Book Description

Excerpt from Stories of Nehalem Few realize the importance of the labor, the hardships and the courage of the pioneers, women and men, who voluntarily isolate themselves from the rest of the world and pave the way for civilization. There is no tribute man can pay to these determined members of our race, no laurel sufficient with which to surround their memory. Their lives are Spent in a world to which the applause of hero worship has never come. They pursue their routine of life without thought of what, either in praise or censure, others may say. Each one to whom the name can be appropriately applied is a hero or heroine. The story of Robinson Crusoe, wrecked upon a desolate island, is of no more interest and possesses no more of hard ship and privation than is told scores of times in the beginning of settlement in any new land. Each pio neer, while not cast upon a desolate island, is so iso lated from the world and all the grandeur it possesses that the story of that life is filled with heart interest. The woman and the man who turn their back upon civilization, who voluntarily surrender the pleasures of modern life for the dull monotony and the rigid hard ships of pioneering, are as much deserving of the med als and acclaim of the multitudes as the man who saves the life of another. The journey through the pathless forest is filled with discouragements and disappoint ments; at every turn there are difficulties to overcome. Place yourself, if you can, far from all civilization in a spot surrounded by giant forest trees in which thevoice of man has never echoed and with the resolve to spend a lifetime there; place yourself in this posi tion, with no shelter save only what nature has made. Before you are years of usefulness, and years you know to be crowded with ceaseless toil. Your cabin must be fashioned by hand from the trees about you; all the things to make life pleasant or comfortable must be the fruits of your own labor. Your garden spot is to be wrested from the stumps of the trees from which you build your home and in ground the sun has never kissed. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.