Oregon for several years, but the German girl had recently arrived in one of the colonies that had lately come to the territory under the missionary agency of the Rev. Jason Lee.
There came a break in the tall, cool pines that lined the trail and that covered the path with glimmering shadows. Through the opening the high summits of Mount St. Helens glittered like a city of pearl, far, far away in the clear, bright air. The girl's blue eyes opened wide, and her feet stumbled.
"There, there you go again down in the hollow! Haven't