New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-01-28
THE PRINCESS BOB.
BY BRET HARTE.

BY BRET HARTE.
She was a klamath Indian. Her It'll
was, l think. compromise between he
claim as daughter of a chief and gratitud
to her earliest white protector, whose name
after the Indian fashion, she had adopted
Bob" Walker had taken her from tn
breast of her dead mother at a time whel
the sincere volunteer sOldiery of the Cali
fOrnia frontier were impressed with the be
lief that determination was the NANTES
destiny of the Indian race. He had will
difficulty restrained the noble zeal of hi
cOmpatriots long enough to convince then
that the exemption Of one Indian baby
would not invalidate this theory. And ht
took her to his hOme-a pastoral clearing OF
the banks OF the Salmon river-where sht
was cared for after frontier fashion.
Before she was nine years old, she had
exhausted the scant kindness of the thr
Overworked Mrs. Walker. AS playfellow
of the young Walkers she was unreliable
as a nurse for the baby she was inefficient.
She lost the former in the trackless depths
of a redwood forest; she basely abandoned
the latter in an extempOre cradle, hanging
like chrysalis to convenient bOugh. She
lied and she stOle-twO objectionable sins
in frontier community, where truth was a
necessity and provisions were the only prop
clearing were sometimes haunted by blank
eted tatterdemaliOns with whom she had
secret condolences. Mr.. Walker more than
once regretted his indiscreet humanity. but
she presently relieved him OF responsibility,
and possibly blood outlines, by disappear
ing entirely.
When she reappeared, it was at the ad-
jacent village of LOgport, in the capacity
of hOusemaid to a traders wife, who. join
ing some little culture to considerable con-
scientiOusness, attempted to instruct her
charge. But the princess proved an unsat-
isfactOry pupil to even so liberal a teacher.
She accepted the alphabet with great good
humOr. but always as pleasing and recur-
ring novelty, in which all interest expired
at the completion OF each lesson. She
found q thousand uses for her books and
writing materials other than those known
to civilized children. She made a curious
necklace of bits of slate pencil, she con-
structed a miniature canoe from the paste
board covers of her primer, she bent her
pens into fishhOOks, and tattooed the faces
of her younger companions with blue ink.
Religious instruction she received as
good humoredly, and learned to pronounce
the name of the Deity with a cheerful famil-
iarity that shocked her preceptress. Nor
could her reverence be reached through
analogy; she knew nothing of the Great
Spirit, and expressed entire ignorance of the
happy hunting ground. Yet she attended
divine service regularly, and as regularly
asked for a hymn book, and it was only
through the discovery that she had collected
twenty-five of these volumes and hidden
them behind the wood pile that her connec
ton with the First Baptist church of Log
port ceased. She would occasionally aban-
don these civilized and Christian privileges
and disappear from her home. returning
after several days Of absence with an odor
of bark and fish, and peace offering to her
mistress in the shape of venisOn or game.
To add to her troubles, she was now four
teen, and, according to the laws of her race,
a woman. do not think the most romOntic
fancy would have called her pretty. Her
complexion deted most of those ambiguous
SMILES through which poets uncOnsciOusly
apologize for any deviation from the eau
cassian standard. 1t was not wine or am
ber-colored: if anything. it was smoky. Her
face was tattoOd with red and white lines
on one cheek, as if fine tooth comb had
been drawn from cheek bone to jaw: and
but for the good humOr that beamed from
her small berry-like eyes and shone in her
white teeth, would have been repulsive.
She was short and stout. In her scanty
drapery and unrestrained freedom she was
statuesque, and her more unstudied atti-
tudes were marred by a siman habit of
scratching her left ankle with the toes of
her right foot, in moments of contemplation.
l think | have already shown enough to
indicate the incongruity of her existence
with even the low standard of civilization
that obtained in LogpOrt in the year 1860.
1t needed but one more fact to prove the
far-sighted political sagacity and prophetic
ethics of those sincere advocates of exter-
minatiOn, to whose virtues l have done but
scant justice in the beginning of this article.
This fact was presently furnished by the
e., all ay, ,..al 4
appearances-this time unusually pro-
lOnged-she astonished Logport by return
ing with half breed baby of week old in
her arms. That night meeting of the
hard featured serious matrons of LogpOrt
was held at Mrs. Browns. The immediate
Punishment of the princess was demanded.
Soft hearted Mrs. Brown endeavored vainly
to get a mitigation or suspension OF the
sentence. But, as on former occasion,
the princess took matters into her own
hands few morning afterward wicker
cradle, containing an Indian baby, was
found hanging on the handle OF the door of
the First Baptist church. 1t was the Par
THAN arrow Of the flying princess. From
that day Logport knew her no more.
1t had been bright clear day on the Mp
land, so clear that the ramDarts OF Fort
jackson and the flagstaff were plainly visit
BILE twelve miles away from the long, curry
arm around the peaceful waters of Logport
bay. 1t had been clear day on the sea
shore albeit the air was filled with the flv-
ing spume and shifting sand OF a raggling
beach, whose low dunes were dragged down
by the long surges of the Pacific, and
thrown up again by the tumultuous trade
winds. But the sun had gone down in a
bank of tieecy fog that was beginning to
roll in upon the beach. Gradually the
beadland at the entrance OF the harbor and
the lighthouse disappeared, and the willow
fringe that marked the line of Salmon river
vanished. and the ocean was gone. A few
sails still cleaned on the waters OF the bay,
but the advancing fog wiped them ont one
by one, crcpt across the steel-oiu eXpanse,
swallowed up the white mills ana single
spire of Logport, and joining with reinforce
Inents from the marshes, moved soleinnly
up the hills. Ten minutes more and the
landscape was blotted out; simultaneously
the wind died away, and death-like Silence
stole over the sea and shore. The FAINT
clang high overhead, of unseen brent, the
nearer call of invisible plover, the lap ana
wash Of iuGstinguishable waters, and the
monotonouS roll Of the vanished ocean,
were the only sounds. As night deepened,