320 UlRAL MICHIGAN 



woods, woods everywiiere, trackless, savage, terrify- 

 ing. They seemed to smother ns and we gasped to 

 drink in the open sky. Go out from onr house in 

 any direction, it was unbroken forest for long dis- 

 tances; take the trail eastward, and it was five miles 

 to the first house. ... Go west and it was six miles 

 to the home of Harvey Bliss. . . . Strike out north 

 or south through the lonely woods, and it was twenty 

 or more miles to a white man." This was the com- 

 mon situation to the early settlers as related by them- 

 selves, and they were repeated decade after decade 

 from Lenawee to Gogebic County, from the shore of 

 Lake Erie to the shore of Lake Superior. 



Nevertheless, life had also its pleasant side for the 

 wilderness farmers of the olden time. A raising, a 

 husking or a logging-bee must have its accompani- 

 ment of conviviality, song and story-telling. There 

 were "quilting frolics," hurly-burly and kissing 

 games, with dancing to the fiddled tune of "Zip 

 Coon" and "Money Musk." Apple-parings and 

 corn-huskings gave opportunity for contests of speed, 

 and spelling-matches and debates displayed rustic 

 _ intellectual prowess. If axmen had their chopping 

 matches, miners had their drill-running contests, 

 lieligious meetings, especially revivals and camp- 

 meetings, which last figure less in the early than in 

 the later period of settlement, contributed to the 

 interest in existence, and even funerals were of value 

 in breaking the monotony of a life not so redundant 

 with entertainment as the present age. Such enter- 

 tainments as had place in early rural life were do- 



