Nelson Family Juvenilia
Box 1 Folder 12
[diary] - November 18-19, 1895

[written by Elmer]

Monday Nov. 18, 1895
This morning we did not get started from home as early as we intended, but started at a little before nine. Arthur and I went over to Uncle Orens and got some sweet apples and met Walter and father beyond Mrs Adams we then cut across and again come up with them just as they were leaving the main road to go up the mountain from there we went ahead most of the time looking for game but saw nothing till after we had left our horse which was at about half past ten, we hitched our horse at a tree at the head of the road, we then packed our things together and started up the mountain about this time Sparks treed a hedgehog which Arthur shot and soon after [page break] this he treed another which I shot we followed a path up the mountain but after a while we left the path and struck for the top of the mountain, after going about twice or three times as far as we expected we came in sight of the pond from the top of a large ledge, here father left us and after taking our things to the foot of the ledge we ate our dinner after dinner we hunted out a place for our camp and worked on that till about four when Arthur and I went and set our traps when we came back we built a fire and got supper which we ate and now Walter and I are writing up an account of the day. we expect soon to go to bed,

[page break]

TUESDAY Nov 19 1895
We had to get up about twelve oclock last night and go out and cut us some more wood for it had all burned out, near morning we heard it raining and it kept it up more or less till six oclock when it stopped, Arthur and Walter went to look at the traps while I got breakfast ready, when they came back they brought with them a large hedgehog which had been caught in one of the traps. We had breakfast at a little after eight, while we were eating Sparks barked down by the pond and I went down and found he had a red squirrel which I shot for him, just before breakfast Arthur and I went down by the pond hunting and hearing Sparks bark went to where he was and found he had a small hedge-hog, Arthur [page break] shot it and we carried it back to camp, after breakfast we went to [r--ing?] our camp, I cut some fir brush and Arthur got some birch bark, these we put on to the house, at ten oclock we started for Bloods Mountain, before we had left the side of the pond our dog treed another red squirrel and I shot it for him though both Arthurs and my guns missed fire the first time. We reached the top of Signal Pole Mountain at eleven oclock, as we were coming near the white ledges below, Sparks cornered a hedge-hog which Arthur shot with our pistol, we reached the top of Blood Mountain at a quarter to twelve and began to get spruce limbs together to make a signal home with, at ten minutes to twelve we touched it off and [end of document]