Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1916-04-26

in a strange land, and it did not enter
our minds that we could return to our
own land in the same manner that we
had come.
We had learned how to cross a river,
though we did not know it. And this
was something that no one else of the
folk had ever done We were the first
of the folk to set foot on the north
bank of the river, and, for that mat
ter, / believe the last. That they
would have done so in the time to
come is undoubted, but the migration
of the fire people and the consequent
migration Of the survivors Of the folk
set back our evolution for centuries.
Indeed, there is no telling how disas-
trous was to be the outcome of the Fire
Peoples migration. Personally | am
prone to believe that it brought about
the destruction of the folk; that we, a
branch of lower life budding toward
the human, were nipped short off and
persisted down by the roaring surf
where the RIVER entered the sea. OF
course in such an eventuality | re
main to be accounted for. but | out
run my story, and such accounting
will be made before am done.
l have no idea how long Lop Ear and
l wandered in the land north of the
river. We were like mariners wreck
ed on a desert isle, SO far as concerned
the likelihood of our getting home
again. We turned our backs upon the
river and for weeks and months adj
ventured in that wilderness where
there were no folk. 1t is very diff
cult for me to reconstruct our journey
ing and impossible to do it from day
to day. Most of it is hazy and indis-
tinct. though here and there | have
vivid recollections of things that hap
pened.
Especially do remember the hunger
we endured on the mountains between
Long lake and Far lake and the calf
we caught sleeping in the thicket; also
there are the Tree People who dwelt in
the forest between Long lake and the
mountains. 1t was they who chased
us into the mountains and compelled
us to travel on to Far lake.
First, after we left the river, we
worked toward the west till we came
to a small stream that flowed through
marshlands. Here we turned away
toward the north, skirting the marshes,
and after several days arriving at what
l have called Long lake. We spent
some time around it's upper end, where
we found food in plenty, and then one
day in the forest we ran foul of the
Tree People. These creatures were fe-
rocious apes, nothing more. And yet
they were not so different from US.
They were more hairy, it is true; their
legs were trifle more twisted and
gnarly, their eyes a bit smaller, their
necks a bit thicker and shorter and
their nostrils slightly more like orifices
in a sunken surface, but they had no
hair on their faces and on the palms
of their hands and the soles of their
feet, and they made sounds similar to
ours with somewhat similar meanings.
After ALL the Tree People and the folk
were not so unlike.
| found him first, little withered,
dried ND old fellow, wrinkled faced
and bleary eyed and lottery. He was
legitimate prey. In our world there
was no sympathy between the kinds,
and he was not our kind. He was
tree man, and he was very old. lie
was sitting at the foot of tree-eYl-
IDENTIFY his tree, for we could see the
tattered nest in the branches in which
he slept at night.
| pointed him out to Lop Ear, and
we made a rush for him. He started
to climb, but was too slow. / caught
him by the leg and dragged him back
Then we had fun. We pinched him,
pulled his hair, tweaked his ears and
poked twigs into him, and all the
while we laughed with streaming eyes
His futile anger was most absurd. He
was a comical sight, striving to fan
into flame the cold ashes Of his youth
to resurrect his strength dead and
gone through the ooZing of the years
making wOeful faces i'll place Of the
ferocious ones he intended, grinding
his worn teeth together, beating his
meager chest with feeble fists.
Also he had a cough, and he gasped
and hacked and spluttered prodigious-
IL. Every time he tried to climb the
tree we pulled him back until at last
he surrendered to his weakness and
did no more than sit and weep. And
Lop Ear and / sat with him, our arms
around each other, and laughed at his
Indebtedness.
From weeping he went to whining
and from whining to wailing until at
last he achieved a scream. This
alarmed us, but the more we tried to
make him cease the louder he scream
ed. And then from not far away in
the forest came a "Goek! Goek!' to
our ears. To this there were answer
ing cries, several of them, and from
very far off we could hear big bass
"Goek! Cock! Goeky' Also the "Whoo-
whoor' call was rising in the forest
all around us.
Then came the chase. 1t seemed 1t
never would end. They raced us
through the trees, the whole tribe Of
them, and nearly caught US. We were