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

"Ain't / ever goin' to learn al then
music names, Uncle Michigan! And
amt l ever goin' to see all them lands
and States and countries?'
Uncle Michigan looked at Captain
Tinkietoes, small and frail and gray
bumped against the lambeau box-ant
he took Aurelie's hand and whispered
! "You sure airl One o these days when
| Old Man Captain surrenders."
! And after that, in another year Of
the colorful. slow-moving life OF thu
bayou-the lugger men and and trap
per men and drifters and moss-pickers
| going continually up the river to the
North, while she watched merely ths
drift of the lilies with the tides-Au.
| relic came to wonder what the world
was. She asked Captain Tinkletoe:
! when he was going to surrender, and
I he smiled out Of his odd blue eyes and
said: When you grow up to oecup,
the landI"
Always that. She asked Uncle
| Michigan to explain, and he took her
in his arms and mumbled. You're
leadin' 'em, Aurelie Leadin' two ole
fool soldiers to the promised land o
happiness-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 map which was one OF his
treasures.
"Yere she be. Aurelie. Howin' 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 Al
leghenies-Platte and Tennessee and
Ohio, and Missouy-down they come
through the big river to US by the
seap
Michigan. I'd like to see all them
pkees."
Eyes, 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 CARS steal in and out.
She twisted the purple spikes of hya-
cinths into her hair and stared down
at her brown little face. Then she
clapped her hands and pointed off to
the north. Il belong off there! Where
all the States and mountains come
from! Done goin' UP to occupy the
landr
And one day Captain Tinkletoes sur
rendered. Not dramtically, 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. His pirogue
was upturned. and Captain Tinkletoes
was under it in the black water. Aure-
lie remembered when they brought him
into camp-how they bayou men
smoked and talked and drank their
coffee. Etienne, the crab-boat man,
wanted to go fetch a priest from Eng
liSh 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, little blanketed
heap, down in the white shells over
which the gay little lizards scampered,
while the mocking-birds sang in the
green cane at his head. Aureiie, hold
ing 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 forty year; and
yere's the Bia woman that did the
cookin'. And yere's the little girl he
loved and that made two old fool
swampers quit their wanderin' and set
tie down. Done surrendered to God
and laid his ole gray head to restr
Then they went back to camp in 81
lence. and there Michigan gave Cap
tain Tinkletoes' sawed-off shotgun to
Doc Fortune, and his razor that had
cut nothing since the war, to Crump;
and little old piece of colored glass
that he had kept wrapped in a boot
top since II, to Hogjaw; but the FIVE
wooden legs of Captain Tinkletoes he
kept for himself. Just for keepsakes.
The next day Michigan beckoned
Aurelie out 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
goin' to occupy the landw
What land is that. Michigan."
THE land o your he cried, shin
ing-eyed That's where you'll lead us |
to" He motioned to the Indian wom-
an. We'll take this yere little girl
and drift way off yander to all the
places she amt ever seen. First well
pole the old john-boat down to Grand |
Isle so she'll see the ocean. Then well |
drift off Atchafalaya way 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 is them / done told you,
music names"
"Californy,' she said simply.
"And the next one?"
"Arizony."
And Montanv. and Ioway, and Ten
nessee, and Ohio! All them well see
and more! Lead US to the land O.
oyl"
And all her strange after-life of
laughter and of tears the little girl
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
,ould change that.
So the next day they piled old traps
Ind boxes and blankets and hound
pups and the FIVE wooden legs of Cap
ain Tinkletoes as keepsakes, into the
ohn-boat and set off to find the land
If joy with music names. South and
IL II