[Contents]CHAPTER XXIWILD FRUITAfter a swim in the clear water of Oba Lake the travellers turned their canoe to the south.“I am glad we are going home,” remarked Ray. “The black spruce forest looked so big and so much the same everywhere I just could not help feeling that we should get lost if we ever went into it.”Bruce smiled at Ray’s mention of home. “We are very far from home, my boy,” he answered with a sad smile. “I sometimes think that we shall never see our Vermont hills again. It seems to me that we have been gone for years and that we have just turned around at the end of the world.”“Oh, I didn’t mean home in Vermont,” replied Ray. “I meant the country along the Michipicoten River. I just felt homesick[167]for that country when I saw the endless spruce forest north of this lake.”Both lads were surprised when in about four hours of easy paddling they had skirted the west shore of the lake and had also crossed the lake back to their carrying-place or portage on the east shore, where their lean-to was still standing just as they had left it.“Bruce, I wonder if Ganawa would stay here over night,” asked Ray. “I like this camp very much and we could have another camp-fire of driftwood. It is lots of fun to make a fire when you don’t have to cut a lot of wood.”Ganawa was quite willing that they should spend another night at this fine camp. “I have now travelled on the blue lake that I have wished to see for a long time. We can travel back slowly, but we shall still make good time, because we know where we are going and we do not need to stop to look for signs of your brother. My little son may play or fish at this camp till evening.”[168]Ray first took a swim in the warm water in a cove with a sandy bottom. Then he picked a kettleful of berries; raspberries, pin-cherries, and blueberries all mixed. It was now past the middle of July and all the North Woods berries seemed to be ripe at the same time. There was another berry which hung in beautiful red bunches on the bushes, but they were tasteless and Ganawa said that the Great Spirit had made them for the wild birds, and the lads observed that about every kind of bird in the woods was feeding on them. They were the red berries of the elder, which in the latitude of Central Minnesota are ripe early in June, but in the region north and northeast of Lake Superior summer comes about six weeks later, thus crowding all wild fruit into a much shorter season.Ray did not care to play all by himself and he did not feel like sleeping so he asked Ganawa to show him some Indian woodcraft, and Ganawa showed him the willow, whose bark the Indians use for strings. “It[169]is a tall bushy willow,” he said, “and it grows almost everywhere. The Indians also use the inner bark of basswoods and white elms for strings, but these trees do not grow here. However, I know that we can find a few elms on the Michipicoten.”All native willows have a tough stringy bark, but the common pussy willow,Salix discolor, furnishes very good strings. All these bark strings are tough and flexible only while green or wet. Even present-day Indians always keep a supply of these bark strings on hand. All of them are brittle and useless when dry, but they regain their toughness and flexibility when they are soaked in water for a short time.Then Ganawa showed Ray how the leaves of the low, white-flowered bush called Labrador tea might be used to take the place of the tea sold by the traders. “This plant,” he explained, “and a plant which the white people call sweet fern, make a good tea in camp if you have some sugar. The sweet fern does not grow here, but it[170]covers much sandy land south of Lake Superior.”The Labrador tea grows in every northern swamp, but the sweet fern the Indians often tie in bundles and take with them as they travel about to their favorite summer camping-places for picking blueberries or gathering wild rice.The lads were surprised at the progress they could make now that they no longer paddled into every cove and wasted no time examining old camp-sites. Three days of easy travel brought them to a high and level camping ground, where a railroad now crosses the Michipicoten River.“My sons,” spoke Ganawa, when they reached this spot, “at this place we should camp and make a store of food. For it may be that we shall have to spend a winter in this country, and you, my sons, will often wish that you had some of the berries that are now ripe in the woods, so you could eat them with your meat and fish.“To-morrow you must each take a basket[171]of birch-bark and pick blueberries, which you will find in the hills and under the pines, where the sun shines through the branches.”Blueberries were so abundant that each lad could pick about a bushel in a day, because they found many patches where the ground was literally blue.While the boys were away gathering this wild fruit, the best in the whole of North America, Ganawa sewed together several large pieces of birch-bark and spread the whole in a sunny open place. On this birch-bark the lads emptied their filled baskets. Ganawa stayed in camp and with an improvised wooden rake he stirred and turned the berries from time to time so they would dry faster.“It may start to rain,” he remarked, “and then our berries might spoil before we can dry them.”When the lads went out picking berries on the third day, Ray had grown a little bit tired of harvesting berries, and near the top of a ridge he lay down and fell asleep and[172]Tawny lay down near him. The lad was awakened from a sound sleep by a loud barking and a strange growling noise, and when he sat up and opened his eyes, a big black bear was coming straight for him, while Tawny was madly barking at the animal but was afraid to close with so large a beast. For a moment the bear seemed in doubt whether he should cuff the dog or punish the being whom he had smelled up the wind and who had suddenly risen up before him. And when he walked toward the dazed lad, and arose on his hind legs and uttered a vicious growl, Ray’s nerves gave away. He ran for the camp as fast as he could go, and when he reached it he was ready to drop and so out of breath that he could utter only a few words: “A—bear! He chased me! Run with the gun, Father. He—he’s killed my dog.”A big black bear was coming straight for him.A big black bear was coming straight for him.Page 172.[173]
[Contents]CHAPTER XXIWILD FRUITAfter a swim in the clear water of Oba Lake the travellers turned their canoe to the south.“I am glad we are going home,” remarked Ray. “The black spruce forest looked so big and so much the same everywhere I just could not help feeling that we should get lost if we ever went into it.”Bruce smiled at Ray’s mention of home. “We are very far from home, my boy,” he answered with a sad smile. “I sometimes think that we shall never see our Vermont hills again. It seems to me that we have been gone for years and that we have just turned around at the end of the world.”“Oh, I didn’t mean home in Vermont,” replied Ray. “I meant the country along the Michipicoten River. I just felt homesick[167]for that country when I saw the endless spruce forest north of this lake.”Both lads were surprised when in about four hours of easy paddling they had skirted the west shore of the lake and had also crossed the lake back to their carrying-place or portage on the east shore, where their lean-to was still standing just as they had left it.“Bruce, I wonder if Ganawa would stay here over night,” asked Ray. “I like this camp very much and we could have another camp-fire of driftwood. It is lots of fun to make a fire when you don’t have to cut a lot of wood.”Ganawa was quite willing that they should spend another night at this fine camp. “I have now travelled on the blue lake that I have wished to see for a long time. We can travel back slowly, but we shall still make good time, because we know where we are going and we do not need to stop to look for signs of your brother. My little son may play or fish at this camp till evening.”[168]Ray first took a swim in the warm water in a cove with a sandy bottom. Then he picked a kettleful of berries; raspberries, pin-cherries, and blueberries all mixed. It was now past the middle of July and all the North Woods berries seemed to be ripe at the same time. There was another berry which hung in beautiful red bunches on the bushes, but they were tasteless and Ganawa said that the Great Spirit had made them for the wild birds, and the lads observed that about every kind of bird in the woods was feeding on them. They were the red berries of the elder, which in the latitude of Central Minnesota are ripe early in June, but in the region north and northeast of Lake Superior summer comes about six weeks later, thus crowding all wild fruit into a much shorter season.Ray did not care to play all by himself and he did not feel like sleeping so he asked Ganawa to show him some Indian woodcraft, and Ganawa showed him the willow, whose bark the Indians use for strings. “It[169]is a tall bushy willow,” he said, “and it grows almost everywhere. The Indians also use the inner bark of basswoods and white elms for strings, but these trees do not grow here. However, I know that we can find a few elms on the Michipicoten.”All native willows have a tough stringy bark, but the common pussy willow,Salix discolor, furnishes very good strings. All these bark strings are tough and flexible only while green or wet. Even present-day Indians always keep a supply of these bark strings on hand. All of them are brittle and useless when dry, but they regain their toughness and flexibility when they are soaked in water for a short time.Then Ganawa showed Ray how the leaves of the low, white-flowered bush called Labrador tea might be used to take the place of the tea sold by the traders. “This plant,” he explained, “and a plant which the white people call sweet fern, make a good tea in camp if you have some sugar. The sweet fern does not grow here, but it[170]covers much sandy land south of Lake Superior.”The Labrador tea grows in every northern swamp, but the sweet fern the Indians often tie in bundles and take with them as they travel about to their favorite summer camping-places for picking blueberries or gathering wild rice.The lads were surprised at the progress they could make now that they no longer paddled into every cove and wasted no time examining old camp-sites. Three days of easy travel brought them to a high and level camping ground, where a railroad now crosses the Michipicoten River.“My sons,” spoke Ganawa, when they reached this spot, “at this place we should camp and make a store of food. For it may be that we shall have to spend a winter in this country, and you, my sons, will often wish that you had some of the berries that are now ripe in the woods, so you could eat them with your meat and fish.“To-morrow you must each take a basket[171]of birch-bark and pick blueberries, which you will find in the hills and under the pines, where the sun shines through the branches.”Blueberries were so abundant that each lad could pick about a bushel in a day, because they found many patches where the ground was literally blue.While the boys were away gathering this wild fruit, the best in the whole of North America, Ganawa sewed together several large pieces of birch-bark and spread the whole in a sunny open place. On this birch-bark the lads emptied their filled baskets. Ganawa stayed in camp and with an improvised wooden rake he stirred and turned the berries from time to time so they would dry faster.“It may start to rain,” he remarked, “and then our berries might spoil before we can dry them.”When the lads went out picking berries on the third day, Ray had grown a little bit tired of harvesting berries, and near the top of a ridge he lay down and fell asleep and[172]Tawny lay down near him. The lad was awakened from a sound sleep by a loud barking and a strange growling noise, and when he sat up and opened his eyes, a big black bear was coming straight for him, while Tawny was madly barking at the animal but was afraid to close with so large a beast. For a moment the bear seemed in doubt whether he should cuff the dog or punish the being whom he had smelled up the wind and who had suddenly risen up before him. And when he walked toward the dazed lad, and arose on his hind legs and uttered a vicious growl, Ray’s nerves gave away. He ran for the camp as fast as he could go, and when he reached it he was ready to drop and so out of breath that he could utter only a few words: “A—bear! He chased me! Run with the gun, Father. He—he’s killed my dog.”A big black bear was coming straight for him.A big black bear was coming straight for him.Page 172.[173]
CHAPTER XXIWILD FRUIT
After a swim in the clear water of Oba Lake the travellers turned their canoe to the south.“I am glad we are going home,” remarked Ray. “The black spruce forest looked so big and so much the same everywhere I just could not help feeling that we should get lost if we ever went into it.”Bruce smiled at Ray’s mention of home. “We are very far from home, my boy,” he answered with a sad smile. “I sometimes think that we shall never see our Vermont hills again. It seems to me that we have been gone for years and that we have just turned around at the end of the world.”“Oh, I didn’t mean home in Vermont,” replied Ray. “I meant the country along the Michipicoten River. I just felt homesick[167]for that country when I saw the endless spruce forest north of this lake.”Both lads were surprised when in about four hours of easy paddling they had skirted the west shore of the lake and had also crossed the lake back to their carrying-place or portage on the east shore, where their lean-to was still standing just as they had left it.“Bruce, I wonder if Ganawa would stay here over night,” asked Ray. “I like this camp very much and we could have another camp-fire of driftwood. It is lots of fun to make a fire when you don’t have to cut a lot of wood.”Ganawa was quite willing that they should spend another night at this fine camp. “I have now travelled on the blue lake that I have wished to see for a long time. We can travel back slowly, but we shall still make good time, because we know where we are going and we do not need to stop to look for signs of your brother. My little son may play or fish at this camp till evening.”[168]Ray first took a swim in the warm water in a cove with a sandy bottom. Then he picked a kettleful of berries; raspberries, pin-cherries, and blueberries all mixed. It was now past the middle of July and all the North Woods berries seemed to be ripe at the same time. There was another berry which hung in beautiful red bunches on the bushes, but they were tasteless and Ganawa said that the Great Spirit had made them for the wild birds, and the lads observed that about every kind of bird in the woods was feeding on them. They were the red berries of the elder, which in the latitude of Central Minnesota are ripe early in June, but in the region north and northeast of Lake Superior summer comes about six weeks later, thus crowding all wild fruit into a much shorter season.Ray did not care to play all by himself and he did not feel like sleeping so he asked Ganawa to show him some Indian woodcraft, and Ganawa showed him the willow, whose bark the Indians use for strings. “It[169]is a tall bushy willow,” he said, “and it grows almost everywhere. The Indians also use the inner bark of basswoods and white elms for strings, but these trees do not grow here. However, I know that we can find a few elms on the Michipicoten.”All native willows have a tough stringy bark, but the common pussy willow,Salix discolor, furnishes very good strings. All these bark strings are tough and flexible only while green or wet. Even present-day Indians always keep a supply of these bark strings on hand. All of them are brittle and useless when dry, but they regain their toughness and flexibility when they are soaked in water for a short time.Then Ganawa showed Ray how the leaves of the low, white-flowered bush called Labrador tea might be used to take the place of the tea sold by the traders. “This plant,” he explained, “and a plant which the white people call sweet fern, make a good tea in camp if you have some sugar. The sweet fern does not grow here, but it[170]covers much sandy land south of Lake Superior.”The Labrador tea grows in every northern swamp, but the sweet fern the Indians often tie in bundles and take with them as they travel about to their favorite summer camping-places for picking blueberries or gathering wild rice.The lads were surprised at the progress they could make now that they no longer paddled into every cove and wasted no time examining old camp-sites. Three days of easy travel brought them to a high and level camping ground, where a railroad now crosses the Michipicoten River.“My sons,” spoke Ganawa, when they reached this spot, “at this place we should camp and make a store of food. For it may be that we shall have to spend a winter in this country, and you, my sons, will often wish that you had some of the berries that are now ripe in the woods, so you could eat them with your meat and fish.“To-morrow you must each take a basket[171]of birch-bark and pick blueberries, which you will find in the hills and under the pines, where the sun shines through the branches.”Blueberries were so abundant that each lad could pick about a bushel in a day, because they found many patches where the ground was literally blue.While the boys were away gathering this wild fruit, the best in the whole of North America, Ganawa sewed together several large pieces of birch-bark and spread the whole in a sunny open place. On this birch-bark the lads emptied their filled baskets. Ganawa stayed in camp and with an improvised wooden rake he stirred and turned the berries from time to time so they would dry faster.“It may start to rain,” he remarked, “and then our berries might spoil before we can dry them.”When the lads went out picking berries on the third day, Ray had grown a little bit tired of harvesting berries, and near the top of a ridge he lay down and fell asleep and[172]Tawny lay down near him. The lad was awakened from a sound sleep by a loud barking and a strange growling noise, and when he sat up and opened his eyes, a big black bear was coming straight for him, while Tawny was madly barking at the animal but was afraid to close with so large a beast. For a moment the bear seemed in doubt whether he should cuff the dog or punish the being whom he had smelled up the wind and who had suddenly risen up before him. And when he walked toward the dazed lad, and arose on his hind legs and uttered a vicious growl, Ray’s nerves gave away. He ran for the camp as fast as he could go, and when he reached it he was ready to drop and so out of breath that he could utter only a few words: “A—bear! He chased me! Run with the gun, Father. He—he’s killed my dog.”A big black bear was coming straight for him.A big black bear was coming straight for him.Page 172.[173]
After a swim in the clear water of Oba Lake the travellers turned their canoe to the south.
“I am glad we are going home,” remarked Ray. “The black spruce forest looked so big and so much the same everywhere I just could not help feeling that we should get lost if we ever went into it.”
Bruce smiled at Ray’s mention of home. “We are very far from home, my boy,” he answered with a sad smile. “I sometimes think that we shall never see our Vermont hills again. It seems to me that we have been gone for years and that we have just turned around at the end of the world.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean home in Vermont,” replied Ray. “I meant the country along the Michipicoten River. I just felt homesick[167]for that country when I saw the endless spruce forest north of this lake.”
Both lads were surprised when in about four hours of easy paddling they had skirted the west shore of the lake and had also crossed the lake back to their carrying-place or portage on the east shore, where their lean-to was still standing just as they had left it.
“Bruce, I wonder if Ganawa would stay here over night,” asked Ray. “I like this camp very much and we could have another camp-fire of driftwood. It is lots of fun to make a fire when you don’t have to cut a lot of wood.”
Ganawa was quite willing that they should spend another night at this fine camp. “I have now travelled on the blue lake that I have wished to see for a long time. We can travel back slowly, but we shall still make good time, because we know where we are going and we do not need to stop to look for signs of your brother. My little son may play or fish at this camp till evening.”[168]
Ray first took a swim in the warm water in a cove with a sandy bottom. Then he picked a kettleful of berries; raspberries, pin-cherries, and blueberries all mixed. It was now past the middle of July and all the North Woods berries seemed to be ripe at the same time. There was another berry which hung in beautiful red bunches on the bushes, but they were tasteless and Ganawa said that the Great Spirit had made them for the wild birds, and the lads observed that about every kind of bird in the woods was feeding on them. They were the red berries of the elder, which in the latitude of Central Minnesota are ripe early in June, but in the region north and northeast of Lake Superior summer comes about six weeks later, thus crowding all wild fruit into a much shorter season.
Ray did not care to play all by himself and he did not feel like sleeping so he asked Ganawa to show him some Indian woodcraft, and Ganawa showed him the willow, whose bark the Indians use for strings. “It[169]is a tall bushy willow,” he said, “and it grows almost everywhere. The Indians also use the inner bark of basswoods and white elms for strings, but these trees do not grow here. However, I know that we can find a few elms on the Michipicoten.”
All native willows have a tough stringy bark, but the common pussy willow,Salix discolor, furnishes very good strings. All these bark strings are tough and flexible only while green or wet. Even present-day Indians always keep a supply of these bark strings on hand. All of them are brittle and useless when dry, but they regain their toughness and flexibility when they are soaked in water for a short time.
Then Ganawa showed Ray how the leaves of the low, white-flowered bush called Labrador tea might be used to take the place of the tea sold by the traders. “This plant,” he explained, “and a plant which the white people call sweet fern, make a good tea in camp if you have some sugar. The sweet fern does not grow here, but it[170]covers much sandy land south of Lake Superior.”
The Labrador tea grows in every northern swamp, but the sweet fern the Indians often tie in bundles and take with them as they travel about to their favorite summer camping-places for picking blueberries or gathering wild rice.
The lads were surprised at the progress they could make now that they no longer paddled into every cove and wasted no time examining old camp-sites. Three days of easy travel brought them to a high and level camping ground, where a railroad now crosses the Michipicoten River.
“My sons,” spoke Ganawa, when they reached this spot, “at this place we should camp and make a store of food. For it may be that we shall have to spend a winter in this country, and you, my sons, will often wish that you had some of the berries that are now ripe in the woods, so you could eat them with your meat and fish.
“To-morrow you must each take a basket[171]of birch-bark and pick blueberries, which you will find in the hills and under the pines, where the sun shines through the branches.”
Blueberries were so abundant that each lad could pick about a bushel in a day, because they found many patches where the ground was literally blue.
While the boys were away gathering this wild fruit, the best in the whole of North America, Ganawa sewed together several large pieces of birch-bark and spread the whole in a sunny open place. On this birch-bark the lads emptied their filled baskets. Ganawa stayed in camp and with an improvised wooden rake he stirred and turned the berries from time to time so they would dry faster.
“It may start to rain,” he remarked, “and then our berries might spoil before we can dry them.”
When the lads went out picking berries on the third day, Ray had grown a little bit tired of harvesting berries, and near the top of a ridge he lay down and fell asleep and[172]Tawny lay down near him. The lad was awakened from a sound sleep by a loud barking and a strange growling noise, and when he sat up and opened his eyes, a big black bear was coming straight for him, while Tawny was madly barking at the animal but was afraid to close with so large a beast. For a moment the bear seemed in doubt whether he should cuff the dog or punish the being whom he had smelled up the wind and who had suddenly risen up before him. And when he walked toward the dazed lad, and arose on his hind legs and uttered a vicious growl, Ray’s nerves gave away. He ran for the camp as fast as he could go, and when he reached it he was ready to drop and so out of breath that he could utter only a few words: “A—bear! He chased me! Run with the gun, Father. He—he’s killed my dog.”
A big black bear was coming straight for him.A big black bear was coming straight for him.Page 172.
A big black bear was coming straight for him.
Page 172.
[173]