Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1916-03-22

V II -
anywhere. SD long as wnen night came
she was above the ground.
Nv mother was old fashioned. She
still chung TO her trees. 1t is true. the
more progressive members Of our horde
lived i'm the caves above the river. But
my mother was suspicious and unpro,
gressive. The trees were good enough
for her OF course. we had one par
ticular tree in which we usually rooSt-
ed. though we often roasted in other
; trees when nightfall caught rs. In a
convenient fork was sort of rude
platform of twigs and branches and
creeping things. 1t was more like
huge bird nest than anything else.
though it was a thousand times cruder
i'm the weaving than anv bird nest.
But it hal ono feature that | have
never seen attached to any bird nest
namely. roof.
Oh. not a roof such as modern man
makes. Nor roof such as is made by
the lowest abOrigines Of today. 1t was
infinitely more clumsy than the clum-
siest handiwOrk Of man-Of man as we
know him 1t was put together in q
casual. heller SHELTER sort of way. Above
the fork Of the tree whereon we rested
was a pile Of dead branches and brush.
Four or five adjacent forks held what
| may term the various r,dgepoles.
These were merely stout sticks an inch
or so in diameter. On them rested the
brush and branches. These seemed to
have been tossed on almost aimleSSly.
There was no attempt at matching
And I must confess that the roof leak
ed miserably in heavy rain.
But the Chatterer. He made home
life a burden for both my mother and
me, and by home life | mean not the
leaky nest in the tree. but the group
life of the three of. us. He was most
malicious in his persecution of me-
That was the one purpose to which he
held steadfastly for longer than five
minutes; also as time went by my
mother was less eager in her defense
of me. l think what of the continuous
rows raised by the Chatterer that l
must have become a nuisance to her.
At any rate the situation went from
bad to worse so rapidly that / should
soon of my own vOlition have left
home. But the satisfaction of per-
forming so independent an act was de-
MED me. Before l was ready to go
was thrown out. And / mean this lit
orally.
The opportunity came to the Chat
terer one day when l was alone in the
nest. My mother and the Chatterer
had gone away together toward the
BURBERRY swamp. He must have plan
ned the whole thing, for l heard him
returning alone through the forest
roaring with self induced rage as he
came. Like all the men Of our horde
when they were angry or were trying
to make themselves angry, he stopped
now and again to hammer on his chest
with his fist.
l realized the helplessness of my sit
uation and crouched trembling in the
nest. The Chatterer came directly to
the tree-I remember it was an oak
tree-and began to climb up. And he
never ceased for a moment from his
Internal row. AS have said, our Ian
guage was extremely meager, and he
must have strained it by the variety of
ways in which he informed me of his
undying hatred of me and of his in
tention there and then to have it out
with me.
AS he climbed to the fork fed out
the great horizontal limb. He followed
me. and out l went. farther and
farther. At last was out amongst the
small twigs and leaves. The Chatterer
was ever a coward, and greater always
than any anger he ever worked up was
his caution. He was afraid to follow