Excerpt from Five Little Strangers: And How They Came to Live in America He went far into the woods. There was not a single white person, or a black person, or a yellow person, or a brown person. Only the red people lived here. America was their home. It was a wonderful home Far in the west lay the Pacific Ocean. Its waves foamed and roared along the cliffs. Back from the shore there were hills covered with yellow poppies and other wild flowers. Then came moun tains with snowy peaks, and rivers dashing over rocks. Mountain lions and bears hid in caves. Mountain sheep nibbled the grass in upland meadows. After the mountains there were gray deserts without a tree or a stream of water. Only clumps of gray sagebrush grew here and there on the gray earth. Then came the prairies with miles and miles and miles of green grass growing in the sunshine. Little brown prairie dogs sat up on their hind legs beside their holes. Rabbits scampered over the hills. Herds of shaggy buffaloes fed along the rivers, or galloped away with heads low and tails flying. In some places there were lakes as big as seas. The blue water rippled on and on until it seemed to meet the blue sky. In other places there were great forests. Squirrels ran from tree to tree to find ripe nuts and acorns. Birds built their nests among the leaves and branches. Herds of deer with soft, dark eyes drank from the brooks. Along the borders of the forests there were wild apples and cherries and grapes and plums. Wild strawberries grew close to the ground. In the shady spots Violets bloomed. Out in the sunshine wild roses Opened their pink petals. Buttercups blossomed in the meadows. And the golden - rod was yellow everywhere. This was the broad, beautiful, wonderful land of America. From the Pacific Ocean on the west to the Atlantic Ocean on the east it lay under the arching sky. There stretched the miles of hills and mountains and rivers and deserts and prairies and lakes and forests and meadows. This country was the home of the red people. 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.