The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1884-05-23

what an Injun done fer me onct, and
yen V say a word"
- he done ye any good" said Mart.
It'll be the first time I ever heerd of
an lnjun dom q favor"
That's jest it, said Jack. "Ye lest
Rick 'em around and swear at 'em. but
did .ye ever give 'em a mans show? Ye
Knows ye neve done it, and SO We amt
found out thatunderneath every skin,
be 1t white, black, or yaller, they is
some part Of a man.
twenty year ago, 1 worked up on
the Pere Marquette, in one of the rough
est camps they was there. I was rough
In them days, I tell ye-rougher'n I be
now. didn't care nothln' fer nobody.
and nobody cared fer me.
Il was hing-bee of the gang because
could fight, and didn't care who or
what | fit with. I was risky and DARN ;.
Jest to show what / could do.
Wall, one day, in u snow storm,
long come a Injun, hungry ez a bear
and ragged as a hemlock tree. He
come draggin' hisself along to the cooks
shanty and asked for somethink to eat.
The boys hated a Injun ez they hated
poison: and when they see that rascal
a-humpin' hisself along. they jest grab
bed him and dragged him around that
clearin', kickin and poundin' him, till
he dropped all in q heap, and then they
crowded round him, Jest ez they would
round n wild %critter.
Il dunno what made me do it! p'raps
1T was because | wanted to git into n
light, or because [ was so queer; but
out jumped and saws L.
"What We tormentin', this Door critter
fer?"
Poor critter! says one of the men.
He aint only a Iniun. What's the
harm kickin a Injun?'
Try it, and I'll show We what's harmY
l says.
"Bat he didn't care to try, so L picked
the critter UP and lowed I'd attend to
the next man e. hit linn.
Its strange why I done it, fer I'd
kicked EN- myself time and again. But
| tuck that Injun and Civ him
think to eat.
"He trembled jest like a leaf, and ate
like a wolf, a-grumblin' and mutterin,
to hisself all the time. I tuck him into
the woods away from the boys. and
started him off. Jest afore he went, he
grunted out some of his Injun nonsense
about not forgettin' and all that.
He went off maxim signs like cz how
he remembered it all. The boys picked
on me fer o spell, but arter q while it
kinder blowed over"
We We're all listening intently. The
rain beat on the roof of the shanty and
dropped slowly from the caves. Jacks
pipe had gone out, and he sat with his
face in the shadow, talking as one talks
to himself.
well, nigh on three weeks arter this,
the boss tells me to start ont and blaze
a road from the camp to a crick, nigh
on three miles away. / set off at noon,
and worked to the crick, and then start.
ed back on the blazin'.
But Jest ez | started back thar come
up the ~tiercest storm We ever see. How
it did snow. and cold, and SC dark We
couldn't see ahead at all.
II went on, %a-aoppin' over logs and
brush, till l come to a place whar three
big logs he'd ben blowed down by the
wind, so that they jest hung together.
| climbed onto the top one, when some
how the old thing fell kerfiummux, and
down L went with it atop of me.
81 laid thar with that log on my leg.
I judged my leg was broke by the way
it felt, and I alone in that woods!
"Thc snow come down like a cloud
over me, and the wind went a-singin'
through the trees in q dreadful lone
some way. ! laid thar a-thinkin' of
every thing [ he'd ever done. How a
man will think in such a place!
Il he'd gin up about all hope, when I
heard a-rustlin' in the bushes clost by
me, and something or nuther come out
whar l was. 1t come up clost to me
and began to feel of me, and l see it
was a man. Then he began to jabber
in Iniun, and ] knowed it was one of
them yaller ~fellers; and I thinks, Its
one of them ~rascals ez I've abused. and
now how hell jump round and yell to
see me a-layin' here!
But ez he iabbered away in his In
jun talk, l knowed I he'd heerd his voice
afore, and l says, Whole We, anywav?'
Aud when he come out with his Me not
forgit,' 1 knowed it was that Iniun I had
fit fer.
.Then T SEE, Roll that log offmy leg
will YEP and he worked as Injun never
did afore at that log, and at last off it
come. l couldn't step on that leg at
all. and afore L knowed it i got ez faint
and eZ weak e. a rag, and eff it hadn't
ben fer that lniun L should hev fell
smack owe
HE ketched me round the body, and
afore I knowed he he'd me on his back
a-walking off with me-"
"How it did storm! 1t was the wust
storm ye ever see! It got worse and
worse, and soon I heard the Injun puff
and blow like a pig. Then down he
come over a root and l with him. But
up he got agin and staggered on, STUN
bin and fallin' along, till at last hefell
and laid still, like a dead man. Then [
give up fer lost, and somehow it all
turned darker round me.
"Bimeby he reused up, and crawled
round and brushed away the snow near
a hemlock tree, and dragged me up to
it. Then he butt a shelter of brush
over me, and laid down like a dog in
front of it.
"Onct the poor %critter reused up and
tuck off hiscoat and throwed it over me
and l was so ~lifeless l couldn't say a
word agin it.
"Then he vas about played out, I
guess, and he laid down agin in the face
of the storm and clost up tome, to keep
the snow from BLOWN onto me. Thar
we laid all night in the storm and the
dark and the cold; and when at last the
sun come up, thar lay the camp within
sight and hearin.' I yelled ez loud Ell
could, and the boys come out and TUX