The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1891-09-27
CUMMING WITH an APACHE.
1ur EPISODE or ~''rADs."

uAfO lAAtt
| creatures Of circumstance. and was q tender
60, tban ANYWAY. This Is how / chummed
! IL with my little Indian: -
| the pepper-troe at the back of the railroad
| station. This | did because / had q theory
TINT exercise was GOOD for a man living Oh n
| desert. The lazy Mcxicans. and most OF tho
Americans theresbouts. had no rudy gov
on their faces. They were all saiiow' "ha'
| wanted was o ruddy glow.
NJ red-and blue clubs circled about very
| prettlly that day, and the rudy. glow came;
also a dripping epidermis and a big desire 70
at down in the shade Of the pepper-tree ana
blow tobacco smoke. Tho tree was q smail
one. When the station tank ran over. wnlcn
was not often. its roots received q hlue mois-
ture. SO it grew. slowly.
As soon as dropped my clubs q squeai OF
disgust went up from somewhere; ana as
turned about, ! saw n small, brown head uaft
behind a cactuslined rock.
said nothing, but leaned back on my seat;
pulled my sombrero down over my.face, ana
| slammed sleep. with one half-closed eye on
| the rock and the big cactus shrubs. No use.
You cannot get an Apache out OF bis hole
that way.
Next d.y. with my beautiful exercise theory
still bri.tling in my brain. | turned quickly
while in the midst Of my club-swinging and
saw tho vide-open eyes and gaping mouth OF
the cunningest little savage | had ever be-
held. lie sprang about and fed behind the
rock but not too quickly for Inc TO read "AAA
Family Flour in large red letters on MS
back. His one short garment was q cotton
sack. with holes cut through 1t for his head
Come Tads," 7 cried, christening him in
TINT feeting second OF bis name that stuck to
him all his life, 'out of that" And / jumped
behind the rock. swinging An open hand that
did not grasp the four-sack, as had intended
is should.
Where was the wee savage?
Like a lizard no had dsrtod from sight
somewhere in that little patch OF ROCKS
and cactus, though there did not appear TO
be cover enough to conceal a iack-rabbit.
The spines must scratch him thought;
rs I looked at the prickly cactus. but did
not know then how Apaches put up with such
boy unnecessary torture. / went back 20 my
clubs. Throwing my eyes about again l
caught another fecting glimpse OF the brown
head as it dogcd behind tho rock.
Tads must have been disappointed next day
| for there was no club-swinging under the pop
per tree. The duties Of telegraph agent lay
too heavily upon mo and the sun lay too
| heavily upon the desert. / saw Tads steal
away from his lair about two hours after my
usual exercise time and walk down the sand
drifts with a detected air, his one garment
Tapping in the hot wind.
wild nature like this was proof against
such snares as tho toothsome CONNECTION. the
| golden orange. or the mealy peanut: lfound
that out by trial In the course Of the next
week. But an old jack-knifo won him over;
That was something his Apache mind could
grasp. II was a greater delight to him than
the red-and-blue clubs. Sworn friends from
! that dav were lads andI. His talk WINS aridicu-
lous mixture Of English. Spanish and Apache
and his voice was very throaty. But under
stood him. ~1ndian-hke, he said little. 1t
was. therefore. easy to get along with nm.
| He would sit for hours on II high stood. listen
ing TO the '"'tunk-tunk-tunk" Of nv sounder.
The telegraph was an awful mystery TO him
at first. and it sauelched bis imagination: but
he solved the problem at last. A man away
off over the mountains spoke with bis niger
TO me and / spoke back to him. That was his
idea of it. and it was not such q bad one
either. The cummings of the wires overhead
were the voices Of people with ponderols IN
gers, but they were not of this world.
How the cowboys laughed when they saw
| Tads and me in the station. -.
That tenderfoOts a queer one" they said
of me.
The despised Apache could not crawl into
their hesrts-no, not even II he were a SIX
year-old.
Hell steal everything the tenderfoot's
got" they pleasantly ayerred. But he did
not.
When Tads left the station of an evening,
| his ULlle DTOWn ltct DhlltItu bbihiSnbV'c -
roads to the wickiups 81 half mile away. In
time he wore O narrow trail over 70 the huts
PITY veil, 4" was what lads would grunt to
me every day when he came shyiy into the
Office, and | greeted him with a friendly
'How-de-do?" Then he would shrug his
shoulders in a way that wnnkled the three
KS into such bewildering folds that you
could not have read them unless you had
known what they were beforehand.
One day while he was meandering about
the place g~runting quietly to himself he upset
one of my battery jars.
'Tads." i cried. Angrily, for the deserts
breath was hot upon Inc and was irritating
enough. let alone spilled yitrol; you're a
little beast. Skip out of here or I'll take a
stick to youl"
Then arose a great howl from Tsds. and he
kept on bowling until IN Apache woman
came over tho sands from the wlckiups and
gathered him up in her arms. She was his
mother. She eyed me suspiciously and walk
ed away with her highly demonstratiye
burden.
OF course I regretted my hot language and
wanted tho little beggar back again, 1t was
SO lonely there on the desert. The wires
walled 20 heart brokenly, willis the sun beat
down so fiercely in the daytime and the
coyotes yelled so d~olefully at night. How he
had crept into nay heart. 10 DO sure
1t was several days before We were on salts
factory terms again. Tads wanted to be q
white man. He wanted TO mako talk
marks on 'pupper' with a.feather-l some.
times used a quill pen, be 1t rcmarked-and
he wanted to speak with his finger. We'll.
did manage TO teach him q few letters from a
railroad poster, and he learned TO drawl out
'"T-a-ds" in o drOll way. With perseverance
TINT was really startling. Iatterward took him
ia an uncertain way through q page Or two OF
Can you Bee the fat OK" and 80 Oh, where.
fore his heart was glad.
"fll be wife mans, heap sure" he declared
in his b~ull-frog voice, after he had accom-.
plished this wonderful feat.
Great distress racked Tads' soul on h efatal
day when the wickiups were taken down and
the tribe mounted its mustangst to 60 over the
hills. The Apaches had TO search all over the
station TO find lads. At last they hauled hin
forth from under my bunk. screaming like
mad. or no avail were his screams. Of nc
avail was his cry. Ne ysnter stay wild him
Me ysntcr be wife mans"
Apache papa. are unbending and Apache
mammas arc insxOrablc. Away they whIsked
Tads, leaving behind him \ tenderfoot with O
queer feeling in his throat.
We'll. the boy has the instincts of a white
man" / said. for was proudo what / fancied
! had made of him. land he'll be q shining
light among those develish people of his. II
we had n few more like him 10 put among
them the Apache question would settle itseli
and we could set our soldiers to hoeing corn. d
hen ! took up the restless life Of q city
man. and 4 big and busy railroad Office
claimed q good share of my attention for the
next ten years. Yes. 10 was fully that Ions
before l again set foot upon the desert. Our