how does the chief's story reflect the story of the "laughing man"?

It isn't so much the content of the story and the Chief's tale that parallels each other rather than the emotions involved with the Chiefs reality and his fiction. The narrator, a boy of nine, only grasps what he can understand. Mary is sad one day crying between two baby carriages. We can surmise this has something to do with an unplanned pregnancy. The boy, however, can only interpret it through the rhythms of the Chief's story. When things seem good between Mary and the chief, the story is more upbeat and exciting. When things unravel in the Chief's relationship the story of the Laughing Man becomes dark and fatalistic.