The Storyteller

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 271, 16 April 1914, Page 6

The Storyteller

MAKERS OF THE EMPIRE Miss G rim wood wondered why Gregorio lunl not called her to breakfast. Viid then as she fastened the . cameo pin at her neck slic remembered that idle had paid him the day before and the cook was probably in Indang at the cockpit. The jungle was rustling, v,-!;!i the hill breeze, but already the night coolness hail been dissipated by the. Philippine sim and the day had settled into its steady, withering'heat. She stopped for an instant to survey herself in the broken mirror which surmounted the primitive teakwood table. The sun and heat and steaming rainy seasons of Cavils were turning her yellow, but she knew it mattered little, "nr she was what they called her back in her Massachusetts home "an old maid," and as school-teacher at lialaneir, seventy miles from Manila, and connected to the outside world by a single strand nf telephone wire which followed a I jungle trail, she had little necessity for -nod complexion.

The Grimwoods had "been whalers and world travellers, and her square jaw and long nose, and imperious eye were reasons enough for her being in Balanoor teaching thirty odd young Tagals "Ing'V and the same lessons which had been doing service for generations in New England schools. If she hadn't been Henrietta Grimwnod she would probably have been Joshiah Grimwood, and on the quarterdeck of a gunboat in Manila Bay, or commanding a troop of cavalry in the hills, arounij Balancor or fishing on the Newfoundland Banks. But being n woman never deterred Henrietta from satisfying the restlessness in the blood of

f !rimwoods—she had to be on new frontiers, at the edge of ..things, and she had never been sorry that she was a. woman, and could see no reason why being a, woman should keep her draggins at the skirts of Fate in a Now England village. "December Oth," she said, looking at the calendar on her to 1)1 e. "My; I'll bet its cold back homo now!" and she had a vision of White fields and buried fences' and trees drooping under snow counterpanes.

She pulled in the shellpaned- windows i to keep out the heat and went to the kitchen and set about making her own coffee. From the screened porch where the faggots crackled in an army field r,.mge she .ould see in the parched plaza and the yellowi--h blown roof of the school, looking like a gigantic, haystack on stilts, for it hart no walls, and the low, overhanging nipa thatch reached nearly to the ground. The crude stone walls of the ruined [ convent were, already baking in the merciless sun, useless from the dav artillery had battered them down over the heads of a force of insurrcctos. The srilrted cross still glistened from a pitiful skeleton of a bamboo spire, and hogs nnd chickens fretted in the furrows wlrch had marked the horse lines of a cavalrv bivouac five years before. Yet life in the hills of Cavite was much the same as before Balancor had heard shell fire and cavalrv trumpets—the natives Rtill gambled at the cockpits, did just enough work in the rice paddies to enore a scanty store of rice, fished tentatively in the hill streams, and wove and spun enough to make a few clothes. They stil! scratched a cross over the door when smallpox came, ate with their j lingers, stole when the opportunity offer- ; ed, and lied if they found an untrutti ] more convenient than the facts. The

* I civilisation which had hcen bought with a gatling gun had inade small progress, "xcent that the children picked up a few English words haltingly and recited Mother Goose rhymes in parrot fashion without having the vaguest idea of what they were all about. But Miss Grimwood never worried about progress, never questioned the desires of the government, never had the slightest doubt that she was doing good work, or that it might be useless after all. She had the infinite patience of n I pioneer, and knew that the ideals of { her chiefs were worth working for and ■ that after five hundred years of Spain | it was hard for a simple' people to unj dcrstand what the constitution and the I (la;; of the United States could mean. So she was not worried that December morning about the progress 0 f civilisation, for she would lie 'well satisfied I if she taught Raniona or Carmen how to turn a seam or Miguel how to read "The cat runs after the rat" before the vesper bell of the parde. But she did have a sense of loneliness as she measured the over-dried corn meal with half of a eocoanut shell and greased the pan for the muffins. She couldn't talk to Baeoor or Tunis because | Felizardo and his band of l/.ulroues had cut the telephone wire as they fled before a column of cavalry. The day before she had heard the intermittent rattle of a skirmish and knew that the soldiers must be. somewhere nc:'.r scouting the jungle trails for the bandits. who where raiding and robbing among the hill people. She had heard little about the latest outbreak, but knew that the town of San Francisco de Malabon had been sacked in spite of the native constabulary guard, an American surgeon killed, the wife and children of the native provincial governor kidnapped as hostages, and the treasury looted. Yet she had no fear of Folizardo and his fifty mo.'i—a Grimwood never feared anybody and she had, long before put her faith in the efficiencv of the military forces of the United States. The clatter of the tin dishes in the kitchen had already attracted the wandering herd of black pigs, and they nosed at the bamboo posts under the floor and grunted hungrilv. Miss Grimwood laid her breakfast in the sala. after which she had filled the cans which held the table legs with a fresh supply of coal oil as a precaution against a visitation of ants, and still with a vision of the white bills in her mind, sat down and poured the coffee. It was then that she heard ;i step on the verandah. '•Come 'n.'' she called, without turning from the coffee strainer. it might be the houscboy or one of her pupils with flowers or" a boy with fresh eggs. The flooring creaked, and she looked •toward the open door, to see a mere boy clad in khaki, with a carbine slung in the hollow of his arm. and she knew that the soldiers had come, although she had heard none of the village commotion which heralded strangers. "Good-morning!" she said, as briskly as she could, before her surprise at seeing him had waned. lie stood awkwardly in the door and leaned against the jamb, and his knees trembled a little. She saw that he had been wounded and had fashioned a crude bandage over his shoulder and under his arm. and his face was very white against the dun brown of (he* swale wall. "Good-morning," he said, with a quaint smile. "I didn't reckon I'd see any white folks. Where be I at now ma'am;" "Balaneor. but you must come in and sit down. You've been shot, ain't you? I guess a cup of coffee would liv you.." "It ain't nothin' much.' he said wearily. "It's the fever—slept out last night down here in a gully somewhereas—got lost I suppose—that arm hurt none to speak—l've had dengue pretty bad and

I got it vet. That coll'ee smells power-1 fill good, ma'am.'' ; 1 "You look played out. Yon need a I square meal, that's what you need, and ' some quinine and some nursing. Ton < ain't been looked after, young niiin! What's the matter with your army doc- : tors? They don't let you boys walk around full of fever as you he and not do for you, do they?" ,- t •'We ain't had n ,'oetor since we left 1 fiaeoor. He came out and rode villi us two or three days, but ho was too fat to ride —the wav we was ridiii.' ma'am—and we been lightin' pretty well the last ten days, and he couldn't'catchj •in with Hie column. I reckon. I didn't have time to get sick-oh, I felt sort of shaky, but we have lieen hot after the niggers and until I got touched last night and got separated and curied down by myself to have a nap, I ain't paid much attention to how I felt—heard anything of Felizardo?" "No, 1 haven't heard a word about him since Malabon. You sit right down: here and have some coffee and corn inuftiiis. (iriniwood's my name—Miss firimwood. .and I'm the school-teacher liere. Whv, vou're just a boy—bless my stars can't they get men to do this work out here?"

'•lm twenty." he said, a bit defiantly, for all his smile as he walked unsteadily to the table and dropped into 'he bamboo chair she placed for him. "I've been in the service now a year — told 'em I was twenty-one when T 'listed in Macon, because T shore did want to come out to these Pliillipines. Wordin's my name, ma'am —Private Wordin of the Second cavalry, K. troop. My horse is down by the branch and I reckon

t hadn't ought to leave him there—we're in hostile country now, ami it wouldn't do for me to lose my horse." "I guess you ought to have some eggs, too—you look all pale and petered out. What would your mother say now. Pri-i. vaie Wordin. if she could see you look-' ins so peaked and feverish. My, but. our eyes are yellow! T guess this, "o'lotry can wait a while before it gets, "ivi'ised to give you a chance to recun-' r ~i\le. Y'ou just light into those muf-i fins and coffee—Lord knows you look! as if you needed something substantial!"i "They feed us right 'enough," he. said,' as he reached for the canned butter. | "K troop feeds better than any troops in the regiment, but you know when| we're in the field a little hard-tack and j coffee and a bit of bacon is plenty—wcj don't need much to eat out here when' we're in the field a little'hard-tack and "'favbe the doughboys need plenty of : l"" , ns and canned goods, but cavalry —I reckon I better go back and git "tv horse." lie half rose and reached for his carbine. ''You sit still—l'll have the horse brought up." She called to some Filipinos who wnc carrying water up from the river bed in long bamboo poles, and they brought th» cavalry horse and tethered him outside.

"T wasn't able to get my blankets and shelter tent off last night." he said. "There was just enough shoelc in that bullet that, touched me to give tlio fever a chance to scut the upper hand. I'd been figlitin' it off for (juite a spell, and Mien I got lost down there in the brush and it got dark powerful quick, and I didn't dare to sing out, but floplied down when I got my picket line fixed. We had quite a skirmish with '-"". yesterday, and there's been some figlitin' to-day. but over across the canon—l tried to make it across, but I had to ho careful," '•You let 'em fight—they'll find you well enough, or you'll find* them. You need quinine- and a rest more than the government needs your services to-day. Maybe you'll be better to-morrow, but rght now vou need a chance to fight that fever." "Oh, T'l! have to go hack, ma'am—the cantain " "Xcvcr mind the captain. You're owing to have a cool bath and a long sleep under a mosquito net between •sheets. Your eyes look yellow and your skin looks yellow and you'll die if you keep on this way. Suppose your inother'd let you light to-day if'.she could see you now? Think I'm going to let 'em send you back in a black box—l'll inst take this rifle, voung man. and I'll ha re that horse unsaddled and fed and watered —now don't you say a' word, because it won't do a"hit of good, and if that captain of yours comes here and starts to make a row, I guess I can handle him. You're more of a sick boy now than a private soldier. I'm going over to teach school now. and' I'll come over a couple of times before noon and see if everything is right. And I'll take this rifle with me. and if you' need it it's only twenty feet to 'the, school, but I guess Folizardo won't bother round here any to-day." So W'ordin took his quinine and strip-i lied off his worn uniform and bathed his

fever-mimlied body and slept through the day in a cool cane-bottomed bed. '

AVhen he awoke after sunset a pack train was in the plaza and K troop of the Second and Miss (irimwood was

talking with the captain in the sala. ''That hoy ought to he back home with his mother," said .Miss Orimwood. as

Private AXordin rejoined his command.

"T don't see why they send boys out here to do their civilising,"

"The idea of a woman being out in this wilderness!" .-aid the captain to his second in command. "Here she has been for a week all alone among treacherous natives, and the scout company in the hills.- Why the dickens don't they send men out to such towns and leave the women in Manila'; What does shknow 'about benevolent assimilation or a colonial policy?"--Frederick Ferdinand Moore.