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


erything was fine. Michigan merely
had to crawl around In the dark hui
and rattle legs until the bell tinkled
Then he took the other one.
But many a night, when the moo
drew ur above the cypress wall, Au'
relic, drowsily stirring under thu
palm thatch, heard the bell and knew
that Old Man Captain was out stump.
ing the path and chanting Of the
south's lost legions.
And all about camp and over the ba'
you when there was moss to bale Of
crabs to catch, one heard 1t tinkie
tinkle, tinkle! So that the towboa
niggers gave him the name that stucl
thereafter: Captain Tinkletoes."
Old Man Captain did not mind; III
smiled vaguely. These days he wal
not 80 sure about many things. Wher
he started the old heroic tale Of how
the child should lead 'em, numbei
of extraneous matters got mixed with
hunting and the weather, 30 that Au-
relic, at times, couldn't make out JUS
what was expected Of her, only 1t wal
very big and important.
| One day when they had gone on o
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 trail Of
smoke miles away over bit of SHIN.
mering marsh.
Uncle Michigan, what's that way
off yander?"
That's big boat come way ovel
the ocean a-goin' to the city!"
Where I come from?"
II done reckon so. And up beyond
NAwlyns the river goes and goes
states and lands and countries, all
with music names, Aurelie, for done
spell some of 'em out on the map"
She regarded him seriously, and
then the distant glimpse Of the great
ship. "Ain't ever goin' to learn all
them music names. Uncle Michigan;
And amt ever goin' to see all them
lands and states and countries?
Uncle Michigan looked at Captain
Tinkletoes, small and frail and gray
bumped against the ambeau box-and
he took Aurelie's hand and whispered:
you sure air! One o. these days when
Old Man Captain surrenders."
[ - k1ok L., nf
the colorful slow-moving life Of the
bayou-the lugger men and trappeI
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-Aure-
lie came to wonder what the world
was. She asked Captain Tinkletoes
when he was going to surrender, and
he smiled out Of his odd blue eyes and
said: when you. grow up to occupy
the land!"
Always that. She asked Uncle Mich
igan, and he took her in his arms and
mumbled. You're leadin' 'em,' Aure-
lie. Leadin' two ole fool soldiers to
the promised land O. happiness-right
yere!"
So from the first she knew love, an
amazing and protecting love. And
when her, growing curiosity asked
again, Michigan took down the old
red-backed map which was one Of his
treasures.
"Yere she be, Aurelie, fiowin' from
all the land. From all the large
mountains the little brooks run into
the big ones, and the big ones run on
from the Ozarks and Rockies and AL
leghenies-Platte and Tennessee and
Ohio and Missoury-down they come
through the big river to us by the
seal"
Michigan, I'd like to see all them
places"
"Yes, sir! When Captain Tinkletoes,
he surrenders!'
She puzzled more over that as she
sat by the lily boom and watched tn
baby sharks play underneath the flow
ers and the giant gars steal in and
out. She twisted the purple spikes O.
hyacinths into her hair and stared
down at her brown little face. Then
she clapped her hands and pointed of
to the north. II belong Off there!
Where all the states and mountains
come from! Done goin' up to occupy
the land!"
And one day Captain Tinkletoes
surrendered. Not dramatically, lead
ing the old gray lines and shouting
but just piteously and without pur-
pose, as great dreams end In life. Hog
jaw and Doc Fortune found him when
they were tie-cutting in the swamp
His pirogue was upturned, and Cap
tain Tinkletoes was under 1t in the
black water. Aurelie remembered
when they brought him into camp
how the bayuo men smoked and talfc
and drank their coffee. Etienne, the
crab-boat man, wanted to go fetch q
priest from English Turn, but Michl-
gan 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 a
little blanketed heap, down in the
white shells over which the gay little
Lizards scampered, while the mock
ing birds sang in the green cane at
his head. Aurelie, holding the Indian
woman'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 followed him for forty year; and
yere's the Bia woman that did the
cookin'. And yere's the little girl he
loved and that made two old foo
swampers quit their wanderin' and
settle down. Done surrendered to God
and laid his ole gray head to rest!"
Then they went back to camp in 81
lence, and there Michigan gave Cap
tain Tinkletoes' sawed off shotgun to
Doc Fortune, and his razor that had
cut nothing since the war. to Crump;
opd q liffla old niaca of rnlorad ola se