SEPTEMBER 31 



the Musqnakios as tliey appeared in his boyhood, 

 nomadic visitors to the towns and streams of Pow- 

 eshiek Connty. Down the main street often passed 

 a strag-g'Ung procession of the toug-h little ponies, 

 the grim looking- braves, and the weazeny squaws, 

 some of them with pai)pooses strapped to their 

 backs. Often into the very penetralia of the pale- 

 face's dwelling glided the gaily-clad Indian women, 

 in moccasined feet, requesting, rejecting, commu- 

 nicating mainly by gesture and by deep grunts of 

 approval or annoyance. Once our neighbor's 

 great Newfoundland, ^^ Bruno," routed a little 

 band of begging squaws at his master's gate, and 

 their alarmed, scrambling retreat dow^n the old 

 board sidewalk of ''Wyant's Row" made quite a 

 comic scene. One spring there was a temporary 

 encampment in the Sugar Creek w^oods — a tepee, 

 a tent, a silent adult or two and a cheery looking 

 little boy of seven or eight years, when I saw it. 

 The boy, with the sharp eyes of his race, watched 

 me gathering spring flowers, and soon came smil- 

 ing to my side, and helped me collect spring beauty 

 and bloodroot for my botany can. 



Today everywhere the great cornfields stretch 

 away in mild golden glory, for the most part still 

 in tall row^s of military precision, though some 

 fields are in shock. ^^Corn!" How we boys once 

 wondered at the strange meaning given the famil- 

 iar word in the Bible ; how we strove to learn the 



