The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-07-06
ragged tent Always, through the blur

of queer faces-biack, brown, yellow
white-Aurelie remembered the watch
ful love IN the eyes of the basket
maker and of Uncle Michigan. Always
Tor these were what she knew of love
From the Gulf-coast islands they
went west and north, and in the years
the child became a girl, slender, 1.-THE,
swift, keen of eye on deer trail, trap
ping the mink and raccoons, following
the wild bees flight, weaving baskets
with strong brown fingers to lure the
shrimp from under the lilies, balancing
herself to shoot in a ticllish running
pirogue' that would steal through the
swamps where heavier hunter dared
not follow. Thus she grew, with never
qualm for the blood of the hunted
nor doubt of the Makers intent. But
at twelve she was woman, blithe and
unthinking and lind-hearted, without
fear, without guile.
Perhaps.
At any rate, one day, censured BY the
Indian woman, she stole from camp,
swan Grand River with her gaudy lit
tie gown tucked in knot on her head,
dressed in the woods and appeared at
Cajun ball-with a wild hyacinth in
her hair. She danced and laughed and
bewildered the woodsmen, pretending
Ia know no English when the Yankees
addressed her, and no French when
spoken to in that tongue. But standing
in the heated ballroom" she sang a
barbaric song the Indian woman had
taught her. posed with an odd theatric
fancy, and then ran awaySeaving them
gaping.
When she swan to the john-boat at
dawn and put her hand upon Michi-
gan's as he fished. he started, tried to
swear helplessly and stopped.
But amt l growed up now?' she
laughed.
.Danme! 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
swelling breasts, and stared to the
north. Michigan, when air we goin'
to see all the States and lands with the
music names you tell of
"Aurelie, you air gettin' to be such a
big girl and such a pretty girl as l
dunno if We ought to let you see all
them countries.
Then I'll run off and see EN- my
selfP
But at last they came out on the
mighty river that Michigan had not
seen since he left his leg at Vicksburg;
and another year found them at Mem
phis among the shanty-boat folk Then
the government dredge towed them up
river. the Bia woman cooking for the
crew.. The men used to watch a child
who. from her house-boat deck. would
put bit of tinsel or flower in her
hair and stare down in the water to
admire the picture, or would smooth
her gypsy dress over her hips. unnotic-
ing her audience They would not be-
lieve she was but thirteen, 50 tropically
primal was her womanhood, so tantal-
izingly wise her reserve.
So, up the great river of her dreams
they went for months and months.
Then, one night on the Minnesota
shore, the dredge burned, and Uncle
Michigan cut the house-boat loose 1t
bumped on down the river again to
come aimlessly adrift in a pocket of
the Iowa hills. There it stuck. and ali
the dreamy summer the weeds and
sands thickened about it until it could
drift no more.
And one day the exiles climbed a
nearby hill to look down on a town
buried in September naples; a decent
church spire here and there. the clock
tower of the courthouse in the Square,
and farmer folk driving homeward.
On this .prosy common day of the
Northern Midlands. Aurelie, with the
good-humored curiosity of a savage,
cooked down for her first glimpse of
an ordered life. Out of the sweet and
heavy richness of the corn bloom and
he sugar trees. from a white house,
lalf hidden. came pianos notes, the
irst she had ever heard.
She slapped her litth brown hands.
Done come! Michigan, 1 reckon we
'ound some of them States and coun-
ries with the musical names. Veal
,ome to the land O. joyr'