Necessity for Money Precedes Greed for Gold

Necessity for Money Precedes Greed for Gold

fiction
edward w pritchard

See The Young Girl Involved in a Scandal and The Confession-the son in this story is the young brave in the Scandal and the Lost lover in Ohio in the Confession

The Grand Father was very tired and was trying to mediate between his son and grand son who were fighting fiercely although not with fists and arms but with words. The Grand Father was wisely being silent for his son and grandson were both like his wife more than himself in an argument and would both have to vent their anger in full before they would listen to reason; and the Grand father had long ago learned how to proceed in an instance like this.

The three Indians were standing in front of a dugout canoe that the son had knocked a hole in the side of with a rock, and had been pulling on dry land by a vine looped through and tied into the hole in the top side of the canoe. The canoe was filed with over 100 ducks that the son had trapped and was planning to take down river to a small French fort where trappers bought animals at a lucrative price and then resold to Europeans moving into the areas East of here. The Grand Father and his son, the boy's Father had been walking for three days at the insistence of the Boy's Mother and his Grand Mother. The boy was 19 years old and physically was a man but he had been acting strangely for over a year out of love for his girl friend who had been forced to move to Georgia despite her love for the son.

The Father's misplaced anger toward his son was causing him to argue viciously with his son. The Father had been sure the son was dead and his relief at finding him alive and his anger at the son's ruining the Grand Father's loaned canoe was causing the Father to chastise his grown son. In Additional to ruining the canoe, the boy was behaving foolish by Indian standards because there was no good reason to end the lives of so many ducks and although both the Grand Father and Father knew why the boy was trying to raise money, and while it was for a good reason, none the less it had an element of greed about it that was not the Tribe's normal way of doing things, and it seemed an act of desperation.

The son continued " we can buy twenty Indian canoes with the money from the Ducks"
The Father " If you don't get killed by the whites on the way to the fort with the valuable [cargo] or cheated at the fort; or worse if you are successful in this business deal, then the next time you will need to kill and sell 1000 ducks to satiate your greed."
Son" I will give Grandfather part of the money for the ducks and I will buy him a French style canoe [ that is, a better, more mobile, lighter and more expensive canoe]
Father" that better canoe, that we might get later, won't float us back to camp today, like this one would have, if you hadn't ruined it by knocking a hole in it and then ruined it's [structural integrity] by dragging it foolishly on dry land full of heavy ducks].
Son" Can't you understand my position"
Father" I understand my elderly Father walking for three days in the heat and sleeping on the ground and then finding his favorite canoe destroyed by your greed"
Son" Shouting I must get the money to get to Georgia to see Tuhan [ his lost lover].
Father" kindly, you weren't the only one who cared for Tuhan.
Son, to Grand Father, " you understand how I feel, Help me
End of part 1