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

faced and stolid, but when the CUES
came without fear and took her hant
and smiled up, the shifty-footed bas
ket-maker knelt and wiped the littl'
And the next morning, after the chile
had breakfasted on condensed mill
and mush and was playing with th'
hound pups before the palmetto thatch
Michigan stole out of the flooded for
est with the Bia woman in his pirogue
She came to stand over the child lis
tening to the confused tales Of th'
wooden legged swampers who dit
their best to explain. And the prom
, ises they made! II she would only sta!
and help them rear the guest to be
lady they would roam no more. They
would stay and tend the lily boom FOL
the lumber company, and catch fisi
and crabs for the trade boats, and bulk
a lean-to on the house, and buy rice
and red beans and molasses and shoes
oh, the wonderful things they woult
do IL the Bia woman would only stay
and rear the child to be lady!
ones face. And at nightfall she came
again with all her goods. padding
through the woods by trails that none
but the hardest trappers beyond "tht
forty-arpent line" could follow. Moth.
ing she cared that Old Man Captair
had retreated to the swamps in '6t
and had never surrendered; nor thai
Michigan who gained his name through
being captured by the cavalry Of thai
state, had followed Old Man Captain
because, certainly IL Old Man Captain
wouldn't surrender, and the govern
ment up north wouldn't surrender
why one must stick to Old Man Cap
tain. She came because the child
smiled at her, and she was alone. She
had lost four brothers and 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; and once she had fol-
lowed a seine crew to the open gulf
pulling an oar in the CLASSY calms
with the best Of them, but coming
back better neither in money nor NOR
ais.
Long years after, in her bright
world the child had a memory Of the
Indian basket maker. stolid. her black
hair hanging straight behind her ears
in which were two brass rings, kneel-
ing to blow the Goals In the clay fur
mace and roasting live crabs. watch
ing them writhe with the calm Of the
savage. And another memory was OF
the Indian woman taking her miles
through the swamps in her slender pi-
rogue to meet some priest who came
on monthly visits from the lower coast
plantations, and thereafter the child
came to know that she had been named
Aurelie because that word was found
on her rosary. Then came tumble
of child remembrances so fantastic
that she came to think they must be
dreams: Of the long hot days and won
derful sunsets over the shoreless lakes
the mornings all aglitter under the
moss -plumed cypress, the cardinals
and mocking- birds fitting above the
floating hyacincths around their ttny
garden. Many summers Aurelie watch
ed the eternal procession Of the hya-
cinths past their palm hut, sometimes
50 choking the bayou that it was
sea of purple, but one in which no
boat could move, not even the log
steamer which came down now and
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 af-
ter palm thatch when the old ones
sagged in the July rains, or the floods
from crevasses drove them into the
tree platform built in a live-oak for
just such dangers. In summer the two
old men toted moss from the black
swamp and sold it to the trade boats;
in winter they trapped and hunted
and ran crab lines, and all these
months and years Old Man Captain
lived in great expectancy, Of what,
none exactly knew. Not even Michi-
gan, who sometimes would shake his
head and confide to Aurelie that "Old
Man, he done gone clean crazy this
time!"
Old Man would sit for hours regard
ing Aurelie as 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 the hut and the bayou, calling
out phrases of the mighty drama that
had touched his brain. Sometimes 1t
was Lee on his big white horse. or
Stonewall rarin' and chargin', or at
times it was Of Jean La Fftte's pirate
treasure buried somewhere from Pla-
quemine to Grand Terre and which
Aurelie was to find and so enrich the
Confederacy that the old gray lines
would rise triumphantly. Yes. Aure-
lie was to lead 'em to occupy the land.
But one summer Old Man Captain
was not so we'll. 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 Man whitfield on Michigan's
Christmas leg, which he kept hidden
under the coil Of the boom chain
Michigan knew it was there but he
pretended ignorance, and everybody
helped along the gay deceit. Christ
mas day each partner gave the other
his new leg; and 80 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 domes.
tic complications. Sometimes wher
Old Man Captain got out Of bed to
walk the path calling on the God o
battles, or telling of the treasure Of the
Old Pirate Folkses, he would strap or
II - =.