LIFE IN WOODS OF NORTH MICHIGAN 279 



wildly, many of them breaking back through the line of 

 sweepers. 



In the sweeping of Mr. Dunford's farm about twenty 

 bushels of grasshoppers were roasted, in addition to a 

 large number destroyed by other means. They were 

 given to the poultry and hogs, which devoured them 

 greedily. In spite of this great slaughter, his grass 

 suffered severely, his hay-crop being reduced, he calcu- 

 lated, by at least one-half. 



Just before I left this district, Brown, otherwise 

 " Splits," married Miss Lillie Dunford, and there was the 

 greatest frolic on the occasion that I ever witnessed, and 

 that is saying a great deal ; for " frolics " in the States are 

 a serious business, and never carried out in a half-hearted 

 way. If a man is well enough off to give a frolic at all, 

 he does so in a liberal way. It is understood that a 

 frolic, whether a hunting, corn-husking, or a strictly 

 pleasure frolic, is intended for enjoyment, and — well, in a 

 word, they do not spoil the ship for lack of a ha'porth of 

 paint. 



At first there had been some opposition on the part 

 of Miss Lillie's parents to the intended marriage ; but it 

 seems that Splits, who was a steady old file, had a 

 comfortable nest-egg by him ; and having convinced 

 Mr. Dunford that he had the wherewithal to stock a 

 small farm, ultimately " all went merry as a wedding 

 bell." 



To give the reader some idea of a backwoods wed- 

 ding, and the wide area that a man's neighbours are some- 

 times scattered over in these thinly-peopled districts, I 

 may mention that there were over a hundred guf^sts at 

 the wedding, some of them coming from distances of 

 over a hundred miles to be present. The reverend gen- 

 tleman who performed the ceremony came from Ann- 

 Arbor, nearly three hundred miles away (Mrs. Dunford's 

 native town), performing the journey, both in coming 

 and going, by canoe, through Lakes Huron and Michigan. 



