The log school house on the Columbia : a tale of the pioneers of the great Northwest . m, on the bluffs of the river,under three gigantic evergreens, each of which wasmore than two hundred feet high, stood an oddstructure of logs and sods, which the builders calledthe Sod School-house. It was not a sod school-house in the sense in which the term has been ap-plied to more recent structures in the treeless prairiedistricts of certain mid-ocean States ; it was rudelyframed of pine, and was furnished with a pine deskand benches. Along the river lay a plateau full of flowers,birds, and butterflies,
The log school house on the Columbia : a tale of the pioneers of the great Northwest . m, on the bluffs of the river,under three gigantic evergreens, each of which wasmore than two hundred feet high, stood an oddstructure of logs and sods, which the builders calledthe Sod School-house. It was not a sod school-house in the sense in which the term has been ap-plied to more recent structures in the treeless prairiedistricts of certain mid-ocean States ; it was rudelyframed of pine, and was furnished with a pine deskand benches. Along the river lay a plateau full of flowers,birds, and butterflies, and over the great river andflowering plain the clear air glimmered. Like somesun-gods abode in the shadow of ages, St. Helensstill lifted her silver tents in the far sky. Eaglesand mountain birds wheeled, shrieking joyously, hereand there. Below the bluffs the silent salmon-fish-ers awaited their prey, and down the river with pad-dles apeak drifted the bark canoes of Cayuses andUmatillas. A group of children were gathered about theopen door of the new school-house, and among them. GKETCHENS VIOLIN. 17 rose the tall form of Marlowe Mann, the Yankeeschoolmaster. He had come over the mountains some yearsbefore in the early expeditions organized and di-rected by Dr. Marcus Whitman, of the AmericanBoard of Missions. Whether the mission to theCaynses and Walla Wallas, which Dr. Whitmanestablished on the bend of the Columbia, was thenregarded as a home or foreign field of work, we cannot say. The doctors solitary ride of four thou-sand miles, in order to save the great Northwestterritory to the United States, is one of the mostpoetic and dramatic episodes of American has proved to be worth to our country more thanall the money that has been given to missionaryenterprises. Should the Puget Sound cities becomethe great ports of Asia, and the ships of commercedrift from Seattle and Tacoma over the Japan cur-rent to the Flowery Isles and China; should thelumber, coal, mineral
Size: 1264px × 1977px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookpublishernewyo, bookyear1890
