Nov, g, 1901,1 
day cnnic and said llatly that lie did not think I was there 
for any good. I told him he was privileged to think what 
he pleased — thai was all. He subsided into a stupor soon. 
The boy who had been in the lumber camp was en- 
ilnisiaslic about making long trips. His specialty was 
rides on freight trains. He had been almost to Buffalo, 
liiroiigh Pittsburg, down near Harrisburg; in fact, he 
had been pretty much all over Pennsylvania and part of 
New York on the luggage cars. A telephone inspector 
Avho was at the hotel over night said that Elmira boys 
had the same fashion of making vacation tours. They 
would go West or South for a week or even three or 
four weeks, and by doing a day's farm or other labor 
now and then keep themselves supplied with a little cash 
for food. Usually two or three lads develop the migrat- 
ing instinct and travel together. 
I received a hint at the hotel which proved of great 
value. My shoes, which seemed to have heavy soles 
when I started, seemed like paper when I had my atten- 
tion called to the manner in which they bent at each step. 
At Troy, on the i/tli, four miles south of X Roads, on 
Sugar Creek, 1 had a thick leather sole laid on over the 
oUl one. This increased the thickness to a little over 
half an inch, and the improvement was so marked that 
I was able to walk with considerable comfort. 
The road followed the valley, but in places went over 
the hills. From the top of one ridge about half-way 
Ironi 'J'roy to Canton I had my first view of real Penn- 
sylvania mountain scenery. I saw Mount Pisgah from 
Sntitli field to X Roads, but it was a mere knoll of great 
height, with a farmhouse on top, whose proprietor is 
said to charge five cents a look from an observatory on 
his house; but now I saw steep, wooded hills without 
a suggestion of thriftiness on their summits. The valley 
before me was of the broad, sweeping kind, exceedingly 
l)eautiful to look at. The autumn-colored leaves were 
nearly all fallen, and there was a preponderance of dark 
brown not so noticeable in past views, when yellow and 
even green were to be seen. 
It was getting on toward night, and a cold shower of 
rain drove me to the refuge of a horse barn for an hour. 
While I was there a boy came over a hill on the run 
from some of the ridge woods. Over his back in a 
grain bag was a peck of chestnuts. 
The rain over, I passed on, and at the foot of a hill 
came to a deserted old house, a great barn and a small 
horse barn. In the horse barn was half a ton of hay up 
in the corner of the loft. To this I made my'way, my 
appetite satisfied by two quarts of milk purchased half a 
mile back; and rolling up in my woollen blanket, and 
drawing the rubber blanket over me just as the last even- 
ing ray of the sun found its way through a crack to my 
bed, I was ready to sleep. 
I dreamed that tramps were shouting in my ears, but it 
was only the rustle of the wind and hay. I curled in 
closer to the center of my blankets and soon slept again. 
In the morning, when it was light, I awakened and put 
my head out to see. It was so cold that I promptly 
tucked myself into the blanket again, and then I slept 
till after 8 o'clock, and the sun had begun to warm the 
air. I changed my thick woollens, in which I sleep, for 
thin, walking ones, packed my basket and started. 
No wonder it seemed cold! There was an inch of snow 
on the ground under the trees where the sun had not yet 
thawed it. The hills were black and white under its semi- 
covering. My thirteen-odd hours of sleep left me fresh 
rmd strong. I thought it was four miles to Canton, and 
looked along for a place to make my breakfast. 
■"How far is it to Canton?" I asked a man. 
"Just under the hill, there," he replied. 
He looked like a hunter, and he proved to be an old 
fox driver. He knew the runways, and had seen them 
under all conditions, from moonlight to that of the sun. 
He explained the Pennsylvania non-resident law by the 
fashion in which the game of the region was stripped out 
by New York and other sportsmeir. "I have seen a 
party down at the railroad with 150 head of game — rab- 
bits and squirrels — going away. They had their pointer 
dogs, and the moment a bird raised they fired and killed 
it. Now it's different. Railroads don't transport game 
like thej^ used to, and a man can't have only so much." 
The selfishness of "sportsmen" has embittered many of 
the native hunters against visitors, especially the natives 
who hunt for pleasure. 
At Canton 1 ate breakfast and got my mail. That was 
what I had looked forward to for days. The mail box 
marks the route better than anything else a traveler has 
to go by. R.\YMOND S. Spears. 
In the Ranger Service* 
BY ROWLAND E. ROBINSON. 
IX— The Raid. 
The deep silence of early dawn pervaded the scene as 
we awaited the signal of attack. Out of the doomed 
town, there arose not so much as the barking of one of 
the horde of dogs, and ainong us was heard no sound 
but whispered words or the dull clash of a powder horn 
against a gun stock. I felt almost a qualm of pity for 
the poor, unconscious wretches upon whom the hand of 
vengeance was about to fall, but when I bethought me 
how strange such a feeling had ever been to their sav- 
age breasts my heart grew hard, and I doubt not my face 
showed as little of the quality of mercy as those about 
me. 
Now from beyond the further side of the village came 
the hollow hoot of an owl, which was answered on our 
:-ide and in the other two quarters, and at this signal we 
closed in on all sides. At the first house we came to, it 
being, like all the others, a very snug, cotufortable abode 
for an Indian's quarters, the first man w-ho reached it 
pointed up to a singular ornament over the door, which 
a closer examination showed to be nothing less ghastly 
than a dozen scalps strung upon a pole. The hair of 
many was of such Saxon colors as plainly showed them 
to be our own people's, and there were the long tresses 
of women and the fair curls of little children. These 
hideous trophies, to the nuinber of more than two 
hundred, were displayed on all the principal houses, and 
the sight of them set all our hearts ablaze with rage; 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
so that we fell to our bloody work of retribution as re- 
lentlessly as might these savages themselves. My three 
companions and I burst in at the door upon as many 
Indian men, who started up with a yell of terror out of 
their deep slumber, only to sink back groaning under 
the blows of our hatchets into the deeper and everlasting 
sleep of death, while their women, some dumb, some 
shrieking with fright, cowered in the corners, striving 
to shield their children with their outstretched arms. 
Mostly they were spared, for such were General Am- 
herst's orders; yet his mercifid injunctions were more 
than once forgotten or unheeded in the fury of that 
morning's slaughter, and squaws were stricken down 
as relentlessly as if they were she wolves. We ran- 
.sacked the house for such plunder as was worth carry- 
ing oft"; then raked the covered embers from the hearth 
on to the floor, and piling the readiest combustibles 
thereon, hastened forth in search of more victims. 
Out of the depth of silence what a wild confusion of 
sounds a few moments had brought! From every side 
rose shrieks of terror, groans of wounded men, shouts 
of command, intenningled with a dropping report of 
fire locks as shots were fired at fleeing victims, or now 
and then at one who stood sullenly at bay, whereunto 
was presently added the crackle and roar of flames, for 
each house was fired as soon as it was sacked, now 
flushing the growing day with lurid light, now darkening 
il: with black clouds of smoke that for one moment veiled 
and in the next disclosed the scene of devastation and 
its fleeing or dying victims and their ruthless assailants. 
There the lifting cloud would unveil the swift figure of a 
red warrior running for life toward the river; no sooner 
seen then he became the target of a Ranger's rifle, 
perhaps to go down in a headlong fall, for our men 
were mostly very expert marksmen. There, would be 
seen an Indian mother scurrying away with her brood 
of brats, like a scared wild duck with her ducklings, and 
likely to get no worse than a bullet screeching just over 
her head to hasten her flight; and there a withered, old 
hag fighting tooth and nail like a mad cat for some 
treasured household article. 
Such sights I saw but in a fleeting glance as I sped 
on to the next house, one of the largest and neatest, but 
as yet unmolested. Entering it in advance of my com- 
rade.s, I saw the legs of an Indian on the ladder leading 
t<i the chamber whither they were following his body; 
and lest I should get his tomahawk in my skull if I at- 
tempted to pull him down, I made sure by letting fly a 
bullet into his hip, and he came down clutching at the 
rungs till he fell in a heap on the floor. He hurled his 
tomahawk at my head, but a dodge saved me, and though 
he drew his knife and slashed savagely at me I soon put 
him at peace with this world, though I knew not his at- 
titude toward the next. 
Now I had time to look about, and observed more 
closely two women whom I had seen only out of the 
corner of an eye. The one standing nearest me, very erect 
and firm, though with a terrified face, was a white 
woman with golden hair, and evidently young, though 
the hardships of captivity had worn the bloom and 
roundness ofif her cheeks. Partly behind her an Indian 
girl crouched, staring out with the half-defiant look 
that you see in the eyes of a frightened wild animal. 
"Do not hurt her," said the white woman, in a low, 
sweet voice. It was a voice that had not its like in all 
the world, yet unlikely to be "heard here, as in the depths 
of the black morass where I had been so sure it had 
called my name. A moment later I marveled that I 
could have failed an instant to recognize either face or 
voice. 
"For God's sake, Mercy!" I cried, "how came you 
here ?" 
Even before I spoke she knew me, though much ex- 
posure and a full beard had greatly changed my face 
since our sad parting by the sumacs. With an inarticu- 
late cry of joy and surprise she came forward, stretching 
out her iiands to me. I was shaken by conflicting 
emotions, by the old love rekindled, by pity and by re- 
sentment of her faithlessness, If the first seemed the 
stronger for a moment, the last as quickly arose to 
hinder its expression, and I made no responsive move- 
ment, for I would show her that I would do no more 
for her than for any other woman in like strait. 
Her arms dropped, and she drew back to the side of 
the Indian girl with an abashed, grieved face, that 
wrenched my heart; but I could not be tender to one 
who had forsaken me, and was now another man's wife. 
"You are greatly changed," she said, in a choked, con- 
strained voice. 
"When hearts change, why should not faces?" I an- 
swered; and .she said no more till I asked her again 
what chance had brought her here. She told me in a few 
words that the Indians had made a descent upon the 
frontier town where her father was settled, had killed 
him with several others and brought away some cap- 
tives, herself among them, and here she liad been for 
six months, not unkindly treated, though very wretched 
concerning the uncertainty of her fate. It was a pitiful 
story to hear my lost sweetheart telling of herself; but I 
kept outwardly cool and unmoved as I listened, and 
when my comrades rejoined me, after searching for 
booty. I said, "You will stay under guard of our men 
till the job's finished; the squaw is a prisoner, but she 
will not be harmed;" and so we went out, she edging- 
past the dead Indian with half-averted, horrified face, and 
I left her and the Indian girl in charge of a very good 
and true man, Jackson by name. 
The work of retribution was v/ell nigh accomplished; 
every house in the village save three holding a store of 
corn, now a necessity to us, was a bonfire or smolder- 
ing ruin; every warrior .slain or a homeless fugitive, and 
such women and children as were not captured were 
hiding in the woods like coveys of scared partridges. 
Our three wounded were cared for; our one killed, Sam. 
Mohican, a Stockbridge Indian — and a very good man 
buried decently, and we departed, prisoners and captives, 
with what provisions we could carry and a considerable 
booty of silver ornaments and a silver image found in 
the church. It was a most desolate scene that we 
turned our backs upon, ruined, silent and deserted save 
for one abandoned, homeless, masterless cur, howling 
disconsolately from an overlooking knoll. 
363 
Looking Backward. 
St. Augustine, Fla., Oct. 30.~Editor Forest and 
Stream: T fumble over Forest and Stream, and as I 
read the accounts of rambles by my brethren through the 
Northern woods, filling their bags with princely wood- 
cock and lordly grouse, all my old-time love for the fun 
comes back to me in spite of my wrinkles and white hair. 
Old Father Time is chuckling over the thought that he 
has got me down, but by- Jingo! "I'll turn a corner 
Jinkcn and cheat him yet." 
As soon as I get my screws tightened and :ny where- 
to-go determined. I mean to have a crack at our diminu- 
tive brats of quail, and may be I'll turn over a snipe or 
two by the way. But my favorite bird, the October 
beauty— not the fiabby July imitation — I never expect to 
molest again. I've seen but two in twenty vears and I 
got all of them. 
The noble grouse is not in our parish. 
_ While the younger tribe can chuckle over their well- 
filled bags, I have the satisfaction of knowing that the 
glory of my shooting days compared to theirs is some- 
thing like an electric light to a tallow candle. 
In the jolly days when I was young I did not need a 
dog to put up woodcock, for "the woods were full of 
them," and grouse were so thick that they would put 
themselves in my way on purpose to get killed, because 
there was not food enough to fill them all. Quail were 
too numerous to mention. 
There was no need of game laws then. I have bagged 
wagon loads of prairie grouse when they were numerous 
enough to destroy the farmers' crops; I have enjoyed the 
very cream of duck shooting — though not much of it — 
and, take it all in all, if any man of the present genera- 
tion has had a better time than I have had let him speak 
"'or forever after hold his peace" — by which I do not 
mean his "fowling piece." 
I have had my day — Selah! 
Your privctte brotherly suggestion that it would be 
nice and jolly to send out a drag-net and haul in a lot 
of the chief scribblers of Forest and Stream for a big 
game feast and flow of soul seems on the surface a good 
idea, but would they come? 
For instance, "Ransacker" wouldn't leave his bees and 
coine tramping down from Shasta Mountains merely for 
a little fun; and, as to your amiable old humble servant, 
why no! He has lots of reasons why he coifld not, com- 
fortabl}', make one of such a crowd. 
But first let me suggest that if you should resolve to 
try it on, you put up over the door of the feeding room 
in gold letters: 
"Behold how plea,sant a thing it is for brethren to 
dwell together in unity.' 
In case of such a meeting there would be all sorts and 
sizes, and among the sorts might be some members of 
the clubs with which I once waged horrid war! Now 
"war is hell," and hell has nothing fraternal about it; 
consequently I might suft'er, for "revenge is sweet," and 
if one of the club men aforesaid, whom I have chai'ged 
with selfishness in wanting to grab all the lakes in the 
Adirondacks and fence in all its broad and gamy acres 
on the pretext of protecting and preserving game and 
fishes (for themselves) should ask: "Who is that rusty 
looking old cuss in the French cap at the right of the 
President?" and his neighbor should answer: "Why, that 
is Didymus," then a cold quail hke a "froze cat" inight 
come flying down my way and light against the side of 
my head. Then some witty member might remark that 
he wouldn't quail before an antagonist who used such 
ammunition as that, and ask, with a .serious face, if my 
wound was serious — which would be annoying. I am 
afraid such a gathering would give opportunity for ven- 
tilating cheap wit and unbrotherly badgering. 
Another reason would be that I'm quite deaf, and 
while I would hear nothing of the conversation I might 
be maligned to the bitter end by mine enemies. 
I coitld not join the fight in my own defence; and, if 
toasted, the toastee might insult the toaster by innocently 
ignoring the compliment. So you see I cannot second the 
motion for a call of contributors. 
Still that is no reason why you might not call in a few 
of the near-by scribblers and have a "feast of reason and 
a flow of — " game, with no Didymus, though it might 
seem a little like the play of Hamlet with the jnain chap 
out! 
But I have had my day, and all I ask is to be let alone. 
Didymus. 
— • — 
All communications intended for Forest and Stream should 
always be addressed to the Forest and Stream Publishing Co., and 
not to any individual connected with the paper. 
Weigfhts of Game Birds* 
Currituck Inlet, N. C. — Editor Forest and Slream: 
I will endeavor to give you the weights of different birds, 
as observed by me, as follows: 
The male' swan, about two years old, weighs 30 poujids, 
the female 22 pounds; a year-old male weighs 17 pounds. 
Wild goose, male, 12 pounds; female, lo'pounds. The 
while brant or Canada goose, male, 8 pounds; female, 
6 pounds. The black brant, male, 5 pounds; female, 4 
jjounds. The black duck, male, 3 pounds; female, 2^4 
pounds. Mallard, drake, 3>^ pounds; hen, 3 poirnds" 
The sprigtail, or pintail, male, 2 1-3 pounds; female, 214 
Ijounds. Widgeon or bald pate, male, 2 pounds; female, 2 
pounds. Teal, male, 1% pounds; hen, i pound. Red- 
head, male, 3 pounds; hen, 254 pounds. Spoonbill or 
shoveler, drake, i 1-3 pounds; hen, i pound. Hairy- 
crowned widgeon or sawbill, male, i^ pounds; female. 
I pound. Ruddy duck, male, i^ pounds; female, 1' 
pound. Waterwitch, male, ;pound; hen, 12 pounds. 
Mudhen or crow duck, male, iJ4 pounds; hen, 1 pound. 
Sheldrake, male, 3 pounds; hen, 2% pounds. 
The weights given are of birds which have beeis 
killed by me, and were weighed by rac. AH these birds, 
might vary in weight according to gain or loss by reason 
of conditions of food; but the figures probablv would not 
change very much. L. k. White. 
