Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1913-10-23
Old Man Captain was out stumping
the path and chanting of the south's

wa Mar captain was out SIuIAplnS
the path and chanting of the south's
lost legions.
And all about camp and over the
bayou when there was moss to bale or
crabs to catch. one heard it tinkle.
tinkle. tinkle! So that the towboat
niggers CAV 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 'em, a number
of extraneous matters got mixed with
|it-pirate treasure n alligator hunt
ing and the weather, SO that Aurelia,
at times, couldn't make out just h
was expected Of her, only it was very
big INC important.
One day when they had gone on q
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 a trail Of
smoke miles away over a bit of SHIN
mering marsh.
Uncle Michigan. what's that WY
off yander?"
That's a big BOAT come way over
the ocean a-goin' to the ethyl"
Where l come from?"
Il done reckon SO. And up beyond
N'Awlyns the river goes and goes
states and lands and countries. all With
music names, Aurelia, for l done sp..l
| some Of EN- out on the map"
She regarded him seriously, n then
the distant glimpse OF the great ship.
Amt l ever goin' to learn all them
music names, Uncle Michigan? And
amt I ever goin' see all them lands
n states and countries?
Uncle Michigan looked at Captain
Tinkletoes, small and frail n gray.
bumped against the flambeau box
and he took Aurelie's hand and whis-
pered: You sure air! M O. these
! days when Old Man Captain sur
renders"
the colorful slow-moving life Of the
bayou-the fugger men and trapper
men and drifters n moss pickers,
going continually up the river to the
north, while she watched merely the
drift of the lilies with the tides-Au-
relic 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 thai She asked Uncle
Michigan to explain, and he took her In
his arms and mumbled. You're lead
in 'em, Aurelie. Leadin' two. ole fool
soldiers to h promised land O. hap
piness-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 nap which was n of his
treasures,
"Yere she be, Aurelie, fowin' from all
the land. From all the states and
mountains the little brooks run into the
big ones, and the big ones run on from
the OZarks and Rockies and Ale
ghanies-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 the
baby sharks play underneath the flow
ers and the giant gars steal in and out.
She twisted h purple spikes of hya-
at her brown little face. Then she
! clapped her hands n pointed off 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 sur
rendered. Not dramatically, leading
the old gray lines and shouting. but
just %piteously and without purpose, as
great dreams end in life. Hogjaw and
Doc Fortune found him when they
were tie cutting in the swamp. Hie
pirogue was upturned, and Captain
Tinkletoes was under 1t in the black
water. Aurelie remembered when they
brought him into camp-how the
bayou men smoked and talked ana
drank their coffee. Etienne, the crab
boat man, wanted to go fetch a priest
from English Turn, but Michigan
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 hooking 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 follered him for 40 year: and
yere's the Bia oma that did the
cookin'. And yes the little girl he loved
and that made two old fool swampers
quit their wanderin' and settle down.
Done surrendered to God and laid his
ole gray head to rest!"
(Continued next weekly