The Project Gutenberg eBook of Hero Tales from History
Title: Hero Tales from History
Author: Smith Burnham
Release date: July 3, 2015 [eBook #49356]
Most recently updated: October 24, 2024
Language: English
Credits: Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Chuck Greif and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Every attempt has been made to replicate the original as printed. Some typographical errors have been corrected; a list follows the text. List of Illustrations (In certain versions of this etext, in certain browsers, clicking on this symbol will bring up a larger version of the illustration.) Index: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, Y, Z (etext transcriber's note) |
Franklin's Printing Office and Book Shop
Benjamin Franklin, printer, was one of the greatest men of his time. He wrote philosophical essays and some doggerel verse, published “Poor Richard’s Almanac,” and became a great inventor. The painting shows Christ Church in the background.
HERO TALES
FROM HISTORY
BY
SMITH BURNHAM, A.M.
HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY, WESTERN
STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, KALAMAZOO, MICHIGAN
ILLUSTRATED
| THE JOHN C. WINSTON COMPANY | ||
| Chicago Dallas |
PHILADELPHIA | Toronto San Francisco |
Copyright, 1922, by
The John C. Winston Co.
——
All Rights Reserved
PRINTED IN U. S. A.
PREFACE
AN interest in history and a love of historical reading will be most readily acquired by those children who approach this rich field of literature through the medium of stories of the great figures of the past. Such stories, if properly selected and told, give children those vivid concrete pictures of men and of events which are vitally essential to any real understanding of bygone days. At the same time such history stories may be so selected as to hold up right ideals of conduct and of character. Moreover, by their appeal to the emotions, which lie very near to the springs of conduct, they move to action. Tales of gentleness, of honor, of justice, of courage, of fortitude in suffering, of intrepidity in danger, of dauntless resolution, of iron will, inspire children to an emulation of those virtues. These “Hero Tales from History” have been written in the faith set forth in this paragraph. Through these stories the author aims to inculcate the fundamental virtues just named and at the same time to acquaint children with the names and achievements of some of those great men and women whose lives and characters are a part of our racial and national inheritance.
In the selection of the tales in this book the author has drawn upon all ages. Here are mighty men of the ancient world and makers of modern America. Some of the characters chosen as the heroes of these stories are great figures in world history, but the greater part of them were selected because they are among the foremost heroes of our own country and of our own culture. Of course in a book of this size many valuable stories had to be omitted. But it is believed that all the tales included are typical and representative.
These “Hero Tales” are not biographies of the men about whom they are told, neither has any attempt been made to join them into a connected historical narrative. They are just stories from the past told with constant thought of the stage of mental development of the children for whom they are intended. Each story has a hero, each is full of action, and the author has tried to tell each one in clear and simple language. The author has also tried to make each story teach its intended lesson without any moralizing on his part.
The history of the past can never become a vital thing to us until the men of the past are live, flesh and blood men. It is the author’s hope that these “Hero Tales from History” will help to make threescore great figures from our past something more than names to the children who may enjoy this book.
Smith Burnham.
CONTENTS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
MIGHTY MEN OF LONG AGO
MOSES, THE GREATEST LAW-GIVER, AND THE MEEKEST MAN
LONG ago in the land of Egypt there lived as slaves to the Egyptians a race of white people called the Hebrews. There were so many of them that the Egyptians began to be afraid that they would over-run the land. So the cruel king, or the Pharaoh, as he was called, commanded that all the baby boys of the slave race should be thrown into the River Nile. But one little child escaped this fate, for his poor slave mother disobeyed the king and hid her baby in her hut. When he was three months old, his mother was afraid she could not keep him quiet any longer. So she made a basket, and plastered it inside with pitch, so that it would be water-tight and float like a boat. Into this basket-boat she put her baby.
The mother set the strange little boat on the edge of the River Nile, among the tall reeds called bulrushes, very near the place where she knew the king’s daughter came every day to bathe. It was a cool spot, well guarded and safe from the terrible crocodiles that lived in the Nile. After making sure that the little boat would not sink, the mother went back to her work, leaving her daughter Miriam to see what became of her baby brother.
Just as the wise mother had planned, the princess soon came with her ladies-in-waiting, and spied the cradle basket rocking on the waves near the shore. She told one of her maidens to bring it to her. The king’s daughter knew too well of her father’s command to drown or kill all the boy babies of the Hebrew slaves. So when she found a baby crying there, she pitied the poor mother who had obeyed the king by putting him in the river, still fondly hoping to save his life.
When the Pharaoh’s daughter saw the babe, she said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children!” There was a pleading look in the face of the little child. He seemed to ask the princess to take him in her arms. The princess herself was married but she had no children. That baby, smiling through his tears, touched her mother-heart. How could she help saving his little life from her father’s cruel law by claiming him as her own?
Just then Sister Miriam bowed before the princess and said, “Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?”
The king’s daughter was, pleased and said, “Yes, go.” So the happy sister ran and brought her mother to the great stone palace of the Pharaohs. Then the princess said, as if the mother were only a child’s nurse, “Take this child away and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages.”
So, besides saving his life, that mother was royally paid for taking care of her own son instead of working as a slave out in the hot sun. Besides, she had a good chance to tell him, as he grew up, of the one true God. What if her boy should save his father’s people from slavery, when he became a man in the palace of the Pharaohs?
In due time the daughter of the king adopted the young Hebrew as her own son, and named him Moses, which means “Saved,” because she had rescued him out of the river. When Moses was old enough he went to live with his royal mother, where he was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, who at that time, nearly four thousand years ago, were the most learned people in the world. Although he studied in the college of the priests, who believed in the Sun, the Moon and many other gods, Moses never forgot what his mother had taught him about the true God.
Young Prince Moses had a great deal to do while he was growing to manhood. He is said to have become commander-in-chief of the Egyptian army that conquered the black and savage race living a thousand miles up the Nile.
In the Bible story are these words: