The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-07-06

Dut ono summer Ot0 MAI S2pSA1t
was not so well. He did not follow
Michigan to the deep swamp for mos:
or turtles, but was content to sit ar1t
tend the lily boom at the end of the
canal. While Aurelie chartered, ant
the Bia woman wove her crab baskets
Old Man whitfield on, Michigan.
Christmas leg, which he kept hidden
under the coil of the boom chain
Michigan knew it was there, but he
pretended ignorance, and eveybod,
helped along the gay deceit. Christ,
mas day each partner gave the othe'
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. The
wooden legs led to all sorts of domes-
tic complications. Sometimes when
Old Man Captain got out of bed to
walk the path calling OH the God O
battles. or telling of the treasure OF
the Old Pirate Folkses, he would strap
on Uncle Michigan's peg-les 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 Mich
igan was tall and Old Man Captain
short, he was not altogether comfort
able.
And this confusion of wooden legs
troubled Aurelie, She tied a pink rib
bon on Michigan's peg, and blue one
on Old Man Captains; but in the dark
they did no good. Old Man Captains
head was too full of the splendors of
the recoming Of the gray lines to tell
pink from blue. Then once the two
boat niggers, Hogjaw and Doc For
tune and Crump, gave her little brass
bell. Aurelie tied it to old Man Cap
tain's wooden leg, and after that ev-
erything was fine Michigan merely
had to crawl around in the dark hut
and rattle legs until the bell tinkled.
Then he took the other one.
But many a night, when the moon
drew up above the cypress wall, Azure
lie, drowsily stirring under the palm
thatch. heard the bell and knew that
Old Man Captain was ont stumping
the path and chanting of the South's
lost legions.
And all about the camp and over the
bayou when there was moss to bale or
crabs to catch. one heard it tinkle, tin
kle. tinkle! So that the towboat mig
gers gave him the name that stuck
thereafter: Captain .Tinkletoes.
Old Man Captain did not mind; he
smiled vaguely. These days he was
not so sure about many things. When
he started the old heroic tale OF how
the child should lead EN-, number Of
extraneous matters got mixed with it
pirate treasure and alligator hunting
and the weather, so that Aurelie, at
times, couldn't make out just what was
expected of her, only it was very big
and important -
One day when they had gone on 4
deer hunt into the swamps far to tine
east among the nameless waterways
through a dying forest. she stood up
in the pirogue and pointed at trail
of smoke miles away over Dit of
marsh.
Uncle Michigan, what's that way
off yander?"
That's a big boat come way over
the ocean a-goin' to the ethyl"
Where l come fromS
Il done reckon so. And up beyond
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.