Does It Pay to Rest on Sunday?
"With what a feeling deep
Does Nature speak to us! Oh, how divine
The flame that glows on her eternal shrine!
What knowledge can we reap
From her great pages if we read aright!
Through her God shows His wisdom and His might."
It was in the summer of 1872, while I was at the United States land office at Bayfield, Wisconsin, and was having some township plats corrected previous to going into the woods in that district to hunt for pine timber, that John Buffalo, chief of the Red Cliff band of Chippewa Indians, a friend of the United States land officers, made his quiet appearance at the land office. I had asked where I could find a reliable, trustworthy, and capable man to accompany me on this cruise, planned to cover a period of not less than two weeks. Captain Wing, receiver of the land office, asked the Indian chief, "John, wouldn't you like to earn a little money by going into the woods to help this man for a couple of weeks or more?" To this the chief gave his consent with the usual Indian "Ugh."
During that day provisions were bought and placed in individual cloth sacks. A strong rowboat was secured and the journey begun. Camp was made the first night on one of the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior. The day following, our destination was reached at the mouth of the Cranberry River, where our boat was carefully cached.
It rained for several days, in consequence of which the underbrush was wet most of the time, and in passing through it we became wet to the skin. Before leaving home I had bought for use on the trip what I believed to be a fine pair of corduroy trousers. They looked well, and the brush did not cling to them, a desirable condition when traveling through thickets often encountered in the woods. It rained the first day that we were out. At night we pitched our tent, prepared the evening meal, and at an early hour retired. On retiring, it is usually the custom for men camping, to remove their outer garments and put them out of the way at one side of the tent. Both were very tired and soon fell asleep. I was awakened by a very disagreeable odor within the tent and walked out into the fresh air. Returning, I lay down and remained thus until early daylight, experiencing only a disturbed sleep during the night. My feeling was that I had chosen an undesirable bedfellow, and, as later developments proved, it would have been reasonable if the Indian chief had arrived at the same conclusion.
"We started out with two birch canoes". (Page [148].)