Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1913-07-01

she'll see all the states and countries!
What names is them I done told you
Aurelie-the music names?"
"Californy," she said simply.
And next one?"
"Arizony."
"And Montanay, and Ioway ant
Tennessee and Ohio! All them we"
see and more! Lead us to the land o
joy!"
And all her strange after-life oi
laughter and Of tears the little girl re-
membered the old soldier waving his
hand to the undiscovered countries
4 And always she knew he was at heart
the poet, the adventurer. the lover
whatever else he might be; nothing
could change that.
So the next day they piled old traps
and boxes and blankets and hound
pups and the FIVE wooden legs Of Cap
taain Tinkletoes as keepsakes, into the
john boat and set Off to find the land
lof 10y with music names. South and
east through brilliant wildernesses
polling through lily jams, sailing
swamp lakes. padding salt marshes
Shrimp camps. oyster platforms, ter
rapin hunters Of Grand 1sle-they
wandered and worked, and Aurelie
came to know other children Of all
hues and races, and at the island balls
llearned to dance with orange blossoms
| in her hair. The murmur Of the sea
was in her ears, the moonlight on the
oaks in her eyes, and with the dronins
Creole violins she awakened to gaiety
losing the droll seriousness of saw
lage. Also, for the first time she had
her face washed cleanly-by the store
Ikeeper's wife who know then she was
not of the undecipherable Chino Span
| ish- Filipino breed of the shrimp plat
lform villages. But when the balls
jlwere over, a shifty footed and suspi-
cious savage woman took Aurelie and
He'd her off to their ragged tent. AL
ways, through the blur Of queer faces
black, brown, yellow, white-Aurelie
remembered the watchful love In the
eyes of the basket maker and Of I'm
tcle Michigan. Always, for these were
what she knew Of love!
From the Gulf-coast islands they
went west and north, and in the years
| the child became girl, slender, 1.-THE,
trapping the mink and raccoons, fol-
lowing the wild bees flight, weaving
baskets with strong brown fingers to
lure the shrimp from under the lilies,
balancing herself to shoot in ticklish
running pirogue" that would steal
through the swamps where a heavier
hunter dared not follow. Thus she
grew, with never a qualm for the blood
of the hunted nor doubt Of the Ma
kers intent. But at twelve she was a
woman, blithe and unthinking and
kind hearted. without fear, without
guile
Perhaps!
At any rate, one day, censured by
the Indian woman, she stole from
camp, swan Grand River with her
gaudy little gown tucked in knot on
her head, dressed in the woods and
tappeared at a Catun ball-with a
Iwild .hyacinth in her hair. She danced
and laughed and bewildered the woods
men, pretending to know no English
when the Yankees addressed her, and
no French when spoken to In that
tongue. But standing In the heated
Ballroom" she sang a barbaric song
the Indian woman had taught her,
posed with an odd theatric fancy, and
then ran away leaving them gaping.
When she swan to the john-b boat at
dawn and put her hand upon Michi-
gan's as he fished, he started, tried to
swear helplessly and stopped.
But amt I growed now?" she
laughed.
"Damme! How we goin to do II
you act that-a-way?"
(which -way?" And she drew up
her naked little body, poised on the
boat, pressed her hands over her
swelling breasts and stared to the
north. Michigan, when air we goin'
to see all the states and lands with the
music names you tell Off"
"Aurelie, you air gettin to be such a
big girl and such a pretty girl as !
dunno If we ought to let you see all
them countries"
afe Nd
self"
But at last they came out on the
mighty river that Michigan had not
seen since he left his leg at Vicks-
burg; and another year found them at
Memphis among the shanty-boat folk.
Then a government dredge towed
them up river, the Bia woman, cooking
for the crew. The men used to watch
a child who, from her house boat deck
would put a bit Of tinsel or a flower
In her hair and stare down In the wa
ter to admire the picture, or would
smooth her gypsy dress over her hips,
unnoticing her audience. If they hall
ed her she pretended not to hear them.
They would not believe she was but
thirteen, 30 tropically primal was her
womanhood, so tantalizingly wise her
| reserve.
So, up the great river Of her dreams
they went for months and months.
Then, one night on the Minnesota
shore, the dredge burned, and Uncle
Michigan cut the house-boat loose. 1t
| bumped on down the river again to
come aimlessly adrift in a pocket of
the Iowa hills. There it stuck, and all
the dreamy summer the weeds and
sands thickened about 1t until 1t could
| drift no more.
And one day the exiles climbed a
nearby hill to look down on a town
buried in September naples; a decent
church spire here and there. the clock
| tower Of the court house In the square
and farmer folk driving homeward.
| On this prosy common day Of the
northern midlands, Aurelie. with the
good -humored curiosity of a savage.
looked down for her first glimpse OF
an ordered life. Out Of the sweet and