Annals of our ancestors; one hundred and fifty years of history in the ...

286 ANNALS OF OUR ANCESTORS
placed a wire in front of this abatis to trip us up and throw us
on the stakes. I was a Httle in front of my comrades, and was
thrown to the ground with such force that the blood gushed out
of my nose; but I missed the stakes. Two of my comrades
thought I was shot and raised me up. When I got to my feet
I was crazy mad. I started for the fort and ran against the
sharpened stakes, one of which penetrated my clothes and
came near entering my stomach. I tore that stake out of the
ground and my squad passed through the opening to the fort.
A minute later our whole regiment was swarming into the
fort. I do not know that I was the first to enter the fort, but
I do know I was one of the first. The colonel commanding
the fort fled back to the boat landing with many of his men,
we m pursuit, and he surrendered to me."
While this story is told without flourish of trumpets, it is
one to make us proud; and it will be easily imagined what very
interesting letters came from " 'way down South" to our far
northern home through those years of history. Our sister
became engaged to her soldier boy during the time he was
proving himself under hard and critical conditions to be a man
of stamina and bravery, and those letters from Louisiana to
Minnesota were real events in our lives.
One of the later ways which relieved the tedium of winter
on Maine Prairie was the organization of a lyceum by the
neighbors. They kept up regular meetings, with an occasional
lecture from one of the most gifted of their number, or they
would call in talent from St. Cloud. With debates, essays,
and theatricals the time passed more swiftly. Among the
members were Mr. and Mrs. E. H. Atwood. They were
young people with a family of little boys. They were but two
in those days, Clarence and Harry. They lived at one side of
Pearl Lake, and when the lake was frozen over we could cross
back and forth on the ice. Mrs. Atwood was a bright and
vivacious young woman, who took part in the literary program
of the lyceum and was a star actress in the theatricals. Mr.
Atwood was very appreciative of anything good in the programs.
We did not know then that these old neighbors were