HUMOR, EVEN WHEN EXPOSED TO DANGER!
HUMOR, EVEN WHEN EXPOSED TO DANGER!
On Monday, June 27th, 1774, Daniel Boone and Michael Stoner set off on a dangerous mission to notify surveyors on the frontier to return back to the settlements or forts for protection from hostile Native warriors.
After an absence of sixty-one days, Boone and Stoner returned on the 26th. of August, having travelled approximately eight hundred miles and passing through many difficulties.
An anecdote preserved by Daniel himself, passed down to his son Nathan, displays how our ancestors could heartily enjoy a joke or humorous situation, even when exposed to danger.
On the way to Kentucky, Daniel Boone and Michael Stoner came upon a small stream at a horseshoe bend. There they found a neck of ground raised to a high narrow ridge or point; on both sides the buffalo had licked until a small hole was worn through the embankments. Seeing this, Stoner went down and discovered a buffalo, a cow, through the hole on the other side.
He said “Stop Captain, and we will have some fun.” Stoner slipped forward, and taking his cap off his head, he suddenly thrust the cap through the small hole, which was scarcely larger than the cap itself.
The cap was thrust into the buffalo’s face while the animal was engaged in licking the dirt. Instead of scampering back terrified as Stoner had expected, the buffalo angrily forced his head and neck through the clay bank up to his shoulders. Stoner, alarmed for his own safety, wheeled and ran, exclaiming, “Shoot her Captain! Shoot her!!
My father threw himself upon the ground in a fit of laughter at the ridiculous result of Stoner’s exploit, at his expense, instead of the buffalo’s.
After the buffalo caused Stoner’s hasty retreat, he seemed content with his success and made no further pursuit.
NATHAN BOONE
Source information:
The Life of Daniel Boone, Lyman C. Draper, Edited with an introduction by Ted Franklin Belue
My Father, Daniel Boone – The Draper Interviews with Nathan Boone, Edited by Neal O. Hammon
Image: Daniel Boone - by artist Alonzo Chappel, hand colored, steel engraving, circa 1862. - No copyright infringement intended, for educational use only.
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