FIGHTING THE INSECTS 



of things, and in the spring of 1876 he was asked to go to Phila- 

 delphia to help in the installation of the exhibit. When he arrived 

 everything was in confusion, and even the floors of some of the 

 buildings had not been laid. In walking through Machinery Hall 

 the toe of his boot struck a bit of stone projecting from the 

 earthen floor. No one knows how many boots had hit this ob- 

 struction, but Gushing dug around it and exhumed the old 

 object, which proved to be a very remarkable Indian pestle. In 

 fact, he proved so interesting and so apt and so well informed 

 that the Smithsonian took him away from his college course, and 

 he went to Washington with the exhibit at the end of the Expo- 

 sition. That was Frank Cushing's chance, and, as we all know, 

 he developed into one of the most remarkable students of the 

 American Indian that the United States has ever produced. He 

 got to know the Zufiis, that extraordinary tribe in the South- 

 west, and in fact was adopted into the tribe. 



I think that I should mention one more little expedition. In 

 the late summer of 1877 a half dozen of us started south on a 

 walking trip. We had intended to explore the coal-mining region 

 of eastern Pennsylvania. When we reached Towanda we were 

 already footsore, and, finding there the eastern branch of the 

 Susquehanna river, we bought a flat-bottomed boat for four 

 dollars, cut ourselves out some paddles from stolen fence-boards, 

 loaded our packs and supplies in the boat, and cruised for a large 

 part of the rest of our journey. We cooked our own meals on 

 shore at camp-fires, and spent the nights in chance haymows. 

 We overturned at least once, and had many more or less com- 

 monplace adventures which were very exciting to our inexperi- 

 ence. There is no doubt that we looked like tramps. We indulged 

 in a dinner at a litde hotel at Pittston and were served by a 

 pretty country girl. One of us passed some chaffing remark to 

 her, and she flushed and ran into the adjoining room, and we 



[12] 



