482 
FOREST ^ND STREAM. 
[June 24, 1899. 
Pioneer Days.— IV. 
Hermit Life in the Woods. 
BY ROWLAND E. ROBINSON. 
Next day they searched for a suitable site for their 
cabin, and found it, indicated by the choice of some 
former hunter's camp beside a little creek, with a con- 
venient landing for boats, and yet out of sight of the 
main stream, though but a little way from it. 
They at once set to felling trees for their house; cut 
the logs of proper length; hauled them to the spot; 
rolled them up; notched them and set them in place; cut 
a place for door and window; split and hewed puncheons 
for floor and roof, and in a few days had a substantial 
house, all the crevices warmly chinked with moss and 
clay; a stone fireplace at one end; a one-posted bedstead 
in a corner with a luxurious bed of marsh grass and cedar 
twigs, distilling aromatic fragrance and inviting dreamless 
sleep. 
Pork barrel and meal barrel had their corner; there 
was a furnishing of rude table and stools, one for each 
and a third for a guest; hooks for the guns on the 
walls, and numerous wooden pegs, until at last every- 
thing was handy, comfortable and rudely homelike. 
Josiah's day dreams added the presence of his fair- 
haired Chloe, and his heart beat quick at the thought of 
her longed-for coming. After the wooden hinged door 
was hung with wooden latch lifted from outside by a 
string, and a wooden shutter of the same sort was in 
place, a shed was built for the oxen, a stack of niarsh hay 
made beside it for winter use. and the pioneers looked 
forward without apprehension to the coming of the dreary 
months of snoAv-bound solitude. 
Now Josiah plied his axe to making a clearing, the log 
heaps were burned, the ashes stored for future potash- 
making, and a little rye scratched into the virgin soil for 
next year's crop. A thin fringe of the giant water maples 
Avas left along the shore dividing the three-acre clearing 
from the brown marsh tit rough which the sluggisli chan- 
nel curved its amber waterway. Here toward nightfall 
came wonderful flights of water fowl, innumerable in 
countless flocks, making the air pulse with the vibrant 
whistle of pinions, and the splash and surge of alighting 
to feed and rest among the measureless acres of wildoats 
that bordered the channel. Then Kenelm would steal 
forth in the log canoe he had fashioned from one of His 
Majesty's pines, and fire a deadly shot into the unwary 
throng, whereupon followed a thunderous burst of up- 
rising, and as it subsided the echoes of the solitary dis- 
charge rippled out in far-off waves of sound, beating 
against distant hills and wooded shoes. 
Often a deer fell to his bullets, and once a mighty 
moose, wallowing in the marsh to the fringe of lily- 
pads, was waylaid and killed, furnishing a winter's supply 
of wild beef, which was smoked and dried and stored in 
the loAV loft. 
Besides such service, Kenelm was tending his traps 
every day all along the two streams, and far back into the 
wild forest by blazed lines, where deadfalls were set for 
marten and fisher and bear, so that before the first snows 
fell to whiten the steel-blue helmet of Camel's Hump — 
Tahwah-be-de-e-wadso — or grizzle the pine-clad crest of 
nearer Charlotta, the cabin walls were lined with the 
appropriated coats of every fur-bearer, from panther, 
hear, wolf, fox, down to the humble mink and muskrat. 
"They'll turn us aou'door, Jfosier," he said, as he took 
account of stock, "if I don't pack 'em aout tu the settle- 
ments when it comes snowshoein'." And with that object 
in view he began making snowshoes and toboggan, for 
he was skilled in all such Indian craft. 
Josiah did not look forward to this period of loneliness 
Avith A'ery cheerful anticipation; the lonely silent days 
Avhen he should haA^e no ineans of whiling away the slow 
hours but m cutting fircAVOod, feeding the oxen and read- 
ing his two books, the Bible and "Pilgrim's Progress." 
"Tain't nothin'," said Kenelm, "an' you'll be right as a 
trivet, an' jest take solid comfort o' life. Half a berril o' 
pork, an' as much nieal, a chamber full o' jerked meat, an' 
A million acres o' firewood tu your door. I wouldn't ask 
no better, an' you can go in my place if you Avant to." 
But the original plan seemed best, as Kenelm could 
best dispose of the peltry, and Avas the better woodsman 
for such a journey. So a little before Christmas he set 
forth on his .snowshoes, hauling the toboggan load of 
choicest furs and provision of no-cake and jerked venison 
for the journey, and bearing a birch-bark letter to Cliloe 
from her lover. 
Betaking himself first to the frozen, snOAv-covered 
channel of Little Otter, then across to the Great Otter to 
Pangborn's, thence to the end , of his journey by the Old 
Indian Road, whence in the bloody days of savage war- 
fare many a marauding band of French and Indians had 
gone on its deadly errand, and returned with prisoners 
and plunder and ghastly trophies. 
Josiah was not yet of the sort to take kindly to a soli- 
tary life, and the lonely days passed heavily, more heavily 
the long, lonely nights Avith no companionship but the 
fire and the leaping shadows it cast upon the corrugated 
Avails, the image of a three-legged stood stretching across 
the floor, climbing the logs and snatching at the cross 
beams with his own shadowy figure leaping and falling 
beside it, till both seemed grotesque, uncanny goblins 
dancing to the crackle and roar of the fire until it burned 
loAV and they faded out, then sprang to fitful life when a 
charred brand briefly flared with an expiring flame. 
When he covered the coals and crept into his blankets 
and all the room, vv^as in gloom but the dull ashen gloAV on 
the hearth, the cheerfullest sound was the mufiled iDursting 
of a smothered coal, or simmer of the sappy back log, or 
the faint clash of the stabled oxen's horns. With these 
Avere mingled the outer voices of the night; the sharp 
crack of the frost-strained trees, the moaning of the Avind 
in the interminable forest, the boding hoot of an owl, the 
howl of a hungry wolf, the creak of the snow under 
the stealthy tread of some night prowler. 
Once in the dead of a still night such a sound culminated 
in a scratching ascent of the jutting corner logs and the 
claws of the intruder tore at the puncheon roof, beneath 
which hung a sadle of frozen venison. Then the stealthy 
footfalls crunched toward the chimney, were heard climb- 
ing it, and then long-drawn sniffs came muffled down its 
hoIloAV. Josiah sprang from his bed, drew from it an 
armful of straw, hastily raked open the coals and threw it 
upon them. There was a puff of smoke, an upburst of 
flame to the chimney top, a gasping hiss of fright and 
menace, a scream of rage, a headlong plunge into the 
snow, and long-receding leaps fading into the silence, 
leaving nothing behind but an odor of singed hair. After . 
that an armful of marsh hay was laid ready every night 
for a similar emergency. 
Besides the time given to providing firewood, Josiah 
spent much of it in hollowing out sap troughs and mak- 
ing spouts for the coming spring sugar making, and per- 
fected himself in the art of snowshoe weaving, that he 
had learned of his comrade, and also practiced the art of 
Avearing them. He made splint brooms of birch, and 
wooden boAvls and spoons, and had pleasant fancies of 
the commendation his handiwork would receive from 
Chloe Avhen .she came to see it. At times he Avas oppressed 
by fearful forebodings of mortal sickness and lonely 
death, and pictured to himself the horror of his return- 
ing comrade at finding him stiff and stark in the cold and 
desolate cabin. On such occasions of foreboding he 
found more comfort in his Bible than he had ever thought 
possible, and he made a vague resolution of joining Chlot's 
church Avhen the opportunity Avas given him. Besides the 
comfort the one book gave, he found great lightening of 
Aveariness and loneliness in both volumes, and Avished for 
but one other, and that was "Robinson Crusoe," in whose 
adventures and lonely life he imagined parallels to his 
OAvn experience. 
Once his next-door neighbor, Pangborn, and his son 
came to visit him. spending the night and part of the next 
day Avith him, and giAang him some very old news from 
the southern settlements. The care of the oxen pre- 
A_'ented his returning the neighborly call, which, if it en- 
forced the sense of loneliness, also made him feel that 
he Avas not quite forsaken by his kind. 
So the Aveeks passed until six Avere gone, and 
then one day when the frozen lake Avas booming its 
plaint of long imprisonment, he heard a faint but nearer 
and less supernatural voice itpon the creek, and looking 
out saAv his home-coming friend briskly shuffling toward 
him on his snoAvshoes, trailing the well-laden toboggan 
behind him. There was great rejoicing and unfolding of 
ncAVS, and delivering of messages from friends; a brief, 
unsatisfying, complaining letter from Chloe, and conse- 
quent doubt and misgiving — ^not lessened when Kenelm 
said solemnly, "You don't Avant tu set your heart tu 
much on Avomcn folks, 'cause they're all more deceivin' 
'an the Avind that bloAVS. I know 'em all through, an' 
they can't fool me no more." 
"You don't mean Chloe?" 
"I don't mean her no more 'n the rest on 'em — they've 
all got tu be right 'n under your eye tu be sure on 'em," 
Kenelm responded bitterly, and continued, "The Widder 
Ballau give me her Avord afore avc come away last fall, an' 
Avha' d' ye think? Wal, sir, I found her merried tu ol' 
Deacon Wetherbee when I got back. She must ha' took 
up Avi' him afore we Avas out o' sight o& the road. But 
she's the last!" 
He began unpacking the tea, coffee and sugar he had 
brought, and reported a handsome sum of money de- 
posited in the Hartford bank from the sale of the fur. 
Josiah Avas disheartened, for he felt sure his love aft'air 
was going wrong, yet scorned to ask questions Avhich 
shoAved lack of faith. He Avas glad Avhen spring and 
sugar making came to keep his hands busier and his 
thoughts from brooding on Chloe. 
A Game of Freeze-Out. 
That is what Jack called it, and I guess the name 
fits. We Avent after ducks, and might have done some 
good had our powder not frozen up. The railroad is 
not far distant from the beautiful Nolachucky River. 
Avhere it flows near the historic town of Greenville, 
Tenn., and at that point Jack White met me one winter 
day with duck boat and boatman, guns and shells, and 
other implements incident and necessary to a two tjr 
three days' duck run. 
After trying all other methods, I unhesitatingly pro- 
nounce the method of duck hunting in vogue down 
here the most delightful and least laborious of any. 
Our boats are stanch, but light, and are cut in tAvo in 
the middle for convenience in transporting. Two 
gunners and a boatman make a complete party. When 
there is a tide or freshet in the early winter is the time 
to go. 
Sitting side by side on the middle seat, the boat- 
man propelling and .steering from the rear, running 
from three to six miles per hour, close in to the bank, 
Avhere the numerous crooks and turns permit near ap- 
proach before the ducks flush, then the sport is of the 
highest order. A small foot stove, heated bv charcoal, 
keeps the feet warm, and clothing and enthusiasm (in 
our ordinary weather) do the rest. Jack and I were 
bachelors Avhen this hunt occured, and therefore have 
never been accorded the sympathy that rightly belongs 
to men who have passed through the perils that we 
braAred on that memorable occasion. Realizing that 
it is a little late in the season for a cold-day story, I 
hope Forest and Stream may find this useful on a 
very warm day, in order that the contrast may add to the 
interest — like an artist friend who fills his house with 
winter scenes in summer and vice versa. 
Coming from the "effete East," where business had 
called me, softened by steam heat and parlor-car service. 
I met the tempter, as aforesaid, expressed my bag and 
overcoat home, and clothed light, so as to improve my 
shooting, began the hunt that stands forth A'ery prom- 
inently amid the hill country of memory. 
There is no necessity of reference to notes to detail 
the facts relating thereto; a_ mental brand is as lasting 
when frozen as when burned in. 
We walked about town an hour or so before turning 
in, and Jack made an investment that made him the ob- 
ject of my most sarcastic ridicule, for the evening, and 
bitterest enA'y for the next two days. 
It Avas a lumberman's shirt — red, rough and warm. 
Had it been a thousand-dollar sable, it could not have 
felt better than it did fifteen hours later, when a sleeve 
of it filled with a strong arm around my neck steadied 
me as, frozen almost stiff, I was helped from the boat 
up a steep bank to a roaring log fire in a hospitable farm- 
house, walking, as I seemed to be, on a pair of borrowed 
legs, and they a very poor misfit. 
It was cold when we started, and "it grcAv, it grew; 
listen to my tale of woe." 
By II o'clock in the forenoon the mercury was too 
low to classify, or associate with, and we were making 
for the roaring fire aforesaid. A single duck and one 
pair had been the total flush for the morning. The single 
Ave killed or else it was as Jack said, "It froze and 
fell dead when it flew high enough for the wind to fairly 
hit it." At any rate, we got it. The pair was missed — 
"undershot" by the same authority, "for I saw the 
icicles cut from their feet," said he. 
Coffee and sausage, ad. lib., with an hour of the good 
fire revived us sufficiently to tempt us to resume, in 
spite of the protests of our host, who was a humane 
and hospitable gentleman. The afternoon Avas several 
degrees Avorse than the taste we had already had, as 
the Avind had increased to a gale. The spray was blow- 
ing over us by 3 o'clock and every drop that struck 
froze fast. Ducks and everything else that could fly 
and had either sense or instinct, had sought a more 
salubrious clime, and we didn't care. The object of our 
quest changed entirely, and a comfortable house, with a 
good wood supply, was all the sport that we wanted. 
We had laid aside our guns, and Avere both wielding 
paddles, for the double purpose of hurrying to shelter 
and the Avarming exercise, Avhen Ave rounded a point and 
ran into a fine flock of mallards, huddled close up to the 
bank in under the avIHoavs. There was a Avild scramble 
for guns as the ducks dashed out and took to flight. 
My excitable friend threw his paddle overboard, kicked 
the stove over, and proceeded to work his pump gun in 
the general direction of the duck flight. Dropping the 
gun that I had half raised, I laid to Avith the bailer to 
extinguish the incipient conflagration that the over- 
turned stove had started in the Avell-tarred bottom of 
our boat. When the excitement had subsided we re- 
covered the paddle, and a pair of ducks, but the fire 
Avas gone beyond recall. The only warm event in that 
afternoon was the conversation immediately following, 
I suggesting to Jack that he should not try to kick ducks 
to death when he had come shooting, and he assuring 
me that if I could not shoot ducks it was only fair that 
I did not drown him Avhile he AA'as doing so. 
A half hour more steady paddling, Avith our feet on the 
cake of ice that quickly formed in the bottom of the 
boat Avhere the water had been thrown, brought us to a 
house on the bank. A man came shivering forth to 
ansAver our hail, who " 'lowed as how we mou't git the 
ole woman to let us stay all night." 
Landing the boat we left the river, which was noAV 
running full of loose ice, and stumbled up the bank 
to the house. The "ole woman" had some dozen ob- 
jections, and half dozen children, but all combined could 
not overcome oiu- insistance, after we had gotten a 
glimpse of the fire that burned brightly in the big firC'- 
place. Long separated brothers could not have been 
more affectionate than Ave were, crowded close together 
in a narrow bed in the "other room" through the long 
hours of that cold night, during Avhich the mercury 
continued to retrograde. 
The good Avoman had given us a supply of water in 
her glass pitcher, evidently the pride of her heart, and 
enjoined upon us particularly not to leave any of it 
standing therein over night, "as it would sure freeze 
and bust the pitcher." 
Huriying to seek the warmth that we hoped to find 
under the cover, we left that fated pitcher half full of 
Avater sitting on the table by the thin board wall, whose 
cracks gave ample opportunity for the elements to do 
their Avorst. Before our congealed blood had shown 
more than faint symptoms of resuming its normal flow 
sounds of suffering began to emanate from the doomed 
pitcher. Reminding each other of our dereliction to 
duty, and each asstiring the other that we ought to arise 
and rescue the treasure, .we burrowed down deeper under 
the cover and waited, hoping for the best, but fearing 
the Avorst. 
In the morning we threw out of the window the solid 
contents of the shattered idol, and sorroAvfully arranged 
its remains in an artistic heap OA'er a silver dollar, hoping 
that its successor might be to the entire satisfaction 
of its erstwhile admiring owner. 
When Ave sought our boat we found it frozen fast in the 
ice, although the channel was yet open. Breaking it 
loose, we poled and broke our way out to open water 
and resumed our trip. Another full day's run had to be 
made before Ave could reach a point where we could 
haul to the railroad. We found four more ducks during 
the day, that our boatman said had evidently deliberately 
sought self-destruction by remaining exposed to the 
aAvful weather, instead of going on south, and these we 
killed as an act of mercy. 
That night, so frozen and miserable that a dog would 
have slept out on the top of his kennel to shelter us, we 
tied up near a large and prosperotis farmhouse, and 
sought its owner, Avhere he Avas making comfortable 
his stock at the barn. If that fellow has since that time 
gotten his deserts, he is suffering more than we did 
then, and from the reverse element. 
"Been huntin' ducks on the river an' purty nigh froze, 
eh? Well, I should think so. No, I can't take ye in 
for the night, nor for no other time ; don't know ye, 
nor nothin' about ye," and he resumed his interrupted 
labors. Near by was another house, much less preten- 
tious, but with an air of comfort about it that made us 
homesick. Making our Avay there, we found it the home 
of a noble, big-hearted young gentleman— a fellow 
sportsman — who, with his charming young Avife, gave tis 
a hearty welcome. Our trials and sufferings Avere fully 
sympathized with, and every comfort Avas most hos- 
pitably extended. 
The next morning a team was secured to take us to 
the railroad, eight miles away. Loading into the Avagon 
our boat and baggage, we bid our kind host and hostess 
farcAvell, and started on the last stage of this eventful 
trip. 
Jack climbed into the wagon and declared his inten- 
tion to ride until he froze out. 
The pair of young mules that furnished the motive power 
