The Coolidge examiner., 1931-06-26
The By Jane. Oliver eg!xood
Plains Of Abraham
g by Doubleday Inc. WNU Service.
CHAPTER X-Contirued

wood country in which he was
sure there would be hunting that
would last through the winter
There were plenty of raccOons,
and the merganSerS, or fish DUCKS,
would come TO the swift-running
headwaters to feed as soon as ice
closed the lakes and the mouths
of the streams Here they made
their lodge of saplings. 1t was a
new kind of home for Wood
Pigeon. Jeems built ii with
cooking hearth and a chimney and
a tiny room set apart for Wood
Pigeon herself The child's eyes
gIowed with delight at this pos
session. Each day Jeems told her
more about TOinette-hOw Sol
Yam Makwun cared for her beauti-
full hair. how it was part of her
religion to keep herself clean, how
and why she did this thing and
that, until thoughts and desires
greW in WanOnat's head. and she
employed the comb and the brush
which Jeems made for her until
her sleek black hair was never
untidy.
Beavy snow and extreme cold
came early in the season. BY the
middle of December. Jeems was
compelled 10 hunt on snOwshOes,
and so bitter were the nights that
the first of January found even
the headwaters freezing out the
mergansers.
This was the memorable winter
of 1875 and 1856, the story of
which the Senecas handed down
from father TO son for many gen
erations-a winter in which all
game seemed to have gone from
the face of the earth, and when
hardship and starvation killed a
tenth OF the three weSternmOst of
the Six Great Nations, the Sen
ecas, the CayugaS, and the OnOn-
dagas.
At first Jeems was partly pre-
pared, because he had killed
buck. and with Wuskoo's shrewd
assistance had marked a number
of trees in which raccoops were
sure to hibernate. But late in
January famine drew closer about
the cabin on the Little Selus, and
JeemS travelled farther in his
hunts, until he was gone two days
at time. In February, he made
four of these hunts and found no
game. The cold was terrific. Trees
cracked like rifles in the woods.
Bitter winds continued night and
day. Wood Pigeons eyes grew
larger and her body more fragile
as the weeks passed. Each time
Jeems came in from his hunts she
Glazed up like a fire in her happi-
.leSs, but he could mark the steady
fading of her strength. He hunted
Sith almost insane energy. Every
thing was for her when famine
%lutched at them hardest.
TOrturing fears assailed Jeems.
TOinette was never out of his
mind, for even in his sleep he
dreamed of her. She, too, was a
part of this fight to hold life to-
gether.
AZ night. when the wind howled
and trees walled in their distress,
he st1eated in fear, and more than
once the thought came TO him TO
abandon his family and go in
search of Toinette. His visions of
the fate which might be Overtak-
ing her became almost unbearable.
His hunts were not long now, and
seldom took him more than three
or four miles from the cabin, for
his own strength was ebbing. His
only hope was to kill an occasional
bird, and II was in the darkest
hour that an answer came to his
prayers. In q blizzard against
which he was working his way in
half-blindness. he stumbled upon
a doe as weak as himself and
killed her Without this stroke
of fortune, Wood Pigeon and Wus-
koo must have died. When the
thaws came, they were alive. Rae
cOOns began TO appear and fleshy
roots could he gathered out of the
opening streams. Early March
brought a warm break in which
Jeems and his companions started
for ChenufsiO. Food was plentiful
on the way, and each night they
gathered strengthening sap from
the naples.
The arrived at Chenufsio. The
people there had lived frugally on
their supplies. and from the first
running of the maple sap had been
making sugar Only four families
had preceded Jeems to the village.
and of their number, which was
twenty-eight, five had died. No
word had been received from
Tiaoga and his warriors.
The maple sap ran steadily. In
spite of this opening grace of
spring, there hung over ChenufsiO
a grim specter whose shadow
grew darker with each day that
passed.
This specter was death. Scarcely
a family returned which did not
bring grief with it And All De
Bah. the mightiest hunter of them
all, did not come. No one had
heard of him No one knew where
he was Fifty-Seventy-a hun
dred-and then a hundred and
fifty of those who had gone in the
breakup were accounted for by
the end of March. Among them
was Mary Daghlen. Of their num-
Der, thirty had died. Still All De
Bah, the Tall Man, did not come
Then he appeared one day. He
was grOtesque rack of fleshless