Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1912-08-29
Oak Openings %r Bee Hunter
~ V0W " ~ M(N
VZV0=a@SSss s<RSssasas7zaa7 SaNNAY
CHAPTER l.


been described, as to cause one to
hesitate about reviving scenes
that might possibly pail, and in
retouching pictures that have been
so frequently painted as to be
familiar to every mind. But God
created the woods, and the themes
bestowed by his bounty are mex
haustable. Even the ocean, with its
boundless waste of water, has been
found to be rich in its various
beauties and marvels; and he who
shall bury himself with us, once
more, in the virgin forests of this
widespread land, may possibly dis
cover new subjects of admiration,
causes to adore the being who has
brought all into existence, from
the universe to its most minute
particle.
The precise period OF our leg
end was in the year 1912, and the
season of the year the pleasant
month of July, which had now
drawn near to its close. The sun
was now already approaching the
western limits of a wooded view,
when the actors in IT'S opening
scene must appear on stage that
is worthy of a more particular
description.
The region was, in one sense,
wild, though it offered a picture
that was not without some OF the
strongest and most pleasing fea-
lures of civilization. The country
was what is termed "rolling," from
fancied resemblance to the surface
OF the ocean, when it is just undu-
lating with long ground swell"
Although wooded it was not as the
American forest is wont to grow,
with tall straight trees towering
toward the light, but with inter-
walls between the low oaks that
were scattered profusely over the
view, and with much of that air
of negligence that one is apt to
see in grounds, where art is made
to assume the character of nature.
The trees, with very few excep-
tons, were what is called the
"burr-oak," a small variety of a
very extensive genus and the
spaces between them, always ir-
regular, and often of singular
beauty, have obtained the name of
Openings :" the two terms COM
bined giving their appellation TO
this particular species of native
forest, under the name of "Oak
Openings" In places they stand
with a regularity resembling that
OF an orchard then, again, they are
more scattered and less formal
while wide breadths of land are
occasionally seen in which they
stand in copses. with vacant spaces
that bear no small affinity
to artificial lawns, being covered
with verdure. The grasses are sup
posed to be owing TO the fires
lighted periodically by the Indians
in order to keep clear their hunt
fairgrounds.
Toward one of these grassy
glades. which was spread on an
almost imperceptible activity, and
which might have contained some
fifty or sixty acres of land, the
reader is now requested to turn
his eyes. Far in the wilderness as
was the spot, four men were there,
and two of them had even some Of
the appliances Of civilization about
them. The woods around were the
then unpeopled forest of Mich
igan; and the small winding reach
of placid water that was just
visible in the distance was an
elbow of the Kalamazoo, beau
tiful little river that flows west
ward, emptying it's tribute into
the vast expanse of Lake Mich
igan. Now, this river has already
become known, by its villages and
farms, and railroads and mills; but
then, not a dwelling of more pre-
tension than the wigwam OF the
Indian, or an occasional shanty Of
some white adventurer, had ever
been seen on it's banks. In that day,
the whole of that fine peninsula,
with the exception of a narrow
belt of country along the Detroit
river, which was settled by the
French as far back as near the
close Of the seventeeth century,
was literally a wilderness. III a
white man found his way into it il
was an Indian trader, hun-er, or
an adventurer in some other of
the pursuits connected with border
life and the habits of savages.
OF this last character were two
of the men on the open glade just
mentioned, while their companions
were OF the race OF the aborigines-
What ID rnuoh mora rapn ark hIa