June 15, 1901.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
468 
-sympathy and real interest— not curiosity. To the people 
of those little cabins I Avas not an alien, not one of a 
rlijfiferent race; and among them I enjoyed a real rest and 
threw off a self-consciousness that was the natural out- 
growth of being regarded, on every hand, for ten years, as 
a wild West curio. 
When autumn came and a summons to return to school, 
I still remained. 
At one cabin in particular I was a frequent and ever 
welcome visitor. It was not three miles from the agency 
and stood on a little bench or notch of the hillside, just at 
the mouth of a deep ravine that opened to the river. 
I liked to walk the narrow trail that brought me to this 
cabin, for it led. cool and shady, along the foot of the 
high bluffs, that were cut abruptly off from the big hills. 
I liked my welcome. I liked to sit in approaching even- 
ing and watch the little specks of moving life on the broad 
flats below, and watch the setting sun and the great river 
that hurled its turbid current against the foot of the 
staunch bluft', but a short distance above, in a fierce at- 
tempt to tear the bluff down, only to be turned aside 
and made to swing diagonally across the flats, from whose 
opposite side the crunch-crunch and the following thud- 
thud, on the still air, told of the river's unrelenting energy 
and its better sitccess with a less resisting prey. Seeming 
to forget its recent rebuff in the success of the moment, it 
hurled itself at the opposite bluff, to be served as it had 
been served countless times before, and would be countless 
times again, during its journey to the sea. I liked to 
smoke with the old man his kinnikinik and listen to his 
tales of other days. And I liked the way he listened, 
when in my turn I told some tale of school days and the 
land strange to him "back East." 
He could relate some strange stories, could the old 
man — Two Hearts — ^tales of a childhood and youth passed 
by the clear rivers, the limpid lakes, the laughing cascades 
and in the virgin forests of the land of Hiawatha; tales 
of the chase and the warpath, and the great uprising- that 
had ended in his people being driven to these parts, to 
learn the art of agrictilture in the gumbo hills. Some 
of his tales of the all-conquering race sounded strangely 
like a translation into his own tongue of some English 
tales of Spanish doings. ■ Yet for the truth of alt I had 
but to look into his deep, honest eyes, or note the great 
scar across his right cheek, his pronounced limp, and his 
mutilated left hand — relics of those other days. No tone 
of malice or deferred vengeance spoiled the harmony of 
nis talk. He had made a personal application of the 
severest test — "pray for them which despitefully use you" 
— of his new religion ; the religion that he had heard the 
missionary preach and had seen the soldier and frontiers- 
man practice. 
So, during those summer months I renewed a friend- 
ship that had been mine in childhood and profited by my 
friend's knowledge of the folk-lore and inner and un- 
written history of his people, as I had profited before by 
his skill in making bows and arrows and snares for small 
game. 
As autumn passed and winter approached I went not so 
often to the old man's cabin, but spent my free time along 
the river flats, where prairie chicken and quail fattened 
on the wild sunflower and bullberry seeds. There was a 
keen but friendlj^ rivalry among some -half-dozen of us 
in hunting these birds, and each carried a short stick, 
which told by its notches a score kept with a conscientious 
honesty unknown among some hunters. But this sort 
of sport was beginning to pall, and all were delighted 
when the chilly winds from the northwest became more 
chilly and the advance guard of migrating geese squawked 
a promise of a month of real sport. 
Being A^oung, we were sanguine, and, from soap boxes 
or the counter top near the stove in the trader's store, 
aired our skill with shotgun and rifle, the superiority of 
our make of arms, the fine qualities of our dogs and our 
consequent expectations. From other soap boxes the old- 
timers laughed at us. They could all tell stories of suc- 
cessful goose hunts in the days when geese were plenty, 
but now contented themselves with finding out which 
one of us had gone in the afternoon to the river, and 
greeting these with a haw-haw chorus when they made 
an appearance at the trader's. 
Being new to this particular sport, I had it all to learn, 
and began to appreciate its difficul'ties when I tried the 
range from some bushes where I thought to conceal my- 
self to the-point of sand bar on which a flock had alighted 
the evening before. Finding the range across the bar 
too long — the June rise does its work weH — for much 
chance of success, I tramped a couple of miles through 
willows and brush to a point where the river seemed to 
narrow and the current washed the near bank. Here I 
tried the range to the bar opposite me. I could easily 
shoot to the bar, but accuracy was impossible. Some 
three hours yet remained before the geese would come 
in for the night, and I hastened back to the bar I had 
first visited. I remembered a large drift log stranded 
there, with a quantitj^ of brush clinging to its gnarled 
roots.- Beneath the roots and brush I made w^hat I 
fancied to be a close ambush, and patiently waited, till I 
was chilled to the marrow and my fingers became so numb 
that I could hardly have handled my gun if I had had 
occasion. No goose came near. With chagrin I saw a 
flock of twenti' swing in from the north, their white 
breasts glistening in the last rays of the setting sun; they 
wheeled in two wide circles above me, brought their flight 
directly over the river, out of range from either bank, and 
settled on the point of bar that I had tried to shoot across 
to. Another flock, after like maneuvers, settled on the 
bar a mile above. It w^as getting dark, when a third flock 
swept its wide circle aboA^e me. I saw that it, too. Avas 
going to move on, and I leaped from cOA^er and, to A^ent 
my spite, banged away at them, knowing that they were 
far out of range. 
Each day for two weeks I evolved some new scheme, in 
the evening tried to put it into execution, and at night 
walked home, tired, cold and hungry, Avith empty game 
bag, a strong desire to keep out of sight and a certainty 
of being laughed at AA'^hen I showed mj'self at the trader's. 
iVly friends had met with but little better success. The 
most successful, the trader's clerk, had invited me tAvice, 
with a taunting smile, to eat roast goose .with him. 
Each failure, hoAvever. had only made my appetite the 
keener. At first I wanted a goose for the mere sake of it. 
Now success nseant vindication before the old-timers. 
triumphs among my friends and revenge on the fool geese. 
It was Avhen I had exhausted my own ingenuity that I 
remembered that I had not visited my old friend for 
three Aveeks, and I hastened to repair my neglect. 
After Ave had indulged in a little random talk and had 
each inhaled several lungfuls of fragrance and comfort 
from the long-stemmed red-stone pipe, I Avent through a 
catalogue of my failures as a huntei" — even as with other 
failures to a father confessor. An onlooker Avould have 
thought, to see my eagerness and the sympathetic face of 
Tavo Hearts, that Ave Avere deep in some grave subject. 
When I had chattered on for half an hour the old man 
straightened himself, finished ligliting his pipe and gave 
me a comforting reply. "Yes, my son, the Avays you have 
attempted were good once. I have used some of them, 
and Avith sttccess, until the magah became knowing of 
them. Even now some leader not so A\fary as the rest may 
take his flock Avithin range of .some Avell-constructed am- 
bush, btit it must be a A^ery good one indeed. I have a 
metliod Avhich I think is yet good, for I have used it but 
tAvice, and knoAv of no one else haA'ing tried it. If Ave 
get Avhat Ave shall seek you must keep the manner of 
getting a secret, for if it is used many times it will become 
as useless as other ways. I can do the trick by myself, but 
if I were to instruct you and let you try it by yourself, 
you might spoil the matter, so we will try it together. 
Ask from your friend at the trader's his fast-shooting gun 
and bring also your double-barrel. I Avill use it and you 
the fast gun. I like not the fast gun, because it speaks 
too much of Avanton killing, but for this time it will be 
good, for we must get what Ave want in one hunt, or, at 
most, in two. Load nine shells Avith buckshot; we Avill 
need no more. Come every evening until the magah 
alight on the point of yonder bar on the left side of the 
river. Our preparations, once made, cannot be changed 
easily, and I will make preparations with that bar in 
view." 
With me this half-promise of success from Tavo Hearts 
Avas as good as a "promise to pay" from most people. I 
counted four or five geese as already mine. And why 
shouldn't I? I figured it out logically, as I had been 
taught to do in school. If "'a bird in the hand is Avorth 
tAvo in the bush," then two birds in the bush are equal 
to one in the hand, and ten geese on the bar equal to five 
in a gunny sack. 
My suppressed excitement must have shown itself when 
on the next day I asked for the loan of my friend's re- 
peater, and I turned my eyes gtiiltily aAvay Avhile he looked 
me over in surprise and broke out Avith "Humph ! What 
lay are you on now? What the Dickens do you want Avith 
a seven-shot pumper when you haven't got action yet for 
your double barrel?" But I got the gun without com- 
promising myself, and with it and my double barrel went 
by the hill trail, so as to encounter no one, to the old 
man's. 
No geese settled on the bar that evening, nor yet on the 
next. On the third evening our vigil on the hillside above 
the cabin was rcAvarded by the sight of fifteen (as nearly 
as we could count, at tAvo miles' distance) alighting on 
the bar we Avatched. When they Avere fairly settled, the 
old man jumped to his feet and cried, "Come. We must 
work fast noAv. In but tAvo hours it will be too dark," and 
limped swiftly doAvn the hill. Picking up the double bar- 
rel at the cabin door, he struck off up the river on the 
trail along the foot of the bluffs, Avhile I folloAved close, 
carrying the pumper. We hurried on for nearly a mile, un- 
til Avell around the bend and out of sight from the long, 
straight sweep beloAV and the bar on the next bend. Here 
Tavo Hearts scrambled doAvn the bank to where a light 
skiff was tied. We quickly entered and rowed to the 
opposite shore. 
Now I understood his scheme, for I saw a large drift 
log, dry and light, that rode high on the Avater. lying 
along the bank, and to its outer side was lashed. Avith 
elm bark thongs, a small dtig-out canoe, just big enough 
for tAVO men to curl up in. I saAV more than that. By the 
markings of the sand I saAV that the log had been dragged 
from a point a himdred yards back on the bar, and by 
horses, too. The old man had swum his horses across the 
river, had skidded_ the log over the bar and had SAVum 
his horses back again — just to give me a pleasure. A lump 
rose to my throat and a fuller knowledge came to me of 
this friendship I possessed. 
When I had placed the guns in the canoe and had curled 
up in the forAvard end, Tavo Hearts pushed off. Then, 
taking up a short paddle, he curled himself into the back 
end and we were off on our strange voyage. In but a 
few minutes my cramped position became uncomfortable, 
but I tried not to give evidence of it, because my com- 
panion Avas cheerful under Avorse conditions. He had 
an arduous task indeed to handle from his cramped posi- 
tion our old craft, to keep it from entering the swift cur- 
rent and hold it on its course in the quieter Avater along the 
bar and all the Avhile keep the head end of the log from 
swinging shoreward and revealing the canoe. And all this 
he did Avithout permitting any part of him to appear above 
the leA'el of the log's top. What'a botch I should have 
made had I tried it by myself! We had drifted along 
for nearly half an hour; the sun had set, and it Avas 
groAving chilly, Avhen my companion broke the silence with 
some instructions; "We are about half-way there. We 
shall be in good time, and shall have light to recover our 
game, should it fall into the river. Rub your hands and 
keep the blood in them, for when the time comes we 
must work fast. Our chance will be only for a minute. 
When those tAvo dead trees on the right bank come in 
line I Avill give you a sign. When I have fired at the 
magah sitting, then do you let the fast gun speak. Do not 
fear the boat, the log will keep it steady." 
In the deepening twilight and gathering chill Ave drifted 
along. When the tAvo dead trees c^ime in line tlie old 
man gave me a little kick, as though he thought me 
asleep, and, laying down his paddle, picked up the double 
barrel. Just a moment he waited, wliile I prepared for 
action, then he jumped to his feet, steadied himself just a 
second, and poured the deadly contents of both barrels 
into the perfectly surprised flock. Then he leaped into 
the water (not waist deep) to arrest the drifting craft. 
Panic! It had full sway there on the bar. One goose 
lay stilj, while tAVO others tried vainly to join the tAvelve 
that, Avith terrific clamor of squaAvking and beating of 
wings, rose straight into the air. Now belched the 
pumper. As Two Hearts had jumped intp the river I had 
sprung to my feet, steadied myself with one foot on the 
log, and poured charge after charge of buckshot into the 
rising flock. So close together did they rise that they 
beat each other with their wings and impeded their owft 
haste. Great is the repeater ! Though my last two 
charges found the remnant of the flock out of range, only 
five of the tAvelve winged in disorganized rout down the 
river to tell, among their fellows, of terrible disaster by a 
new method. Tavo Hearts now quickly cut the thongs 
that bound the log and canoe and bade me collect the 
geese from the bar while he paddled after the four that 
had fallen into the river. A little later I joined him a 
half-mile below. Crossing the river again, we spent the 
night with a near-by friend. Tavo Hearts would take only 
the three geese that he had himself shot, for, as he said, 
■'There is only I and the old Avoman." Two of the 
remainder I left at our friend's, so with five geese in a 
gunny sack T trudged back to the agency. I tossed my 
heavy load into a corner at the trader's as though it were 
very common stuff and this an every-day occurrence, but I 
was nearly bursting Avith exultation. When, the next 
day, I had my friends to eat goose Avith me, my triumph 
was compete. In their presence I cut seven large notches 
in my score, and my conscience made no Avhisper against 
the big yarn I told to protect Tavo Heart's secret. 
For a long time my reputation was like a fir tree and my 
glory like the moon. But it leaked out that Two Hearts 
had had more to do Avith getting those magah than I. It 
leaked out through the chatter of women. Bah! When 
could a Avoman, of any race or people, keep a secret? 
Roderick Heron. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
General Changes Among Illinois "Wardens. 
CHTC.A.GO, 111., June 6. — Sweeping changes in the execu- 
tive department of both the fish and game commissions 
of the State of Illinois AA'ere made yesterday at Spring- 
field. It seems to be the policy of Governor Yates to 
make radical changes in the serAnce in both these 
branches and resignations of the deputy fish Avardens 
will be asked for forthAvith. All the deputy game wardens 
will be asked also to hand in their resignations. State 
Game Commissioner Lovejoy is not a resident of Chi- 
cago, but it has not yet been determined Avho Avill repre- 
sent him in this important citj^ One or two of the old 
deputies Avill in all likelihood receiA'e ncAv commissions, 
but at this writing the personnel of the fish and game 
deputyships is a matter of speculation. 
The sportsmen of the State have as yet had no oppor- 
tunity to form an opinion in regard to the qualifications 
and personal plans of the new appointee to the office of 
.State Game Commissioner: Mr. LoA'ejoy, of Roscoe. He 
is reputed to be an able and energetic man, and although 
a novice in the work of game protection, as, indeed, must 
be any man ncAv to this oflice, he has expressed his in- 
tention of doing all that he can to enforce the laws of the 
State. He has already been addressed by some of the 
leading sportsmen of Chicago, Avho have expressed the 
hope that he Avill take early and strenuous measures for 
the suppression ot the illegal traffic in young prairie 
chickeiis Avhich is sure to take place again this summer 
as it has so regularly in the past years. Up to this time 
our State Game Commissioners haA'C rather inclined to 
the theory that the place to carry out protective measures 
is in the country and the fields, the intention being rather 
to pimish the individual violator of the laAV than to go 
alter the root of the main temptation Avhich induces so 
many men to break the game laAvs, namely, the game 
traffic of this and other large cities. It cannot be said 
that there has ever been made a thorough and business- 
like attempt to break up the illegal game industry of 
Chicago. If Mr. Lovejoy shall devote his energies to 
this consummation he Avill receive the thanks and ap- 
proval of every thinking sportsman of the city. The 
office of Game Commissioner has taken an added impor- 
tance of late year^ and its duties require of any public 
setA^ant an honest and faithful administration. There is 
as yet no reason, to suppose that Commissioner Lovejoy 
Avili not thus discharge his duties. 
Summer Deer Hounding fay Fishermen. 
I am asked by a prominent sportsman of this city to 
give as much currency as possible to the news of the 
continuous violation of the Wisconsin game laAVS by the 
guides and fishermen in the neighborhood of Minocqua 
and Woodruff', Wis., and, indeed, all through the chain 
of lakes adjacent to these points. This gentleman says 
he knew of three deer killed ahead of hounds by a guide 
a Aveek ago. He saw many other parties out hunting and 
Avas invited to go hunting himself. He says that many 
of the hotels in that part of the country serve "mutton" 
on their table as often as they do beef, and that it is a 
conmion practice for anglers to go oitt Avith a rifle in the 
boat with theni. He says that these men are not content 
with shooting deer around the edge of the lakes or fire 
hunting them at night, but are doubly breaking the laAV 
liy using hounds to hunt them. This Avould seem just a 
trillc open and brazen, and this gentleman asks, through 
the columns of the Forkst and Stream, to call atten- 
tion of the authorities of the State of AVisconsin to this 
state of affairs, in the hope that immediate steps may be 
taken to set the matter right. Attention has been many 
times invited in these cohmms to the ill-assorted practice 
of taking a rifle io the boat AA^hile out muscalhmge fishing. 
The Minnesota Pine. 
The lumbermen of Minnesota have, as chronicled here- 
in from time to time, succeeded in getting their finger 
into the big commercial pie of the Indian pine lands 
of the Minnesota reservations, having one A\'ay or another 
succeeded in getting permission to ctit certain amounts 
of timber on the reservations. Not content Avith their 
success they have attempted to carry on the old game 
of dishonest operations. So bold have been their actions 
in this regard and so general the complaint from the 
Indians in regard to the measurement of the timber cut 
on the reservations, that Agent Mercer and other officers 
of the Indian service have nearly concluded that a com- 
plete end must be put to the lurnbering operations on the 
