Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1910-09-30


How the cowboys laughed when
they saw Tads and me in the station.
"That tenderfoot's a queer one"
they said Of me.
The despised Apache could not
crawl into their hearts-no, not even
If he were a six-year-old.
He'll steal everything the tender
foots got" they pleasantly averred.
But he did not.
When Tads left the station OF an
evening, his little brown feet pattered
straight over the roads to the wicki-
ups. half-mile away. In time he wore
a narrow trail over to the hunts.
"Pitty vell," was what Tads 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 wrinkled the three KS into such
bewldering 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, gruntlng quietly to
himself. he upset one of my battery
Jars.
"Tads." cried, angrily, for the de-
sert's breath was hot upon me and
was irritating enough, let alone spilled
vitriol, you're a little beast! Skip
out Of here, or III take stick to
you."
Then arose a great howl from Tads.
and he kept on bowling until an
Apache woman came over the sands
from the wickiups and gathered him
up in her arms. She was his mother.
She eyed me suspiciously and walked
away with her highly demonstrative
burden.
Of course | regretted my hot lam
guage and wanted the little beggar
back again. II was so lonely there on
the desert. The wires walled so heart
brokenly, while the sun beat down so
fiercely in the daytime and the coyotes
yelled so dolefully at night. How he
had crept into my heart. to be sure!
II was several days before we were
on satisfactory terms again. Tads
wanted to be a white man. He want
ed to make talk marks" on "pupper"
with feather sometimes used a
quill pen. be II remarked-and he
wanted TO speak with his finger. Well,
a
ters from a railroad poster. and he
learned TO drawl out "T-a-d-s" in a
droll way. With perseverance that
was really startling. I afterward took
him in an uncertain way through
page or two of "Can you see the fat
OK" and so on. wherefore his heart
was glad.
"Ill be w'lte mans, heap sure" he
declared in his bullfrog voice, after
he had accomplished this wonderful
feat.
Great distress racked Tad's SOL on
the fatal day when the wickiups re
taken down and the tribe mounted its
mustangs TO go over the hills. The
Apaches had TO search all over the
station to find Tads. At last, they
hauled him forth from under my bunk,
screaming like mad. OF no avail were
his screams. of no avail was his cry:
"Me yanter stay wild him. Ne yanter
be wife mans!"
Apache papas are unbending and
Apache mammas are inexorable. Away
they whisked Tads. leaving behind
him tenderfoot with queer feeling
in bis throat.
We'll. the boy has the instincts OF
q white man." said, for | was proud
of what I fancied had made of him,
"and he'll be a shining light among
those deviish people of his II we had
n few more like him to put among
them. the Apache question would set
tie itself, and We could set our SOL
diers TO hoeing corn"
Then took up the restless life OF a
city man. and a big and busy railroad
Office claimed a good share OF my at
tention for the next ten years. Yes, It
was fully that long before ! again
set foot upon the desert. Our train
stopped at the old station. How the
pepper-tree had grown. to be sure. In
its shade sat cavalry sergeant with
a half-dozen OF his men about him,
and I'm their midst were three Indian
prisoners, who were being taken 10
the fort to be shot.
They were fierce-looking fellows,
those three savages. There was one.
the youngest. who was a perfect
demon. the soldiers said.
"Killed three women and two
babies down at Mustang Wash last
Tuesday" said the sergeant to me;
"iust after one of them had given him
his breakfast, too. He's a young one,
not more than seventeen. | should
say; but he's the worst red devil l
ever saw"
Gazing at the boy captive. a
strange feeling stole over me. the
stolid face was oddly familiar.