The Real America in Romance, Volume 10 | Page 5

forest and depths of the solitude by which he was surrounded, made its
impress on his mind. He grew up in ignorance of tyranny and many of
the evils of the great cities.
The cabin home and the narrow clearing about it formed his playground.
His first toy was a half-bushel measure, which he called his "bushee!"
This he rolled before him around the log cabin and the paths made in
the tall grass, frequently to the dread of his mother, who feared that he
might encounter some of the deadly serpents with which the forest
abounded. He remembered on one occasion, when his mother found
him going too far, she called:
"Come back, Fernando; mother is afraid you will step on a snake."
He looked about him with the confidence of childhood, and answered:
"No 'nakes here."
Just at that moment, the mother, to her horror, saw a deadly reptile
coiled in the very path along which the child was rolling his "bushee,"
and with true frontier woman's pluck, ran and snatched up the
bare-footed Fernando, when only within two feet of the deadly serpent,
carried him to the house, and with the stout staff assailed and killed the
rattlesnake.
He remembered seeing the wild deer bound past the cabin door, and
one day his father killed one. The big dog called "Bob," on account of

the shortness of his caudal appendage, on another occasion leaped on a
wild buck as he was passing the house, and seized the animal, holding
it until it was slain. Wild turkeys were common; he saw them in great
flocks in the woods, and did not suppose they could ever become
extinct.
Fernando never forgot his first pair of shoes. He had grown to be quite
a lad, and his bare feet had trod the paths in the forest, and over the
prairies in summer and late in autumn, until they had become hardened.
In winter his mother had made him moccasins out of deer skins; but he
was at last informed that he was going to have a pair of shoes, such as
he had seen some children from the eastern States wear. His joy at this
intelligence knew no bounds. He dreamed of those shoes at night, and
they formed the theme of his conversation by day. His sister, who was
the oldest of the children, had been the happy possessor of three pairs
of shoes, and she often discussed knowingly the good qualities of pedal
coverings and of their advantages in travelling through brambles or
over stones. Often as he contemplated his scratched, chapped and
bruised feet, the child had asked himself if it were possible that he
should ever be able to afford such a luxury as a real pair of shoes.
Money was scarce, luxuries scarcer. The frontier people lived hard,
worked hard, slept sound, and enjoyed excellent health.
Though little Fernando had never owned a real pair of shoes in his life,
so far as he could remember, he possessed a strong mind and body, and
no prince was his superior. He had, as yet, never been to school a day,
but from the great book of nature he had imbibed sublimity and
loftiness of thought, which only painters and poets feel.
Though he was shoeless, he was inspired with lofty ideas of freedom
such as many reared in cities never dream about. The father had to
make a long journey to some far-away place for the shoes. The day
before starting all the children were made to put their feet on the floor,
while the parents measured them with strings, and tied knots to indicate
the size of shoes to be purchased. At last the measures were obtained,
and the father put them in the pocket of his buckskin hunting jacket.
Then he harnessed the horses to the wagon and, with, his trusty rifle for

his only companion, drove away. Bob, the faithful watch-dog, was very
anxious to accompany him, and whined and howled for two or three
days; but he was kept at home to defend the family. A faithful protector
was Bob, and woe to the intruder who dared to annoy the household
while he was around. Fernando waited patiently and long for the return
of his father. Every night before retiring to his trundle-bed, he would
ask his mother if "father would come next day."
At last the joyous shout of the older children announced the approach
of the wagon. They ran down the road to meet it. The horses jogged
along with the wagon, which rolled and jolted over the ground to the
house. The wagon was unloaded. There were bags of meal and flour,
coffee and tea, and then came the calico and cotton goods, jugs of
molasses and a barrel of sugar.