THE FAIRMONT WEST VIRGINIAN — JUNE 22, 1907
“DOGGIE” WAS GOOD TO HIM ☆ Lumberjack’s Remarkable Tale
Puts Him In Line For Admission to the Nature Fakirs’ Association —
Hopes Roosevelt Won't Learn His Name.
Withholding his name lest he be classed by President Roosevelt as a “nature fakir” along with C. D. G. Roberts and others, a Minnesota lumberjack relates a bear story which makes the Rev. Dr. William J. Long’s animal tales sound like axiomatic truth.
In the wilds of Minnesota, a dozen miles front Grand Rapids, dwells a homesteader named Hans Larsen. While clearing the land for cultivation he has also been rearing a family of seven children. Among the number is a three-year-old boy, who is known as Kid.
The kid left home March 10 and went into the winds. It was three or four hours before his mother missed him, and it was three hours later when the neighbors were informed and the search began. A logging contractor also was notified and he assembled his crew of fifty men. The remaining part of the story is best told by the anonymous lumberjack, who found the boy the following day at noon:
“When the old man sent the hurry-up call for us to drop drivin’ and hike over to the Norsk’s, who lost his kid, we broke for the little farm mighty quick. We knew the woods were full of wolves, and if they didn't get the kid the night was due to be colder’n — and he'd freeze to death before the frost fell. We just stopped at the wannegan long enough to fill our lunch sacks with grub and get plenty of matches,
