Trading Mystery
Elementary: Grades 3–4
Story
Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
Joseph still wasn't sure. "Isn't he called Uncle Boots because he's not nice?" Grandpa looked skeptical. "He kicked people with his boots!" Joseph said, quite certain of himself.
Grandpa burst into a laugh. "He doesn't seem friendly, I know," Grandpa offered. "He's been called Boots since he was a young man. He has always worried about fairness, and he used to say 'You shouldn't judge until you've walked in another man's boots.' It became a nickname and it stuck.
Joseph and Lily thought about that for a little while. "I guess maybe we shouldn't have judged him," Lily shrugged.
"Maybe we should get to know him better, since he's going to be living here and all." Joseph agreed, although he still thought Uncle Boots was strange.
)
The next day, Lily and Joseph saw Grandpa talking with Uncle Boots in the parlor. After a few laughs, Grandpa called Lily and Joseph in. Uncle Boots was smiling. The children couldn't believe it. Uncle Boots never smiled. "I thought we'd all go downtown tomorrow and Uncle Boots could tell you about what Chicago was like when he first moved here," Grandpa explained.
Uncle Boots nodded. "I was about your age when I came here the first time," he said, nodding at Joseph. The children felt shy. They figured that Grandpa told Uncle Boots what they thought of him.
"And today, I thought Uncle Boots could show you a little bit of his memoirs—the book he is writing," Grandpa explained.
"You can read a little bit yourselves while I take my nap," Uncle Boots said, handing Lily the small bound book he was always writing in. The children and their grandfather took the book to the kitchen while Uncle Boots dozed off in the rocking chair. Grandpa read the first few paragraphs of Uncle Boots's scratchy handwriting out loud:
"I was nothing but a slight nine-year-old lad when I moved to Chicago in 1820, the young son of a daring trader for the American Fur Company. Our journey from Vermont was long, but great opportunities awaited us. Of that we were certain.
)
"We sailed across Lake Michigan from the Mackinac post in a brigade of boats with soldiers and other traders; a twenty-day journey to Fort Dearborn. As we approached, I remember the pop of the signal gun announcing our arrival."
"Fort Dearborn!" Joseph said. "Uncle Boots was there? I heard about it in school."
Grandpa kept reading. "The first thing we did was meet up with Jean Baptiste Beaubien, my father's boss and the manager of the fur trade here. After hearing from him about the tasks we faced, we visited John Kinzie at his house, the former residence of DuSable. I never had the chance to know DuSable, Chicago's first pioneer settler. He was a trader born in Haiti. He and his Potawatomi wife built a farm here in 1779. Unfortunately, I never met the man, as he was long gone by the time of my arrival."
Downloads (pdf)
