The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1904-07-07

: XN = and Edith, took home
i stead on Big Fish Lake, il
SISFS the north woods OF Mime
sofa. We went up there, not to farm
but to raise ginseng. Doris had been
employed in wholesale drug house
and 50 had learned the possibilities of
ginseng culture.
The ginseng root grows wild on the
hardwood lands of Minnesota. Doris
believed that we could start ''planta.
ton from these wild roots. which
were worth Sc Il pound.
We lived in a pine log house, and ON
nearest neighbors-two bachelor
Woodsmen-were two miles away
across an arm of the lake. Our visi-
bic resources were provisions enough
Tor few months, yoke of old oxen,
one COW and wagon and plow.
On the whole we had good times.
Fish and game and berries were abund.
ant, and we rugged a sailboat from a
four-oared skif which had been left
1T an abandoned sawmill. Doris and
Edith, like many Minnesota girls, were
good lake sailors.
We spent much time in open seasons
1unting for ginseng plants. AS we
zach carried a tin bucket andNa butch
AZ knife with long blade, we were
able to take up roots with plenty of
earth and to transplant them success
FULLY.
We had rival ''sang diggers'' in our
woods, too. The Pillager Indians.
whose reservation line was but a few
niles away, were energetic hunters of
The root. There was one band of sew
eral men and women that we used to
meet frequently. The women would
'coWl and mutter angrily when they
saw the green leaves of the "sang,
loot in our pals.
One day in our second season Doris
Ind Edith met four of these squaws.
who boldly attacked them. took away
heir ginseng roots and beat them with
switches. This was too much for me,
tnd despite Morals entreaties, got my
gun and went after the Indians.
knew where their camp was, and 1
went first after the Crosby boys-our
bachelor neighbors.
When they heard my story they also
ook their guns. Then we rowed across
The lake and made those Pillagers
pack their wagons. We drove them
six miles over logging road, to the
line of their reservation, where we
babe them never again to set foot on
our lake shore.
When [ got home late at night Doris
Ind Edith were both crying, in fear
that something dreadful had happened
10 me. Doris admitted that the In
Hans should have been punished.
But" she said, 1--WE shall have more
trouble with them, they're so vindic-
hve.'
In September one Of our oxen-the
latest one-disappeared under circum-
stances which made it certain the ami
NAL had been stolen We were sure
that Hawks band" as our Pillager ri.
vals were called, had taken the OK and
killed it for beef.
The next spring the band again
camped in our vicinity, this time pitch
Ing their lodges at the north extrem-
lty Of Big Fish Lake. Several. times
Doris and Edith, while sang hunting,
met the squaWs who had punished
them with switches; but the women of
fered no hostile demonstration, and the
girls would not let me take any often
sive action.
But all that spring and summer we
were careful not to leave our house
and our growing ginseng patch unpro-
tected.
The next spring, however. as the In
dams had offered us no further mis-
chief, and there came on beautiful
weather for the ginseng hunter. we
were less careful. We had now. neat
ly fenced, profit paying plantation
of nearly 1000 seed-bearing roots.
Then Little Hawk and his three wo.
men descended upon our plantation
and robbed us Of 100 Of our choicest
plants.
If we had not returned early that af.
ternoon our three years work would
have gone for nothing. AS it was. we
caught the scamps at the beginning OF
their foray.
They saw us or heard us as we came
up the path to our house, and we saw
them-four scuttling figures-as they
plunged into the bushes at the opposite
edge of our clearing. They ran toward
the main shore Of the lake. We knew
that they had canoe in hiding dowI
there, and that we could not hope tt
catch them on foot.
Doris. thoroughly angry, proposed
that we should chase the rascals in oul
sailboat, and recapture the stolen roots
The Mallard was pulled up in the bay
back Of our house, with a quarter mile
Of rushes in her path to the lake.