The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1913-10-23
Old Man Captain was out stamping
the path and chanting Of the south's

Old Man Captain was out stumping
the path and chanting OF the south'a
lost legions.
And all about camp and over the
crabs to catch, one heard 1t tinkle,
tinkle, tinlxle! So that, h towboat
Fniggers gave him the name that stuck
thereafter: Captain Tinkletoes."
Old Man Captain did not mind; he
smiled vaguely. These days he was
not SO sure about many things. When
he started the old heroic tale Of how
the child should lead 'em. a number
of extraneous matters got mixed with
tt-pirate treasure and alligator ffun
Ing n the weather. so that Aurelia,
at times, couldn't make u just what
was expected Of her. only it was very
big and important.
One day when they had gon IN a
deer hunt Into the swamps far to the
east among nameless waterways
through a dying forest, she stood up In
the pirogue and pointed at a trail OF
smoke miles away over q bit of shim-
mering marsh.
Uncle Michigan. what's that way
off yander3"
That's a big boat come way over
the ocean a-goIn' to the city!"
Where I come from?"
Il o N reckon so. And up beyoHd
NAwlyns the. river goes and goes
St0LCS ~ IAek IN SOQlllIlCSps IL WIZ
music IN Aurelia, for I done spel
some Of 'em out on the map"
She regarded him seriously. and then
the distant glimpse of the great ship,
"Ain't I ever goin' to learn all them
music names. Uncle Michigan? And
amt I ever goin' see all them lands
and states and countries?
Uncle Michigan looked at Captain.
Tinkletoes, small and frail and gray,
bumped against the f1ambeau box
and he took Aurelie's hand and whis-
pered: You sure air! One O. these
days when Old Man Captain sur
renders"
And after that, In another veal OF
the colorful slow-moving life Of the
bayou-the lugger men nd trapper
men and drifters and moss pickers,
going continually up the river to the
north. while she watched merely the
drift of the lilies with the tides-Au-
relic came to wonder What h world
was. She asked Captain Tinkletoes
when he was going to surrender, and
he smiled out of his odd blue yes and
said: when you grow up to occupy,
the landl"
Always that. She asked Uncle
Michigan to explain, and he took her in
his arms and murnbled. You're lead
in EN-, Aurelie. Leadin' two ole fool
soldiers to the promised land o. hap
p~iness-right yere!"
So from the first she knew love, an
amazing and protecting love. And
when her growing curiosity asked
again, Michigan tool down h old
red-backed map which was n Of his
treasures.
"Yere she be, Aurelie, 1owin' from all
the land. From all the states n
mountains the little brooks run into the
big mes, and the big ones run on from
the Ozarks n Rockies and Ale
ghanies-Platte and Tennessee and
Ohio and Missoury-doWn they come
through the big liver to us by the
seal"
Michigan. I'd like to see all them
places"
Yves, sir! When Captain Tinkletoes,
he surrenders!"
She puzzled more over that as she
sat by the lily boom and watched the
baby sharks play underneath the flow
ers and the giant gars steal in and out.
She twisted the purple spikes of hya-
cfnths into her hair and stared down
at her brown little face. Then she
clapped her hands and pointed off to
the north. belong off there!
come from! Done goin' up to occupy
the land!"
And one day Captain Tinkletoes sur
rendered. Not dramatically, leading
the old gray lines and shouting, but
just ~piteously and without purpose, as
great dreams end in life. Hogjaw and
Doc Fortune found him when they
were tie cutting In the swamp. His
pirogue was upturned, and Captain
Tinkletoes was unde 1t in the black
water. Aurelie remembered when they
brought him into camp-how the
bayou men smoked and talked and
drank their coffee. Etienne, the crab
boat man, wanted to go fetch a priest
from English Turn. but Michigan
reckoned not. They would take him
up to Spanish Mans Point, where often
the two had dug for treasure around
the pirates grave. And there they laid
him and the great dream, q little
blanketed heap, down in the white
shells over which the gay little lizards
scampered, while the hooking birds
sang In the green cane at his head.
Aurelie, holding the Indian wonan's
hand, heard her little bell tinkle when
the black men shoveled in the shells.
Michigan took off his battered hat
and looked about.
Done surrendered! And yere's me
that follered him for 40 year: and
yere's the Bia woman that did the
cookin'. And yes the little girl he loved
and that made two old fool swampers
quit their wanderin' and settle down.
Done surrendered to God and laid his
ole gray head to rest!"
Continued next week.)