Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1913-10-23
CHAPTER 1.-tcontinued).
NLTPEK oIC, GiC.
CepyriEht, 1912, The Bohbs-Merrll Company.

CHAPTER I-(Continued).
And the next morning, after the child
a breakfaSted on condensed milk and
mush and was playing with the hound
pups before the palmetto thatch, Mich
igan stole out of the flooded forest
with Bia woman in his pirogue. She
came to stand over the child listening
to the confused tales Of the wooden
legged swampers who did their best to
explain. And the promises they made!
If she would only stay and help them
rear the guest to be a lady they would
roam no more. They would stay and
tend the lily boom for the lumber COM
pany, and catch fish and crabs for the
trade boats, and build a lean-to on the
house, and buy rice and red beans and
molasses and shoes-Oh, the wonder
full things they would do If the Bia
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 fear 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
ding through the woods by trails
pers beyond the forty-arpent line"
could follow. Nothing she cared that
Old Man Captain had retreated to the
swamps in '65 and had never surren-
dered; nor that Michigan, who gained
his name through being captured by
the cavalry Of that state, had followed
Old Mar Captain because, certainly If
Old Man Captain wouldn't surrender,
and the government up north wouldn't
surrender, why one must stick to Old
Man Captain. She came because the
child smiled at her, n she was alone.
She had lost four brothers and sisters
In the great storm at La Cheniere, and
the a since she had been with the
ptrogue makers at the Lake Salvador
Temple, or at an evil shrimp camp on
John-the-FoOl; and once sheShad fol-
lowed a seine crew to the open gulf,
the best of them, but coming back bet
ter neither In money nor morals.
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 We're two brass rings, kneeline
to blow the Goals in the clay furnace
and roasting live crabs, watching 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 pirogue to meet
some priest who came on monthly Wis
its from the lower coast plantations,
NAN ~ III GILL " III
that n had been named Aurelie he
cause that word was found ON her
rosary. e came a tumble of child
remembrances SO fantastic hat she
came to think they must be dreams:
| Of the long hot days and wonderful
mornings all aglitter under the moss
plumed cypress, the cardinals and
hooking birds fitting above the float
ing hyacinths round their tiny gar
den. Many MINER Aurelie watched
the eternal procession of the hyacinths
choking the bayou that it was a 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.
hound pups from the day of Ponto and
Flora. They built palm thatch after
palm thatch when the old ones sagged
IN the July rains, or the floods from
~crevasses drove them into the tree plat
form built in a live oak for just such
toted moss from the black swamp and
sold it to the trade boats; in winter
i they trapped and hunted and ran the
crab lines, and all these months and
years Old Man Captain lived in a great
expectancy, Of what, none exactly knew.
/ ANU eSS1l NIACllASdIl, WHO SOIIl0liIlcS
would shake his head and confide to
Aurelie that odd Man, he lone gone
clean crazy this time!"
Old Man would sit for hours regard
Ing Aurelie as h 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
between the hut n the bayou, call
ing 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 1t was Of Jean La Elites pirate
treasure buried somewhere from
Plaquemine to Grand Terre and which
Aurelie was to find and so enrich the
~confederacy that the old gray lines
would rise triumphantly. Yes, Aurelie
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 swami 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 Christ
mas leg, which he kept hidden under
the coil Of the boom chair. Michigan
knew it was there but he pretended
ignorance, and everybody helped along
the ray deceit. Christmas day each
partner gave the other his new leg;
and SO 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 M%ichigan's
peg, and a blue one on Old Man Cap
tain's; but in the lark this did nc
good. Old Man Captains head was toe
full Of the splendors of the recomine
of h ray lines to tell pink from
blue. Then once the towboat niggers
Hogjaw and Do Fortune and Crump
gave her a little brass bell. Aurelie
tied 1t to Old Man Captains wooden
leg, and after that everything was fine
Michigan merely had to crawl around
In the dark hut end rattle legs until