THANKSGIVING AT GILOH

Mrs. Trowbridge picks up her story as Shrew Kahn and his regiment recover from the battle at Giloh. The Giloh outpost is badly damaged, but Kahn and his regiment prepare for a grand celebration. Kahn couldn't know that this first feast of thanksgiving would be celebrated again and again by untold millions of shrews over the centuries, and acknowledged by shrew historians as the first Trowbridge shrew Thanksgiving. I know from her journal references that it was still being celebrated in her time, the early 19th Century.

It's most fortunate that you were not reading this journal page just before your Thanksgiving dinner. It may have adversely affected your appetite, as you can see from Mrs. Trowbridge's lovely watercolor rendition of that first Thanksgiving spread...


MR. FERNSTEIN'S INVENTION
In another of her "primer pages", Mrs. Trowbridge discusses a new invention that will help bring Huckleberry Hollow into the modern age of the 19th Century.

LAST STAND AT GILOH

Mrs. Trowbridge often wrote and painted subjects relating to her ancestors. She wanted her children and her descendants to understand and appreciate shrew family history. One of the most heroic and colorful characters in shrew legend was Shrew Khan. Here Mrs. T depicts a pivotal scene from Shrew Khan's career as a warrior shrew...the Last Stand at Giloh.

SMOKE SIGNALS

A clear winter sky was a welcome sight for the small creatures of the rain forest, who spent their winters beneath the snow. On her journal page Mrs. Trowbridge explains the peculiar plumes of smoke emanating from holes in the snow.

THE WIND RIDERS

I've especially enjoyed reading Mrs. Trowbridge's journal pages that pertain to the history of her species, Sorex Trowbridgii. She wrote extensively about her Wind Rider ancestors and their amazing "wind ships" that sailed the skies of long ago. Their colorful silk sails, bearing bold clan symbols, strongly resemble our modern-day flexifoil kites, which also are capable of lifting a human aloft. I would know...I own such kites, and I have been lifted, and dragged many times. I was once dragged non-stop for 1 1/2 miles on the beach at Westport, Washington.

You'll note from Mrs. T's painting that the pitch of the sails is controlled from inside the basket. The baskets were carefully woven from sturdy dried grass, and sealed with pitch.

I will continue to occasionally slip in a page or two from what I call Mrs. T's Primer. These are pages, usually illustrated with her fir needle charcoal sticks, that discuss the creatures and culture of the rain forest. On this page she speaks of the beetles, and the segregated nature of their relationship with shrews.