22 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[July 13, 1901. 
A Pair of Fishefs. 
BY BLANCHE TEBNNOR HEATH. 
In the dewy mora they drifted down the silent river glade; 
He was an artful fisherman, and she an artless maid; 
And he, this angler up to date, was loaded to the brim 
With the latest fads in rod and bait, chosen with care by him; 
While she, the artless maiden, in a fetching sailor rig. 
Had broufeht as her only outfit a luncheon basket big! 
So across his line he watched her with a quite Complacent smile. 
As she trailed her pretty fingers in the sparkling stream the while; 
Posing with grace unstudied, chatting of this and of that, 
With flying glances from beneath her saucy sailor hat; 
And he thought, as his rod he handled with a neat and knowing 
touch — 
Seeming to feel the wily fish already in his clutch- 
How very narrow in her range a woman really is, 
\xa&t to grasp the angler's art with all its mysteries! ^ 
Yes, the simple maid he pitied, that she could not know the thrill 
Of joy and pride that follows the inborn fisher's skill! 
Yet for all his smile complacent, in her aptness at the game. 
She proved herself his equal when the test of trial came; 
For the work begtm in the morning by her fetching sailor rig. 
At noon she neatly finished with the luncheon basket big! 
And, ah! when they drifted homeward, as the slanting shades 
began, 
Though the maji had catight the wily fish, the maid had caught the 
man ! 
In Old Virginia.— XI* 
All too soon the day came that was to mark the close 
of my first visit in the "Old Dominion." 
The cousins had been in the day before to spend the 
da3^ and make merry in a good old-fashioned way, seen 
only in its perfection in that favored section of the 
North American continent. 
All lands and countries, all tribes and peoples, differ in 
conditions and customs. The anxious wooer of each land 
and cUme seeks to conform to the customs required to 
insure success. 
In some countries he has to win the parental consent 
by presents given, or services rendered, the paternal 
ancestor. In yet other lands the prize is won by sudden 
surprise and capture, and a speedy retreat. There are 
sections of our own great country where the consent of 
the fair one herself is all that is necessary, provided the 
State line is not too distant and the cruel parent has 
not the fleetest horse. 
But it remains for the Old Dominion to differ from all 
other countries in this custom, as in many others. The 
wooer who seeks to win one of her daughters must work 
out his own salvation through a long and devious way, 
beset by many a seen and unseen danger. As there is 
no royal road to learning, so it is with a Virginia court- 
ship. The lady, her immediate family, the old family ser- 
vants, the cousins to the third and fourth generation re- 
moved, must be won over; and even the beloved thor- 
ough-bred horses and dogs must be reckoned with; but 
the man does not know the grand old commonwealth, 
the mother of Presidents and peerless women, who does 
not unhesitatingly admit the "game worth the candle." 
And so my first chapter of a Virginia courtship and 
pleasant season of sport was drawing to a close. 
As before stated, the cousins had been in the day be- 
fore to make merry and enjoy such a dinner as can be 
served nowhere in like manner. The table pulled out to the 
length of a seaside resort plank walk, is loaded with 
everything good to tat known to the section or subject 
to i'mportation. 
A jolly lot of young pjeople — young and not so young 
— with appetites only surpassed in excellence by their 
digestions, ready to give and take in a tilt at repartee, 
with nothing but the best of kind feeling even when 
routed and defeated by a more ready wit. 
The soon to depart giuest being spared at first is 
allowed to enjoy the parry and thrust merely as an 
interested spectator, and wonder at the universal flow of 
good spirits. Not a cynical or unkind word is to be 
heard from one of this large assembly, which for the 
same number elsewhere would show half dozen kill joys. 
Even poor old Cousin Joe, with his right arm buried 
at Harper's Ferry, and his left leg stiffened with rheu- 
matism and filled with Yankee lead, is as jolly as a grig, 
while Cousin Letty, with her sweet, pale face and gentle 
eyes, which seem to be always looking on the faded gray 
cap and fragment of bursted shell (all she ever got back 
from the bloody field of Gettysburg, where she sent 
her gallant soldier lover), is every ready with a bright 
little speech full of good cheer. All have their sorrows, 
great and small; but they have all been put off and laid 
aside for this festive occasion. Unorthodox they may 
sometimes be in their religion, but you find no one 
guilty of the ^ unpardonable offense of heterodoxy in 
hospitality in the Old Dominion; and it is enjoy yourself 
and help others as far as lies in your power to enjoy 
themselves on ..all festal occasions. There are no long 
pauses in the conversation, finally broken by a trite 
commonplace, but every one is talking his or her level 
best, and theroughly and genuinely interested. The 
snatches of conversation caught by the listener indicate 
the characteristics and tendencies of each speaker. 
"Run? [It is the fox hunting cousin speaking.] No, 
sir, we couldn't call it running — he simply flew; never 
touched the ground except occasionally in the high 
places, in order to let out another link. We crossed at 
the lower ford down by the old mill, cut in on the chase 
through by the bog beyond, running three miles to the 
dogs' one. Just beyond the old pear thicket we struck 
a big dry ditch where it was IS feet wide, and the little 
horse took it like a bird — never stopped to rise at all, but 
simply cleared it on the dead run, without breaking his 
gait. I wouldn't take two hundred acres of the best 
tobacco ever grown for the horse, game clear through 
from fore top to fetlock; never saw Ws match and never 
expect to." 
"'Yes, it was a tough fight. [Cousin Joe was speaking.] 
J}?g forceg yf^x^ on ppposite hills, not QYfr 500 yards 
apart, and the shot and shell flew as thick as minie 
balls, mowing down everything in sight and occasionally 
knocking a gun clear off the top of the hill. It was 
strictly a big-gun fight. We lay for two hours waiting 
tor a lull, so that we might charge, and it seemed like I 
never saw a riioment when the whole hilltop wasn't a 
seething mass of flame and a humming storm of shot 
and shell. Flag shot down three times, and put back 
each time by a man who had to feel his way through the 
clouds of dust and smoke." 
''Yes, it is a perfect dream. [From one of the girls.] 
Aunt Mary wrote that it was the very latest thing out, 
and nothing like it had been seen as yet, even in Rich- 
mond. I will show it to you when you come over, and 
will probably wear it to church next Sunday." 
"We had money up, you know [one of the sporting 
boys] ; ten dollars, even money, that each fellow's own 
dog could kill the coon in three minutes. Jeff won the 
toss, and when the tree fell, let his dog loose. The old 
coon laid hands on him just once, and whipped him 
clean and fair before he ever broke his hold. As he lit 
into the bushes I let old Blue loose, and he killed that 
coon in just thirty-two seconds; never broke his first 
hold, nor got a scratch that drew blood." 
"Yes, she is bright and cheerful [Cousin Lettie speak- 
ing], but lives entirely in the past. The old suit of 
gray, with the bullet hole and dark stain on the coat, 
are brought out vvith more and more frequency, and she's 
evidently failing fast." 
"We got the old buck last week, the one that ran the 
persimmoii blockade; and he was as fine a deer as ever 
wore antlers. [This from Rand.] Dick killed him by the 
'leaning tree stand' — shot him at 125 yards on the run, with 
a Winchester. No persimmon tree was near enough to 
save his life this time [with a meaning glance at me, 
which I thought it wise not to see]." 
"Aunt Sally says [from a yo.ttng lady cousin] that 
she has a new receipt for making perry, and promises to 
make up all my pears for me if I send them over. I 
promise you all a good time when it gets the bead on 
this fall." 
"Birds? [From another sporting cousin.] Yes, they 
were thick, and I never saw my dogs do better. The 
pup never made a break, and I believe he is going to 
make the best dog I ever had. Old Shot put up a bird 
out to my right, which when killed fell squarely on 
the head of the pup, holding point on another bird, and 
— so help me smokeless powder! — ^lie never bat his eye 
nor moved, and held his point like an old veteran until 
I came up and killed the bird." 
"Yes [from a young lady], there will be twenty couples 
and we are all going down in the afternoon, spend the 
evening on the river and drive home by moonlight. 
You certainly must come; it will be the affair of the 
season." 
And so they go on, each one talking about that which 
interests him the most; all in high spirits, laughing and 
unconventional. They finally work around, not un- 
expectedl}'', and begin to pay their respects to the part- 
ing guest. Uncle Joe unwittingly opens the way for 
some pleasantry at my expense^ with the question, "'You 
have enjoyed yourself huating since you have been here, 
sir?" My reply is decidedly in the affirmative. "You 
have killed a little of all the game we have here?" 
"Nearly everything," is my reply," except a deer, and it 
is my own fault that I have not added that game to 
my bag." 
Cousin Rand nods a decided affirmative to this state- 
ment. 
"But you haven't failed altogether in your dear hunts, 
have 3'^ou?" [This from one of the young ladies.] 
A sudden hush falls upon the company, and my 
hostess pretends to give some very necessary orders to 
one of the servants. The wait continues, and I see that 
I am bound to answer the question, and so with as bold 
a face as I can put on make reply, "I am not ready to 
say that I have entirely failed in all of my deer hunts, 
although candidly admitting that I have not yet bagged 
a deer." 
"Are you coming back again?" This from one of the 
young men with an emphasis that indicates more in 
the question than appears on the surface. A direct 
answer to this question, I see, will prove very embar- 
rassing to my hostess, and so make reply, "D. V,, I hope 
to again return to Virginia, and trust that it may be 
to this very spot." 
Here my hostess deems it prudent to excuse herself 
for a few moments on a plea of further instructions and 
assistance to her well trained and evidently fully com- 
petent 'servants, and with a good-natured laugh at my 
expense, the embarrassing questions cease. The de- 
lights of that jolly dinner party will live long in my 
memory as one of the happiest events of my visit in 
"old Virginia." 
And now I come to the good-bys to the many darkies 
who had so affectionately taken me into their confidence. 
The boys, one and all, ducked and grinned, and grinned 
and ducked, with many a "good-by, sah; good-by, sah; 
I shore is sorry dat yo' is' gwyne to leab us!" Old 
Uncle John, in the pathetic strain of the real old-time 
darky, bids me a most touching farewell. Dressed 
in one of my coats, a present which cost the poor old 
man untold agony by the strain put on his rheumatic 
shoulders (42 in size crowded into my 36 coat, the 
sleeves of which struck him about mi4way between 
wrist and elbow, and failed to meet across his chest by 
a bleak expanse of abotit 10 inches), he resignedly said, 
"Good-by, sah; good-by, young maastah; I is shoah 
proud ob dis fine coat you done gimme, an' I shoah 
is 'bleeged to you. I don't neber 'spect to see you no 
moah, sah. 'kase I ain't got long to stay heah now; but 
I dessay Gawd bless you, sah; Gawd bless you." With 
a quiver in his voice and a tender moisture in his eye, 
the old man turned away, leaving me with the feeling 
that I had received a sincere and earnest benediction. 
Old Aunt Emily flattered me by parting with ,me with 
the assurance, "I des feel lak you was ^one ob my own 
folks, an' I des hope dat you is comin' back, and dat 
rite soon; leastwise," she added quickly, "if you ain' 
goin' take my Miss Lady away when you does." 
My gun bearer and -general factotum, "Governor," was 
so affected when I came to bid him good-by that he was 
absolutely speechless. He stood digging his little brown 
tpe§ ?ntQ th? grPWdi twisting his wisp of straw. 
the remnants of a hat, around and around in his little: 
black hands, while I solemnly enjoined upon him that he 
pursue the path of rectitude and carefully protect and' 
c^re for in every way in his power his young "mistus."' 
The rather long specech ended, he took the coin I' 
tossed him, and after about a moment of speechless 
gratitude, delivered an explosive "Thank you, suh;i 
thank, you, suh; I will take care of Miss Lady; I will.' 
sah, all de time. I sho' will, des as well as cvah I kin,'' 
and took to his heels around the house, where I ob- 
served him a few minutes later trying to relieve his 
feelings by turning somersaults. 
My adieus finished in the house, Milly appeared at 
the door with the announcement, "Carriage is waiting,', 
sir; Uncle Ben got your baggage all in and says it time: 
to go to de train." J 
It was a kindly row of black faces arranged on either 
side of the big porch, and a fair picture of one sweet' 
girlish face, framed in the old-fashioned door, that I 
saw, looking back as the carriage wound down through, 
the grove, at the end of my happy visit "In Old 
Virginia." Lewis Hopkins. 
4 
The Woodsman's Wild Garden. 
The greatest need of the nomadic woodsman is what: 
we comprehensively call "garden stuff." Of meat he 
generally has a plenty, and is only too apt to make that 
practically his sole article of diet. The natural craving 
of the stomach for vegetable food, especially fresh green 
vegetables, is habitually ignored by hunters and trap-,; 
pers who penetrate far into the wilderness, and the result 
is that the system gets clogged with the waste of animal 
matter. The kidneys and bladder are irritated by excess 
of phosphorus, the blood is overheated, and constipation, < 
with its invariable accessory of rheumatism, becomes ] 
the familiar ailment of the woodsman. 
All this is the result, I believe, not so much of neces-* 
sity as of ignorance. It is by no means impossible, as 
the woodsman commonly believes, to obtain fresh veg- 
etable food, even in the remotest fastnesses of the wilder- , 
ness. Indeed, the woods and ponds and streams are an 
inexhaiistible wild garden, well stocked save in the 
dead of winter with native vegetables whose edible qualities 
need only to be understood by the camper in order to 
furnish him with a most wholesome and delightful ad- 
dition to his meager bill of fare. 
I am surprised that this fact seems so little knowli 
even by skilled and veteran woodsmen. Having camped 
with some of the best guides and sportsmen, I have in- 
variably found that their knowledge of the edible plants 
of the woods was just about as extensive as a cat's 
knowledge of astronomy. The botany of their own 
domain is thus a terra incognita to them. And this 
seems all the stranger when we consider how intimately 
and thoroughly the trained woodsman understands 
everything else about him — everything that can minister 
to his comfort, health, profit or sport. He can tell you 
enough about birds and beasts, signs and seasons, to 
make an encyclopedia; but he will sit down to a meal of 
everlasting pork, venison and trout, and feimply sigh for 
the tang of some green vegetable to "take the lump 
out of his stomach" — simply sigh for it, I say, when by 
going six rods from camp with a little elementary knowl- 
edge of his resources he might have his heart's (and 
stomach's) desire. 
From May until December no woodsman who will 
take the trouble to study or learn from another's ex- 
perience a little of the botany of the woods need go 
without a sufficient supply of vegetables from his wide- 
stretching wild garden. Or perhaps if he will' only 
watch the deer and bear for a whUe, instead of shooting 
them on sight, he will learn, as the newspapers say, 
"something to his advantage." 
There are times when it seems to the meat-clogged 
hunter and fisherman as if he would give half his king- 
dom for a mouthful of some tart or peppery or bitter 
vegetable, to cleanse and purge his aUmentary canal 
and get the leaden feeling out of his stomach. At 
such times, instead of sighing for the vegetable pots 
of civilization, let him devote half an h©ur to gathering 
a bunch of the roots of the toothwort or crinkled root, 
which may be eaten, like radishes, dipped in salt, and 
will lend a delicious savor to a meal of meat and bread. 
Another pungent root or tuber growing plentfully in 
the woods is the ground nut or dwarf ginseng. You 
can find it in almost any moist clearing, though you 
must dig deep for the small round tuber that tastes so 
grateful to a meat-jaded palate. 
I hesitate to speak of mushrooms, as an article of 
woodland diet, because, plentiful as they are about old 
stumps, logs, etc., a sp'ecial knowledge of them is nec- 
essary to guard against ponfusing them with poison 
toadstools, which they so closely resemble. But if some 
member of the partly only possessed this knowledge, 
what a feast might be enjoyed far from the luxuries of 
civilization ! 
The woodsman's wild garden, however, grows m.any 
varieties of whoseome and delicious "greens," which, in 
the spring, any camper may easily recognize and have 
for the picking. Along the brookside in how many 
old beaver meadows have I crushed while trout fishing 
the luscious leaves and stalks of marsh marigolds or 
cowslips ! None in the river meadows of the settle- 
ments grows finer than this unmarketed vegetable of the 
wild woods. And how these cowslip greens refresh 
the whole system, when boiled in the camp pot and 
served with a dash of vineger, salt and pepper! Every 
camper should take a small jug of vinegar with him into 
the woods, "just for greens," as the boys say. 
Then there is that other wholesome and delicious pot 
herb -of the woods called familiarly cow cabbage (botan- 
ically Hydrophyllum virginicum). This lias not so wide 
a range as the marsh marigold, but in localities where 
it is found it grows abundantly, and has the advantage'of 
Leafing out earlier than cowslips, and remaining tender 
and edible for a longer period. Trilliums also make ex- 
cellent greens, and as the camper will find them bloom- 
ing late into June, in the open woods, he can prolong 
with them, his pqt herb diet until the very height of the 
trouting season. 
The wild parsnip, found growing along water edges 
in May 4Pd Jhup, 45 fully as palatable as the ^wltivated 
