Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1916-05-31

then the fioodtide came in and drown
ed him. We found his body the next
day, and it was a lesson to us. Not
another one Of US was ever caught in
the closing shell of an abalone.
The Swift One and l managed to
bring up one child, boy-at least we
managed to bring him along for sever
al years. But am quite confident he
could never have survived that terrible
climate. And then one day the Fire
People appeared again. They had
come down the river, not on catama-
ran, but in a rude dugout. There were
three Of them that padded in it, and
one of them was the little, wizened
old hunter. They landed on our beach,
and he limped across the sand and ex-
amined our caves.
They went away in a few minutes,
but the Swift One was badly scared.
We were all frightened, but none Of us
to the extent that she was. She whim-
pered and cried and was restless all
that night. In the morning she took
the child in her arms and by sharp
cries, gestures and example started me
on our second long fight. There We're
eight of the folk (all that was left OF
the .horde) that remained behind in the
caves. There was no hope for them.
Without doubt, even if the Fire People
did not return, they must soon have
persisted 1t was bad climate down
there by the sea. The folk were not
constituted for the coast dwelling life
We travelled south, for days skirting
the great swamp, but never ventur1ng
into it. Once we broke back to the
westward, crossing a range Of noun
tains and coming down to the coast
But it was no place for us. There
were no trees, only bleak headlands,
laundering surf and strong winds that
seemed never to cease from blowing
We turned back across the mountains,
travelling east and south, until we
came in touch with the great swamp
again.
Soon we gained the southern ex-
tremity of the swamp, and we cont1n-
ued our course south and east 1t was
pleasant land The air was warm,
and we were again in the forest. Later
on we crossed q low lying range of hills
and found ourselves in an even better
forest country. The farther we pene-
trated from the coast the warmer we
found it. and we went on and on until
we came to large river that seemed
familiar to the Swift One. 1t was
where she must have come during the
four years absence from the horde.
This river we crossed on logs, landing
on the other side at the base of large
bluff High up on the bluff we found
our new home, a cave most difficult OF
access and quite hidden from any eye
beneath.
There is little more of my tale to
tell. Here the Swift One and 1 lived
and reared our family. And here my
memories end. We never made an
other migration. I never dream be-
yond our high, inaccessible cave. And
here must have been born the child
that inherited the stuff of my dreams,
that had nodded into its being all the
impressions of my life, or of the life
of Big Tooth, rather, who is my other
self and not my real self, but who is
so real to me that often am unable
to tell what age am living in.
1 often wonder about this line Of de-
scent /, the modern, am incontestably
a man, yet 1, Big Tooth, the primitive,
am not q man. Somewhere and by
straight line of descent these two par
ties to my dual personality were con-
nected. Were the folk before their
destruction in the process Of becoming
men? And did 1 and mine carry
through this process? On the other