Iron County register., 1898-09-01
Moose Led to a Fortune
a Stack Of Hoy That Gave q Stost TO
'BIIob Wilkins.

-S - SCA INC proprietor a Dill OF
: goods, when a prosperous-looking
farmer came in. The farmer made
some purchases and stood by the stove
few minutes while he listened to the
latest news of the Cuban situation.
Outside the snow lay four feet deep on
a level, not counting the drifts, which
IN some. places came up to the caves
of the barns, while the roads were
punched deep with holes made by the
'slumping of horses feet during a re-
cent thaw, rendering the travelling diff
hcult and even dangerous.
II must be gittin' back to my din
ner," said the farmer at last. Its
mighty hard doin' with all this snow.
Never saw the road wuss."
Don't you set to grumbling about
deep snow, 'Bijah," remarked the mer-
chant. "Iye known a man to dig a
farm and pair of horses right out of
snow deeper than this"
The farmer chuckled as he went out
to his horse and sleigh before the door
and started away over the hills. The
merchant tucked couple of sticks of
wood into the stove and sat down op-
posite the commercial traveller. He
had story to tell.
you heard what 1 said to the man
that just went out" he began. That's
'Bijah wilkins, and he's got the best
farm in Greenmount-200 acres, well
stocked, and he has money put out at
interest besides. That's his house
you can see it over onthe hillside-the
yxyix n all tho no nd oh odc nd
1t. Let's see; it's 1898. TwentySseven
years ago everything that 'Bijah Will
kins owned was rifle, pair of snow
shoes and a moose sled, and he owed
for the sled at that He was young
fellow of % or "a then; good habits,
willing to work; but somehow he could
never make any money stick with him.
If he got little ahead 1T always
seemed to slip away from him in some
sort of foolish venture. He wanted
to marry old Hiram Crommet's daugh-
ter Hetty. She was willing enough,
but her father wouldn't hear to it, and
j guess he was about right, the way
'Bijah's prospects looked at that time.
"The winter and spring of 1871 was
a good deal like this year, only worse.
March, piling up and piling up until
there was five feet Of snow ON a level
in the woods. On the lakes and river
1T was worse still-a foot of slush
above the ice, with three feet of snow
on top of that to keep it from freezing,
and no horse or man could travel
through it. There was no getting sup
plies to the lumber camps and the
crews had to get out of the woods.
They could travel On the snow crust,
but the horses in the camps couldn't,
and where the camps were long dis
tance from a settlement and hadn't
laid in plenty of fodder for the season
the horses had to be killed to save
them from starving.
Things had got to this state when
'Bijah Wilkins struck the woods round
the Twin lakes crust hunting for deer
and moose. He was alone, and as he
slapped along on his snowshoes, haul
ing his long moose sled behind him,
one morning, he came upon the path
made by a big moose wallowing
through the snow. He followed the
tracks, and in the course of two or three |
hours came into a queer little valley |
among steep hills, whose existence no |
one would suspect until he came plumb |
upon it. There was cabin in the val |
ley, and it was the home of Peter La |
blache, a French Canadian. He was a |
hermit, who chose to live away from |
people. Three or four times year he |
would appear in the settlements lead |
ing his horse packed with peltries, |
which he would exchange for groceries |
and two jugs of rum that would bal |
ance one on each side of the horse, and |
then he would go back to his home in |
the woods. There were few people /
even among the woodsmen that knew
where Peter lived or had visited his
lonely home.
This winter Peter Lablache had
taken it into his head to go visiting,
and had started off before snow fell to
see his people in Madawaska. What
Bijah Wilkins saw when he came to the
valley was the little cabin and shed and
the stack of hay that Peter had moved
rom the swale before his door to keep
his horse through the year. Every
thing was almost buried in snow, but
1T the haystack the moose had paved
away the snow so as to get at the hay,
and there he was too busy eating to
notice that anybody was coming. Bijah
shot the moose, and as the day was only
half gone started with one of the hind
Iuarters on his sled for the next town
,hip to sell the meat at Crabtree's log
ying camp.
"He got to the camp all right, and
found that everybody there was pack
ng I'D to start out from the woods next
morning. There was no fodder for the
horses and no way of hauling any in
rom the settlements, SO work was
stopped and the men were going. The
ten fine horses that had hauled the
ogs that winter had to be left behind.
Crabtree himself was at the camp.
I'm glad you've come he said to
Bijah. Those horses have got to be
killed to save their starving to death.
It's nasty job knocking them in the
head, and I'd like you to shoot them.
1T was on the tip of Bijah's tongue
to tell about the haystack that he had
found. But he thought twice and held
his tongue.
There's -four and pork and beans
and tea that We'll leave behind, enough
70 last you three months, and you're
welcome to these and the use of the
camp as long as you want to stay If
Tou'll dispose of those horses Crab
rec went on. Only this is part of the
bargain; you must lead them well away
rom the camp before you shoot them.