Nelson Family Juvenilia
Box 1 Folder 37
The Pioneersman, Vol. 1, No. 6 - 1893-01-13

[Section of longer periodical]

THE PIONEERSMAN
VOL I Published by E.H. Nelson & Co Bird Nest. U.D. Jan, 13, 1893 No 10

THE TREASURE OF OVAL MOUNTAIN
The boys toiled on up the mountain not seeing any thing else as they went along and they were brought among the recks of the mountain since they left the ledge they had seen nothing except a red squirrel that ran away before they could get with in five rods of him. The boys were getting almost discouraged but they were bound to keep on and are what they could find on top of the mountain but they did not expect much at last they reached the top but nothing was to be seen of any cave so they traveled along the top till all at once they stood at the top of an immense ledge going down perpendicular for a couple of hundred feet and then stopped on a broad [clot?] ledge jutting out from the main ledge this could be got o n to easily by acending the mountain a piece this they quickly did and went soon standing on a broad shelf, from which they could look off down through the vista's of trees towards the bottom of the mountain while behind them rose the ledge seeming to reach to the sky it stretched so far sheer up towards the sky over head but the longer branches of the trees hung out over. While exactly back of them there was a large hold about seven feet high by four broad and when they looked in they could not see the back end. They rather wanted to go in but they had no torch but before they had looked round long they discovered several birches from these they stripped the bark and then Tom took his jacknife and split a stick then he put some bark in to it he also fixed one for Jack and then with their arms full of the bark and Jack's torch lit they [sta?] in as they went along the cave grew larger and soon they came to what they thought was the end of the cave. It was a large room twenty more feet high by sixty long and about thirty wide but before they had looked around long they discovered another passage that led off in a little different direction from the other the boys started off in this one this passage was not as large as the other one it not being more than seven feet high when they entered kept going smaller as they went back and they thought probaby that it would be so small that they could not go along before a great while but as they began to think that they would have to go back the light shone through into what looked to be a large room but this channel was so small that Tom and Jack had to get down on their hands and knees and crawl in and then they had hard work but when they were though they stood in a large room a good deal larger than the one was twice as long and about a third longer. Its walls sparkled in places and come to examine tem they were found to be full of crystals some of them were white, some blue and some red which made it look as if the walls were lit with diamonds. "Wouldnt it be so nice to have a house and live here" said Jack [page break] "Yes" replied Tom "only I shouldnt want to have to always crawl in and out of that little hole there" "No if he owned this we would make that larger wouldnt we said Jack "I guess so" Tom replied then they stopped and went to looking around soon they discovered another passage and started off bound to explore the whole cave if their torches hold out to this passage that they were now in [was nod at?] to be considerably longer than either of the others tha[t] they had gone through It was so long that before that they had got to the farther end of it Jack said "I bet this goes clear through the mountain and soon we shall come out the other side but instead of doing that they came to where three passages came together they took the right hand one and kept on this one opened out into a vaulted room of which the rom was so high up that the light from their torches did not disclose it, it was also of considerable width and length in one corner the boys discovered what at first looked like a pair of small and large rocks but on stirring it a little they saw something shine Tom stooped down to see what it was and picked one up of the stones as he supposed by soon after he had felt of it he decided that it was not a stone but something and when he got it up it to where he could see it he found it to be a solid silver cup of very ancient patern. "We have discovered the robbers cave, hurrah; hurrah!" shouted Jack as he saw what it was "lets carry home our pockets full" so they went to poking it over in doing so they found silver buckles and bottoms, silver pots and spoons, and a lot of other silver things but they did not find any money so they stuffed their pockets full of buttons and spoons and each carried a silver pot but now they had to put in the last piece of park into their torch to go back with, and they knew that they must hurry if they got to the light before it went out so they started off on [a?] swift walk an[d] at once they found them selves in a strange passage on that they did not remember of seeing when they went in they turned round and went out again but they had got rather turned round in their hurry to find the right track and again they got in to the wrong passage but this time they did not notice it till they reached the other end and came out into a large room that was different from what they had seen but another passage led out of this and into it they rushed but soon stopped for the[y] came to the end of it and their torch was most out the turned and hurried back and discovering still another passage in the other side of the room into which there seemed as though light was shining very dimly they followed this out and just as their torch went out they came into a large room lighted by a small crack in the roof so that it was quite light but there was no way of getting to this crack so the boys had no way of getting into open air in this way and Tom only had two matches and Jack had none and with these two matches they could not go farther than from this room to the other and that would do them no good and they knew that it wouldnt do much go[od] to go around trying to find their way out in the dark. "I wish that Mr Beams had not told that story last night" said Jack "Well as long as he did we must do the best we can to get out of here" Tom answered. Soon it began to grow dark a little and before long the room in which Tom and Jack were would be like so much [?] in its blackness so the boys laid down and tried to sleep and get rested.
Continued. Mart Breed

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TEN NIGHTS IN A HUNTERS CAMP
It was Captain Jack's night to tell a story and the men all expected a good one so they were in a hurry to hear it. I have had quite a number of adventures and although they may not be quite as thrilling as the one told by Joe last night I should not care much about going through them again once while I was trapping on the shores of Paradise Lake with another man named Dickson I started to go to the village by boat I did not know the river all of the way but I thought that I could find it It was about forty miles in a bee line from where we were and I had calculated that it was sixty five by the river so I saw that I should have an all days job of it. So the morning that I was going to start I got up about half past four ate my breakfast and after putting our skins and some lunch into the canoe I started off for the village. The day was then clear and I expected to have a fine time of it and did not expect to work very hard that day. I paddled across the lake and into the mouth of the river and as I came into it I noticed that it was swollen and it then occured to me that we had had a heavy shower the day before and that perhaps that the water was just getting down from the mountain regions of the country above Farmingtown but I thought that it brobably would not get any higher so kept on. The river was swifter than I expected and if it did not rise any higher I saw that I should make my trip in less time than I expected to going down in and I also saw that I might have to wait at the village a couple of days and let the water go down a little before it would be of any use to attempt to come back but that did not trouble me any for there was nothing special for me to do at home for of course we were all through trapping and it was not quite time to begin to plant and we did not plant much anyway. Soon I came to the mouth of Bear Brook which was usually a small brook hardly making a show either where it came through the woods or in the river but now it come roaring down the valley through the woods swollen the most that I ever knew it to be it had flowed over its banks and came down in to the river in three different places and was full of dirt, sticks and leaves from the woods as I came opposite to it my canoe was caught by the current and almost overturned and carried towards the other bank of the river before it had gone a great way, it righted and then I struggled with the current I was setting against it with considerable violence. I barely saved my self for the current carried me with in three feet of the bank before I could get out of it and when I did get out of it I did not feel much easier for the stream took me a long at a furious rate and if the river had been full of rocks I should have got wrecked sure but there were but few rocks and these were now covered up so all I had to do was to keep the canoe straight but that was work enough and I was hoping that there were no falls in this river but after I had gone on a piece further and had just come around a bend when the sound of a fall broke in upon the rush of [page break] of the water around me. Now here I was sweeping towards the falls with the speed of a race hor[s]e and the banks on both side of the river straight up for several that all at once my eye caught sight of a big hemlock limb that hung out over the water here was my only chance if I could steer my boat so as to go under that limb and while going under it stand up and grab the limb and lift my self out of the boat I should be all right if not I must go over the falls and no knowing what would become of me. I did all right in the steering and as I neared the limb, I stood up it was all that I could do to balance and as swept down towards the limb it seemed to be coming so fast that I was almost good mind to got down but there was no time and as the limb came with in reach I grabbed it and drew myself and I saw the boat go whirling away from under me and left me no support but that limb. I then edged along on the limb till I got to land then I dropped to the ground and started down the bank to see what became of my boat I saw it go over the falls just as I touched land but I did not fear any thing from loosing the skins for they w ere tightly bound into the boat when I had got a round the falls I saw my canoe bottom side up floating around a bend in the river a little ways below but on getting to the other side of the bend I saw my canoe stranded on a piece of ground where there was about ten inches of water. It was bottom side up as I had last seen it but when I turned it over I found the skins all right just as I left them when I got out all except that they were wet now and they were not [runen? ruined?] I left them before I drew my canoe ashore and took the skins out and unfastening the bundels hung each skins up on a branch of a tree and left them while I went to see how the canoe was but that was all right but the bag of luncheon that I had put in was gone so I took my gun and went off in to the woods to get something for a meal soon I come across three deer I had got near enough and was just going to shoot one when for some reason my arm hit a dead branch and it came tumbling down this frightened the deer and away they went then I had to follow them of[f] through the woods and at last came to them again on the bank of the river here I made out to get near enough to shot one and made out to do it but the deer that I shot fell into the river and floted off down stream but I ran on and got a head of it and with a long pole I drew it to land and carried it back to my canoe I then took the ax I had and after cutting a dry pine near me I cut of a few limbs and split them up and made a fire and roasted some venison for supper after I got through I went and got a lot more wood and after a while it came night and I fell to sleep I woke up once or twice to fix my fire and the next morning after I had cooked my breakfast I loaded up and started on down and soon arrived at the village here I sold my furs and after staying there the rest of the day and the next started back for our camp at which I arrived that night after I started and my partner was glad to see me.
Burt Green