Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1872-11-21
PAUGUS, THE PIGWACKET.
The Big Indian, And All the Little In
dians; Their Exploits.
BY sAssAFRAs ROOT, ESQ

dians; Their Exploits.
BY sAssAFRAs ROOT, ESQ.
There was an old farm somewhere in
New England, which was supposed to be
very lonesome and far away. The nearest
neighbor-house was half a mile away, and
a forest intervened. In fact, not dwell
ing was in sight from the door of the
queer old red house that sheltered the
farmers family.
But lonesome places are not always tire
some to those who inhabit them. The
planets that have no neighbor-moons are
so near the sun that they are often quite
comfortably warm and bright without
such external helps.
Well, speaking in Gods way, the old
farm house was pretty near the sun. For
the farmer and his wife never shut sim
| gle window of their hearts from the shi-
ming of that warm, sweet light, Gods
| Love; and as they took care to have all
their children follow their example in this,
there was no chance for the dark, and
the cold, and the gloomy, and the lone
some TO get foothold under the mossy
| old roof.
Besides, there were so many things to
look after. There was more than a mile
of river, that bent round the farm like a
anu DOy WIN lCll Ills
responsibilities rightly, and looked after
all the Dreams, and clubs, and suckers,
and horn-pouts, andpickerel, not to speak
of the CLAIMS and tortoises, nor of the
sand-martins that honey-combed the
banks, had small time for loneliness.
Then there was the m0at, which in the
West we should call bayou, and which
had in its waters the very lilies which
Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed
like unto, and whose exquisite perfume
would have made him despise all his
myrrh, aloes and cassia. At the lower
end of this moat there was beaver-dam.
To be sure, it was two hundred years old,
and no real, actual beaver had lived there
in that time; but it was of great use to
the imagination, which could restore all
its beavers in less time than a beaver
could spat its tail And if the age of the
great gnawers had passed away, the king.
dom of the lesser gnawers had come for
the musky fellows had built their mud.
domes everywhere along the marshy mar.
gins of the moat.
1t took a good deal of boys time, too
to superintend the woodchucks in the
clover fields, and the squirrels that were
in the woods and in the walls and fences.
If there had been q census bureau fol
chippies, it would have taken about a vol
ume, imagine, to record them all and
then, there were the reds and grays be
Sides
There were dark, still depths of young
pine growth, where the sun never shone
and where no boy ever heard sound ex
, cept the weird sough of the wind, or
perhaps, a queer fluttering which he
thought at first was the beating of his OWL
heart, but presently recognized as the
drumming of the partridge. Far within
these depths was spot where boy al
ways had to watch for fox, but where il
never did any good to watch, after all,
for none was ever seen. But there was
the veritable garden, notwithstanding
and it was exciting to observe the frest
tracks, and to know that Mr.. Reynard
had certainly entered that very hole. mo-
an hour since
Spring and fall, the moat and the rivel
were the haunt of half a dozen sorts o.
wild fowl, which, again, had to be looked
after, and then the smaller birds, from
the hair sparrows that nested in the lilac
bush under the window, to the oriole
that flashed back the sunshine of the
great elm, and the mavis that tantalize6
everybody at eorn-p planting by forever de
claring that they might ''pl0,c-it, and -pIoat
ii, ,-and-adrT0so = it and = hdrTo1c-it,- and
mark ii = dnd-mGrk-it, and -drop-it, and
drop-it, and -ttcer-it-a -kiuer-it, -Ind-PE
come -pull-it-up!- PH-come- -pln-it-up"
Berriesl Let me see. Strawberries,
swamp blue-berries-dear, little, plump
fellows, blinking from the grass-shad
plums, raspberries, blue-berries again of q
larger growth-low blackberries, buckle
berries, which nobody SoiU call SohortLs,
overlooked the spiciest of all, the chiRks
which aIcouhara ora eLscIerhsy.yjss apd
sometimes eoiRteTqreens.
/ can't possibly remember all the things
that had to be attended to in the woods
But there were certainly ground-nuts,
which might have served the Indians fol
potatoes, and there was sassafras, and
there was black birch, with delicious
twigs and buds, and no end of things use
full or pretty.
But when all material things were ex
hausted, there was the air overhead, and
the dark; and the air and the dark were
full of stories; Indian stories, two hun.
dred years kept, and improving rapidly
with age. There was q deep hole upon a
certain little eminence. Over that hole
had been a real Indian fort" from
which, until an end was put to such
amusements, Paugus the Pigwacket had
sailed forth to scalp good women riding
to church behind their husbands, and to
carry off sheep and cattle. And down
toward the river was another similar cav
ity, which had been the cellar of a
"white mans fort" built to defend people
from Paugus and his braves. The all
and the dark were very full of Paugus
the Pigwacket and his braves.
All these things made the life of boy
anything but a dull and sleepy expert
ence. And if now you add the fact that
there were q dozen children at the old
farm-house-of its own, that is-and a
dozen uncles and aunts, to come from
everywhere with dozen children apiece
to visit at the old place nearly all the
time-to say nothing of keeping hotel
for ministers and agents
Well, I never could see how, under al
these circumstances, the old farm could
be called lonesome.
PAUGUs AND HIS BRAVES MAKE A FoRAY
UPON THE HERDS OF THE PALE-FACE.
"Now," said Molly, 'I'll tell you what
we must have some fun. We've got to
go after the cows. But we'll have ouI
sports, too. Bring our lances, Billw
Billy, three years younger, and com
paratively weakly, almost worshiped
Molly, who was robust, daring, and SC
ingenious that he never wanted for new
play.
The lances were brought. They very
closely resembled two old rake handles
1--WE have bloody work before us to-
night" said Molly, with the air of Occur
de-Lion. "We are Pigwackets" he con-
tinued; "and we are on the war path"
Billy Immediately assumed the coun'
tenance of a Mohawk.
"The pale-faces have stolen our hunt
ing grounds, and driven away our game.
We must be revengedl Yonder by the
river, toward the setting sun, are the
herds of the usurperl"
!. Billy poised his lance. and pointed
! eagerly in the direction of the usurper's
herds At the same time the bitterness
of at least three injured Pigwackets was
represented in the scowl which distorted
his majestic (nine-year-old) brow.
| sIShall We have revenge?n roared