The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1913-10-23
tcHAPTER I--tcontinuedl.

mush and was playing with the hound
pups before the palmetto thatch, Mich
tgan stole out OF the flooded forest
with Bia woman In his pirogue. She
to the confuSed tales OF the wooden
legged swamperg who did their best to
explain. And the promises they made!
II h would only stay and help them
rea the guest to be O lady they would
roam no more. They would stay and
tend the lily boom for the lumber com
pany, and catch nsh and crabs for the
trade boats, and build q han-to on the
house. and buy rice and red beans and
molasses and ghoes--Oh, the wonder
full things they would Go IL the Bia
woman would only stay and rear the
child to be q ladyi
The Bia woman looked down Indian
faced and stoifd, but when the guest
came without fear and took her hand
and smiled up, the shifty-footed basket
maker knelt and wiped the little ones
face And ut nightfali she came
again with all her goods, pad
ding through the woods by trails
that none but the hardest trap
could follow. Nothing she cared that
Old Man Captain had retreated TO the
Bwamps In IS and had never strrren-
deRed: nor that Michigan who gained
his name through being captured by
the cavalry OF that state, had followed
Olu Man Captain because. certainly IL
Old Man Captain wouidn'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. and she was alone.
she lost four brothers and sisters
In h great storm at La Cheniere. and
the years since h had been with the
pirogue makers at the Lake Salvador
Temple, or at an evii shrimp camp on
John -the-Fooi; n ono she had fol-
lowed O seine crew 20 the open gulf.
the best Of them, but coming back bet
ter neither In money nor morals.
Long years after, In her bright world
Inc child had q memory OF the Indian
basket-maker, stolid, her black hair
hanging straight behind her ears, In
which were two brass rings. kneeling
20 blow he Goals IN the clay furnace
and roasting live crabs, watching them
writhe with the calm Of the savage.
n 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
Its from the lower coast plantations,
and thereafter the child came to know
b a she had been named Aurelie be-
that word was found on her
rosary. Then came q tumble Of child
renembrances SO fantastic that she
came to think they must be dreams:
Of the long hot days and wonderful
sunsets oyer the shoreless lakes, the
mornings all aglitter under the moss
plumed cypress, the cardinals and
knocking birds fitting above the float
ing hxacinths around their tiny gar
DEN. Many summers Aureiie watched
the eternal procession Of the hyacinths
past their palm hut, sometimes so
choking he bayou that II was a sea
OF purple, bu n In which no boat
could move, not even the log steamer
which came down now n then to
tow a raft up to the great river to the
north. ~
She grew with many generations OF
hound pups from the day of Ponto and
Flora They built palm thatch after
palm thatch when the cid one sagged
IN h July rains. or the floods from
crevasses drove them into the tree plat
form built In a live oak for Just such
dangers. In summer the two old men
toted moss from the black swamp and
sold 1t to the trade boats: In winter
they trapped and hunted and ran the
crab lines, and all these months and
years Old Man Captain lived IN q great
Expectancy q what, none exactly knew.
would shake his head and confide to
Aureite that "0ld Men. he done gone
clean crazy this dme!"
Old Man would sit for hours regard
ing AureIie ~ she played ON the hard
packed earth before the thatch, his
vague blue eyes lit with his vision.
Then at times he would mutter, or at
night would get up to pace the path
between he hut and the bayou. call
ting out phrases Of the mighty drama
that had touched his brain. Sometimes
Il was Lee on his big white horse. or
times 1t was Of Jean La Elites pirate
treasure buried somewhere from
Plaquemine to Grand Terre and which
Aurelte was to find and so enrich tho
confederacy that the old graz lines
would rise triumphantly. Yes, Aurelie
was to lead 'em to occupy the land.
But one summer OLD Man Captain
was not so well. He did not follow
Michigan to the deep swamp FOR moss
or turtles, but was content to sit and
tend the lily boom at the end Of the
canal While Aurelie chartered. and
the Bia woman wove her crab baskets,
Old Mar whitfield on Michigan's Christ
mas leg, which he kept hidden under
the coil of the boom chair. Michigan
knew II was there but he pretended
ignorance, n everybody helped along
the ray deceit. Christmas day each
partner gave h other his new leg;
and 20 long. for Aurelie's sake, had
they lived In. this one camp that the
place was cluttered with peg-legs. They
were used for all sorts of purposes.
from propping up the sagged thatch to
moss frame posts. Those wooden legs
led to all sorts Of domestic complica-
tons. Sometimes when Old Man Cap
tain got out of bed to walk the path
calling on the God o. battles, or tell
Ing of the treasure Of the Old Pirate
Folkses, he would strap on Uncle
Michigan's peg-leg instead of his own:
and then, when he crawled back to
bed, chilled with the dew, and Uncle
Michigan got out at dawn to make the
coffee, the latter would not disturb Old
Man to get his own leg. He gently
strapped on his partners and went to
the swamps, but as Michigan was tall
and Old Man Captain short. he was not
altogether comfortable. And this con-
fusion Of wooden legs troubled Aurelie.
She tide a pink ribbon on Michigan's
peg, and a blue one on Old Man Cap
tain's; but In the dark this did no
good. Old Man Captains head was too
fun Of the splendors of the recoming
Of the gray lines to tell pink from
blue: Then once the towboat niggers,
Hogjaw and Doc Fortune and Crump,
gave her a little brass bell. Aurelie
tied 1t to Old Man Captains wooden
leg. and after that everything was fine.
Miaf10an raraiEy hoa - orop mi arn,7nH