Quotation from: The Beginner's American History

Written by: D.H. Montgomery


Nearly a hundred years later, while the Revolutionary War was going
on, the British army took possession of the city. It was cold, winter
weather, and the men wanted fire-wood; but the English general
thought so much of William Penn that he set a guard of soldiers round
the great elm, to prevent any one from chopping it down.


Not long after the great meeting under the elm, Penn visited some
of the savages in their wigwams. They treated him to a dinner--or
shall we say a lunch?--of roasted acorns. After their feast, some
of the young savages began to run and leap about, to show the
Englishman what they could do. When Penn was in college at Oxford
he had been fond of doing such things himself. The sight of the Indian
boys made him feel like a boy again; so he sprang up from the ground,
and beat them all at hop, skip, and jump. This completely won the
hearts of the red men.

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