Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1926-03-19
INDIAN.
JIM AND HIS
MAHALA
EcSSssSsssSSssSes
By MIRIAM NICHOLSON


YNDIAN JIM was miserable. He was
hungry, he was cold, he was bereft.
l. Things had come to a pretty
pass when an Indians own sQuaw
refuses to support him. 1t was Christ
mas Eve, too, and every buck In town
was preparing to celebrate. There was
to be game down below the Savage
dump, where the wicklups were
pitched. 1t was bound to be a great
game, for the squaws had been kept
busy by the miners wives, scrubbing
and cleaning for Christmas, so their
husbands were well provided with
funds.
All except Jim, Poker Jim. He could
not be there.
Cruel Mahala, to desert your man at
time like this
The worst Of 1t was that his dis
grace was so public.
Pluto Sam had begun 1t by lounging
up with formal invitation to where
Jim, in his red blanket, sprawled on
the edge of the sidewalk, from which
the snow had been swept He was
lying there, eating pine nuts and chat
ting with the other bucks.
A free translation Of Sans cultural,
ironical, communicated speech was:
"Oh, won't you come and play wiz me,
play wiz me, play wiz mel"
Jim's great. square, red-painted
face grew morOse as he listened. His
beady, black eyes shot vicious glance
at wicked, wrinkled old Sam.
He didn't care to play, Jim ex-
planned. It was too cold, and there
was no moon, and
And then Sam looked slyly at
Washoe George, and they all burst into
a roar of sarcastic laughter, and Jim
got up, and, wrapping his blanket
close about him, walked away, trem-
bling to the very feather In his old
straw hat with indignation.
Oh, could Mahala Susie have seen
her man then, as he walked of lonely
and unhappy, she must have relented
But Mahala Susie Just then was up
on the hill, where, since her desertion
Of Jim, she had slept in the little wood
shed adjoining the house whose floors
her worn, red-brown hands kept clean
and smelling Of brown soap.
Susie had gone off to her bed in the
woodshed early. She had worked
since dawn. She had washed every
window in the house, she had done
the weeks washing, she had scrubbed
the kitchen, she had waited upon the
busy mother while she trimmed the
Christmas tree, which they had left
overnight In the woodshed, that the
curious children might not see 1t till
Christmas night.
Susie Invested herself first Of her
street costume, gaudy, red calico
skirt and purple plaid jacket. Then
she took off her working gown be-
meath, sober, dirty, suds-colored one.
Her emergency rig came next, and an
old flannel wrapper that had been
given her the day before was also re-
moved. Mahala Susie was really not
Unlocking when the greater part of
her wardrobe had been shed. One
could well understand Jim's valuation
Of her and the extent Of his loss, In
realizing the strength Of those broad
hips and round, coppery, muscular
arms.
Poor JIM ! wonder whether Ma
hala thought of him as she united q
bag Of coarse sacking from her waist
and slipped 1t under the rags that
made her bed Jim, utterly resource
less, deserted, target for hooking
words and cruel jeers And here lay
Mahala, capitalist, a gorgeous pere-
grinating wardrobe, with a bag that
chinked alluringly
Mahala Susie's eyellds grew heavy.
She looked about the well-filled shed,
smelt the piney, resinous split wood
piled up to the ceiling. She turned
luxuriously upon her couch and her
gaze fell upon the decorated Christ
mas tree In the corner, mounted upon
Its box and ready for transportation
into the parlor. A giggle shook Su
SIC . IhL DiCubl, 5hC IEthllCu HOW
craftily she had outwitted the chill
dren Of the house In their attempts to
gain entrance into the woodshed.
But the giggle was never finished.
In the small square opening lmmedl-
ately above the tree, broad, red face,
framed In two hanging black braids,
appeared.
1t was Jim. He had found her.
A hushed dialogue, like the mufTied
crash Of broken crockery followed.
Jim would enter and treat with the
enemy. Susie was obdurate. Then,
from the tiny window, Jim spoke. He
discoursed eloquently upon the game
and his well-known skill thereat. He
dwelt upon his wrongs, his sufferlngs,
the rldIcule Of the bucks, the gigglng
Of the mahalas. He implored, he en-
treated Susie would not yield She
had not been down to the campboodie
for a week. Consequently, she had a
weeks earnings In her bag She felt
like man Of property, naughty, indie
pendent, implacable.
Jim's tone changed. He threatened.
He swore. Oaths In Piute and Eng
lish ratified from his accomplished
tongue.
Susie, strong of limb and stanch Of
heart, intrenched, besides, In her own
woodshed fortress, feared him not.
The necessity for gesture came upon
the red man. How could he impress
upon this Sinking spouse her duties
and responsibilities, when only his
face, like a wrathful, clouded copper
moon, was visible to her
JIm's face disappeared and a great