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The Life of George Gist
The father of George Gist was a white man. But George Gist was forsaken by his father when an infant and brought up by his mother. When a little boy, it was his amusement to construct small horses with sticks. For some time this continued to engage his attention, until he so improved as to succeed in building a house over a spring for keeping the milk of his mother's cows. Of these, she had a goodly number, and other cattle too, word scratched out and also horses. Of his own accord, George Gist now became a cow milker. To this he was lured by his pride & pleasure in the dairy he had built. He would wash the milk-pails, strain the milk, put it in vessells, and set it away in the dairy. After that, when he grew large enough, he became the herdsman to hunt the colts, from the woods, to look after them, and to keep them supplied with salt to make them gentle --
Here I was obliged to interrupt the story with a question about the salt. I learned in reply, that it was customary to fell trees, and cut notches or troughs in them, which are
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