The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1906-12-20
Lonely Romesteaders Enjoy
Christmas in the Woods
BY EDWIN NJ. CONNER.

u CIdIlll olE1OU acres vi iiNiS 'tlAA - ~
main in the northern Minnesota woods.
1t lay in an Il shape, three forties
running in one direction and the other
forty lying along a tote road.
In the early fall he felled some young
cedar trees and with the help of settlers
with whom he trade work, soon had
his cabin up. Before freeze~up time ne
had "chinked'' the cracks with q plas-
ter made from the clayish virgin soil
and with a "froe' had prepared enough
Shakes to cover the roof. Among the
woodsmen, Shakes are his shingles,
and made with a simple tool resembling
q piece of broken scythe.
BY the time the deer began to u he
was snugly housed in mis- little 16 by 20
cabin. His furniture was rough. In
one corner was an ~improviead table, the
top hewed ont of a knotless log, the
legs made from a young cedar, and all
shaped out with the simple tool. His
chairs We're huge cedar blocks with
three legs making up the supports.
Along the side of the cabin was his
bunk" fashioned after a bedstead like
he slept in when q boy. The mattress
was nothing more nor less than green
cedar boughs with a piece of canvas or
tent cloth as a shield from the sap
Which they held. And with plenty of
quilts, Il modest cooking stove and
enough provisions, such as pork. sor-
ghun, q few bushels of potatoes, some
onions and rutabagas, carrots protected
from the frost in a dug out, he was
ready to put in the winter and to begin
a life of eight consecutive months in
the timber in order to meet his obliga-
lions to Uncle Sam as a homesteader.
Then he could commute his home
stead by the payment of $1.25 per acre,
or he could live out the five years and
make final proof, but he had no such
intention, for he was a wanderer who
Z r6lI1 NOT liy-n lnuy,, Jha Iac;ro 80 =,
romantic life which seemed to have
been bred in the bone.
Ills weapons consisted of n Savage
rifle, a double-barreled, ~ten-gauge,
breech-loadilng shotgun, some steel
traps, and a quartet of axes.
He had planted his cabin upon the
crown of his land with drainage in all
directions. And in this little cabin
amid the snow covered pines he spent
Christmas day. During the days of
a beautiful Indian summer he had
worked about his hewed log palace in
the wilderness. thirty miles from a
railroad and fifteen miles from a store
and the village postofice. His nearest
~neighbor was an old Irishman named
Mike-nobody knew his last name
only old Mike" RE was a sort of
recluse. Blu he was hospitable. kind,
courteous n over all, accommodating.
Anything he had you could have for
the asking, but he seldom bothered
anybody.
Christesaa morning broke clear ard
coid-cold for a tenderfoct. but mod
crate weather for the hardened woods
man.. And OF this type was Mike. He
had blazed the first trail into tho dense
forest after the government cruisers
had laid i the coTne posts and sec
ton lines. He was 4 squatter in the
sense that he planted himself upon a
choice quarter section with a million
a3nula- hGIf. fhet nf white. oy,j NTort-o,-
pine. and when the government threw
the land open for settlement his prior
ity gave him a homesteader's right and
he filed upon it.
And SO on the morning when in the
city the churches were tolling their
welcoming chimes Welcoming men and
women to the houses of prayer, to hear
the story so often told of the child in
the manager, the wanderer wended his
way through the sno banks along the
olazed trail to the cabin OF "Old Mike"
two miles away.
1t was lonely in the dense forest. but
here We're two men with a common
purpose: both planting the seeds OF
c~i.il!zation in the northern woods and
building for the future.
The wanderer raped on the LITTLE
ABR door.
Merry Christmas, Mike" he called.
Mike started back With surprise.
And is this Christnas?" he asked,
when he could recover from his aston
ishrnent.
Eyes, Mike. Christmas all over tbe
world, II Christmas for you and me
away UP here in the woods of Itasca
county" added the younger man as he
grasped the old fellows hand.
They stood for a still holding
hands, for Mikes mind wa wandering
and his mind must nave been filled
with memories oe many Christmas
days of the sixty odd years he had
Travelled this earth.
Mike began the newcomer. 1--WE
don't know each other very well and I
don't want to drag you from your little
cabin, but I want o to come over to
my cabin and We'll eat a bully good
Christmas dinner together, drink some
of the S-year-old that / brought in
anticipation of the celebration we will
have today, and put in the day with
me-
Mike quenched the fire in his little
put on his top boots with rubber
feet, buttoned his mackinaw, rabbed
his little handax, and as the door
behind him, he remarked:
"Pard, this is the first Christmas in
three years that i really have known
1t was Christmas day. 1t ought to
be an enjoyable n for I have liked
you ever since you asked me to run
your lines and help you select a spot
for your cabin
lHey lTudged along Tie trail with an
Indians stride. Mike leading the way.
"What a Teller Won't see when he
amt got a gun" he called out as he
a big buck deer making for COW
er, frightened by the sudden approach
of what the animal considered an en-
my He trudged on With rapid stride
Ind, looking back, beheld his conlpan-
standing transfixed.
Buck fever. yelled Mike half deris-
lively. half 1okingly, waving for his
host to follow.
Through the winding trail over a
piece of corduroyed hay creek, hopping
over dead and down timber, the two
plodded along until finally the little
.srlow-covered cabin made of cedar
stood out in bold relief upon the crown
h newcomers land.
There MAS a death stiffness In the
woods save for the roar which sounded
like q railroadStrain, but which came
the signing Of the pines. The big
pines, spruces, balsan1s, cedars and 9TH
trees seemed to be is lonely on that
bright Christmas morning MS these two
honlesteaders would have been had
they remained apart OF that natal day.
pard. You coy and COM
Portable here began aQld Mike" as he
inside the little cedar cabin.
The fire had died down, but it was
still warm.
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