Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/175

 H1ST0KY OF GOODHUE COUNTY 127 between Trenton and the bluffs. The season was not favorable for rotting the sod. and the tubers were hard to excavate. He wanted help, which was hard to get. We wanted potatoes, and money wouldn't buy them. Consequently it was 'root, hog r die-' with us. and we went to rooting. A hard day's work unearthed ten bushels to the man, for which one bushel was given as wages. 1 have to this day a very acute appreciation of the pleasant occupation I Mas then engaged in. Just fancy my get- ting up at ± o'clock in the morning, breaking my fast as soon as possible, getting into a canoe, with hoe, basket and sack, and paddling up to Trenton, thence to the field. Now commences the dissection of that gutta percha sod, with a plantation hoe. A little experience in another line of business enabled me to get the hang of the thing. In getting honey out of a hollow tree, the best way is to cut two carfs into the cavity, then split off the block of timber between. The same rule held good in the present instance, but I must say I never saw sod so tough, potatoes so hard to get at, and so small when I got them. But as an offset, I have never eaten potatoes of an equal excellence. And I was prouder of the ten bushel I thus acquired than the biggest buck I ever arrested in his wild career through the woods, or the largest trout I ever landed from the clear, rushing waters of his native brook. Just think of it, ten bushels all my own ; no gift ; not begged, but earned. One hundred bushels torn from the rugged earth, ninety given as a peace offering, but ten my own, for use and dissipation. I think I didn't dissipate. On my back I nightly bore my wages down to my gondola, and sailed away for home. But I have dwelt too long on this subject, time has mellowed down all of pain that was associated with the circum- stance, and the recollection is now pleasurable, and full of inter- est to me in my musings and speculations. "Leaving this portion of my subject, I must now refer to one full of interest to me, but probably not so acceptable to the majority of my audience. Among the first items of information I obtained from the Indians was that the small spring brooks contained an abundance of trout, and the equally gratifying intelligence that they never used them as an article of food; in fact their religious notions tabooed their use. From the name they gave the speckled beauties, I would infer they considered them too bad to eat. Hogal-wichasta-sni, literally wicked man fish, is not suggestive of high appreciation among the Indian community. They believed some malign influence resided in the fish, and that to eat them would be to invite disease, and the anger of the gods. This feeling was very prevalent among them. and Wacoota, the chief, being invited to take dinner with me, at which meal I informed him there would be a dish of trout, lie