South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1922-07-23
Little Miss
Louisiana
WELL, WELL, wELL@who do
w you think walked up 20 my

wv you tSinE walked up to my ny
doorstep this very morning
and rung the bell2 Little Miss
Louisiana from the Bayou Tech
Yes. indeed, she certainly deed"
Pretty as & peach she was. too. as
she stood there on the porch with
her blue eyes shining and a look.
half shy. half daring. on her dear
little roguish face
I'm here on a visit" she said.
and I promised Mother and Daddy.
I'd come 10 see you, and I brought
you some home made pinache and a
whole lot OF moss from the Bayou
and so many messages and"
In she came and what visit we
did have
She's here TO select her trousseau
oh, yes, she's going back TO the
Bayou 10 live. she wouldn't feel quite
at home anywhere else. 1 suppose
she looks like her mother. I've never
seen the mother-though che d.d
send me 80 many loving messages
and know she speaks like her
father.
What a day we did have OF tt
the day we met the man from the
Bayou Tech-years agoi
We we're In New Orleans at Mardi
Gras time, two Of US, and we were
doing all the sights and Of course,
we had 20 go TO breakfas4 on Sunday
morning at Begue's
d. Funny little place, Begue's-up a
pair OF winding stairs over a market
Just a garnet. really, festooned with
oobwebs at that, but such cookery.
such food. such gayety, such q long
table crowded with laughing people
and Papa Begue at the head OF It,
such stories. such songs. such
laughterl Everybody spoke to every
body at Begue's. and when you had
finished. you must write a little verse
or epigram in the great book Papa
Begue handed round-oh. a fine
place, Begue's-and well worth the
visit in those days.
The two of US were = bit Late and
we had TO sit in the corner at a little
table and crowded In with us was
tall young fellow. little shy. little
uncomfortable in such unaccustom-
ed surroundings.
He was from the Bayou Tech, he
said, and after a while, he told us
about 1.-THE dark Bayou fringed
with gray ghost-like trees, hung with
gray fog-like moss. and the flowers
that grew along the edge Of 1t, and
he had always lived there. he said.
and always should.
His little wife was born there. too.
And he and she had planned to come
20 New Orleans on their wedding
trip. but there was an illness in the
family and their wedding trip was
cut short and now he had come
down to see about-well a'-that is
abe had a little shopping TO do
and some people to see and he had
promised Sally-Lou that he would
breakfast at Begue's and come home
and tell her every bite he had to
eat. and who sat at the table with
him and what they said and what
they wrote in the great book.
And he copied the simple little
verses the two of US wrote and we
sat for two or three hours and talked
like disembodied spirits sitting on
cloud.
We should never see him again, or
he. us. And so we spoke our hearts
and he spoke his. Such a handsome
fellow he was, so tall and straight
and so much a mamie showed US
a picture OF his little wife and when
he took the picture out a little wisp
of baby-blue ribbon came with IT and
he blushee crimson-the man from
the Bayou Tech-and said, Era
nova. I'm TO match this"
And we spent the day together In
quaint old New Orleans. wandering
in and out of shops, and when we
got back to the hotel and left the
man from Bayou Tech-The other
One told me that it was true what
we thought about the baby ribbon
the man had whispered to him and
he was so happy and so worried and
so excited. he hardly knew what TO
do
And when we got home to the
North we sent a postcard TO little
Mrs. Bayou Tech and she sent US
some snapshots of their lovely little
home and then-one day we got a
letter and little Miss Louisiana had
arrived and was christened and the
baby-blue ribbon just exactly match
ed her eyes-and we promised TO go
down and visit the Bayou Tech. but
dear me. the years slipped by and
somehow we never went
And there she was-on my door
step this morning Miss Louis
lana from the Bayou Tech and her
ewes still matched the blue Of that
baby ribbon we caught a glimpse OF
so long and long ago.
Wasn't II nice for little Miss Louis
lana from the Bayou Tech TO take
time TO come and see me? And
she's going TO bring her sweetheart's
picture for me 70 see.
I do hope he looks something IKE