Music in the Woods (1)

Though the sun shone brightly overhead, the shadows were thick and dark in the forest. The trees were massive and the foliage was dense. The faraway rat-a-tat beat of a woodpecker’s tapping was the background to other bird melodies nearby. It was a joyful chorus, with only the rustling of leaves in the breeze now and then for accompaniment. This was western Michigan in the early 1800s. A small village of Indians camped alongside Black Lake, with one Congregationalist missionary and one...