My Boyhood and Touth 



they traveled and fed mostly at night, and hid 

 in tamarack swamps and brushy places in the 

 daytime, and how the Indians knew all about 

 them and could find them whenever they were 

 hungry. 



Indians belonging to the Menominee and 

 Winnebago tribes occasionally visited us at our 

 cabin to get a piece of bread or some matches, 

 or to sharpen their knives on our grindstone, 

 and we boys watched them closely to see that 

 they did n't steal Jack. We wondered at their 

 knowledge of animals when we saw them go 

 direct to trees on our farm, chop holes in them 

 with their tomahawks and take out coons, of 

 the existence of which we had never noticed 

 the slightest trace. In winter, after the first 

 snow, we frequently saw three or four Indians 

 hunting deer in company, running like hounds 

 on the fresh, exciting tracks. The escape of the 

 deer from these noiseless, tireless hunters was 

 said to be well-nigh impossible ; they were fol- 

 lowed to the death. 



Most of our neighbors brought some sort of 

 [ 170 ] 



