The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1913-10-30
CHAPTER I.-(Continued).

.op SINCE ~, TO HosJaW, pul Liz AsS
kept for himself. Just keepsakes.
The next day Michigan beckoned
Aurelie u to the bayou side, where
he and the Bia woman had had a brief
talk. He lifted the child and pointed
her hand off to the north. Now We're
done goin to occupy the land!"
What Land is that, Michigan"
The land o. joy!" he cried, shining
eyed. That's where you'll lead us to-"
He motioned to the Indian woman.
We'll take this yere little girl and
she amt ever seen. First We'll pole
the ole john-boat down to Grand Isle
SO she'll see the ocean. Then We'll
drift off Atchafalaya bay and she'll
see the big woods. Then We'll drift
on north and west and every way, and
she'll see all the states and countries!
| What names Us them 1 one told you,
Aurelie-the music names"
"Californy," h said simply.
And next one?"
"Arizony."
And Montany, and Ioway and Ten
nessee and Ohio! All them we'll see
and more! Lead US to the land o.
joy!"
And all her strange ~after-life of
laughter Inc of tears the little girl
remembered the old soldier waving
his hand to the undiscovered countries.
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
tain Tinkletoes as ~keepsakes into the
john-boat and set off to find the land
of joy with music names. South and
east through brilliant w~ildernesses,
polling through lily jams. sailing
swamp lakes, padding salt marshes.
Shrimp camps. oyster platforms, ter
rapin hunters of Grand Isle-they
wandered and worked, and Aurelie
came to know other children Of all
hues and races, and at the island balls
| learned to dance with orange blossoms
in her hair. The murmur of the sea
Was in her ears, the moonlight on the
Creole violins she awakened to gaiety,
losing the droll seriousness of a
savage. Also, for the first time,
she had her face washed cleanly
by the storekeeper's wife, who
knew then she was not of the
undecipherable Chino-Spanish-Filipin
breed of the shrimp platform villages.
But when the balls were over, a shifty-
footed n suspicious savage woman
took Aurelia and led her off to their
ragged tent. Always, through the blur
of queer ~faces-black, brown, yellow,
he1NAAA III SA1S
full love in the eyes of the basket maker
and of Uncle Michigan. Always, for
these We're what she knew Of love!
From the Gulf coast islands they
went west n north, and in the years
the child became a girl, slender, 1.-THE,
swift-keen of eye on a deer trail, trap
ping the mink and %raccoons, following
the wild bees flight, weaving baskets
with strong brown fingers to lure the
shrimp from unde the lilies, balancing
herself to shoot in a ticklish running
pircgue' that would steal through the
swamps where a heavier hunter dared
not follow. Thus she grew, with never
q qualm for the blood of the hunted nor
a doubt of the Makers intent. But at
IL she was a woman, blithe and I'M
! thinking and kind hearted, without
| fear, without guile.
Perhaps!
At any rate, one day, by
the Indian woman, she stole from
camp, swan Grand river with her
gaudy little gown tucked in a knot on
her head, dressed in the woods n ap-
peared at a Cajun ball-with a wild
hyacinth In her hair. She danced and
laughed and bewildered the woodsmen,
pretending to know no English when
the Yankees addressed her, and nc
French when spoken to in that tongue,
But standing in the heated Ballroom"
she sang a barbaric song the Indian
1 "O1IdH lldu, taught lcl, pOoCu o.
odd theatric fancy, and then ran away
leaving them gaping.
When she swan to the john-boat at
dawn and put her hand upon Michi-
| CANS as he fshed, he started, tried to
swear helplessly and stopped.
But amt 1 grovad up now?" she
laughed.
"Damme! How we goin' to do If you
act hathaway"
"Which-a-way?" And she drew UP
her naked little body, poised on the
boat, pressed her hands over her
north. michigan, when air we goin
to see all the states and lands with
the music names you tell off"
"Aurelia, you air gettin' to be such
a big girl and such a pretty girl as
dunno if we ought to let o see al
them countries
Then I'll run off and see 'em my
self"
But at last they came out on the
mighty river that Michigan a not
seer since he left his leg at Vicksburg;
and another year found them at Mem
phis among the shanty- folk. Their
a government dredge towed them uE
river, the Bia woman cooking for the
crew. The men used to watch a child
who, from her houseboat deck, would
put a bit of tinsel GY 3 flower in hel
hair and stare dow n the water tc
| aLlUlIe LS PlSluiC y, - "ooio "
her gypsy dress over her hips, un-
noticing her audience. II they hailed
her she pretended not to hear them
They would not believe h was but
10, so tropicallv primal was her WON
anhood, SO tantalizingly wise her re-
serve.
SO, up the great river of her dreams
they went for months n months
Then, one night on the Minnesota
shore. the dredge burned. n Uncle
Michigan cut the h~ouse-boat loose. i
bumped on down the river again t.
come aimlessly adrift in a pocket o
the Iowa hills. There it stuck, and n
the dreamy summer the weeds a-le
sands ~thickened about until it coule
drift no more.
And one day the exiles climbed {
nearby hill to look down on a tow1
buried in September naples; a decen
church spire here and there, the cloci
tower of the court house in the square
and farmer folk driving homeward.
on this prosy common day of tn
northern midlands. Aurelia, with thu
good humored curiosity of a savage
looked down for her first glimpse o
an ordered life. Out4of the sweet ant