The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1941-01-10

liked IN that new valley OF lCnelt-
ness. She had Irish gray eyes, q
sense of humor, and q frame like a
mans. She was, discovered, real
~ a graduate nurse and should have
worn q uniform. But she bowed to
the law of the frontier and dressed
that muscular body. Of hers In man
nish-looking flannel shirts and khaki
breaches and high-laced hunting
boots.
At Tolxlutna she plainly found
plenty to do. For of the thirty-seven
children in our school three had tu-
bercular neck glands, two had con-
genital hip disease, and another doz-
en- either ear trouble or ominous
chest coughs. They were the Off
spring of the once stalwart Eskimo
and the noble red man Of the North,
proving how merciless the hand OF
mercy could sometimes be. Our civ
ilization, plainly, hadn't done much
for those insists. We thought we'd
been helping them, but all we did
was take away their stamina and
pauperize them. We left them so
improvident they came to regard it
as foolish to 60 out and fish and
hunt and trap.
So they let the white man bask in
the glory Of the white mans bur-
den. They gave up and wallowed in
shiftlessness and loafed about in
rags and mated and reproduced and
passed their ill-begotten offspring
over to Toklutna to feed and clothe
and make into good little Aimeri-
cans.
Miss Teetzel, soon discovered,
did her best TO keep the native girls
in the school from talking with the
old women Of the outside settlement.
For these verminous old squaws had
a lot Of tribal superstitions they tried
to pass on to the youngsters. Ac-
cording to Miss o. Connell, they made
practice Of not letting their first,
born children live, especially the
Copper River Indians who believed
that il their first little papoose lasted
only until he was eight or nine
months old his father went straight
to the Happy Hunting Grounds.
Katie O'Connell, in fact, was on
the warpath because of an Indian
couple who sneaked over into the
Matanuska Valley with their seven
months-old baby, ostensibly on
hunting trip. But If they came back
without that papoose, our grim-eyed
nurse proclaimed, she was going to
have them locked up for life.
Miss Teetzel took the SAVIOR out
Of my mission. She also quietly con-
trived to make me as uncomfortable
as possible. She seemed to feel that
the scrub brush was major factor
in pedagogics.
But Sidney Lander was right. 7
hadn't much to work on at Toklutna.
The little slant-eyed Eskimos, I
found, were both brighter and mer-
rier-minded than the Siwash chill
dren. They all seemed fond OF mu-
sic, though, especially the march
music Katie and ] pounded out on
the old school organ. So the two of
us concluded that a little dancing
might brighten up the emptiness Of
their evenings. We tried putting
them through an old-fashioned
square dance or two. And just when
the fun was at its highest Miss
Teetzel appeared and looked me
over with that sardonic eye Of hers.
''I'm afraid" she observed, '.that
you're a trifle too modern for u.s."
had to swallow it, of course. But
after that we were restricted to
group-Singing and saluting the flag
and handful Of dolorous old hymns
which my Siwash charges translat-
ed into a pagan chant Of woe.
As quartered back across the
schoolyard, after stopping fight be-
tween two Of my little redskin war;
riors (based on d can Of timed COW
stolen from the kitchenl, bumped
into Doctor Ruddock, who looked us
over once week. He stopped, with
his black bag in his hand, and rather
vsolemnly looked me over.
! You're not very happy here"
he said. How'd you like a whack
at school over at Wasilla?"
My first impulse was to tell him
that didn't believe in running away
from things. But I said, instead,
that was waiting for rather an inn
portant report from the Record OF
fee at Juneau.
He glanced at the shabby old bar
racks that overshadowed US.
well, il they crowd you too hard
here, let me know. can pull
string or two, when you're ready.
And that Matanuska Valley, if /
don't miss my guess, is going to be
very much on the map"
The memory Of that message
didn't stay with me as long as it
might have. For on my way to my
room Katie O'Connen handed me q
letter from Sidney Lander. It had
come out from Chakitana by air
plane and had been mailed at Fair
banks. The writer Of that letter
said that had been very much in
his thoughts. But the comforting
little glow a message like that could
bring just under ones floating ribs
WAS cr1f short hv the further mas.