The Skeleton On Round Island

'The Skeleton On Round Island' is a short story written by Mary Hartwell Catherwood. The story unfolds when Ignace Pelott died at Mackinac Island, aged ninety-three years. The old quarter-breed, son of a half breed Chippewa mother and French father, took with him into silence much wilderness lore of the Northwest. He was full of stories when warmed up for the recital, though at the beginning of a talk his gentle eyes dwelt on the listener with anxiety, and he tapped his forehead—"So many things gone from there!" His habit of saying «Oh God, yes,» or «Oh God, no,» was not in the least irreverent, but simply his mild way of using island English. While water lapped the beach before his door and the sun smote sparkles on the strait, he told about this adventure across the ice, and his hearer has taken but few liberties with the recital.