In the Current of the Revolution 131 



Mexican war, opened the first regular school at 

 Boonesborough, 20 and one of the McAfees likewise 

 served as a teacher through the winter. 21 But from 

 the beginning some of the settlers' wives had now 

 and then given the children in the forts a few weeks* 

 schooling. 



Through the long, irksome winter, the frontiers- 

 men remained crowded within the stockades. The 

 men hunted, while the woman made the clothes, of 

 tanned deer-hides, buffalo-wool cloth, and nettle- 

 bark linen. In stormy weather, when none could 

 stir abroad, they turned or coopered the wooden 

 vessels ; for tin cups were as rare as iron forks, and 

 the "noggin" was either hollowed out of the knot 

 of a tree, or else made with small staves and hoops. 22 

 Everything was of home manufacture for there 

 was not a store in Kentucky, and the most expen- 

 sive domestic products seem to have been the hats, 

 made of native fur, mink, coon, fox, wolf, and 

 beaver. If exceptionally fine and of valuable fur, 

 they cost five hundred dollars in paper money, which 

 had not at that time depreciated a quarter as much 

 in outlying Kentucky as at the seat of government. 23 



As soon as the great snow-drifts began to melt, 

 and thereby to produce freshets of unexampled 

 height, the gaunt settlers struggled out to their clear- 

 ings, glad to leave the forts. They planted corn, and 

 eagerly watched the growth of the crop; and those 

 who hungered after oatmeal or wheaten bread 



20 "Historical Magazine," Second Series, Vol. VIII. 



21 McAfee MSS. 82 Do. 23 Marshall, p. 124. 



