When Daniel Boone was a young man, there was war between England and France. England sent troops to fight against the French in America. The French claimed the land west of the mountains. The English claimed the same land. The Indians sided with the French.

Daniel Boone drove a supply wagon for the English and the Americans. He made friends with another young wagoner named John Finley. Finley had been to the land southwest of the mountains. Each night he and Boone sat by the campfire and talked.

“I’ve been deep in the wilderness they call Kentucky,” Finley told Boone. “It is a wonderful place. The forests go on and on and on. There are thousands of buffalo in Kentucky. There are deer, bear and small animals, too. It is a great land for hunters.”

“I want to go there,” Daniel said.

“There are Indians in the wilderness,” Finley told Daniel. “They live to the north of Kentucky and to the south of Kentucky. They call the land their hunting ground. They do not like the white men to go there.”

“There should be room enough for both Indians and white men,” Daniel Boone replied. He thought for a while. “Some day I am going to Kentucky.”

When Daniel went back home to the Yadkin Valley, he married a tall, dark-haired girl named Rebecca Bryan. Sometimes he liked to tease her. One summer day before they married he was sitting beside her under a big tree. Suddenly he took his broad-bladed knife and cut a long slit in her fresh white apron.

“Why did you do that, Daniel?” she asked mildly.

His blue eyes twinkled. “I guess I wanted to see if you had a temper,” he said.

Because she wasn’t angry, Daniel felt that she would make him a good wife. Life in the wilderness was often difficult and dangerous. He wanted a wife who did not become upset easily.

They were married, and soon the first of their many children arrived. Daniel loved his children. As soon as his son James was old enough, he taught him to hunt.

In the spring and summer Daniel would farm. In the autumn he hunted, and in the winter he trapped. He made long trips in the forest and brought home food for his family and valuable furs and deerskins. Many of these he sold. He enjoyed exploring as much as he enjoyed hunting. Once he even went as far south as Florida with the idea of settling there. But he was disappointed in the land. He longed to explore Kentucky, but did not want to go alone.

One day the Boone family heard a knock at the door. It was Boone’s old friend, John Finley.

“Let’s go to Kentucky, Daniel!” he said.

“Let’s!” Daniel agreed. “I think about it all the time. You know how much I love the wilderness. That’s the one place I really feel at home.”