Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1913-10-31

Ek e.,,. !
CHAPTER I.-(Continued).
And the mex morning, after the child
q breakfasted Of condensed milk and
mush and was playing with h hound
pups before the palmetto thatch, Mich
igan stole out of the flooded forest
with Bia m In his pirogue. She
came to stand over the child listening
to h confused tales Of h wooden
legged swampers who did their best to
explain. And h promises they made!
IT she would only stay and help them
rear the guest to be a lady they would
roam no more. They would stay and
e h lily boom for the lumber COM
pany, a catch fish and crabs for the
trade boats, and build q leen-to on the
house. and buy rice and red beans and
molasses and shoes-Oh, the wonder
full things they would do II the Blu
woman would only stay and rear the
child to be q lady!
The Bia woman looked down Indian
faced and stolid, but when the guest
came without ear and took her hand
and smiled up. the shifty-footed basket
maker knelt and wiped the little ones
face. And at nightfall she came
again with all her goods. pad
OAAAl6 S1AIOO8u t1I0 WOVO0 ny SEt8llS
that none but the hardest trap
pers beyond "the ~forty-arpent line"
could follow. Nothing she cared that
Old Man Captain a retreated to the
swamps In '65 and had never surren-
dered; nor that Michigan, who gained
the cavalry Of that state. had followed
Old Man Captain because. certainly IL
Old Man Captain wouldn't surrender,
and the government up north wouldn't
surrender. why n must stick to Old
Man Captain. She came because the
child smiled at her; n she was alone.
She had lost four brothers n sisters
in the great storm at La Cheniere. and
the years since she had been with the
pirogue makers at the Lake Salvador
Temple. or at an evil shrimp camp on
John-the-Fool; n once h had fol-
lowed a seine crew to the open gulf.
pulling an oar In the CLASSY Gains with
the best of them. but coming back bet
ter neither In money nor morals.
Long years after. In her bright world
the child q q memory Of h Indian
basket-maker, stolid, her black hair
hanging straight behind her ears, In
which were two brass rings. kneeline
to blow the Goals In the clay furnace
and roasting live crabs. watching them
writhe with h calm Of he savage
And another memory was Of the Indian
woman taking her miles through the
swamps In her slender pirogue to meet
some priest who came On monthly Wis
and thereafter the child came to know
that she had been named Aurelie be-
cause that wore WA found on he
rosary. Then came q tumble Of Chile
r-emembrances SO fantastic that q
came to think they must be dreams;
sunsets over the shoreless lakes. tn,
mornings all aglitter under the moss
plumed cypress. tho cardinals ant
mocking birds fitting above the float
ing hyacinths around their tiny gar
den. Many summers Aurelie watched
the eternal procession of the hyacinthl
past their palm hut, sometimes 81
choking the bayou that It was a sc,
Of purple, but one in which no boa
could move. not even tho log steame
which came doWn and then t.
tow 2 raft up to tho great river to tn
north.
She grew with many generations o
hound pups from the day Of Ponto AM
Flora. They built palm thatch ate
palm thatch when the old ones sagge'
In the July rains, OF the floods from
crevasses drove them into he tree plat
dangers. In summer h two old mel
toted moss from tho black swamp an
sold It to the trade boats: in white
they trapped and hunted and ran tn
crab lines. and all these months an
years Old Man Captain.lived In q grea
Not ever Michigan. who sometime
would shake his head and confide t
Aurelie that "Old Man, ho done gon
clean crazy this time!"
Old Man would sit for hours regard
ing Aurelie as she played on the hard
packed earth before the thatch. hi
vague blue Eyes lit with his vision
Then at times no would mutter. or 9
between the hut and tho bayou. call
ing out phrases Of the mighty dram
that had touched his brain. Sometime
It was Leo on his big white horse, q
Stonewall rarin' and chargfn'. or 6
times It was Of Jean La Elites pirat
treasure buried somewhere frol
Aurelie was to find and SO enrich til
confcderacy that tho old : line
would rise triumphantly. Yes. Aureli
was to lead ZEN to occupy the land.
But one summer Old Man Capital
was not SO well. He did not folio
Michigan to the deep swamp for mo-
or turtles, but was content to sit an
canal. While Aurelie chartered. an
the Bia woman wove her crab basket
Old Man whitfield on Michigan's Chris,
mas leg, which he kept hidden und,
the coil Of the boom chair. Michiga
knew It was there but he pretendt
ignorance, and everybody helped alor
the a deceit. Christmas day eas
partner gave tho other his new lei
J and 30 long. for Aurelie's sake. hs
they lived in this one camp that q
kplace was cluttered with peg-legs. The
were used for al sorts Of purpose
from propping up tho sagged thatch
: moss frame posts. Those wooden le,
= i 80 A. ~ ~~eHA - AAn4~tNA A4~n~NaA.