Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1916-05-24

per tiers seemed TO empty themselves
spontaneously. Nearly all the folk not
yet smoked out stampeded up the cliff
at the same time. This was the saw
ing of many. The Fire People could
not shoot arrows fast enough. They
filed the air with arrows AID scores
of the stricken folk came tumbling
down, but still there were a few who
reached the top and got away.
The impulse of fight was now strong
err in me than curiosity. The arrows
had ceased flying. The last of the folk
seemed gone, though there may have
been a few still hiding in the upper
caves. The Swift Ore and started to
make a scramble for the clifftop. At
sight of us a great cry went up from
the Fire People. This was not caused
by me, but by the Swift One. They
were chatteril G eXcitedly and pointing
her out to one another. They did not
try to shoot her. Not an arrow was
discharged. They began calling softly
and coaxingly. l stopped and looked
down. She was afraid and whimpered
and urged me on. So we went up over
the top and plunged into the trees.
This event has often caused me to
wonder and speculate. If she were
really of their kind she must have been
lost from them at a time when she
was too young to remember, else would
she not have been afraid of them. On
the other hand. it may well have been
that while she was their kind she had
never been lost from them; that she
had been born in the wild forest far
from their haunts, her father maybe
a renegade fire man, her mother may
be one of my own kind, one of the folk.
But who shall say? These things are
beyond me, and the Swift One knew
no more about them than did I.
We lived through a day Of terror.
Most of the survivors fed toward the
blueberry swamp and took refuge in
the forest in that neighborhood. And
all day hunting parties of the Fire
People ranged the forest, killing us
wherever they found us. 1t must have
been deliberately executed plan. In
creasing beyond the limits of their own
territory, they had decided on making
81
quest. We had no chance against
them. 1t was slaughter, indiscriminate
slaughter, for they spared none, kill
ting old and young, effectively Kidding
the land Of our presence.
1t was like the end of the world to
us. We fed to the trees as a last rer-
uge, only to be surrounded and killed,
family by family. We saw much OF
this during that day. and, besides,
wanted to see. The Swift Cne and
never remained long in one tree, and
so escaped being surrounded. But there
seemed no place to go. The fire men
were everywhere, bent on their task OF
determination. Every way we turned
we encountered them, and because or
this we saw much of their handtwork.
l did not see what became of my
mother, but l did see the Chatterer
shot down out of the old home tree.
And l am afraid that at the sight l
did bit of joyous lettering. Before 1
leave this portion of my narrative l
must tell of Red Eye. He was caught
with his wife in a tree down by the
BURBERRY swamp The Swift One and
stopped long enough in our flight to
see. The fire men were too intent upon
their work to sotice us, and, further
more, we were we'll screened by the
thicket in which we crouched-
(To be Continued.)
1t is easier for the modern girl to