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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Sun Maid, by Evelyn Raymond
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Sun Maid
+       A Story of Fort Dearborn
+
+
+Author: Evelyn Raymond
+
+
+
+Release Date: June 16, 2010  [eBook #32843]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SUN MAID***
+
+
+E-text prepared by D Alexander and the Project Gutenberg Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images
+generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries
+(http://www.archive.org/details/americana)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
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+      See 32843-h.htm or 32843-h.zip:
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32843/32843-h/32843-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32843/32843-h.zip)
+
+
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive/American Libraries. See
+      http://www.archive.org/details/sunmaidstoryoffo00raym
+
+
+
+
+
+THE SUN MAID
+
+A Story of Fort Dearborn
+
+by
+
+EVELYN RAYMOND
+
+Author of "The Little Lady of the Horse," Etc.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+New York
+E. P. Dutton & Company
+31 West Twenty-Third St.
+
+Copyright, 1900
+By
+E. P. Dutton & Co.
+
+The Knickerbocker Press, New York
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: _Page 22._ KITTY AND THE SNAKE. _Frontispiece._]
+
+
+
+
+TO ALL YOUNG HEARTS IN THAT FAIR CITY BY THE INLAND SEA CHICAGO
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+In some measure, the story of the Sun Maid is an allegory.
+
+Both the heroine and the city of her love grew from insignificant
+beginnings; the one into a type of broadest womanhood, the other into
+a grandeur which has made it unique among the cities of the world.
+
+Discouragements, sorrows, and seeming ruin but developed in each
+the same high attributes of courage, indomitable will power, and
+far-reaching sympathy. The story of the youth of either would be a
+tale unfinished; and those who have followed, with any degree of
+interest, the fortunes of either during any period will keep that
+interest to the end.
+
+There are things which never age. Such was the heart of the Maid who
+remained glad as a girl to the end of her century, and such the
+marvellous Chicago with a century rounded glory which is still the
+glory of a youth whose future magnificence no man can estimate.
+
+E. R., BALTIMORE, January, 1900.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+ CHAPTER                                          PAGE
+
+     I. AS THE SUN WENT DOWN                        1
+
+    II. TWO FOR BREAKFAST                          13
+
+   III. IN INDIAN ATTIRE                           27
+
+    IV. THE WHITE BOW                              38
+
+     V. HORSES: WHITE AND BLACK                    50
+
+    VI. THE THREE GIFTS                            64
+
+   VII. A THREEFOLD CORD IS STRONGEST              77
+
+  VIII. AN ISLAND RETREAT                          91
+
+    IX. AT MUCK-OTEY-POKEE                        107
+
+     X. THE CAVE OF REFUGE                        124
+
+    XI. UNDER A WHITE MAN'S ROOF                  138
+
+   XII. AFTER FOUR YEARS                          156
+
+  XIII. THE HARVESTING                            169
+
+   XIV. ONCE MORE IN THE OLD HOME                 180
+
+    XV. PARTINGS AND MEETINGS                     194
+
+   XVI. THE SHUT AND THE OPEN DOOR                209
+
+  XVII. A DAY OF HAPPENINGS                       231
+
+ XVIII. WESTWARD AND EASTWARD OVER THE PRAIRIE    247
+
+   XIX. THE CROOKED LOG                           260
+
+    XX. ENEMIES, SEEN AND UNSEEN                  272
+
+   XXI. FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH                       284
+
+  XXII. GROWING UP                                296
+
+ XXIII. HEROES                                    306
+
+  XXIV. CONCLUSION                                315
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+                                                  PAGE
+
+ FORT DEARBORN                           _Title-page_
+
+ BLACK PARTRIDGE AND THE SUN MAID                   6
+
+ KITTY AND THE SNAKE                _Frontispiece_ 22
+
+ THE GIFT OF THE WHITE BOW                         48
+
+ SNOWBIRD AND THE SUN MAID                         68
+
+ GASPAR AND KITTY REACH THE FORT                  188
+
+ "KITTY! MY KITTY!"                               258
+
+ OSCEOLO AND GASPAR                               276
+
+
+
+
+THE SUN MAID.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+AS THE SUN WENT DOWN.
+
+
+With gloom in his heart, Black Partridge strode homeward along the
+beach path.
+
+The glory of a brilliant August sunset crimsoned the tops of the
+sandhills on the west and the waters of the broad lake on the east;
+but if the preoccupied Indian observed this at all, it was to see in
+it an omen of impending tragedy. Red was the color of blood, and he
+foresaw that blood must flow, and freely.
+
+"They are all fools. All. They know that Black Partridge cannot lie,
+yet they believe not his words. The white man lies, and works his own
+destruction. His doom be on his head!"
+
+As his thought took this line the chief's brow grew still more
+stern, and an expression of contempt curled the corners of his wide,
+thin lips. A savage though he was, at that moment he felt himself
+immeasurably superior to the pale-faces whom he had known; and in the
+consciousness of his integrity he held his tall form even more erect,
+while he turned his face toward the sky in gratitude to that Great
+Spirit who had made him what he was.
+
+Then again he remembered the past, and again his feather-adorned head
+drooped beneath its burden of regret, while his brown fingers clasped
+and unclasped themselves about a glittering medal which decorated his
+necklace, and was the most cherished of his few possessions.
+
+"I have worn it for long, and it has rested lightly upon my heart; but
+now it becomes a knife that pierces. Therefore I must return it whence
+it came."
+
+Yet something like a sigh escaped him, and his hands fell down
+straight at his sides. Also, his narrow eyes gazed forward upon
+the horizon, absently, as if their inward visions were much clearer
+than anything external. In this manner he went onward for a little
+distance, till his moccasined foot struck sharply against something
+lying in his path, and so roused him from his reverie.
+
+"Ugh! Ugh! So. When the squaw dies the papoose must suffer."
+
+The soft obstruction was a little child, curled into a rounded heap,
+and fast asleep upon this primitive public highway. The touch of the
+red man's foot had partially wakened the sleeper, and when he bent and
+laid his hand upon her shoulder, she sprang up lightly, at once
+beginning to laugh and chatter with a gayety that infected even the
+stolid Indian.
+
+"Ugh! The Little-One-Who-Laughs. Why are you here alone, so far from
+the Fort, Kitty Briscoe?"
+
+"I runned away. Bunny rabbit runned away. I did catch him two times. I
+did find some posies, all yellow and round and--posies runned away,
+too. Ain't that funny? Kitty go seek them."
+
+Her laughter trilled out, bird clear, and a mischievous twinkle
+lighted her big blue eyes.
+
+"I runned away. Bunny rabbit runned to catch me. I runned to catch
+bunny. I caught the posies. Yellow posies gone--I go find them, too."
+
+As if it were the best joke in the world, the little creature still
+laughed over her own conceit of so many runnings till, in whirling
+about, she discovered the remnants of the flowers she had lost upon
+the heat-hardened path behind her. Indeed, when she had dropped down
+to sleep, overcome by sudden weariness, it had been with the cool
+leaves and blossoms for a couch. Now the love of all green and growing
+things was an inborn passion with this child, and her face sobered to
+a keen distress as she gazed upon her ruined treasures. But almost at
+once the cloud passed, and she laughed again.
+
+"Poor posies, tired posies, sleepy, too. Kitty sorry. Put them in the
+water trough and wake them up. Then they hold their eyes open, just
+like Kitty's."
+
+"Ugh! Where the papoose sleeps the blossoms wither," remarked Black
+Partridge, regarding the bruised and faded plants with more attention.
+They were wild orchids, and he knew that the child must have wandered
+far afield to obtain them. At that time of year such blooms were
+extremely rare, and only to be found in the moist shadows of some
+tree-bordered stream quite remote from this sandy beach.
+
+"Oh, dear! Something aches my feet. I will go home to my little bed.
+Pick up the posies, Feather-man, and take poor Kitty."
+
+With entire confidence that the Indian would do as she wished, the
+small maid clasped his buckskin-covered knee and leaned her dimpled
+cheek against it. It proved a comfortable support, and with a babyish
+yawn she promptly fell asleep again.
+
+Had she been a child of his own village, even of his own wigwam, Black
+Partridge would have shaken her roughly aside, feeling his dignity
+affronted by her familiarity; but in her case he could not do this and
+on this night least of all.
+
+The little estray was the orphan of Fort Dearborn; whose soldier
+father had met a soldier's common fate, and whose mother had quickly
+followed him with her broken heart. Then the babe of a few weeks
+became the charge of the kind women at the Fort, and the pet of the
+garrison in general.
+
+But now far graver matters than the pranks of a mischievous child
+filled the minds of all her friends. The peaceful, monotonous life of
+the past few years was over, and the order had gone forth that the
+post should be evacuated. Preparations had already begun for the long
+and hazardous journey which confronted that isolated band of white
+people, and the mothers of a score of other restless young folk had
+been too busy and anxious to notice when this child slipped away to
+wander on the prairie.
+
+For a brief time the weary baby slumbered against the red man's knee,
+while he considered the course he would best pursue; whether to return
+her at once to the family of the commandant, or to carry her southward
+to the Pottawatomie lodge whither he was bound. Then, his decision
+made, he lifted the child to his breast and resumed his homeward way.
+
+But the bright head pillowed so near his eyes seemed to dazzle him,
+and its floating golden locks to catch and hold, in a peculiar
+fashion, the rays of the sunset. From this, with his race instinct of
+poetic imagery, which finds in nature a type for everything, he caught
+a quaint suggestion.
+
+"She is like the sun himself. She is all warmth and brightness. She
+is his child, now that her pale-faced parents sleep the long sleep,
+and none other claims her. None? Yes, one. I, Black Partridge, the
+Man-Who-Lies-Not. In my village, Muck-otey-pokee, lives my sister, the
+daughter of a chief, her whose one son died of the fever on that same
+dark night when the arrow of a Sioux warrior killed a brave, his sire.
+In her closed tepee there will again be light. The Sun Maid shall make
+it. So shall she escape the fate of the doomed pale-faces, and so
+shall the daughter of my house again be glad."
+
+Thus, bearing her new name, and all unconsciously, the little Sun Maid
+was carried southward and still southward till the twilight fell and
+her new guardian reached the Pottawatomie village, on the Illinois
+prairie, where he dwelt.
+
+Sultry as the night was, there was yet a great council fire blazing in
+the midst of the settlement, and around this were grouped many young
+braves of the tribe. Before the arrival of their chief there had been
+a babel of tongues in the council, but all discussion ceased as he
+joined the circle in the firelight.
+
+The sudden silence was ominous, and the wise leader understood it;
+but it was not his purpose then to quarrel with any man. Ignoring
+the scowling glances bestowed upon him, he gave the customary
+evening salutation and, advancing directly to the fire, plucked a
+blazing fagot from it. This he lifted high and purposely held so
+that its brightness illuminated the face and figure of the child
+upon his breast.
+
+[Illustration: BLACK PARTRIDGE AND THE SUN MAID. _Page 6._]
+
+A guttural exclamation of astonishment ran from brave to brave. The
+action of their chief was significant, but its meaning not clearly
+comprehended. Had he brought the white baby as a hostage from the
+distant garrison, in pledge that the compact of its commandant would
+surely be kept? Or had some other tribe anticipated their own in
+obtaining the gifts to be distributed?
+
+Shut-Hand, one of the older warriors, whose name suggested his
+character, rose swiftly to his feet, and demanded menacingly:
+
+"What means our father, thus bringing hither the white papoose?"
+
+"That which the Black Partridge does--he does."
+
+Rebuked, but unsatisfied, the miserly inquirer sat down. Then, with a
+gesture of protection, the chief raised the sleeping little one, that
+all within the circle might better see her wonderful, glowing beauty,
+intensified as it was by the flare of the flames as well as by
+contrast to the dusky faces round about.
+
+"Who suffers harm to her shall himself suffer. She is the Sun Maid,
+the new daughter of our tribe."
+
+Having said this, and still carrying the burning fagot, he walked to
+the closed tepee of his widowed sister and lifted its door flap.
+Stooping his tall head till its feathered crest swept the floor he
+entered the spacious lodge. But he sniffed with contempt at the
+stifling atmosphere within, and laying down his torch raised the other
+half of the entrance curtain.
+
+At the back of the wigwam, crouching in the attitude she had sustained
+almost constantly since her bereavement, sat the Woman-Who-Mourns. She
+did not lift her head, or give any sign of welcome till the chief had
+crossed to her side, and in a tone of command bade her:
+
+"Arise and listen, my sister, for I bring you joy."
+
+"There is no joy," answered the woman, obediently lifting her tall
+figure to a rigidly erect posture; by long habit compelled to outward
+respect, though her heart remained indifferent.
+
+"Put back the hair from your eyes. Behold. For the dead son I give you
+the living daughter. In that land to which both have gone will her
+lost mother care for your lost child as you now care for her."
+
+Slowly, a pair of lean, brown hands came out from the swathing blanket
+and parted the long locks that served as a veil to hide a haggard,
+sorrowful face. After the deep gloom the sudden firelight dazzled the
+woman's sight, and she blinked curiously toward the burden upon her
+brother's breast. Then the small eyes began to see more clearly and to
+evince the amazement that filled her.
+
+"Dreams have been with me. They were many and strange. Is this
+another?"
+
+"This a glad reality. It is the Sun Maid. She has no parents. You have
+no child. She is yours. Take her and learn to laugh once more as in
+the days that are gone."
+
+Then he held the little creature toward her; and still amazed, but
+still obedient, the heart-broken squaw extended her arms and received
+the unconscious foundling. As the warm, soft flesh touched her own a
+thrill passed through her desolate heart, and all the tenderness of
+motherhood returned.
+
+"Who is she? Whence did she come? Where will she go?"
+
+"She is the Sun Maid. From the Fort by the great lake, where are still
+white men enough to die--as die they must. For there is treachery
+afoot, and they who were first treacherous must bear their own
+punishment. Only she shall be saved; and where she will go is in the
+power of the Woman-Who-Mourns, and of her alone."
+
+Without another word, and leaving the still blazing fagot lying on the
+earthen floor, the chief went swiftly away.
+
+But he had brought fresh air and light and comfort with him, as he had
+prophesied. The small Sun Maid was already brightening the dusky lodge
+as might an actual ray from her glorious namesake.
+
+It was proof of her utter exhaustion that she still slept soundly
+while her new foster-mother prepared a bed of softest furs spread over
+fresh green branches and went hurriedly out to beg from a neighbor
+squaw a draught of evening's milk. This action in itself was
+sufficiently surprising to set all tongues a-chatter.
+
+The lodge of Muck-otey-pokee had many of the comforts common to the
+white men's settlements. Its herd of cattle even surpassed that at
+Fort Dearborn itself, and was a matter of no small pride to the
+Pottawatomie villagers. From the old mission fathers they had learned,
+also, some useful arts, and wherever their prairie lands were tilled a
+rich result was always obtainable.
+
+So it was to a home of plenty, as well as safety, that Black Partridge
+had brought the little Sun Maid; and when she at length awoke to see a
+dusky face, full of wonderment and love, bending above her, she put
+out her arms and gurgled in a glee which brought an answering smile to
+lips that had not smiled for long.
+
+With an instinct of yearning tenderness, the Woman-Who-Mourns had
+lightened her sombre attire by all the devices possible, so that
+while the child slept she had transformed herself. She had neatly
+plaited her heavy hair, and wound about her head some strings of gay
+beads. She had fastened a scarlet tanager's wing to her breast, now
+covered by a bright-hued cotton gown once sent her from the Fort, and
+for which she had discarded her dingy blanket. But the greatest
+alteration of all was in the face itself, where a dawning happiness
+brought out afresh all the good points of a former comeliness.
+
+"Oh! Pretty! I have so many, many nice mammas. Are you another?"
+
+"Yes. All your mother now. My Sun Maid. My Girl-Child. My papoose!"
+
+"That is nice. But I'm hungry. Give me my breakfast, Other Mother.
+Then I will go seek my bunny rabbit, that runned away, and my yellow
+posies that went to sleep when I did. Did you put them to bed, too,
+Other Mother?"
+
+"There are many which shall wake for you, papoose," answered the
+woman, promptly; for though she did not understand about the missing
+blossoms, it was fortunate that she did both understand and speak the
+language of her adopted daughter. Her dead husband had been the
+tribe's interpreter, and both from him and from the Fort's chaplain
+she had acquired considerable knowledge.
+
+Until her widowhood and voluntary seclusion the Woman-Who-Mourns had
+been a person of note at Muck-otey-pokee; and now by her guardianship
+of this stranger white child she bade fair to again become such.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+TWO FOR BREAKFAST.
+
+
+The dead son of the Woman-Who-Mourns had never been disobedient, and
+small Kitty Briscoe had never obeyed anybody. She had laughed and
+frolicked her way through all rules and over all obstacles with a
+merry indifference that would have been insolent had it been less
+innocent and charming. During her short life the orphan had heard no
+voice but was full of tenderness, toward her at least; and every
+babyish misdemeanor had been pardoned almost before it was committed,
+by reason of her exceeding loveliness and overflowing affection. She
+had so loved all that she feared none, and not one of the kind mothers
+at the Fort had felt it her especial duty to discipline so sweet and
+fearless a nature. By and by, when she grew older, why, of course, the
+child must come under the yoke, like other children of that stern
+generation; but for the present, what was she but an ignorant baby, a
+motherless babe at that?
+
+So that, on that first morning of their life together, it gave the
+latest foster-mother a very decided shock when she directed:
+
+"Take your bowl of suppawn and milk, and eat it here by the fire,
+Girl-Child," to have the other reply, with equal decision:
+
+"Kitty will take it to the out-doors."
+
+"How? The papoose must eat her breakfast here, as I command."
+
+"But Kitty must take it out the doors. What will the pigeons say? Come
+with me, Other Mother."
+
+Quite to her own astonishment, the proud daughter of a chief complied.
+Superstition had suggested to her that this white-robed little
+creature, with her trustful eyes and her wonderful hair, who seemed
+rather to float over the space to the threshold than to tread upon the
+earthen floor, was the re-embodied spirit of her own lost child come
+back to comfort her sorrow and to be a power for good in her tribe.
+
+But if the Sun Maid were a spirit, she had many earthly qualities; and
+with a truly human carelessness she had no sooner stepped beyond the
+tent flap than she let fall her heavy bowl and spilled her breakfast.
+For there stood her last night's rescuer, his arms full of flowers.
+
+"Oh, the posies! the posies! Nice Feather-man did bring them."
+
+"Ugh! Black Partridge, the Truth-Teller. I have come to take my
+leave. Also to ask you, my sister, shall I carry away the Sun Maid to
+her own people? Or shall she abide with you?"
+
+"Take her away, my brother? Do you not guess, then, who she is?"
+
+"Why should I guess when I know. I saw her father die, and I stood
+beside her mother's grave. The white papoose has neither tribe nor
+kinsman."
+
+"There for once the Truth-Teller speaks unwisely. The Sun Maid, whom
+you found asleep on the path, is my own flesh and blood."
+
+In surprise Black Partridge stared at the woman, whose face glowed
+with delight. Then he reflected that it would be as well to leave her
+undisturbed in her strange notion. The helpless little one would be
+the better cared for, under such circumstances, and the time might
+speedily come when she would need all the protection possible for
+anybody to give.
+
+"It is well--as you believe; yet then you are no longer the
+Woman-Who-Mourns, but again Wahneenah, the Happy."
+
+For a moment they silently regarded the child who had thrown herself
+face downward upon the great heap of orchids that Black Partridge had
+brought, and which he had risen very early to gather. They were of the
+same sort that the little one had grieved over on the night before,
+only much larger and fairer, and of far greater number. Talking to
+the blossoms and caressing them as if they were human playmates, the
+Sun Maid forgot that she was hungry, until Wahneenah had brought a
+second bowl of porridge and, gently lifting her charge to a place upon
+the mat, had bidden her eat.
+
+"Oh, yes! My breakfast. I did forget it, didn't I? Oh, the darling
+posies! Oh! the pretty Feather-man, that couldn't tell a naughty
+story. I know 'bout him. We all know 'bout him to our Fort. My Captain
+says he is the bestest Feather-man in all the--everywhere."
+
+"Ugh! Ugh!"
+
+The low grunt of assent seemed to come from every side the big wigwam.
+At all times there were many idle Indians at Muck-otey-pokee, but of
+late their number had been largely increased by bands of visiting
+Pottawatomies. These had come to tarry with their tribesmen in the
+village till the distribution of goods should be made from Fort
+Dearborn, as had been ordered by General Hull; or until the hour was
+ripe for their treacherous assault upon the little garrison.
+
+The Man-Who-Kills was in the very centre of the group which had
+squatted in a semi-circle as near as it dared before the tepee of
+their chief's sister, and the low grunts came from this band of
+spectators.
+
+"We will sit and watch. So will we learn what the Black Partridge
+means," and when Spotted Rabbit so advised his brothers, they had
+come in the darkness and arranged themselves as has been described.
+
+The chief had found them there when, before dawn, he came with his
+offering of flowers, and Wahneenah had seen them when she raised the
+curtain of her tent and looked out to learn what manner of day was
+coming. But neither had noticed them any more than they did the birds
+rustling in the cottonwood beside the wigwam, or the wild creatures
+skurrying across the path for their early drink at the stream below.
+
+Neither had the Sun Maid paid them any attention, for she had always
+been accustomed to meeting the savages both at the Fort and on her
+rides abroad with any of her garrison friends; so she deliberately
+sipped her breakfast, pausing now and then to arrange the pouch-like
+petals of some favored blossoms and to converse with them in her
+fantastic fashion, quite believing that they heard and understood.
+
+"Did the nice Feather-man bring you all softly, little posies? Aren't
+you glad you've come to live with Kitty? Other Mother will give you
+all some breakfast, too, of coldest water in the brook. Then you will
+sit up straight and hold your heads high. That's the way the children
+do when my Captain takes the book with the green cover and makes them
+spell things out of it. Oscar doesn't like the green book. It makes
+him wriggle his nose--so; but Margaret is as fond of it as I am of
+you. Oh, dear! Some day, all my mothers say, I, too, will have to sit
+and look on the printing and spell words. I can, though, even now.
+Listen, posies. D-o-g--that's--that's--I guess it's 'cat.' Isn't it,
+posies? But you don't have to spell things, do you? I needn't either.
+Not to-day, and maybe not to-morrow day. Because, you see, I runned
+away. Oh, how I did run! So fast, so far, before I found your little
+sisters, posies, dear. Then I guess I went to sleep, without ever
+saying my 'Now I lay me,' and the black Feather-man came, and--that's
+all."
+
+Wahneenah had gone back to her household duties, for she had many
+things on hand that day. Not the least, to make her neglected tepee a
+brighter, fitter home for this stray sunbeam which the Great Spirit
+had sent to her out of the sky, and into which He had breathed the
+soul of her lost one. Indistinctly, she heard the murmuring of the
+babyish voice at the threshold and occasionally caught some of the
+words it uttered. These served but to establish her in her belief that
+the child had more than mortal senses; else how should she fancy that
+the blossoms would hear and understand her prattle?
+
+"Listen. She talks to the weeds as the white men talk to us. She is a
+witch," said the Man-Who-Kills to his neighbor in the circle, the
+White Pelican.
+
+"She is only a child of the pale-faces. The Black Partridge has set
+her among us to move our hearts to pity."
+
+"The White Pelican was ever a coward," snorted the Man-Who-Kills.
+
+But the younger warrior merely turned his head and smiled
+contemptuously. Then he critically scrutinized the ill-proportioned
+figure of the ugly-tempered brave. The fellow's crooked back,
+abnormally long arms and short legs were an anomaly in that race of
+stalwart Indians, and the soul of the savage corresponded to his
+outward development. For his very name had been given him in derision;
+because, though he always threatened and always sneaked after his
+prey, he had never been known to slay an enemy in open combat.
+
+"That is as the tomahawks prove. The scalps hang close on the pole of
+my wigwam," finally remarked the Pelican.
+
+"Ugh! But there was never such a scalp as that of the papoose yonder.
+It shall hang above all others in _my_ tepee. I have said it."
+
+"Having said it, you may unsay it. That is no human fleece upon that
+small head. She is sacred."
+
+"How? Is the White Pelican a man of dreams?"
+
+The elder brave also used a tone of contempt, though not with marked
+success. His thought reverted to the night before, when the chief had
+stood beside the council fire holding the sleeping child in his arms.
+Her wonderful yellow hair, fine as spun cobwebs and almost as light,
+had blown over the breast of Black Partridge like a cloud, and it had
+glistened and shimmered in the firelight as if possessed of restless
+life. The little figure was clothed in white, as the Fort mothers had
+fancied best suited their charge's fairness, even though the fabric
+must of necessity be coarse; and this garment likewise caught the glow
+of the dancing flames till it seemed luminous in itself.
+
+As an idle rumor spreads and grows among better cultured people so
+superstition held in power these watchful Indians. Said one:
+
+"The father of his tribe has met a spirit on the prairie and brought
+it to our village. Is the deed for good or evil?"
+
+This was what the men in the semi-circle had come to find out. So
+they relapsed again into silence, but kept a fixed gaze upon the
+indifferent child before them. She continued her playing and feeding
+as unconsciously as if she, the flowers, and the sunshine, were
+quite alone. Some even fancied that they could hear the orchids
+whispering in return; and it was due to that morning's incident that,
+thereafter, few among the Pottawatomies would lightly bruise or break
+a blossom which they then learned to believe was gifted with a sensate
+life.
+
+But presently a sibilant "Hst!" ran the length of the squatting line,
+and warriors who feared not death for themselves felt their muscles
+stiffen under a tension of dread as they saw the slow, sinuous
+approach of a poisonous reptile to the child on the mat; and the
+thought of each watcher was the same:
+
+"Now, indeed, the test--spirit or mortal?"
+
+The snake glided onward, its graceful body showing through the grass,
+its head slightly upraised, and its intention unmistakable.
+
+An Indian can be the most silent thing on earth, if he so wills, and
+at once it was as if all that row of red men had become stone. Even
+Wahneenah, in the wigwam behind, was startled by the stillness, and
+cautiously tiptoed forward to learn its cause. Then her heart, like
+theirs, hushed its beating and she rigidly awaited the outcome.
+
+Only the child herself was undisturbed. She did not cease the slow
+lifting of the clay spoon to her lips, and between sips she still
+prattled and gurgled in sheer content.
+
+"Kitty is most fulled up, 'cause she did have so big a breakfast, she
+did. Nice Other Mother did give it me. I wish my bunny rabbit had not
+runned away. Then he could have some. Never mind. Here comes a
+beau'ful cunning snake. I did see one two times to my Fort. Bad Jacky
+soldier did kill him dead, and that made Kitty cry. Come, pretty
+thing, do you want Kitty's breakfast? Then you may have it every bit."
+
+So she tossed her hair from her eyes and sat with uplifted spoon while
+the moccasin glided up to the mat and over it, till its mouth could
+reach the shallow bowl in the child's lap.
+
+"Oh! the funny way it eats. Poor thing! It hasn't any spoon. It might
+have Kitty's, only----"
+
+The bright eyes regarded the rudely shaped implement and the mouth it
+was to feed; then the little one's ready laughter bubbled forth.
+
+"Funny Kitty! How could it hold a spoon was bigger 'n itself--when its
+hands have never grown? Other pretty one, that Jacky killed, that
+didn't have its hands, either. Hush, snaky. Did I make you afraid, I
+laugh so much? Now I will keep very, very still till you are through.
+Then you may go back home to your childrens, and tell them all about
+your nice breakfast. Where do you live? Is it in a Fort, as Kitty
+does? Oh, I forgot! I did promise to keep still. Quite, quite still,
+till you go way away."
+
+So she did; while not only the red-skins, but all nature seemed to
+pause and watch the strange spectacle; for the light breeze that had
+come with the sunrise now died away, and every leaf stood still in the
+great heat which descended upon the earth.
+
+It seemed to Wahneenah, watching in a very motherly fear, and to the
+squatting braves, in their increasing awe, as if hours passed while
+the child and the reptile remained messmates. But at length the
+dangerous serpent was satisfied and, turning slowly about, retreated
+whence it came.
+
+Then Mistress Kitty lifted her voice and called merrily:
+
+"Come, Other Mother! Come and see. I did have a lovely, lovely creepy
+one to eat with me. He did eat so funny Kitty had to laugh. Then I
+remembered that my other peoples to my Fort tell all the children to
+be good and I was good, wasn't I? Say, Other Mother, my posies want
+some water."
+
+"They shall have it, White Papoose, my Girl-Child-Who-Is-Safe. She
+whom the Great Spirit has restored nothing can harm."
+
+Then she led the Sun Maid away, after she had gathered up every
+flower, not daring that anything beloved of her strange foster-child
+should be neglected.
+
+The watching Indians also rose and returned into the village from
+that point on its outskirts where Wahneenah's wigwam stood. They spoke
+little, for in each mind the conviction had become firm that the Sun
+Maid was, in deed and truth, a being from the Great Beyond, safe from
+every mortal hurt.
+
+Yet still, the Man-Who-Kills fingered the edge of his tomahawk with
+regret and remarked in a manner intended to show his great prowess:
+
+"Even a mighty warrior cannot fight against the powers of the sky."
+
+After a little, one, less credulous than his fellows, replied
+boastfully:
+
+"Before the sun shall rise and set a second time the white scalp will
+hang at my belt."
+
+Nobody answered the boast till at length a voice seemed to come out of
+the ground before them, and at its first sound every brave stood still
+to listen for that which was to follow. All recognized the voice, even
+the strangers from the most distant settlements. It was heard in
+prophecy only, and it belonged to old Katasha, the One-Who-Knows.
+
+"No. It is not so. Long after every one of this great Pottawatomie
+nation shall have passed out of sight, toward the place where the day
+dies, the hair of the Sun Maid's head shall be still shining. Its gold
+will have turned to snow, but generation after generation shall bow
+down to it in honor. Go. The road is plain. There is blood upon it,
+and some of this is yours. But the scalp of the Sun Maid is in the
+keeping of the Great Spirit. It is sacred. It cannot be harmed. Go."
+
+Then the venerable woman, who had risen from her bed upon the ground
+to utter her message, returned to her repose, and the warriors filed
+past her with bowed heads and great dejection of spirit. In this mood
+they joined another company about the dead council fire, and in angry
+resentment listened to the speech of the Black Partridge as he pleaded
+with them for the last time.
+
+"For it is the last. This day I make one more journey to the Fort, and
+there I will remain until you join me. We have promised safe escort
+for our white neighbors through the lands of the hostile tribes who
+dare not wage war against us. The white man trusts us. He counts us
+his friends. Shall we keep our promise and our honor, or shall we
+become traitors to the truth?"
+
+It was Shut-Hand who answered for his tribesmen:
+
+"It is the pale-face who is a traitor to honesty. The goods which our
+Great Father gave him in trust for his red children have been
+destroyed. The white soldiers have forgotten their duty and have
+taught us to forget ours. When the sun rises on the morrow we will
+join the Black Partridge at the Fort by the great water, and we will
+do what seems right in our eyes. The Black Partridge is our father
+and our chief. He must not then place the good of our enemies before
+the good of his own people. We have spoken."
+
+So the great Indian, who was more noble than his clansmen, went out
+from among them upon a hopeless errand. This time he did not make his
+journey on foot, but upon the back of his fleetest horse; and the
+medal he meant to relinquish was wrapped in a bit of deerskin and
+fastened to his belt.
+
+"Well, at least the Sun Maid will be safe. When the braves, with the
+squaws and children, join their brothers at the camp, Wahneenah will
+remain at Muck-otey-pokee; as should every other woman of the
+Pottawatomie nation, were I as powerful in reality as I appear. It is
+the squaws who urge the men to the darkest deeds. Ugh! What will be
+must be. Tchtk! Go on!"
+
+But the bay horse was already travelling at its best, slow as its pace
+seemed to the Black Partridge.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+IN INDIAN ATTIRE.
+
+
+Not many hours after Black Partridge turned his back upon
+Muck-otey-pokee, all its fighting men, with their squaws and children,
+also left it, as their chief had foreseen they would. They followed
+the direction he had taken, though they did not proceed to the
+garrison itself.
+
+The camp to which they repaired was a little distance from the Fort,
+and had been pitched beside the river, where was then a fringe of
+cottonwoods and locusts affording a grateful shade. Here the squaws
+cooked and gossiped, while their sons played the ancient games of
+throwing the spear through the ring, casting the hatchet, and shooting
+birds on the wing.
+
+The braves tested their weapons and boasted of many valorous deeds; or
+were else entirely silent, brooding upon mischief yet to come. Over
+all was the thrill of excitement and anticipation, which the great
+heat of the season seemed to deepen rather than dispel.
+
+At the Fort, Black Partridge pleaded finally and in vain.
+
+"We have been ordered to evacuate, and we will obey. All things are in
+readiness. The stores are already in the wagons, and other wagons wait
+for the sick, the women, and the children. Your people have promised
+us a safe conveyance through their country, and as far as we shall
+need it. They will be well paid. Part they have received, and the rest
+of their reward will be promptly delivered at the end of the journey.
+There is no more to be said"; and with this conclusion the weary
+commandant sat down in his denuded home to take a bit of food and a
+few moments' rest. He nodded hospitably toward an empty chair on the
+farther side of the deal table, by way of invitation that the Indian
+should join him, but this the honest chief declined to do.
+
+"No, good father, that can no longer be. I have come to return you
+this medal. I have worn it long and in peace. It was the gift of your
+people, a pledge between us of friendship. My friendship remains
+unbroken, but there also remains a tie which is stronger. I am the
+chief of my tribe. My young men are brave, and they have been
+deceived. They will punish the deceivers, and I have no power to
+prevent this. Nor do I blame them, though I would hold them to their
+compact if I could."
+
+"Cannot the Truth-Teller compel his sons to his own habit?"
+
+"Not when his white father sets them a bad example."
+
+"Black Partridge, your words are bold."
+
+"Your deed was bolder, father. It was the deed of a fool."
+
+"Take care!"
+
+As if he had not heard, the chief spoke steadily on:
+
+"My tribesman, Winnemeg--the white man's friend--brought the order
+that all goods stored here should be justly distributed among my
+people, to every man his portion. Was it thus done?"
+
+"Come, Black Partridge, you are not wanting in good sense nor in
+honesty. You must admit that such a course would have been hazardous
+in the extreme. The idea of putting liquor and ammunition into the
+hands of the red men was one of utter madness. It was worse than
+foolhardy. The broken firearms are safe in the well, and the more
+dangerous whiskey has mingled itself harmlessly with the waters of the
+river and the lake."
+
+"There is something more foolish than folly," said the Indian,
+gravely, "and that is a lie! The powder drowned in the well will kill
+more pale-faces than it could have done in the hands of your red
+children. The river-diluted whiskey will inflame more hot heads than
+if it had been dispensed honorably and in its full strength. But now
+the end. Though I will do what I can do, even the Truth-Teller cannot
+fight treachery. Prepare for the worst. And so--farewell!"
+
+Then the tall chief bowed his head in sadness and went away; but the
+terrible truth of what he then uttered all the world now knows.
+
+Meanwhile, in the almost empty village among the cottonwoods, the Sun
+Maid played and laughed and chattered as she had always done in her
+old home at the Fort. And all day, those wiser women like Wahneenah,
+who had refrained from following their tribe to the distant camp,
+watched and attended the child in admiring awe.
+
+By nightfall the Sun Maid had been loaded with gifts. Lahnowenah, wife
+of the avaricious Shut-Hand but herself surnamed the Giver, came
+earliest of all, with a necklace of bears' claws and curious shells
+which had come from the Pacific slope, none knew how many years
+before.
+
+The Sun Maid received the gift with delight and her usual exclamation
+of "Nice!" but when the donor attempted to clasp the trinket about the
+fair little throat she was met by a decided: "No, no, no!"
+
+"Girl-Child! All gifts are worthy, but this woman has given her best,"
+corrected Wahneenah, with some sternness. This baby might be a spirit,
+in truth, but it was the spirit of her own child and she must still
+hold it under authority.
+
+At sound of the altered tones, Kitty looked up swiftly and her lip
+quivered. Then she replied with equal decision:
+
+"Other Mother must not speak to me like that. Kitty is not bad. It is
+a pretty, pretty thing, but it is dirty. It must have its faces
+washed. Then I will wear it and love it all my life."
+
+An Indian girl would have been punished for such frankness, but
+Lahnowenah showed no resentment. Beneath her outward manner lay a
+deeper meaning. To her the necklace was a talisman. From generations
+long dead it had come down to her, and always as a life-saver. Whoever
+wore it could never be harmed "by hatchet or arrow, nor by fire or
+flood." Yet that very morning had her own brother, the Man-Who-Kills,
+assured her that the child's life was a doomed one, and she had more
+faith in his threats than had his neighbors in their village. She knew
+that the one thing he respected was this heirloom, and that he would
+not dare injure anybody who wore it. The Sun Maid was, undoubtedly,
+under the guardianship of higher powers than a poor squaw's, yet it
+could harm nobody to take all precautions.
+
+So, with a grim smile, the donor carried her gift to the near-by brook
+and held it for a few moments beneath the sluggish water; then she
+returned to the wigwam and again proffered it to the foundling.
+
+"Yes. That is nice now. Kitty will wear it all the time. Won't the
+childrens be pleased when they see it! Maybe they may wear it, too, if
+the dear blanket lady says they may. Can they, Other Mother?"
+
+The squaws exchanged significant glances. They knew it was not
+probable that the Fort orphan and her old playmates would ever meet
+again; but Wahneenah answered evasively:
+
+"They can wear it when they come to the Sun Maid's home."
+
+Again Lahnowenah would have put the necklace in its place, and a
+second time she was prevented; for at that moment the One-Who-Knows
+came slowly down the path between the trees, and held up her crutch
+warningly, as she called, in her feeble voice:
+
+"Wait! This is a ceremony. Let all the women come."
+
+Lahnowenah ran to summon them, and they gathered about the tepee in
+expectant silence. When old Katasha exerted herself it behooved all
+the daughters of her tribe to be in attendance.
+
+Wahneenah hastened to spread her best mat for the visitor's use, and
+helped to seat her upon it.
+
+"Ugh! Old feet grow clumsy and old arms weak. Take this bundle, sister
+of my chief, and do with its contents as seems right to thee."
+
+The other squaws squatted around, eagerly curious, while Wahneenah
+untied the threads of sinew which fastened the blanket-wrapped parcel.
+This outer covering itself was different from anything she had ever
+handled, being exquisitely soft in texture and gaudily bright in hue.
+It was also of a small size, such as might fit a child's shoulders.
+
+Within the blanket was a little tunic of creamy buckskin, gayly
+bedecked with a fringe of beads around the neck and arms' eyes, while
+the short skirt ended in a border of fur, also bead-trimmed in an odd
+pattern. With it were tiny leggings that matched the tunic; and a
+dainty pair of moccasins completed the costume.
+
+As garment after garment was spread out before the astonished gaze of
+the squaws their exclamations of surprise came loud and fast. A group
+of white mothers over a fashionable outfit for a modern child could
+not have been more enthusiastic or excited.
+
+Yet through all this she who had brought it remained stolid and
+silent; till at length her manner impressed the others, and they
+remembered that she had said: "It is a ceremony." Then Wahneenah
+motioned the squaws to be silent, and demanded quietly:
+
+"What is this that the One-Who-Knows sees good to be done at the lodge
+of her chief's daughter?"
+
+"Take the papoose. Set her before me. Watch and see."
+
+Wide-eyed and smiling, and quite unafraid, the little orphan from the
+Fort stood, as she was directed, close beside the aged squaw while she
+was silently disrobed. Her baby eyes had caught the glitter of beads
+on the new garments, and there was never a girl-child born who did not
+like new clothes. When she was quite undressed, and her white body
+shone like a marble statue in contrast to their dusky forms, the
+hushed voices of the Indians burst forth again in a torrent of
+admiration.
+
+But Kitty was too young to understand this, and deemed it some new
+game in which she played the principal part.
+
+The prophetess held up her hand and the women ceased chattering. Then
+she pointed toward the brook and, herself comprehending what was meant
+by this gesture, the Sun Maid ran lightly to the bank and leaped in.
+With a scream of fear, that was very human and mother-like, Wahneenah
+followed swiftly. For the instant she had forgotten that the merry
+little one was a "spirit," and could not drown.
+
+Fortunately, the stream was not deep, and was delightfully sun-warmed.
+Besides, the Fort children had all been as much at home in the water
+as on the land and a daily plunge had been a matter of course. So
+Kitty laughed and clapped her hands as she ducked again and again into
+the deepest of the shallow pools, splashing and gurgling in glee, till
+another signal from the aged crone bade the foster-mother bring the
+bather back.
+
+"No, no! Kitty likes the water. Kitty did make the Feather-lady wash
+the necklace. Now the old Feather-lady makes Kitty wash Kitty. No, I
+do not want to go. I want to stay right here in the brook."
+
+"But--the beautiful tunic! What about that, papoose?"
+
+It was not at all a "spiritual" argument, yet it sufficed; and with a
+spring the little one was out of the water and clinging to Wahneenah's
+breast.
+
+As she was set down, dewy and glistening, she pranced and tossed her
+dripping hair about till the drops it scattered touched some faces
+that had not known the feel of water in many a day. With an "Ugh!" of
+disgust the squaws withdrew to a safe distance from this unsolicited
+bath, though remaining keenly watchful of what the One-Who-Knows might
+do. This was, first, the anointing of the child's body with some
+unctuous substance that the old woman had brought, wrapped in a pawpaw
+leaf.
+
+Since towels were a luxury unknown in the wilderness, as soon as this
+anointing was finished Katasha clothed the child in her new costume
+and laid her hand upon the sunny head, while she muttered a charm to
+"preserve it from all evil and all enemies." Then, apparently
+exhausted by her own efforts, the prophetess directed Lahnowenah, the
+Giver, to put on the antique White Necklace.
+
+This was so long that it went twice about the Sun Maid's throat and
+would have been promptly pulled off by her own fingers, as an
+adornment quite too warm for the season had not the fastening been one
+she could not undo and the string, which held the ornaments, of strong
+sinew.
+
+Then Wahneenah took the prophetess into her wigwam, and prepared a
+meal of dried venison meat, hulled corn, and the juice of wild berries
+pressed out and sweetened. Katasha's visits were of rare occurrence,
+and it had been long since the Woman-Who-Mourns had played the
+hostess, save in this late matter of her foster-child; so for a time
+she forgot all save the necessity of doing honor to her guest. When
+she did remember the Sun Maid and went in anxious haste to the
+doorway, the child had vanished.
+
+"She is gone! The Great Spirit has recalled her!" cried Wahneenah, in
+distress.
+
+"Fear not, the White Papoose is safe. She will live long and her hands
+will be full. As they fill they will overflow. She is a river that
+enriches yet suffers no loss. Patience. Patience. You have taken joy
+into your home, but you have also taken sorrow. Accept both, and wait
+what will come."
+
+Even Wahneenah, to whom many deferred, felt that she herself must pay
+deference to this venerable prophetess, and so remained quiet in her
+wigwam as long as her guest chose to rest there. This was until the
+sun was near its setting and till the foster-mother's heart had grown
+sick with anxiety. So, no sooner had Katasha's figure disappeared
+among the trees than Wahneenah set out at frantic speed to find the
+little one.
+
+"Have you seen the Sun Maid?" she demanded of the few she met; and at
+last one set her on the right track.
+
+"Yes. She chased a gray squirrel that had been wounded. It was still
+so swift it could just outstrip her, and she followed beyond the
+village, away along the bank. Osceolo passed near, and saw the
+squirrel seek refuge in the lodge of Spotted Adder. The Sun Maid also
+entered."
+
+"The lodge of Spotted Adder!" repeated Wahneenah, slowly. "Then only
+the Great Spirit can preserve her!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE WHITE BOW.
+
+
+Wahneenah had lived so entirely within the seclusion of her own lodge
+that she had become almost a stranger in the village. It was long
+since she had travelled so far as the isolated hut into which the
+youth, Osceolo, had seen the Sun Maid disappear, and as she approached
+it her womanly heart smote her with pain and self-reproach, while she
+reflected thus:
+
+"Has it come to this? Spotted Adder, the Mighty, whose wigwam was once
+the richest of all my father's tribe. I remember that its curtains of
+fine skins were painted by the Man-Of-Visions himself, and told the
+history of the Pottawatomies since the beginning of the world. Many a
+heap of furs and peltries went in payment for their adornment,
+but--where are they now! While I have sat in darkness with my sorrow
+new things have become old. Yet he is accursed. Else the trouble would
+not have befallen him. I have heard the women talking, through my
+dreams. He has lain down and cannot again arise. And the White Papoose
+is with him! Will she be accursed, too? Fool! Why do I fear? Is she
+not a child of the sky, and forever safe, as Katasha said? But the
+touch of her arms was warm, like the clasp of the son I bore, and----"
+
+The mother's reverie ended in a very human distress. There was a rumor
+among her people that whoever came near the Spotted Adder would
+instantly be infected by whatever was the dread disease from which he
+suffered. That the Sun Maid's wonderful loveliness should receive a
+blemish seemed a thing intolerable and, in another instant, regardless
+of her own danger, Wahneenah had crept beneath the broken flap of
+bark, into a scene of squalor indescribable. Even this squaw, who knew
+quite well how wretched the tepees of her poorer tribesmen often were,
+was appalled now; and though the torn skins and strips of bark which
+covered the hut admitted plenty of light and air, she gasped for
+breath before she could speak.
+
+"My Girl-Child! My Sun Maid! Come away. Wrong, wrong to have entered
+here, to have made me so anxious. Come."
+
+"No, no, Other Mother! Kitty cannot come. Kitty must stay. See the
+poor gray squirrel? It has broked its leg. It went so--hoppety-pat,
+hoppety-pat, as fast as fast. I thought it was playing and just
+running away. So Kitty runned too. Kitty always runs away when Kitty
+can."
+
+"Ugh! I believe you. Come."
+
+"No, Kitty must stay. Poor sick man needs Kitty. I did give him a nice
+drink. Berries, too. Kitty putted them in his mouth all the time. Poor
+man!"
+
+Wahneenah's anger rose. Was she, a chief's daughter, to be thus
+flouted by a baby, a pale-face at that? Surely, there was nothing
+whatever spiritual now about this self-willed, spoiled creature, whom
+an unkind fate had imposed upon her. She stooped to lift the little
+one and compel obedience, but was met by a smile so fearless and happy
+that her arms fell to her sides.
+
+"That's a good Other Mother. Poor sick man has wanted to turn him
+over, and he couldn't. Kitty tried and tried, and Kitty couldn't. Now
+my Other Mother's come. She can. She is so beau'ful strong and kind!"
+
+There was a grunt, which might have been a groan, from the corner of
+the hut where the Spotted Adder lay; and a convulsive movement of the
+contorted limbs as he vainly strove to change his uncomfortable
+position. Wahneenah watched him, with the contempt which the women of
+her race feel for any masculine weakness, and did not offer to assist.
+His poverty she pitied, and would have relieved, though his physical
+infirmity was repugnant to her. She would not touch him.
+
+But the Sun Maid was on her feet at once, tenderly laying upon the
+ground the wounded squirrel which she had held upon her lap. The wild
+thing had, apparently, lost all its timidity and now fully trusted the
+child who had caressed its fur and murmured soft, pitying sounds, in
+that low voice of hers, which the Fort people had sometimes felt was
+an unknown language. Certainly, she had had a strange power, always,
+over any animal that came near her and this case was no exception. Her
+white friends would not have been surprised by the incident, but
+Wahneenah was, and it brought back her belief that this was a child of
+supernatural gifts. She even began to feel ashamed of her treatment of
+Spotted Adder, though she waited to see what his small nurse would do.
+
+"Poor sick Feather-man! Is you hurted now? Does your face ache you to
+make it screw itself all this way?" and she made a comical grimace,
+imitative of the sufferer's expression.
+
+"Ugh! Ugh!"
+
+"Yes; Kitty hears. Other Mother, that is all the word he says. All the
+time it is just 'Ugh! Ugh!' I wish he would talk Kitty's talk. Make
+him do it, Other Mother. Please!"
+
+"That I cannot do. He knows it not. But he has a speech I understand.
+What need you, Spotted Adder?" she concluded, in his own dialect.
+
+"Ugh! It is the voice of Wahneenah, the Happy. What does she here, in
+the lodge of the outcast? It is many a moon since the footfall of a
+woman sounded on my floor. Why does one come now?"
+
+"In pursuit of this child, the adopted daughter of our tribe, whom the
+Black Partridge himself has given me. It was ill of you, accursed, to
+wile her hither with your unholy spells."
+
+"I wiled her not. It was the gray squirrel. Broken in his life, as am
+I, the once Mighty. Many wounded creatures seek shelter here. It is a
+sanctuary. They alone fear not the miserable one."
+
+"Does not the tribe see to it that you have food and drink set within
+your wigwam, once during each journey of the sun? I have so heard."
+
+"Ugh! Food and drink. Sometimes I cannot reach them. They are not even
+pushed beyond the door flap, or what is left of it. They are all
+afraid. All. Yet they are fools. That which has befallen me may happen
+to each when his time comes. It is the sickness of the bones. There is
+no contagion in it. But it twists the straight limbs into torturing
+curves and it rends the body with agony. One would be glad to die, but
+death--like friendship--holds itself aloof. Ugh! The drink! The
+drink!"
+
+The Sun Maid could understand the language of the eyes, if not the
+lips, and she followed their wistful gaze toward the clay bowl from
+which she had before given him the water. But it was empty now, and
+seizing it with all her strength, for it was heavy and awkward in
+shape, she sped out of the wigwam toward a spring she had discovered.
+
+"Four, ten, lots of times Kitty has broughted the nice water, and
+every time the poor, sick Feather-man has drinked it up. He must be
+terrible thirsty, and so is Kitty. I guess I will drink first, this
+time."
+
+Filling the utensil, she struggled to lift it to her own lips, but it
+was rudely pushed away.
+
+"Papoose! Would you drink to your own death? The thing is accursed, I
+tell you!"
+
+"Why, Other Mother! It is just as clean as clean. Kitty did wash and
+wash it long ago. It was all dirty, worse than my new necklace, but it
+is clean now. Do you want a drink, Other Mother? Is you thirsty, too,
+like the sick one and Kitty?"
+
+"If I were, it would be long before I touched my lips to that cup."
+
+"Would it? Now I will fill it again. Then you must take it, Other
+Mother, and quick, quick, back to that raggedy house. Kitty is tired,
+she has come here and there so many, many times."
+
+"Is it here you have spent this long day, papoose?"
+
+"I did come here when the gray squirrel runned away. I did stay ever
+since."
+
+Wahneenah's heart sank. But to her credit it was that, for the time
+being, she forgot the stories she had heard, and remembered only that
+there was suffering which she must relieve. It might be that already
+the soul of Spotted Adder was winged for its long flight, and could
+carry for her to that wide Unknown, where her own dead tarried, some
+message from her, the bereft. As this thought flashed through her
+brain she seized the bowl and hastened with it to the lodge.
+
+This time, also, she forgot everything but the possibility that had
+come to her, and kneeling beside the old Indian she held the dish to
+his mouth.
+
+"It is the fever, the fever! A little while and the awful chill will
+come again. The racking pain, the thirst! Ugh! Wahneenah, the Happy,
+is braver than her sisters. Her courage shall prove her blessing. The
+lips of the dying speak truth."
+
+"And the ears of the dying? Can they still hear and remember? Will the
+Spotted Adder take my message to the men I have lost? Sire and son,
+there was no Pottawatomie ever born so brave as they. Tell them I have
+been faithful. I have been the Woman-Who-Mourns. I have kept to my
+darkened wigwam and remembered only them, till she came, this child
+you have seen. She is a gift from the sky. She has come to comfort
+and sustain. She was born a pale-face, but she has a red man's heart.
+She is all brave and true and dauntless. None fear her, and she fears
+none. I believe that they have sent her to me. I believe that in her
+they both live. Ask them if this is so."
+
+"There is no need to ask, Wahneenah, the Happy. Happy, indeed, who has
+been blessed with a gift so gracious. She is the Merciful. The
+Unafraid. She will pass in safety through many perils. All day she has
+sat beside me whom all others shun. She has moistened my lips, she has
+kept the gnats from stinging, she has sung in her unknown tongue of
+that land whither I go, and soon,--the land of the sky from whence she
+came. The light of the morning is on her hair and the dusk of evening
+in her eyes. As she has ministered to me, the deserted, the solitary,
+so she will minister unto multitudes. I can see them crowding,
+crowding; the generations yet unborn. The vision of the dying is
+true."
+
+On the floor beside them the Sun Maid sat, caressing the wounded
+squirrel. Through the torn curtains the waning sunlight slanted and
+lighted the bleak interior. It seemed to rest most brilliantly upon
+the child, and in the eyes of the Spotted Adder she was like a lamp
+set to illumine his path through the dark valley, an unexpected
+messenger from the Great Father, showing him beforehand a glimpse of
+the beauty and tenderness of the Land Beyond. Yet even if a spirit,
+she wore a human shape, and she would have human needs. She would be
+often in danger against which she must be guarded.
+
+"Wahneenah, fetch me the bow and quiver."
+
+"Which?" she asked, in surprise, though in reality she knew.
+
+"Is there one that should be named with mine? The White Bow from the
+land of eternal snow; the arrows winged with feathers from the white
+eagle's wing,--light as thistle down, strong as love, invincible as
+death."
+
+The Spotted Adder had been the orator of his tribe. Men had listened
+to his words in admiration, wondering whence he obtained the eloquence
+which moved them; and at that moment it was as if all the power of his
+earlier manhood had returned.
+
+The White Bow was well known among all the Pottawatomie tribes. Even
+the Sacs and Foxes had heard of it and feared it. It was older than
+the Giver's historic necklace, and tradition said that it had been
+hurled to earth on the breath of a mighty snowstorm. It had fallen
+before the wigwam of the Spotted Adder's ancestor and had been handed
+down from father to son, as fair and sound as on the day of its first
+bestowal. None knew the wood of which it was fashioned, which many
+could bend and twist but none could break. The string which first
+bound it had never worn nor wasted, and not a feather had ever fallen
+from the arrows in the quiver, nor had their number ever diminished,
+no matter how often sped. It was the one possession left to the
+neglected warrior and had been protected by its own reputed origin.
+There were daring thieves in many a tribe, but never a thief so bold
+he would risk his soul in the seizure of the White Bow.
+
+Wahneenah felt no choice but to comply with the Indian's command. She
+took the bow and its accoutrements from the sheltered niche in the
+tepee where it hung; the only spot, it seemed, that had not been
+subjected to the destruction of the elements. She had never held it in
+her hand before, and she wondered at its lightness as she carried it
+to its owner, and placed it in the gnarled fingers which would never
+string it again.
+
+"Good! Call the child to stand here."
+
+With awe, Wahneenah motioned the little one within the red man's
+reach. The last vestige of fear or repulsion had vanished from her own
+mind before the majesty of this hour.
+
+"Does the poor, sick Feather-man want another drink? Shall Kitty fetch
+it now?"
+
+"Hush, papoose!"
+
+He would have opened the small white hand and clasped it about the
+bow, which reached full three times the height of the child, and along
+whose beautiful length she gazed in wonder, but he could not.
+
+"Take it, Girl-Child. It is a gift. It is more magical than the
+necklace. Take it, hold it tight--that will please him--and say what
+is in your heart."
+
+"Oh, the beau'ful bow! Is it for Kitty? To keep, forever and ever?
+Why, it is bigger than that one of the Sauganash, and far prettier
+than Winnemeg's. It cannot be for Kitty, just little Kitty girl."
+
+"Yes; it is."
+
+Then the Sun Maid laid it reverently down, and catching hold her scant
+tunic made the old-fashioned curtsey which her Fort friends had taught
+her.
+
+"Thank you, poor Feather-man. I will take care of it very nice. I
+won't break it, not once."
+
+"Ugh!" grunted the Indian, with satisfaction. Then he closed his eyes
+as if he would sleep.
+
+"Good-night, Spotted Adder, the Mighty. I thank you, also, on the
+child's behalf. It is the second gift this day of talismans that must
+protect. Surely, she will be clothed in safety. Hearken to me. I must
+go home. The Sun Maid must be fed and put to sleep. But I will return.
+I am no longer afraid. You were my father's friend. All that a woman's
+hand can now do for your comfort shall be done."
+
+[Illustration: THE GIFT OF THE WHITE BOW. _Page 48._]
+
+But the Spotted Adder made no sign, and whether he did or did not hear
+her, Wahneenah never knew. She walked swiftly homeward, bearing the
+White Papoose upon one strong arm and the White Bow upon the other.
+Yet she noticed, with a smile, that the child still clung tenderly to
+her own burden of the injured squirrel, and that she was infinitely
+more careful of it and its suffering than of the wonderful gift she
+had received.
+
+Long before her own tepee was reached the Sun Maid was fast asleep;
+and as the small head rested more and more heavily upon Wahneenah's
+shoulder, and the soft breath of childhood fanned her throat, the
+woman again doubted the spiritual origin of the foundling, and felt
+fresh gratitude for its simple humanity.
+
+"Well, whoever and whatever she is, she is already thrice protected.
+By her Indian dress, by her White Bow, and by Lahnowenah's White
+Necklace. She is quite safe from every enemy now."
+
+"Not quite," said a voice at Wahneenah's elbow.
+
+But it was only Osceolo, the Simple. Nobody minded him or his words.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+HORSES: WHITE AND BLACK.
+
+
+On the morning of the 15th of August, 1812, the sun rose in unclouded
+splendor, and transformed the great Lake Michigan into a sheet of
+gold.
+
+"It is a good omen," said one of the women at Fort Dearborn, as she
+looked out over the shining water.
+
+But only the merry children responded to her attempted cheerfulness.
+
+"We shall have a grand ride. I wish nobody need make the journey on
+foot; and I'm glad, for once, I'm just a boy, and not a grown-up man."
+
+"Even a boy may have to do a man's work, this day, Gaspar Keith. I
+wish that you were strong enough to hold a gun; but you have been
+taught how to use an arrow. Is your quiver well supplied?"
+
+That his captain should speak to him, a child, so seriously, impressed
+the lad profoundly. His ruddy cheek paled, and a fit of trembling
+seized him. A sombre memory rose to frighten him, and he caught his
+breath as he asked:
+
+"Do you think there will be any trouble, Captain Heald? I thought I
+heard the soldiers saying that the Pottawatomies would take care of
+us."
+
+"Who trusts to an Indian's care leans on a broken reed. You know that
+from your own experience. Surely, you must remember your earlier
+childhood, even though you have been forbidden to talk of it here."
+
+"Oh! I do, I do! Not often in the daytime, but in the long, long
+nights. The other children sleep. They have never seen what I did, or
+heard the dreadful yells that come in my dreams and wake me up. Then I
+seem to see the flames, the blood, the dead white faces. Oh, sir,
+don't tell me that must come again: don't, don't! I cannot bear it. I
+would rather die right now and here--safe in our Fort."
+
+Instantly the soldier regretted his own words. But the lad was one of
+the larger children at the garrison and should be incited, he thought,
+to take some share in the matter of defence, should defence be
+necessary. He had not known that under Gaspar's quiet, almost sullen
+demeanor, had lain such hidden experiences. Else he would have talked
+them over with the boy, and have tried to make him forget instead of
+remember his early wrongs.
+
+For Gaspar Keith was the son of an Indian trader, and had been born in
+an isolated cabin far to the northwest of his present home. The little
+cabin had been overflowing with young life and gayety, even in that
+wilderness. His mother was a Frenchwoman of the happiest possible
+temperament and, because no other society was available, had made
+comrades of her children. "What we did in Montreal" was the type of
+what she attempted to do under her more restricted conditions. So, for
+a long season of peace, the Keiths sang and made merry over every
+trifling incident. Did the father bring home an extra load of game, at
+once there was a feast prepared and all the friendly Indians, the only
+neighbors, were invited to come and partake.
+
+On one such occasion, when a red-skinned guest had brought with him a
+bottle of the forbidden "fire-water," a quarrel ensued. The trader was
+of sterner sort than his light-hearted wife, and of violent temper. In
+his own house his word was law, and he remonstrated with the Indian
+for his action. To little Gaspar, in his memories, it seemed but a
+moment's transition from a laughing group about a well-spread table to
+a scene of horror. He saw--but he could never afterward speak in any
+definite way of what he saw. Only he knew that almost before he had
+pushed back from his place he had been caught up on the shoulder of
+the chief Winnemeg, also a guest; and in another moment was riding
+behind that warrior at breakneck speed toward the little garrison, in
+pursuit of shelter for himself and aid for his defenceless family.
+
+The shelter was speedily found, but the aid came too late; and for a
+time the women of the Fort had a difficult task in comforting the
+fright-crazed boy. However, they were used to such incidents. Their
+courage and generosity were unlimited, and they persevered in their
+care till he recovered and repaid them by his faithful devotion and
+service.
+
+The manner of his arrival among them was never discussed in his
+presence, and as he gradually came to act like other, happier
+children, they hoped he had outgrown his troubles. He had now been at
+the Fort for two years, during all which time he had gone but short
+distances from it. Yet even in his restricted outings he had picked up
+much knowledge of useful things from the settlers near, and of things
+apparently not so useful from his red-faced friends. So it happened
+that there was not, probably, even any Indian boy who could string a
+bow or aim an arrow better than Gaspar.
+
+The Sauganash himself had presented the little fellow with a bow of
+finest workmanship, and had taught him the rare trick of shooting at
+fixed paces. It had been the delight of the garrison to watch him, in
+their hours of recreation, accomplish this feat. Sighting some bird
+flying high overhead, the lad would take swift aim and discharge each
+arrow from his quiver at a certain count. There never seemed any
+variation in the distances between the discharged arrows as they made
+the arc--upward with unerring aim, and downward in the body of the
+bird; hitting it, one by one, at proportionate intervals of time and
+space.
+
+The women thought it a cruel sport, and would have prevented it if
+they could; but the men knew that it was a wonderful achievement, and
+that many fine archers among the surrounding tribes would fail in
+accomplishing it. Therefore, it was natural that the Fort's commandant
+should be anxious to know if his ward's equipment were in order, on a
+morning so full of possible dangers as this.
+
+"There is no talk of dying, Gaspar. You are a man, child, if not full
+grown. You are brave and skilful. You have a clear head, too; so
+listen closely to what I say. In our garrison are not more than forty
+men able to fight. There are a dozen women and twenty children, of
+which none have been trained to use a bow as you can. Besides these
+helpless ones, there are many sick soldiers to occupy the wagons. I
+know you expected to be with your mates, but I have another plan for
+you. I want you to ride Tempest, and to sling your bow on your saddle
+horn."
+
+"Ride--Tempest! Why, Captain Heald! Nobody--that is, nobody but
+you--can ride him. I was never on his back----"
+
+"It's time you were. Lad, do you know how many Indians are in camp
+near us, or have broken camp this morning to join us?"
+
+"Oh! quite a lot, I guess."
+
+"Just so. A whole 'lot.' About five hundred, or a few less."
+
+The two were busily at work, packing the last of the few possessions
+that the commandant must convey to Fort Wayne, and which he could
+entrust to no other hands than his own and those of this deft-fingered
+lad, and they made no pause while they talked. Indeed, Gaspar's
+movements were even swifter now, as if he were eager to be through and
+off.
+
+"Five hundred, sir? They are friendly Indians, though. Black Partridge
+and Winnemeg----"
+
+"Are but as straws against the current. Gaspar, I shall need a boy who
+can be trusted. These red neighbors of ours are not so 'friendly' as
+they seem. They are dissatisfied. They mean mischief, I fear, though
+God forbid! Well, we are soldiers, and we cannot shrink. You must ride
+Tempest. You must tell nobody why. You can keep at a short distance
+from our main band, and act as scout. Captain Wells will march in
+front with his Miamis, upon whose assistance--the Miamis', I mean--I
+do not greatly count. They are cowards. They fear the 'canoe men.'
+Well, what do you say, my son?"
+
+Gaspar caught his breath. His own fear of an Indian had been nearly
+overcome by the friendship of those chiefs who were so constantly at
+the Fort; but the night before had brought him a recurrence of the
+terrifying visions which were as much memories as dreams. After such a
+night he was scarcely himself in courage, greatly as he desired to
+please the captain. Then he reflected how high was the honor designed
+him. He, a little boy, just past ten and going on eleven for a whole
+fortnight now, and--of course he'd do it!
+
+"Well, I'll ride him. That is, I'll try. Like as not, he'll shake me
+off first try."
+
+"Make the second try, then. You know the copy in your writing-book?"
+
+"Yes, sir. I wrote the whole page of it, yesterday, and the chaplain
+said it was well done. Shall I get him now? Are you almost ready?"
+
+The commandant looked at the waiting wagons, the assembled company,
+the women and little ones who were so dear and in such a perilous
+case. For a moment his heart sank, stout soldier though he was, and it
+was no detriment to his manhood that a fervent if silent prayer
+escaped him.
+
+"Yes, fetch him if you can. If not, I'll come."
+
+Tempest was a gelding of fine Kentucky breed. There were others of his
+line at the garrison, and upon them some of the women even were to
+ride. But Tempest was the king of the stables. He was the master's
+half-broken pet and recreation. For sterner uses, as for that
+morning's work, there was a better trained animal, and on this the
+commandant would make his own journey.
+
+A smile curled the officer's lips despite his anxiety as, presently,
+out from the stables galloped a bareheaded lad, clinging desperately
+to Tempest's back, who tried as desperately to shake off his unusual
+burden. But the saddle girth was well secured, and the rider clung
+like a burr. His bow was slung crosswise before him and his full
+quiver hung at his back.
+
+A cheer went up. The sight was as helpful to the soldiers as it was
+amusing, and they fell into line with a ready step as the band struck
+up--what was that tune? _The Dead March?_ By whose ill-judgment this?
+
+Well, there was no time to question. Any music helps to keep a line of
+men in step, and there was the determined Gaspar cavorting and
+wheeling before and around the soldiers in a way to provoke a mirth
+that no dismal strain could dispel. So the gates were flung open, and
+in orderly procession, each man in his place, each heart set upon its
+duty, the little garrison marched through them for the last time.
+
+Of what took place within the next dread hours, of the Indians'
+treachery and the white men's courage, there is no need to give the
+details. It is history. But of brave Gaspar Keith on the wild gelding,
+Tempest, history makes no mention. There is many a hero whose name
+is unknown, and the lad was a hero that day. He did what he could,
+and his empty quiver, his broken bow, told their own story to a
+Pottawatomie warrior who came upon the boy just as the sun crossed
+the meridian on that memorable day.
+
+Gaspar was lying unconscious beneath a clump of forest trees, and
+Tempest grazing quietly beside him. There was no wound upon the lad,
+and whether he had been thrown to the ground by the animal, or had
+slipped from his saddle out of sheer weariness, even he could never
+tell.
+
+The Indian who found him was none other than the Man-Who-Kills; and,
+from a perfectly safe distance for himself, he had watched the young
+pale-face with admiration and covetousness.
+
+"By and by, when the fight is over, I will get him. He shall be my
+prisoner. The black gelding is finer than any horse ever galloped into
+Muck-otey-pokee. They shall both be mine. I will tell a big tale at
+the council fires of my brothers, and they shall account me brave.
+Talking is easier than fighting, any time, and why should I peril my
+life, following this mad war-path of theirs to that far-away Fort
+Wayne? Enough is a plenty. I have hidden lots of plunder while the men
+of my tribe did their killing, and the Man-Who-Kills will always be
+wise, as he is always brave. I could shoot as fast and as far as
+anybody if--if I wished. But I do not wish. It is too much trouble. So
+I will tie the boy on the gelding's back and lead them home in
+triumph. Will my squaw, Sorah, flout me now? No. No, indeed! And there
+is no need to say that I dared not mount the beast myself. But I can
+lead him all right, and when the Woman-Who-Mourns, that haughty sister
+of my chief, sees me coming she will say: 'Behold! how merciful is
+this mighty warrior!'"
+
+These reflections of the astute Indian, as he rested upon the shaded
+sward, afforded him such satisfaction that he did, indeed, handle poor
+Gaspar with more gentleness than might have been expected; because
+such a person commonly mistakes brutality for bravery.
+
+Oddly enough, Tempest offered no resistance to the red man's plan, and
+allowed himself to be burdened by the helpless Gaspar and led slowly
+to the Indian village. There the party aroused less interest than the
+Man-Who-Kills had anticipated, for other prisoners had already been
+brought in and, besides this, something had occurred that seemed to
+the women far more important.
+
+This was the fresh grief of Wahneenah as she roamed from wigwam to
+wigwam, searching for her adopted daughter and imploring help to find
+her. For again the Sun Maid had disappeared, as suddenly and more
+completely than on the previous day though after much the same manner.
+
+The child had been attending her injured squirrel and giving her bowls
+of orchids fresh drinks, upon the threshold mat of her new home, and
+her indulgent foster-mother had gone to fetch from the stream the
+water needed for the latter purpose. At the brook's edge she had
+stopped, "just for a moment," to discuss with the other squaws the
+news of the massacre that was fast coming to them by the straggling
+bands of returning braves.
+
+But the brief absence was long enough to have worked the mischief. The
+small runaway had left her posies and her squirrel and departed,
+nobody could guess whither.
+
+Till at last again came Osceolo, the mischievous, and remarked,
+indifferently:
+
+"The Woman-Who-Mourns may save her steps. The White Papoose and the
+Snowbird are far over the prairie while the women search."
+
+"Osceolo! You are the son of the evil spirit! You bring distress in
+your hand as a gift! But take care what you say now. You know, as I
+know, that nobody can mount the White Snowbird and live. Or if one
+could succeed and pass beyond the village borders, it would be a ride
+to some far land whence there is no return. What is the mare,
+Snowbird, but a creature bewitched? or the home of the soul of a dead
+maiden, who would rather live thus with her people than without them
+as a spirit in the Great Beyond? You know all this, and yet you tell
+me----"
+
+"That the Sun Maid is flying now on the Snowbird's back toward the
+setting sun, who is her father."
+
+"How do you know this?"
+
+"I saw it."
+
+"Who took her to the Snowbird's corral? Who? Osceolo, torment of our
+tribe, it was you! It was you! Boy, do you know what you have done? Do
+you know that out there, on the prairie where you have sent her, the
+spirit of murder is abroad? Not a pale-face shall escape. She was safe
+here, where your own chief, the Black Partridge, placed her. Hear me.
+If harm befalls her, if by moonrise she is not restored to me, you
+shall bear the punishment. You----"
+
+By a gesture he stopped her. Now thoroughly frightened, the
+mischievous boy put up his arms as if to ward off the coming threat.
+Half credulous, and half doubtful that the Sun Maid was more than
+mortal, he had made a test for himself. He had remembered the
+Snowbird, fretting its high spirit out within the closed paddock, and
+a daring notion had seized him. It was this:
+
+"While the Woman-Who-Mourns gossips with her neighbors, I'll catch up
+the papoose and carry her there. She'll come fast enough. She ran away
+yesterday, and she played with me before the Spotted Adder's hut. She
+trusts everybody. I'll have some fun, even if my father didn't let me
+go with him to the camp yonder."
+
+Among all nations boyhood is the same--plays the same wild pranks,
+with equal disregard of consequences; and Osceolo would far rather
+have had a good time than a good supper. He thought he was having a
+perfectly fascinating good time when he bound a long blanket over the
+Snowbird's back and then fastened Kitty Briscoe in the folds of the
+blanket. He had laughed gayly as he clapped his hands and set the mare
+free, and the little one riding her had laughed and clapped also. He
+had watched them out of sight over the prairie, and had felt quite
+proud of himself.
+
+"If she is a spirit she'll come back safe; and if she's nothing but a
+white man's baby--why, that's all she is. Only a squaw child at that,
+though the silly women have made such ado. I wonder--will I ever see
+her again? Well, I'll go around by Wahneenah's tepee, after a while,
+and enjoy the worry. It's the smartest thing I've done yet; and she
+did look cunning, too. She wasn't a bit afraid--she isn't afraid of
+anything--which makes her better than most girl papooses, and she was
+laughing as hard as I was when she went away."
+
+With these thoughts, Osceolo had come back to the spot where Wahneenah
+met him and demanded if he knew aught of her charge; and there was no
+hilarity in his face now as he watched her enter her wigwam and drop
+its curtains behind her. He suddenly remembered--many things; and at
+thought of the Black Partridge's wrath he turned faint and sick.
+
+But the test had been made and no regret could recall it.
+
+Meanwhile, there came into his mind the fact: a black horse had just
+entered the village and a white one had gone out of it. The narrow
+superstition in which he had been reared taught him that the one
+brought misfortune and the other carried away happiness; and, in a
+redoubled terror at his own act and its consequences, Osceolo turned
+and fled.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE THREE GIFTS.
+
+
+"The Black Partridge has served his white friends faithfully. He
+should now remember his own people, and rest his heart among them,"
+said the White Pelican as he rode homeward beside his chief, not many
+hours after the massacre of the sandhills.
+
+The elder warrior lifted his bowed head, and regarded his nephew in
+sadness. His eyes had that far-away, dreamy look which was unusual
+among his race and had given him, at times, a strange power over his
+fellows. Because, unfortunately, the dreams were, after all, very
+practical, and the silent visions were of things that might have been
+averted.
+
+"The White Pelican, also, did well. He protected those whom he wished
+to kill. He did it for my sake. It shall not be forgotten, though the
+effort was useless. The end has begun."
+
+The younger brave touched his fine horse impatiently, and the animal
+sprang forward a few paces. As he did so, the rider caught a gleam of
+something white skimming along the horizon line, and wondered what it
+might be. But he had set out to attend his chief and, curbing his
+mount by a strong pull, whirled about and rode back to the side of
+Black Partridge.
+
+"What is the end that has begun, Man-Who-Cannot-Lie?"
+
+"The downfall of our nations. They have been as the trees of the
+forest and the grasses of the prairie. The trees shall be felled and
+the grasses shall be cut. The white man's hand shall accomplish both."
+
+"For once, the Truth-Teller is mistaken. We will wrest our lands back
+from the grasp of the pale-faces. We will learn their arts and conquer
+them with their own weapons. We will destroy their villages--few they
+are and widely scattered. Pouf! This morning's work is but a show of
+what is yet to come. As we did then, so we will do in the future. I,
+too, would go with my tribe to that other fort far beyond the Great
+Lake. I would help again to wipe away these usurpers from our homes,
+as I wipe--this, from my horse's flank. Only my promise to remain with
+my chief and my kinsman prevents."
+
+The youth had stooped and brushed a bit of grass bloom from the
+animal's shining skin; and as he raised his head again he looked
+inquiringly into the stern face of the other. Thus, indirectly, was
+he begging permission to join the contemplated raid upon another
+distant garrison.
+
+Black Partridge understood but ignored the silent petition. He had
+other, higher plans for the White Pelican. He would himself train the
+courageous youth to be as wise and diplomatic as he was brave. When
+the training was over, he should be sent to that distant land where
+the Great Father of the white men dwelt, and should there make a plea
+for the whole Indian race.
+
+"Would not a man who saved all this"--sweeping his arm around toward
+every point of the prairie--"to his people be better than one who
+killed a half-dozen pale-faces yet lost his home?"
+
+"Why--yes," said the other, regretfully. "But----"
+
+"But it is the last chance. The time draws near when not an Indian
+wigwam will dot this grand plain. Already, in the talk of the white
+men, there is the plan forming to send us westward. Many a day's
+journey will lie between us and this beloved spot. Our canoes will
+soon vanish from the Great Lake, and we shall cease to glide over our
+beautiful river. Hear me. It is fate. These people who have come to
+oust us from our birthright have been sent by the Great Spirit. It is
+His will. We have had our one day of life and of possession. They are
+to have theirs. Who will come after them and destroy them? They----"
+
+But the White Pelican could endure no more. The Black Partridge was
+not often in such a mood as this, stern and sombre though he might
+sometimes be, nor had his prophecies so far an outlook. That the
+Indians should ever be driven entirely away by their white enemies
+seemed a thing impossible to the stout-hearted young brave, and he
+spoke his mind freely.
+
+"My father has had sorrow this day, and his eyes are too dim to see
+clearly. Or he has eaten of the white man's food and it has turned his
+brain. Were it not for his dim eyesight, I would ask him to tell the
+White Pelican what that creature might be that darts and wheels and
+prances yonder"; and he pointed toward the western horizon.
+
+Now there was a hidden taunt in the warrior's words. No man in the
+whole Pottawatomie nation was reputed to have such clearness of
+eyesight as the Black Partridge. The readiness with which he could
+distinguish objects so distant as to be invisible to other men had
+passed into a proverb among his neighbors, who believed that his
+inward "visions" in some manner furthered this extraordinary outward
+eyesight.
+
+The chief flashed a scornful glance upon his attendant and, quite
+naturally, toward the designated object. White Pelican saw his gaze
+become intent and his indifference give way to amazement. Then, with a
+cry of alarm, that was half incredulity, the Black Partridge wheeled
+and struck out swiftly toward the west.
+
+"Ugh! It looked unusual, even to me, but my father has recognized
+something beyond my guessing. He rides like the wind, yet his horse
+was well spent an hour ago."
+
+Regardless of his own recent eagerness to be at Muck-otey-pokee, and
+relating the day's doings to an admiring circle of stay-at-homes, the
+young brave followed his leader. In a brief time they came up with a
+wild, high-spirited white horse, which rushed frantically from point
+to point in the vain hope of shaking from its back a burden to which
+it was not used.
+
+"Souls of my ancestors! It is--the Snowbird!"
+
+"It is the Sun Maid!" returned Black Partridge.
+
+But for all his straining vision, White Pelican could not make out
+that it was indeed that wonderful child who was wrapped and bundled in
+the long blanket and lashed to the Snowbird's back by many thongs of
+leather. Not until, by one dexterous swoop of his horsehair rope, the
+chief collared the terrified mare and brought her to her knees.
+
+"Cut the straps. Set the child free."
+
+The brave promptly obeyed; while the chief, holding the struggling
+mare with one hand, carefully drew the Sun Maid from her swathing
+blanket and laid her across his shoulder. Her little figure hung limp
+and relaxed where it was placed, and he saw that she had fainted.
+
+[Illustration: SNOWBIRD AND THE SUN MAID. _Page 68._]
+
+"Take her to that row of alder bushes yonder. There should be water
+there. I'll finish what has been begun, and prove whether this is a
+beast bewitched, or only a vicious mare that needs a master."
+
+The White Pelican would have preferred the horse-breaking to acting as
+child's nurse to this uncanny small maiden who had ridden a creature
+none other in his tribe would have attempted. But he did as he was
+bidden and laid the little one down in the cooling shade of the
+alders. Then he put the water on her face and forced a few drops
+between her parted lips. After that he fixed all his attention on the
+efforts of Black Partridge to bring into subjection the unbroken mare.
+
+However, the efforts were neither very severe nor long continued. Like
+many another, the Snowbird had received a worse name than she
+deserved, and she had already been well wearied by her wild gallop on
+the prairie. She had done her best to throw and kill the child which
+Osceolo had bound upon her back, but she had only succeeded in
+tightening the bands and exhausting both herself and her unconscious
+rider. More than that, Black Partridge had a will stronger than hers
+and it conquered.
+
+"Well, I did ride a long, long way, didn't I? Feather-man, did you put
+Kitty on the nice cool grass? Will you give Kitty another drink of
+water? I guess I'm pretty tired, ain't I?"
+
+These words recalled the White Pelican's attention to his charge.
+
+"Ugh! It's a wonder you're alive."
+
+"Is it? I rode till I got so sleepy I couldn't see. The sky kept
+whirling and whirling, and the sun did come right down into my face.
+And I got so twisted up I couldn't breathe. I guess--I guess I don't
+much love that Osceolo. He said it would be fun, and it was--a while.
+But he didn't come, too, and--I'm glad I'm here now. Who's that
+walking? Oh! my own Black Partridge, the nicest Feather-man there is!"
+
+The Sun Maid sat up and lifted her arms to be taken, while she
+bestowed upon the chief one of her sweetest smiles. But he received it
+gravely, and regarded the child in her new Indian dress with critical
+scrutiny. Who had thus clothed her he could not surmise, for too short
+a time had elapsed since he had taken her to his village for his
+sister to prepare these well-fitting garments. Finally, superstition
+began to influence him also, as it had influenced the weaker-minded
+people at Muck-otey-pokee, as he spoke to the White Pelican, rather
+than to the child.
+
+"Place her upon the Snowbird. They belong to each other, though I know
+not how they found one another."
+
+"Osceolo," answered the younger brave, tersely.
+
+"Humph! Then there's more of black spirits than white in this affair.
+However, I have spoken. Place the Sun Maid on the Snowbird's back."
+
+Kitty would have objected and strongly; but there was something so
+unusually stern in the elder warrior's face and so full of hatred in
+that of the younger that she was bewildered and wisely kept silence.
+
+Having made a comfortable saddle out of the long blanket, they seated
+her again upon the white mare's back, and each on either side, they
+led her slowly toward Muck-otey-pokee. But the little one had again
+fallen asleep long before they reached it, and now there could have
+been no gentler mount for so helpless a rider than this suddenly tamed
+White Snowbird.
+
+At the entrance to the village Wahneenah met them. She had again put
+on her mourning garb, and her hair was unplaited, while the lines of
+her face had deepened perceptibly. She had lamented to Katasha:
+
+"The Great Spirit sent me back my lost ones in the form of the Sun
+Maid, and because of my own carelessness and sternness He has recalled
+her. Now is our separation complete, and not even in the Unknown Land
+shall I find them again."
+
+But the One-Who-Knows had answered, impatiently:
+
+"Leave be. Whatever is must happen. The child is safe. Nothing can
+harm her. Has she not the three gifts? The White Necklace from the
+shore of the Sea-without-end?[1] The White Bow from the eternal north?
+and the White Snowbird, into which entered the white soul of a
+blameless virgin? Have I not clothed her with the garb of our people?
+You are a fool, Wahneenah. Go hide in your wigwam, and keep silence."
+
+[Footnote 1: Pacific Ocean.]
+
+This was good advice, but Wahneenah couldn't take it. She was too
+human, too motherly, and under all her superstition, too sure of the
+Sun Maid's real flesh-and-blood existence to be easily comforted. So
+she went, instead, to the outskirts of the settlement to watch for
+what might be coming of good or ill. And so she came all the sooner to
+find her lost darling, and she vowed within herself that never again,
+so long as her own life should last, would she lose sight of that
+precious golden head.
+
+"My Girl-Child! My White Papoose, Beloved! Found again! But how could
+you?"
+
+"I did get runned away with myself this time, nice Other Mother. Don't
+look at Kitty that way. Kitty is very hungry. Nice Black Partridge
+Feather-man did find me, riding and riding and riding. The pretty
+Snowbird had lots of wings, I guess, for she flew and flew and flew.
+But I didn't see Osceolo. He couldn't have come, could he? I thought
+he was coming, too, when he clapped his hands and shooed me off so
+fast. Where is he?"
+
+That was what several were desirous to learn. The affair had turned
+out much better than might have been expected, but there would be a
+day of reckoning for the village torment when he and its chief should
+chance to meet.
+
+Knowing this, Osceolo remained in hiding for some time. Until, indeed,
+his curiosity got the better of his discretion. This happened when the
+Man-Who-Kills came stealing to his retreat and begged his assistance.
+
+"I want you to take my white boy-captive and lead him to the tepee of
+the Woman-Who-Mourns. My wife Sorah will not have him in her wigwam.
+She says that from the moment that other white child, the Sun Maid,
+came to the lodge of Wahneenah, there has been trouble without end,
+even though all the three charms against evil have been bestowed upon
+her. There are no charms for this dark boy, but there's always trouble
+enough (where Sorah is). He's so worn and unhappy, he'll make no
+objection, but will follow like a dog. He neither speaks nor sleeps
+nor eats. I have no use for a fool, I. You do it, Osceolo, and you'll
+see what I will give you in reward! Also, if the Woman-Who-Mourns has
+lost the Sun Maid, maybe this Dark-Eye will be a better stayer."
+
+"But what will you give me, Man-Who-Kills? I--I think I'd rather not
+meddle any more with the family of my chief."
+
+"Ugh! Are a coward, eh? Never mind. There are other lads at
+Muck-otey-pokee, and plenty of plunder in my wigwam."
+
+"All right. Come along, Dark-Eye. Might as well be Dark-Brow, too, for
+he looks like a night without stars. What will you do with his horse,
+Man-Who-Kills?"
+
+"Let you ride it for me, sometimes."
+
+"I can do it"; and without further delay, leading the utterly passive
+and disheartened Gaspar, the Indian lad set off for Wahneenah's home.
+The captive had no expectation of anything but the most dreadful fate,
+and his tired brain reeled at the remembrance of what he might yet
+undergo. Yet, what use to resist?
+
+Meanwhile, Osceolo, confident that all the braves whom he need fear
+were still absent from the village, started his charge along the trail
+at a rapid pace, and reached the wigwam of the Woman-Who-Mourns at
+the very moment when Black Partridge, White Pelican, and the Sun Maid
+came riding to it from the prairie.
+
+She was alive, then! She was, in truth, a "spirit"! His
+mischievousness had had no power to harm her, she was exempt from any
+ill that might befall another, she had come back to--How could such an
+innocent-appearing creature punish one who had so misled her?
+
+He had no time to guess. For the child had caught sight of the stupid
+lad he was leading, and with a cry of ecstacy had sprung from the
+Snowbird and landed plump upon the prisoner's shoulders.
+
+"Gaspar! My Gaspar, my Gaspar! Mine, mine, mine!"
+
+It was a transformation scene. The white boy had staggered under
+the unexpected assault of his old playmate, but he had instantly
+recognized her. With a cry as full of joy as her own, he clasped
+her close, and showered his kisses on her upturned face.
+
+"Kitty! why, Kitty! You aren't dead, then? You are not hurt? And we
+thought--oh, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty!"
+
+Clinging to each other, they slipped to the ground, too absorbed in
+themselves to notice anything else; while Osceolo watched them in
+almost equal absorption.
+
+But he was roused sooner than they. A hand fell on his shoulder. A
+hand whose touch could be as gentle as a woman's, but was now like a
+steel band crushing the very bones.
+
+"Osceolo!"
+
+"Yes, Black Partridge," quavered the terrified lad.
+
+"You will come to my tepee. Alone!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+A THREEFOLD CORD IS STRONGEST.
+
+
+"She is a spirit. I know that nothing can harm her. Yet many
+things can harm me. I have no desire to suffer any further anxiety.
+Therefore--this. My Girl-Child, my White Papoose, come here."
+
+The Sun Maid reluctantly obeyed. It was the morning after her perilous
+ride on the back of an untamed horse and her joyful reunion with
+Gaspar, her old playmate of the Fort. The two were now just without
+the wigwam of Wahneenah, sitting clasped in each other's arms, as if
+fearful that a fresh separation awaited them should they once
+relinquish this tight hold of one another; and it was in much the same
+feeling that the foster-mother regarded them.
+
+"But why, Other Mother? I do love my Gaspar boy. I did know him
+always."
+
+"You've known me two years, Kitty," corrected the truthful lad. "But I
+suppose that is as long as you can remember. You're such a baby."
+
+"How old is the Sun Maid--as you white people reckon ages?" asked
+Wahneenah.
+
+"She is five years old. Her birthday was on the Fourth of July. We had
+a celebration. Our Captain fired as many rounds of ammunition as she
+was years old. The mothers made her a cake, with sugar on the top, and
+with five little candles they made themselves on purpose, and colored
+with strawberry juice. Oh, surely, there never was such a cake in all
+the world as they made for our 'baby!'" cried the lad, forgetting for
+the moment present troubles in this delightful memory.
+
+"Well, there are other women who can make other cakes," said
+Wahneenah, with ready jealousy.
+
+"Oh, but an Indian cake--" began Gaspar, then stopped abruptly,
+frightened at his own boldness.
+
+Wahneenah smiled. For small Kitty was swift to see the change in her
+playmate's face, and her own caught, for an instant, a reflection of
+its fear. The foster-mother wished to banish this fear.
+
+"Wahneenah likes those who say their thoughts out straight and clear.
+She is the sister of the Man-Who-Cannot-Lie. It is the crime of the
+pale-faces that they will lie, and always. Wherefore, they are always
+in danger. Take warning. Learn to be truth-tellers, like the
+Pottawatomies, and you will have no trouble."
+
+A quick retort rose to Gaspar's lips, but he subdued it. Then he
+watched what was being done to Kitty, and a faint smile brightened his
+face, that had been so far too gloomy for his years. Wahneenah had
+made a long rope of horsehair, gaily adorned with beads and trinkets,
+and was fastening it about the Sun Maid's waist. The little one
+submitted merrily, at first; but when it flashed through her mind that
+she was thus being made a prisoner, being "tied up," she burst into a
+paroxysm of tears and temper that astonished the others, and even
+herself.
+
+"I will not be 'tied up!' I was not a naughty girl. When I am bad, I
+will be punished, and I will not cry nor stamp my feet. But when I am
+good, I will be free--free! There shall nobody, nobody do this to me!
+Not any single body. Gaspar, will you let her do it?"
+
+The boy's timidity flew to the winds. His dark eyes flashed with
+indignation, and his heavy brows contracted in a fierce scowl. At that
+instant, he appeared much older than he really was, and he advanced
+upon Wahneenah with upraised hand and threatening gesture.
+
+She might easily have picked him up and tossed him out of the way; but
+there is nothing an Indian woman admires more greatly than courage. In
+this she does not differ from her pale-faced sisters, and, instead of
+resenting Gaspar's rudeness, she smiled upon him.
+
+"That is right, Dark-Eye. It is a warrior's duty to protect his
+women. You are not yet a warrior, nor is the Sun Maid yet a woman, but
+as you begin so you will continue. Hear me. Let us make compact. I was
+fastening the child for her own good, not in punishment. Is that a
+white mother's custom? Well, this is better. Let us three pledge our
+word: each to watch over and protect the other so long as our lives
+last. The Great Spirit sent the Sun Maid into my arms, by the hands of
+Black Partridge, my brother and my chief. The meanest Indian in
+Muck-otey-pokee brought you to the village, and the meanest boy to my
+wigwam. But when the chief saw you, he took you by the hand, and gave
+you, also, to me. A triple bond is the strongest. Shall we clasp hand
+upon it?"
+
+It was a curious proceeding for one so much older than these children,
+but it was in profoundest earnest. Wahneenah recognized in Gaspar a
+representative of a race whose wisdom exceeded that of her own, even
+if, as she believed, its morality was of a lower standard. But her
+brother and the other braves had already told her of his great courage
+on the day before, and of his wonderful skill with the bow and arrow.
+He had done a man's work, even though a stripling, and she would
+accord him a man's honor. As for the Sun Maid, despite her very
+human-like temper, she was, of course, a being above mortal, and
+therefore fit to "compact" with anybody, even had it been the case
+with one as venerable as old Katasha. So she felt that there was
+nothing derogatory to her own dignity in her request.
+
+Gaspar fixed his piercing eyes upon Wahneenah's face, and studied it
+carefully.
+
+The penetration of a child is keen, and not easily deceived. What he
+read in the Indian woman's unflinching gaze satisfied him, for after
+this brief delay, he lay his thin boyish hand within the extended palm
+in entire trust. Of course, what Gaspar did Kitty was bound to do. To
+her it was a game, and her own plump little fingers closed about the
+backs of the lad's with a mischievous pinch. Already her anger had
+disappeared, and her sunny face was dimpling with laughter.
+
+"Kitty was dreadful bad, wasn't she? She wouldn't be tied up first,
+because she wasn't naughty. Now she has been bad as bad, she did stamp
+and scream so; and she may be tied, if Other Mother wishes. Do you,
+nice Other Mother? It is a very pretty string. It wouldn't hurt, I
+guess."
+
+But Wahneenah's desire to fasten her ward to the lodge-pole had
+vanished. She would far rather trust the true, loving eyes of the boy
+Gaspar than the stoutest horsehair rope ever woven.
+
+"We will tie nobody. But hear me, my children, for you are both mine
+now. In this village are many friends and more enemies. Braves and
+their families, from other villages and other branches of our tribe,
+have raised their tepees here. It is easier for them to do this than
+to build villages of their own, and we are hospitable people. When a
+guest comes to us, he must stay until he chooses to go away again, and
+there are none who would bid them depart. Some of other tribes than
+our own are also here. It is they who are stirring up much mischief.
+They are giving the Black Partridge anxiety; they will not be wise.
+They will not learn that their only safety lies in friendship with
+the white faces. Therefore the heart of our chief is heavy with
+foreboding. He has the inner vision. To him all things are clear that
+to us are quite invisible. This is his command to me, ere he departed
+in the dawn of this day, to seek our friends who were of the Fort, and
+help them in their need, if need again arises. Listen to the words of
+Black Partridge:
+
+"'Have these white children trained to ride as an Indian rides. The
+boy Gaspar is to be given the black gelding, Tempest, for his very
+own. I shall see the man who owns it, and I will pay his cost. The
+White Snowbird belongs to the Sun Maid. Let nobody else dare touch the
+mare, except to handle it in care. The day is coming when they will
+need to ride fast and far, and with more skill than on yesterday. The
+Snake-Who-Leaps is the best horseman in our tribe. I have bidden him
+come to this tepee when the sun crosses the meridian. He is friendly
+to these prisoners, because they are mine, and he will guide them
+well.'"
+
+Gaspar's eyes had opened to their widest extent. The words he had
+heard seemed incredible; yet he was shrewd and practical by nature,
+and he promptly inquired:
+
+"Why? Why will the Indian chief bestow so rich a gift upon his white
+boy-prisoner? For if he buys Tempest from the Captain he will have to
+pay big money. There isn't another like the black gelding this side
+that far-away Kentucky where he was bred."
+
+"Hear me, Gaspar Keith; prisoner, if you will. But I would rather call
+you an adopted son of the Black Partridge, and by your new name of
+Dark-Eye. This is the reason: In these troubles which are coming, you
+may not only serve yourself, the Sun Maid, and me, by having as your
+own the gelding Tempest, but you may help the helpless, also. In this
+one village of Muck-otey-pokee are many old and many very young. The
+Spotted Adder was the oldest man I ever knew, and though he has died
+just now, there are others almost of his age. They ought to die, too,
+and not burden better people. But nobody dies who should while those
+who should not are snatched away like a feather on the breeze."
+
+Here Wahneenah became absorbed in her own reflections, and was so long
+silent that Kitty stole her arms about the woman's neck and kissed the
+dark face to remind her that they were still listening.
+
+"Yes, beloved, Child of the Sunshine and Love! You do well to call me
+back. Let the dead rest. You are the living. I will remember only
+you," and she laid the little one against her heart.
+
+"Gaspar, too, Other Mother," suggested the loyal little maid.
+
+But Gaspar was quite able to speak for himself.
+
+"No decent white person would wish the old to die!" he exclaimed,
+hotly. "There was a grandmother at our Fort, and she was the best
+loved, the best cared for, of all the women. That is what a white boy
+thinks, even if he is an Indian's prisoner!"
+
+"Ugh! So? You are an odd youth, Dark-Eye. As timid as a wild pigeon
+one minute, and the next--flouting your chief's sister."
+
+"I don't mean that, Wahneenah. I--I only--I don't just know what I do
+mean, except that it seems cowardly to wish the old should die. If you
+should grow very, very old some day, and Kitty and I should not be--be
+nice to you, then you would understand what I feel, if I cannot say it
+rightly."
+
+Wahneenah laughed.
+
+"Your halting speech makes me happy, Dark-Eye. Kitty and you and I;
+still all together, even when age shall have dimmed my sight and
+dulled my hearing. It is well. I am satisfied. But hear me. Herein
+lies the trouble: when folks are young they forget that they will ever
+be old. That is a mistake. One should remember that youth flies away,
+fast, fast. They should teach themselves wisdom. They should learn to
+be skilled in the things which will make them lovely when they are
+old. For, despite your judgment, there are some among us whom we would
+keep till all generations are past. Katasha, the One-Who-Knows; and
+the Snake-Who-Leaps--why, he is older even than Katasha. Yet there is
+nobody can ride a horse, or shoot a flying bird, or bring in the game
+that he can. He is the friend of his chief. He is the most honored one
+in our whole village. Why? Because he makes few promises, and breaks
+none. He has never lowered his manhood by drinking the fire-water that
+addles one's brains and sets the limbs a-tremble. He has talked little
+and done much. He is One-To-Be-Trusted. That was his name in his
+youth, when he began to practise all his virtues. The other name came
+afterward, because of the swift punishment he can also inflict upon
+his enemies. You would do well to pattern after your teacher,
+Dark-Eye."
+
+Gaspar listened respectfully; but this sounded so very much like the
+"lectures" he had received at the Fort that it had less originality
+than most of Wahneenah's conversations; and, besides that, he had just
+espied, approaching over the village street, a tall Indian leading the
+black gelding and Snowbird. Behind this man walked Osceolo; but
+greatly changed from the bullying youth whom Gaspar had met on the
+previous day.
+
+Whatever had occurred in the closed tepee of Black Partridge, when its
+door flaps fell behind himself and the lad he had ordered to accompany
+him, nobody knew; but, whatever it was, Osceolo was certainly--at
+least for the time being--a changed young person.
+
+He walked along behind the Snake-Who-Leaps in a meek, subdued manner
+quite new to him, but which immediately impressed Dark-Eye as being a
+vast improvement on his former bearing. He paused, when ordered to
+"Halt!" by the old man, as if he had been stricken into a wooden
+image, and only when requested to take the Snowbird's bridle did he
+make any other motion.
+
+"Why, Osceolo! What's the matter?" asked the Sun Maid, running toward
+him in surprise.
+
+But he did not answer, and she was hastily snatched back by the strong
+hand of the foster-mother.
+
+"The Girl-Child speaks to none who is in disgrace."
+
+"But I will speak to anybody who is unhappy, Other Mother! I cannot
+help that, can I? One day, Osceolo was all laughing and clapping; and
+now--now he looks like Peter Wilson did after his father had whipped
+him with a musket. Did anybody whip you with a musket, poor, poor
+Osceolo?"
+
+Not a sign from the disgraced youth.
+
+"Has you lost your tongue, too? Well as your eyes, that you can't look
+up? Never mind, Osceolo. Kitty is sorry for you. Some day Kitty will
+let you ride her beau'ful White Snowbird; some day."
+
+"The Sun Maid will first learn to ride the Snowbird, herself,"
+corrected the Snake-Who-Leaps. "She will begin now."
+
+With unquestioning confidence, a confidence that Gaspar did not share,
+she ran back to the old warrior's side, and stood on tiptoe to be
+lifted into place.
+
+"Ugh!" he grunted in satisfaction. "That is well. The one who has no
+fear has already conquered the wildest animal. But the White Snowbird
+is not wild. She has been given an evil name, and it has clung to her
+as evil always clings," and the One-To-Be-Trusted turned to give his
+silent attendant a meaning glance. But Osceolo had not yet raised his
+gaze from the ground, and the reproof fell pointless.
+
+Nobody had observed that, from another direction, another youth had
+quietly led up a beautiful chestnut horse, whose cream-colored mane
+and tail would have made it a conspicuous object anywhere; but
+Wahneenah had expected this addition to their equestrian party and, as
+she turned to look for it, exclaimed in pleasure at its prompt
+appearance.
+
+The Snake-Who-Leaps heard her ejaculation, and evinced his disgust.
+
+"Ugh! Is it to teach a lot of women and a worthless pale-faced lad
+that I have left the comfort of my own lodge this hot summer day?"
+
+"The old forget. It was long ago, when I was no bigger than the Sun
+Maid here, that the One-To-Be-Trusted took me behind him on a wild
+ride over the prairie. It was the only lesson he ever gave--or needed
+to give--_me_. I will show him that I am still young enough to
+remember!" cried Wahneenah, with all the gayety of girlhood, and with
+so complete a change in her appearance that it was easy to see how she
+had come to be named The Happy.
+
+Even before the teacher had settled the Sun Maid in her tiny blanket
+saddle, Wahneenah had sprung upon the chestnut's back. As she touched
+it, a clear, determined, if very youthful voice, shouted behind her:
+
+"I am a white man! No Indian shall ever teach me a thing that I can
+learn for myself!"
+
+For suddenly Gaspar remembered the wrongs he had suffered at the
+red men's hands, and leaped to Tempest's back unaided. Another
+instant, and the trio of riders dashed away from Muck-otey-pokee in a
+mad rush that left their disgruntled instructor in doubt which was the
+better pupil of them all.
+
+"Who begins slow finishes fast; but who begins fast may never live to
+finish slow," he remarked, sententiously; then observing that Osceolo
+had, for the first time, raised his eyes, he promptly laid a heavy
+hand upon the youth's shoulder and wheeled him about.
+
+"To my wigwam--march!"
+
+And Osceolo marched--exactly as if all his limbs were sticks and his
+joints mechanical.
+
+"Ugh! So? Like the jointed dolls of the papooses, eh? Very good. Keep
+at it. From now till those three return, dead or alive, my fine young
+warrior, you shall be my pupil. You have set me the pace you like. You
+may keep at it. From the locust tree east of my lodge to the pawpaw on
+the west, as the branch swings in the wind, so shall you swing. Ugh!
+May they ride far and long. One--two--commence!"
+
+It was noonday when he began that weary, weary automatic "step,
+step"; but when the last rays of the sun had disappeared beyond the
+prairie, Osceolo was still enduring his discipline, and making his
+pendulum-like journey from locust-tree to pawpaw, from pawpaw to
+locust. His head swam, his sight dimmed, but still sat stolid
+Snake-Who-Leaps in the entrance of his tepee, "instructing" the
+only pupil fate had left him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+AN ISLAND RETREAT.
+
+
+Under the incentive of love and excitement--heightened by a tinge of
+jealousy--all Wahneenah's former skill in horsemanship returned to
+her. When the Snake-Who-Leaps lifted the Sun Maid to the back of the
+Snowbird the woman felt an unreasoning anger against him. She could
+not patiently endure to have any other hand than her own touch the
+small body of her adopted child, upon whom had now centred all the
+pent-up affection of her starved heart.
+
+"If my darling must be taught, I will teach her myself!" she suddenly
+resolved, and promptly acted upon the resolution. Previously, and when
+she ordered the chestnut to be brought to her tepee, she had merely
+intended to ride in company with the others and in a limited circle
+about the village. Now a mad impulse seized her to be off over the
+prairie, farther than sight could reach, and on half-forgotten trails
+once familiar to her. It was the first time she had mounted any animal
+since her widowhood.
+
+When she heard Gaspar's daring declaration, she thrilled with delight.
+All the savage in her nature roused to enjoy this wild escapade, and,
+catching firm hold of the Sun Maid's bridle rein, she nodded over her
+shoulder to the lad, and led the way northward.
+
+"It's like that strange fairy story, in the book given Peter Wilson,
+that came from way over in England, and was the only one in the world,
+I guess. Was the only one at our Fort, anyway," thought Gaspar, as he
+followed in equal speed, and at imminent risk of his life. For a
+night's rest had restored the black gelding to all his spirit, and had
+the boy attempted to guide or control him there would have been
+serious trouble.
+
+As it was, Gaspar confined his efforts to just sticking on, and had
+all he could do at that; but after a short distance, the three horses
+broke into an even lope, keeping well together, and all under the
+command of the Indian woman.
+
+"Oh, I love it!" she cried, the rich blood flaming under her dusky
+skin, her eyes sparkling, and her long black hair streaming on the
+wind which their own motion created.
+
+"Kitty loves it--too--Kitty guesses!" echoed the child, entering into
+the other's mood with quick sympathy. Indeed, she was the safer of the
+three. There is a hidden understanding between horses and children,
+and numberless instances prove how carefully even an untamed beast
+will treat a little child--if nobody interferes. But let an adult
+attempt to avert a seeming danger, and the animal will promptly throw
+the responsibility on human shoulders, and act out its own mood at its
+own will.
+
+Wahneenah understood this, and, simply leaving her hand upon the
+Snowbird's rein, but quite without any pressure, rode where that
+frolicsome creature chose to lead. A strap, which the Snake-Who-Leaps
+had fastened around the waist of the Sun Maid, held her securely to
+her saddle, though her small hands clutched the flying mane of her
+mount so tightly that she could not well have been shaken off.
+
+It was a rough school in which to learn so dangerous an art, but it
+sufficed; and that one day's ride did more to help Gaspar and Kitty to
+good horsemanship than all the instruction they afterward received.
+
+"How far--nice Other Mother?" asked the little girl, when the three
+horses of their own accord began to slacken speed.
+
+"Not far now, papoose. See yonder, where the trees fringe the river?
+Among those trees is a wonderful spot I know. I've not seen it for
+years, but in its shelter my warrior and I spent many happy hours.
+There we used to take our son, and tell him the story of his people.
+It was a hiding-place, in the ancient years, when enemies of the
+Pottawatomies were on the war-path, and the chief would save his women
+and children. But nobody remembers that trail, at this late day,
+except those of my father's house. Besides me, not one soul lives who
+could find his way thither, save Black Partridge. It is even many
+moons since he has talked with me about it, and he may not recall it
+still. Though he is a man who never forgets, and the knowledge is
+doubtless merely sleeping in his brain."
+
+Kitty Briscoe understood but little of this speech, but Gaspar's
+interest was roused. Amid the discipline and routine of his old
+life at the Fort, his lighter, gayer qualities had lain dormant,
+but they were now rapidly awakening under the influence of his
+recent adventures. It was impossible, too, for anybody to be long
+with Wahneenah, in her present mood, without catching her spirit
+and gayety; and though the Sun Maid comprehended little save the
+liveliness of her companions, she could enter into that with all her
+heart.
+
+Therefore, it was a merry party which came at last to the river bank,
+where the horses were glad to pause for rest, and where they would
+eagerly have slaked their thirst, had they been permitted.
+
+"But that won't do, Wahneenah, will it? At our Fort we never watered
+a horse when it was warm. The Captain said they would be ruined, so."
+
+"You do well to remember all the wisdom you have been taught,
+Dark-Eye. Here, let me show you something even a white man may not
+know. How to tether a horse with a rope of prairie grass, made in a
+moment, but strong enough to last for long."
+
+"Lift me off, Other Mother," cried Kitty, from the Snowbird's back,
+and Wahneenah swung her down.
+
+"Now, Dark-Eye, pull as much of this rush grass as your arms can hold.
+It will take a heap for three ropes."
+
+"Have the pretty ponies been naughty? Must they be tied up, too?"
+
+"Not because they are bad, but because they are good, papoose! That is
+the way of life. It is full of contradictions. But, don't wrinkle your
+pretty brows puzzling what you cannot understand. Run and help the
+Dark-Eye pull the long grasses."
+
+It was so wonderful to see Wahneenah's skilful fingers twist and turn
+and thread the slender blades in and out that both children were
+fascinated by her deftness; and though Gaspar could not at all catch
+the trick of this curious weaving, he resolved to practise it in
+private till he could equal, or excel, this example. Again his
+ambition arose to prove that a pale-face was always superior to an
+Indian, and his dark eyes gazed so fixedly upon Wahneenah's flying
+fingers that she laughed, and demanded:
+
+"Are you jealous, my son? But there's no need. Nothing that I know
+will be hidden from you, if you choose to be taught. But, come. Take
+this rope that is finished. Twist it about the gelding's neck--so; now
+pass it downward between his front legs and hobble him by the right
+hind one. No, he'll not resist. Try it. Then you'll see that he'll
+neither nibble at his tether nor run away from us."
+
+Gaspar was too proud to show that he somewhat dreaded interfering with
+the restless legs of the spirited Tempest, and to his astonishment he
+found that the animal submitted very quietly to the tying. This may
+have been because Wahneenah stood by its beautiful head and murmured
+some soft sounds into its dainty ears. Though what the murmuring meant
+nobody save herself and Tempest understood. In like manner, and very
+quickly, all three horses were fastened in the shade of the trees, and
+as soon as they had cooled sufficiently, Gaspar was bidden to water
+them.
+
+Then the Sun Maid was called from her play among the wild flowers that
+fringed the bank, and made to walk behind Wahneenah's skirts.
+
+"Cling close, my Girl-Child! We're going into fairyland. Bow your
+pretty head till it is low--low--low down, like this"; and herself
+bending till her own head was very near the earth, the guide pushed
+forward into what appeared to be a solid tangle of bushes.
+
+"Why, Wahneenah! You can't go through there. It's a regular hedge. But
+if you want to try, I have a little knife in my pocket, that my
+Captain gave me. Let me go first--I am the man--and cut the way;
+though I don't see why. Isn't there a better place?"
+
+"There are many things a lad of ten cannot understand, Dark-Eye, even
+though he be as manly as you. Trust Wahneenah. An Indian never
+forgets, and never makes the haste that destroys. Watch me. Learn a
+lesson in woodcraft that will be useful to you more than once. Cut or
+broken twigs have tongues which betray. But thus--even a bird could
+find no trace."
+
+With infinite patience and accuracy of touch, the woman parted the
+slender, interwoven branches so delicately that scarcely a leaf was
+bruised, and little by little opened a clear passage into a downward
+sloping tunnel. This tunnel ran directly under the river bed, and was
+so steep in places that one might easily have coasted over it.
+
+"Why, how queer! It's like the underground passage from the Fort to
+the river, where we children used to peep, but were never allowed to
+enter. What is it? Why is it?"
+
+"Let your eyes ask and answer their own questions. They are safer than
+a tongue, my son. But fear nothing. Where Wahneenah leads the way for
+the children whom the Great Spirit has sent her they may safely
+follow."
+
+Then, without further speech, she went forward for what seemed a long
+distance, through the half light of the tunnel, until it opened into a
+wide chamber, across which trickled a clear stream and which was
+fanned by a strong current of air.
+
+The children were silent from curiosity, not unmixed with dread; and
+their guide had also become very grave and silent. Memories were
+crowding upon her soul, and banishing the present; but she was roused
+at length by the wild clutch of the Sun Maid's arms, as something
+winged swept by them in the twilight.
+
+"Other Mother! Other Mother! I--I don't like it! Take Kitty, quick!"
+
+"Ah! I was dreaming. My dead walked here beside me, and I forgot. But
+is the Sun Maid ever afraid? I did not think that. Well, it's over
+now. The gloomy passage, the big, dark room--See?"
+
+Suddenly, at a turn westward out of the chamber and beyond it, they
+entered upon what might, indeed, have been fairyland. The exit was
+another passage, rising gently to a rock- and tree-sheltered nook in
+the heart of a tiny island. From any outward point this retreat was
+invisible, and when they had emerged upon it the Indian woman's
+spirits rose again. She caught up the Sun Maid and tossed her lightly
+upon a bending branch, that seemed to have grown expressly for a
+child's swing.
+
+"My warrior trained that bough for our son's pleasure, and from it he
+rocked and danced as a tiny papoose. Now--in you, he lives again.
+Hold, Dark-Eye! What are you seeking?"
+
+"Oh, just nothing! I was poking around to see----"
+
+"If you could find anything to eat? The wild blackberries should grow
+just yonder, and, wait--I'll look."
+
+"For what will you look, Other Mother? Aren't these the prettiest
+posies yet?" and Kitty held upward a cluster of cardinal flowers which
+she had pulled from a mass by the water's edge.
+
+"Ah, they are alive! They have the heart of fire. But, take care. It
+is always wet where they grow and small feet slip easily. If you were
+to soil your pretty clothes, old Katasha might be angry."
+
+"I'll take care. May I have all I can gather?"
+
+"All. Every one."
+
+Then Wahneenah returned into the cave and to a niche in its wall
+where, years before, she had put a store of dried corn, some salt, and
+a bit of tinder. The articles had been stored in earthen jugs, and it
+was just possible they might be found in good condition. If they were,
+she would show the man-child how to catch a fish out of the little
+stream in the cavern, where the delicate trout were apt to hide. Then
+they would make a fire as they had used in the old days, and she would
+cook for these white children such a supper as her own dear ones had
+enjoyed.
+
+"See, Gaspar, Dark-Eye. I will fetch you a line and hook. Sit quiet
+and draw out our supper--when it bites!"
+
+"But I have a far better hook than that in my pocket; and a line the
+Sauganash gave me, one day. I am a good fisher, Wahneenah. How many
+fish do you want for your supper?"
+
+"You are a good boaster, any way, pale-face, like all your race; and I
+want just as many fish as will satisfy our hunger. If you had your bow
+here, you might wing us a bird. Though that would not be wise, maybe.
+Keep an eye to the Sun Maid, lest she slip in the brook."
+
+"This is a funny place. It is an island, isn't it? Like the pictures
+in my geography; and there is a little creek through it, and another
+in a cave, and--I think it is beautiful. But you're funny, too,
+Wahneenah. You say my Kitty is a 'spirit,' and 'nothing can harm
+her,' yet you watch out for her getting hurt closer than the other
+mothers did."
+
+"You see too much, Dark-Eye. But--well, she is a spirit in a girl's
+body. If you let evil happen her it will be the worse for you. Hear
+me?"
+
+"I wouldn't let her get into trouble any sooner than you would,
+Wahneenah. I love her, too. She hasn't any folks, and I haven't any,
+except you, of course. She belongs to me."
+
+"Oh! she does? Well. Enough. We all belong to each other. We have made
+the bond."
+
+When the woman returned from her search in the cavern her face was
+very grave. Yet it should have been delighted, for she had found not
+only the corn and the other things she remembered, but a goodly store
+of articles, quite too fresh and modern to have remained there since
+she last visited the spot. There were dried beans, salted beef, cakes
+of sugar from her old maple trees--she knew her own mark upon them;
+and, besides these, were flour and tea in packages, such as had been
+distributed from Fort Dearborn among as many Indians as were entitled
+to receive them. It was both puzzling and disappointing to find her
+retreat discovered and appropriated by somebody else.
+
+"It must be that Shut-Hand has, in some way, found this cavern out.
+All the other people would have eaten and enjoyed their good things,
+and not stored them up, like this. But he is crafty and secretive, and
+his name is his character."
+
+Had Wahneenah hunted further she would have found, in addition to the
+provisions, a considerable quantity of broadcloth, calico, and paint;
+which articles, also, had been among those recently secured from the
+garrison. But she neither examined very closely nor touched anything
+except that for which she had come to the recess; and she even forced
+herself to put the matter out of mind, for the time being.
+
+"I have brought my children here to make a holiday for them. I will
+not, therefore, darken it by my forebodings. The young live only in
+the present or the future. I, too, will again become young. I will
+forget all that is past."
+
+From that wonderful pocket of his, Gaspar took a decent hook and
+line, and easily proved his skill among fish that were too seldom
+disturbed to have learned any fear; while Wahneenah made a tiny fire
+of dried twigs, in the mouth of the cavern, and boiled her prepared
+corn, that she had broken and ground between two stones, into a sort
+of mush. With Gaspar's fish, broiled upon the live coals, the pudding
+sweetened by a bit of honey from a close sealed crock, and a draught
+of water from the underground stream, the trio made a fine supper;
+and afterward, when she had carefully cleared away the _débris_,
+Wahneenah rekindled the fire, and, sitting beside it, took the Sun
+Maid on her knee and drew the motherless Dark-Eye within the shelter
+of her arm.
+
+Then she told them tales and legends of the wide prairies and distant
+mountains; and her own manner gave them thrilling interest, because
+she believed in them quite as sincerely as did her small, wide-eyed
+listeners.
+
+"Tell it once more, Other Mother. That beau'ful one 'bout the little
+papoose that hadn't any shoes, and the flowers growed her some. Just
+like mine"; holding up her own tiny moccasined feet, and rubbing them
+together in the comfortable heat.
+
+"Once upon a time a little girl papoose was lost. The enemies of her
+people had come to her father's village, and had scattered all her
+tribe. There was not one of them left alive except the little maid."
+
+"I guess that's just like Kitty, isn't it?"
+
+"No. No, it is not," replied the story-teller, quickly. For she had
+felt a shiver run through Gaspar's body, and pressed it close in
+warm protection. "No. It is not like either of you. For to you
+is Wahneenah, the Mother; the sister of a chief who lives and is
+powerful. But this was away in the long past, before even I was born.
+So the girl papoose found herself wandering on the prairie, and it
+was the time of frost. The ground was frozen beneath the grasses,
+which were stiff and rough and cut the tender feet that a mother's
+hand had hitherto carried in her own palm."
+
+"Show me how, Mother Wahneenah."
+
+"Just this way Sweetheart," clasping the tiny moccasins in a loving
+caress.
+
+"Tell some more. I guess the fire is going to make Kitty sleepy, by
+and by."
+
+"Sleep, then, if you will, Girl-Child."
+
+"And then?"
+
+"Then, when the little one was very cold and tired and lonely she
+remembered something: it was that she had seen her own mother lift her
+two hands to the sky and ask the Great Spirit for all she might need."
+
+"He always hears, doesn't He?"
+
+"He hears and answers. But sometimes the answers are what He sees is
+best, not what we want."
+
+"Don't sigh that way, Other Mother! S'posin' your little boy did go
+away. Haven't you got Gaspar and Kitty?"
+
+"Yes, little one."
+
+"Go on, then. About the little maid--just like me."
+
+"So she put her own two tiny hands up toward the sky and asked the
+Great Spirit to put soft shoes on her tired little feet."
+
+"And He did, didn't He?"
+
+"Surely. First the pain eased and that made her look down. And there
+she saw a pair of the softest moccasins that ever were made. They were
+of pale pink and yellow, and all dotted with dark little bead-spots;
+and they fitted as easily as her own dainty skin. Then the girl
+papoose was grateful, and she begged the Great Spirit that He would
+make many and many another pair of just such comfortable shoes for
+every other little barefoot maid in all the world. That not one single
+child should ever suffer what the girl papoose had suffered."
+
+"Did He?" asked Gaspar, as interested as Kitty.
+
+"Yes. Surely. The prayer of the unselfish and innocent is always
+granted. He sent a voice out of the sky and bade the child look all
+about her. So she did, and the whole wide prairie was a-bloom with
+more pink and yellow 'shoes' than all the children in all the earth
+could ever wear. They were growing right out of the hard ground,
+reaching up to be plucked and worn. So she cried out aloud in her
+gratitude: 'Oh, the moccasin flower! the moccasin flower!' and ever
+since then this shoe-like blossom has been beloved of all the children
+in the world. But, because the heat burns as well as the cold pinches,
+it blooms nowadays at all times and seasons of the year. A few flowers
+here, a few there; but quite enough for any child to find--who has
+the right spirit."
+
+"Kitty must have had the spirit, mustn't she, Other Mother? That day
+when her feets were so tired and the good Feather-man found her.
+'Cause she had lots and lots of them; only she went to sleep and they
+all solemned down. And----"
+
+Gaspar started suddenly and held up a warning hand. His quick ear had
+caught the sound of approaching feet, crushing boldly through the
+cavern, like the tread of one who knows his way well and is coming to
+his own.
+
+Wahneenah had also heard, though she had continued her story, making
+no sign that she was inwardly disturbed. But she now paused and
+listened whether this footfall were one she knew, either of friend or
+foe. Then a bush cracked behind them, and Gaspar's heart stood still,
+as the tall form of an Indian warrior pushed past them into the
+firelight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+AT MUCK-OTEY-POKEE.
+
+
+Wahneenah did not lift her eyes. For the moment an unaccustomed fear
+held her spellbound, and it was the Sun Maid's happy cry which roused
+her at length, and restored them all to composure.
+
+"Black Partridge! My own dear Feather-man!"
+
+With a spring, the child threw herself upon the Indian's breast and
+clasped his neck with her trustful arms. It was, perhaps, this
+confidence of hers in the good-will of all her friends that made them
+in return hold her so dear. Certain it was that the chief's face now
+assumed that expression of gentleness which was the attribute small
+Kitty ascribed to him, but which among his older acquaintances was not
+considered a leading trait of his character. Just he always was, but
+rather severe than gentle; and Wahneenah marked, with some surprise,
+the caressing touch he laid upon the Sun Maid's floating hair as he
+quietly set her down and himself dropped upon a ledge to rest.
+
+"You are welcome, my brother. Though, at first, I feared it was some
+alien who had discovered our cave."
+
+"It is not the habit of the Happy to fear. She who forebodes danger
+where no danger is but paves the way to her own destruction."
+
+Wahneenah glanced at her brother sharply.
+
+"It is the Truth-Teller himself who has put foreboding into my soul.
+He--and the new-born love which the Sun Maid has brought."
+
+The face of Black Partridge fell again into that dignified gravity
+which was its habitual expression and he sat for a long time with the
+"dream-look" in his eyes, gazing straightforward into the embers of
+their little fire.
+
+"Is you hungry, Feather-man? We did have such a beau'ful supper. Nice
+Other Mother can cook fishes and cakes and--things. Shall she cook you
+some fish, Black Partridge?"
+
+"Will my chief eat the food I prepare for him?" asked Wahneenah,
+seconding the child's invitation.
+
+"With pleasure. For one hour he will let the cares of his life slip
+from him. He will have this night of peace, and while the meal is
+getting he will sleep."
+
+With a sigh of relief the tall Indian moved a few steps back into the
+cave and stretched himself at length upon the ground. His eyes closed,
+and before Gaspar had made ready his line to catch the fresh trout he
+had sunk into a profound slumber.
+
+Wahneenah put her finger to her lip to signify silence, but she need
+not have done so. Gaspar had long ago learned the red man's noiseless
+ways, and the Sun Maid immediately placed herself beside the prostrate
+chief, and clasping his hand that lay on his breast snuggled her cheek
+against it, and followed his example.
+
+The Black Partridge, like most of his race, could sleep anywhere, at
+any time, and for as long as he chose. He had elected to wake at the
+end of a half-hour, and he did so on the moment. Sitting up, he gently
+placed the still slumbering Sun Maid upon the ground and moved forward
+to the fire. While he ate the food she had provided for him, Wahneenah
+continued standing near, but a little behind him; ready to anticipate
+his needs, and with a humility of demeanor which she showed toward no
+other person.
+
+Gaspar watched the pair, wondering if they could really be of the same
+race which had destroyed his childhood's home, and now again that
+second home of his adoption--the Fort. He liked, and was impelled to
+trust them both, and was already learning to love his foster-mother.
+But when they began to converse in their own dialect, and with
+occasional glances toward himself and the sleeping Kitty, the native
+caution of his mind arose, and made him miserable. He remembered a
+byword of the Fort:
+
+"The only safe Indian is a dead one"; and with a sudden sense of
+danger leaped to his feet and ran to bend above the unconscious maid.
+
+"If you harm her, I'll--I'll--kill you!" he shouted fiercely.
+
+Wahneenah looked amazed, but the Black Partridge instantly
+comprehended the working of the boy's thoughts, and a smile of
+satisfaction faintly illumined his sombre features.
+
+"It is well. Let every brave defend his own. The Dark-Eye is no
+coward. His years are few, but he has the heart of a warrior and a
+chief. He must begin, at once, to learn the speech of his new tribe.
+He that knows has doubled the strength of his arm. Draw near. There is
+good and not evil in the souls of the chief and his sister. We are
+Truth-Tellers. We cannot lie. We have pledged our faith to the
+Dark-Eye and the Sun Maid--though she needs it not."
+
+The sincerity and admiration in the Indian's eyes compelled the lad's
+obedience; and when, as he stepped into the firelight, the chief
+indicated that he should sit beside himself, and also nodded to
+Wahneenah to take her own place opposite, his heart swelled with pride
+and ambition. So had the white Captain trusted and counselled with
+him. He had been faithful through all that dreadful day of massacre,
+and he had felt the man's spirit within his child-body. Now again, a
+commander of others, the wise leader of a different people, was
+honoring him with a share in his council. There must be good in him,
+and some sort of wisdom--even though so young--else they had paid him
+no heed. His cheek flushed, his breast heaved, and his beautiful eyes
+shone with the exultation that thrilled him.
+
+"Let the chief pardon the child--which I was, but a moment ago. I am
+become a man. I will do a man's task, now and forever. If I suspected
+evil where there was none, is it a wonder? I have told Wahneenah, the
+Happy, the story of my life. The Black Partridge knew it already."
+
+Quite unconsciously, Gaspar dropped into the Indian manner of speech,
+and he could not have done a better thing for himself had he pondered
+the matter for long. Black Partridge nodded approvingly, and remarked:
+
+"Another Sauganash is here! Well, while the Sun Maid sleeps, let us
+consider the future. The evil days are near."
+
+"What is the evil that my brother, the chief, beholds with his inner
+vision?" questioned the woman.
+
+"War and bloodshed. Still more of war, still more of death. In the end
+will our wigwams lie flat on the earth as fallen leaves, while the
+remnant of my people moves onward, forever onward toward the setting
+sun."
+
+Wahneenah kept a respectful silence, but in her heart she resented the
+dire forebodings of her chief. At last, when her brooding thought
+forced utterance, she inquired:
+
+"Can not the wisdom of the Black Partridge hinder these days of
+calamity? If the great Gomo, and Winnemeg, and those white braves who
+have lived among us, as the Sauganash, take counsel together, and
+compel their tribes to keep the peace, and to copy of the pale-faces
+the arts which have made them so powerful--will not this avert the
+evil? Why may there not in some time and place, a mighty grave be
+digged in which may be buried all the guns that kill and the knives
+that scalp, with the arrows which fly more swiftly than a bird? Over
+all may there not be emptied the casks and bottles of the fearful
+fire-water, that, passing through the lips of a warrior, changes him
+to a beast? Then the red man and his pale brother may clasp hands
+together and abide, each upon the earth, where the Great Spirit placed
+him."
+
+"It is a dream. Dreams vanish. Even as now the night speeds, and we
+are far from home. It avails us not to think of what might--but never
+will--be. Occasional friendships bridge the feud between our alien
+races, but the feud remains. It is eternal. Endless as the years which
+will witness the gradual extinction of the weaker, because smaller,
+race. Let us dream no more. Has Wahneenah, my sister, observed how the
+store she left in the old cave has grown? How the few sealed jars have
+become many, and how there are heaps of the good gifts which the Great
+Father sent to his white children at the Fort for the red children's
+use?"
+
+"Yes. I thought it was the miser, Shut-Hand, who had placed them here
+in our cave."
+
+"It was I, the Black Partridge."
+
+"For what purpose, my brother?"
+
+"Against the needs of the time I have foretold. It is a sanctuary.
+Here may Wahneenah, and the young son and daughter which have been
+given her, find shelter and sustenance."
+
+Something of her old tribal exultation seized the woman, who was a
+great chief's daughter. Rising to her fullest height, her fine head
+thrown slightly back, she demanded, indignantly:
+
+"Is the heart of my brother become like that of the papoose upon its
+mother's shoulders? Was it not to the red men that the victory came,
+but so brief time past? What were all the pale-faces, in their gaudy
+costumes, with their music and their guns and their childish way of
+battle? The arrows of our people mowed them like the grass upon the
+prairie when a herd of wild horses feeds upon it. But yesterday they
+marched in pride and insolence, scorning us. To-day, they are carrion
+for the crows overhead, or they flee for safety like the cowards they
+were born. The Black Partridge has tarried too long among such as
+these. He has become their blood brother."
+
+The taunt was the fiercest she could give, and she gave it from a full
+heart. In ordinary so gentle and peace-loving she had been roused, for
+a moment, to a pitch of emotion which astonished even herself. Yet
+when, as if she had been a fractious child, the chief motioned her to
+again become seated, she obeyed him at once. She had set her thoughts
+free, indeed; but she would never presume to fight against the
+conditions which surrounded her; and obedience to tribal authority was
+inborn.
+
+"The Snake-Who-Leaps will be at the tepee of my sister each day when
+the sun climbs to the point overhead. The three horses will be always
+ready. The children who do not know, and Wahneenah who has, maybe,
+forgotten how to ride, will practise as he instructs, until there will
+be no horse they cannot master, or no spot to which a horse may be
+guided that they do not know. But here first. That is why the store of
+food and cloths. At the first assault upon our Muck-otey-pokee, mount
+and ride. Ride as no squaw nor papoose ever rode before. Here the
+Black Partridge will seek them, and here, if the Great Spirit wills,
+they may be safe. Enough. Let the Dark-Eye go forward and make the
+horses ready."
+
+The Black Partridge rose as he spoke, and striding toward the sleeping
+Sun Maid, took her in his arms and left the spot. Gaspar, already
+darting onward toward the beloved Tempest, paused, for an instant, and
+regarded his chief anxiously. But when he saw that the little girl had
+not awakened, he sped forward again, and by the time Wahneenah had
+disposed of the remnants of the chief's supper and followed, he had
+loosed the animals and led them to the nearest point for mounting.
+
+Still holding the Sun Maid motionless upon his breast, the Black
+Partridge leaped to the back of his own magnificent stallion, which
+whinnied in affectionate welcome of his approach. Then he ordered
+Gaspar:
+
+"Ride behind me on Tempest, and lead the Snowbird. Wahneenah will
+follow all on Chestnut."
+
+By the time they were out upon the prairie the wind had risen and the
+sky was heavily clouded. It was so dark that the boy could not see
+beyond the head of his own horse, but he could hear the steady,
+grass-softened footfall of the stallion as, with unerring directness,
+the Indian chieftain led the way homeward to the village.
+
+When they rode into it, all Muck-otey-pokee seemed asleep; but the
+perennially young, though still venerable, Snake-Who-Leaps, had been
+prone before Wahneenah's wigwam, and silently rose from the ground as
+they drew rein beside him.
+
+"Ah, the Sleepless! The Wise Man. Did he think his pupils had ridden
+away to their own destruction?" asked the squaw, as she stepped down
+from her saddle.
+
+"No harm can happen the household of my chief save what the Great
+Spirit wills."
+
+"And you think He will not waste time with three wild runaways?"
+
+"Wahneenah, the Happy, is in good spirit herself. I remembered her
+not, save as the message may concern. That is for the ear of my friend
+and the father of his tribe, the Black Partridge."
+
+Handing the Sun Maid into his sister's embrace, he for whom the
+message waited slipped the bridles of two horses over his arm while
+the Snake-Who-Leaps led the others. Whatever they had to say was not
+begun then nor there, and if Wahneenah had any curiosity in the matter
+it was not to be gratified. Yet she stood, for a moment, listening to
+the receding sounds as the darkness enveloped the departing group; and
+in her heart was born a fresh anxiety because of the little one she
+carried, and for the orphan lad who followed so closely at her skirts
+as she lifted her tent curtain and entered their home.
+
+But nothing occurred to suggest that the message of the
+Snake-Who-Leaps had been one of warning. He was at his post of teacher
+exactly on the hour appointed on the following day, and this time all
+his pupils conducted themselves with a grave propriety that greatly
+pleased him; and thereafter, for many days, and even weeks, while the
+dry season lasted, did he instruct and they perform the marvellous
+feats of horsemanship which have made the red man famous the world
+over.
+
+"But," said Osceolo one day, tauntingly: "you were the pale-face who
+would learn nothing from an Indian!"
+
+"Because a person is a fool once, need he remain so always?" answered
+Gaspar, hotly.
+
+"You were a fool then? I thought so. Once a fool always one."
+
+"Only an Indian believes that."
+
+"How? You taunt me? Fight, then!"
+
+Gaspar Keith was a curious mixture of courage and timidity. His
+courage came by nature, and his timidity was the result of the
+terrible scenes through which he had passed now twice, young though he
+was. The impress of this terror would remain with him forever; and if
+ever he became a hero in fact, it would be because of his will and not
+his inclination. At present neither the one nor the other inspired
+him; and though he eyed the larger boy scornfully, and felt that he
+could easily whip the bully, if he chose, he now turned his back upon
+him and walked away haughtily.
+
+But Osceolo's sneer followed him:
+
+"The One-Who-Is-Afraid-Of-His-Shadow! Gaspar--Coward!"
+
+No boy could patiently endure this insult, even though it came from
+one much larger and stronger than himself. Gaspar's jacket was off and
+his arms bared on the instant; but before he could fling himself
+against his enemy a strong hand was laid upon his own shoulder, and he
+was tossed aside as lightly as a leaf.
+
+"Hold! Let there be none of this. It is a time for peace in our
+village. Wait in patience. The hour is coming, is almost here, when
+both the pale-face and the son of my tribe will have need of all their
+prowess. Go. Polish your arrows and point their heads, but let there
+be none of this."
+
+It was the great chief himself, who had separated the combatants, and
+as he stalked majestically onward he left behind him two greatly
+astonished and ashamed young warriors. In common, no grown brave
+bothered himself over the petty squabbles of striplings; unless,
+indeed, it might be to incite them to further conflicts. For the Black
+Partridge to interfere now was significant of something far deeper
+than a boyish fight.
+
+Gaspar put on his coat and walked thoughtfully home to Wahneenah and
+Kitty, while Osceolo slunk away to his own haunts, to lie at length
+upon the grass and plot with a cunning worthy of better ends the
+various devices by which he could torment the young white lad of whom
+he was so jealous.
+
+Wahneenah heard the tale with a gravity that impressed the chief's
+action more strongly than before upon the lad's mind; while Kitty took
+it upon herself to lecture him with all severity about the dreadful
+"naughtiness of striking that poor, dear Ossy boy."
+
+"Hmm, Sunny Maid! you needn't waste pity on him. He doesn't deserve
+it."
+
+"Maybe not, Dark-Eye. Maybe not. But heed you the warning. The
+dwellers in one village should keep that village quiet," interrupted
+Wahneenah.
+
+"Yes, but they don't. There are almost as many sorts of Indians here
+as there are people. Some of them are horrible. I see them often
+watching Kitty and me as if they would like to scalp us. It's been
+worse within a little while. It grows worse all the time."
+
+"All the more reason why you should be wise and careful. But it is
+dark in the tepee, and that's a sign the Dust Chief is almost ready to
+shut up your eyes. Run, Gaspar, son, and Girl-Child. See which will
+sleep the first. And to the one who does, the bigger lump of my best
+sugar in the morning."
+
+They ran, as she suggested, but there was to be no further haste till
+Kitty had made Gaspar kneel beside her and repeat with her the "Now I
+lay me" little prayer, which her Fort mothers had taught her. The
+short, simple prayer, beloved of childhood the world over, that has
+carried many a white soul upward to its Father. Even to Wahneenah,
+though her mission training had been of another creed, the childish
+petition was full of sacredness and beauty; and as she stood near
+them, she bowed her head humbly and echoed it with all her heart.
+
+Each was in bed soon after, and each with a lump of the toothsome
+dainty they loved.
+
+"For Gaspar must have it because he was first; and my Girl-Child
+because she was the last. That equals everything."
+
+They thought it did, delightfully: if they stayed awake long enough to
+think at all. But when they were both asleep, and the sound of their
+soft breathing echoed through the dusky tepee, Wahneenah took her seat
+at its entrance, and began to sing low and softly, with a sweetness of
+voice which rendered even their rudeness musical, the love songs of
+her girlhood.
+
+As she sang and gazed upward through the trees into the starlit sky,
+an infinite peace stole over her. Indeed, the joy that possessed her
+seemed almost startling to herself. All that was sad in her memories
+dropped from them, and left but their happiness; while the present
+closed about her as a delight that nothing could disturb. Her love for
+the Sun Maid had become almost a passion with her, and for her
+Dark-Eye there was ever an increasing and comprehending affection.
+
+She remained so long, dreaming, remembering, and planning, that the
+first grayness of the dawn came before she could go within and take
+her own bit of sleep. But Muck-otey-pokee was always early astir; and
+if for no other reason, because the dogs which thronged the settlement
+would allow no quiet after daybreak. That morning they were unusually
+restless.
+
+Cried Wahneenah, rising suddenly, and now feeling somewhat the effects
+of her late sitting:
+
+"Can it be sun-up already? The beasts are wild this morning. I have
+never heard them so deafening."
+
+Nor had anybody else. There was no cessation in their barking.
+
+"It's a regular 'bedlam,' isn't it? That's what the Fort mothers used
+to say when there was target practice, and the children cheered the
+shooters. What makes them bark so?" answered Gaspar.
+
+Wahneenah shivered, and suggested:
+
+"Run out and play. Eh? What's that? The Snake-Who-Leaps? So early,
+and with the horses, too? But mind him not. Take the Sun Maid
+out-of-doors, but keep close to the green before the lodge. Where
+I can see you now and then, while I get breakfast ready."
+
+Everybody was up; and more than one commented upon the strangeness of
+the three horses being brought to the tepee so early.
+
+The warning message which had come from the south, and had been
+delivered to his chief by the Snake-Who-Leaps, on that dark night some
+weeks before, was now to be verified. "What the red men have done to
+the pale-faces, the pale-faces will now do to them. Retaliation and
+revenge!"
+
+Yet not one was quite prepared for the events which followed. Followed
+even so swiftly that the women left their porridge cooking in their
+kettles and their cows half-milked; while the men of the village
+promptly seized the nearest weapon, and rushed to the hopeless
+defence.
+
+The rude sound that had startled every dweller in that pretty
+settlement was the report of a gun. Then came a galloping troop of
+cavalry--more firing--incessant, indiscriminate!
+
+There was a babel of shrieks as the women and little ones fell where
+they stood, in the midst of their work or play. There were the
+blood-curdling war-whoops of the savages, answering the random shots.
+Above and through all, one cry rang clear to Wahneenah's
+consciousness.
+
+"The horses! The horses! Ride--ride--ride--as I have taught you! For
+your lives--Ride!"
+
+It was but an instant. Wahneenah and her children were amount and
+afield. But as, in an anguish of fear for his friends, and no thought
+of himself, once more the Snake-Who-Leaps shouted his warning, the
+whistle of a death-dealing bullet came to him where he watched, and
+struck him down across the threshold of Wahneenah's happy home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE CAVE OF REFUGE.
+
+
+Three abreast, the chestnut in the middle, the fugitives from the
+doomed village of Muck-otey-pokee rode like the wind in a straight,
+unswerving line across the prairie. After they had left a considerable
+distance behind them, Wahneenah turned her stern face backward, and
+scanned the route over which they had passed; and when her keen vision
+detected something like a group of glistening bayonets--to ordinary
+sight no larger than a point against the horizon--she abruptly doubled
+on her course, then made a sharp detour westward. She had early
+dropped her own bridle, and had since guided her horse by her low
+spoken commands, while in either hand she clutched a bit-ring of the
+Snowbird and Tempest. Her change of direction must have brought her
+all the more plainly into view of the pursuing soldiers, but in a few
+moments she had gained the shelter of a group of trees.
+
+These sprang, apparently, out of the midst of the plain, but she knew
+that they really concealed the entrance to the underground pathway to
+the cave; and once within their shelter, she paused to breathe and
+gaze upon the startled faces of her children.
+
+That of the Sun Maid was pale, indeed, with the excitement of this mad
+ride, but showed no fear; while Gaspar's, alas! wore an expression of
+abject terror. His eyes stared wildly, his teeth were set, his
+nostrils drawn and pinched. He was, his foster-mother saw, already on
+the verge of a collapse.
+
+She leaped from her horse, and caught the fainting boy in her arms
+while she directed the Sun Maid:
+
+"Jump down and tie the horses, as the Snake-Who-Leaps showed you, by
+their long bridles. In any case, there is little fear but they will
+stand. Then follow me."
+
+"But what ails my Gaspar, Other Mother?" asked the child, as she
+sprang from her saddle. "Did somebody hurt him when the guns fired?"
+
+"No. Tie the horses. He will be right soon. It is the fright. Make
+haste, make haste!"
+
+"Yes, yes, I will. My dear old Feather-man taught Kitty everything.
+Every single thing about my Snowbird. I can fasten her all tight so
+she will never, never get away, unless I let her. I will tie Gaspar's,
+too; and shall your Chestnut stay here with them two?"
+
+But for once Wahneenah did not stop to hear her darling out. She had
+seen the deftness with which the little girl's small fingers had
+copied the instructions of her riding-master, and had wondered at it
+many times. She trusted it now, knowing that the lad needed her first
+care, and meaning to carry him through the passage into the cave, then
+return for the other. She knew, also, that if the soldiers she had
+seen following them should come upon the tethered horses, the fact of
+their presence would betray her own. But from this possibility there
+was no escape; and, had she known it, no need for such.
+
+She had scarcely laid the unconscious boy down upon the floor of her
+retreat when Kitty came flying down the tunnel, her task completed.
+
+"So quick, papoose?"
+
+"Yes. Every one is fastened to a pretty tree, and every one is glad.
+Why did we ride so fast, Wahneenah? It 'most took Kitty's breath out
+of her mouth. But I did like it till my Gaspar looked so queer. Is he
+sick, Other Mother? Why doesn't he speak to me?"
+
+"He is ill, in very fact, Girl-Child. Ill of terror. Young as he is,
+he has seen fearful sights, and they have hurt his tender heart. But
+he will soon be better; and when he is you must not talk to him of our
+old home, or of our ride, or of anything except that we are making
+another little festival here in our cave. One more cup of water,
+papoose, but take care you do not slip when you dip it from the
+spring. We will bathe his face and rub his hands, and by and by he
+will awake and talk."
+
+Then, leaving the lad to the ministrations of the child, and under
+pretence of making "all cosy for the picnic," Wahneenah sped
+cautiously back through the passage to the edge of the little grove,
+casting a searching glance in each direction. To her infinite relief,
+the glistening speck had vanished from the landscape, and she
+concluded that the white soldiers had ridden but a short distance
+north of the village, and then returned to it. She noticed with pride
+how the little maid had fastened each of the brave animals that had
+served them so well in a spot where the grass was still green and
+plentiful, and that there was no need of her refastening the straps
+which held them.
+
+"Surely, her wisdom is more than mortal!" she exclaimed in delight;
+such as more cultured mothers feel when they discover that their
+little ones are really gifted with the common intelligence that to
+them seems extraordinary.
+
+Gaspar was awake, and looking about him curiously, when she got back
+into the cavern; and, in response to his silent inquiry, she drew a
+tree-branch before the opening and nodded smilingly:
+
+"That is to keep the sunshine out of the Dark-Eyes."
+
+"But--where are we? Why--oh! I remember! I remember! Must I always,
+always see such awful things? Is there no place in this world where I
+can hide?"
+
+"Why, yes, Dark-Eye. There is just such a place; and we have found it.
+Don't you remember our sanctuary? Where the Black Partridge came to
+eat the fish you caught? Where we have such a store of good things put
+aside. Rest now, after your ride, and the White Papoose shall make a
+pillow for you of the rushes I will pull. Then we'll shut the branch
+in close, like the curtain of our wigwam, and be as safe and happy as
+a bird in its nest."
+
+Wahneenah's assumed cheerfulness did not deceive, though it greatly
+comforted, the terrified boy; and the quietude of the sheltered spot,
+added to its dimness and his own exhaustion, soon overcame him again,
+and his eyelids closed. But the sleep into which he drifted now was a
+natural and restful one, and he roused from it, at Kitty's summons,
+with something of his old courage--the courage which had made him a
+hero that day when he first rode the black gelding, and had used his
+boyish strength to do a man's work.
+
+"When Other Mother did make a fire and cook us such a nice breakfast,
+we must eat it quick. Kitty's ready. Kitty's dreadful hungry, Kitty
+is. Is you hungry, too, Dark-Eye?"
+
+He had not thought that he was. But now that she mentioned it,
+he realized the fact. Fortunately, he was so young and healthy
+that the scenes through which he seemed destined to pass at such
+frequently-recurring intervals could not really affect his physical
+condition for any length of time. To see Wahneenah moving about the
+little cavern as calmly as if it were her daily habit to be there, and
+to catch the sound of the Sun Maid's joyous laughter, was to make the
+present seem the only reality.
+
+"Why, it's another picnic, isn't it? Did the things actually happen
+back there as I thought? Were we here all night? I used to have such
+terrible dreams, when I lived at the Fort, that, when daylight came, I
+could not forget them. I get confused between the dreams and the true
+things."
+
+"An empty stomach makes a foolish head. Many a squaw is afraid of her
+warrior before he breaks his morning fast, and finds him a lamb after
+it is eaten," said Wahneenah, sententiously.
+
+"Gaspar is my warrior, Other Mother; but I am never afraid of him."
+
+"You are afraid of nothing, Kitty!" reproved the boy.
+
+"But I am! I am afraid I shall get nothing to eat at all, if you don't
+come!"
+
+So the children ate, and Wahneenah served them. She was herself too
+anxious to partake of any food, and under her placid exterior she was
+straining every nerve to listen for any outward sounds which might
+prove that their refuge had been discovered.
+
+But no sounds came to disturb them, and as the hours passed hope
+returned to her; and when the Sun Maid had fallen asleep, weary of
+frolic, and Gaspar again questioned her concerning the morning, she
+answered, in good faith:
+
+"Probably, it was not half so bad as it seemed. There were many bad
+Indians in the village, and it is likely for them that the white
+soldiers were searching. They must have gone away long since. By and
+by, if nothing happens, we will return to our own tepee, and forget
+this morning's fright. The Snake-Who-Leaps will be proud of his pupils
+for the way they rode at his bidding."
+
+A shiver ran through the lad's frame, and he crept within the shelter
+of Wahneenah's arm.
+
+"But did you not see what happened to him? He lies beneath the
+curtains of your lodge, and he will teach us no more. A white soldier
+shot him. I saw him fall."
+
+The woman herself had not seen this, and she now sprang to her feet in
+a fury of indignation.
+
+"A white man killed him! That grand old brave, who should have lived
+to be a hundred years! It cannot be."
+
+"But it was."
+
+She was the daughter of a mighty chief. Her blood was royal, and she
+gloried in it. All the race-hatred in her nature roused, and, for the
+moment only, she glowered upon the pale-faced youth before her, as if
+he represented, in his small person, all the sins of his own people.
+
+Then the paroxysm passed, and her nobler self triumphed. Sitting down
+again, she sought to draw the boy back into her embrace, but he held
+himself aloof, and would not. So she began to talk with him there,
+with a simple wisdom and dignity that she had learned from nature
+itself.
+
+"Why should we be angry, one with another, my son? The Great Spirit is
+our Father. No man comes into life nor leaves it by a chance. What the
+Mighty One decrees, that it is befalls. Between His red-skinned
+children and His pale-faced ones He has put an undying enmity. I have
+not always so believed. I have hoped and pleaded for the peace which
+should glorify the world, even as the sun is glorifying the wide land
+outside of this dim cavern. But it is not so to be. Even as the chief,
+the Black Partridge, said: there is a feud which can never be
+overcome, for it is of the Great Spirit's own planting. He that made
+us all permits it. Let us, then, in our small place, cease to fight
+against the inevitable. We have made the compact. We will abide by it.
+In a tiny corner of the beautiful world we three will live in
+harmony. Let the rest go. Put away your anger against my people, as I
+now put aside mine against yours. The Sun Maid is of both races, it
+seems to me. She is our Bond, our Peace-maker, our Delight. Behold!
+She wakes. Before her eyes, let no shadow of our mutual trouble fall.
+I go outside to watch. If all seems well, we may ride home at
+nightfall."
+
+Save for the danger to her young charges, she would have done so even
+then. Far superior though she had always been to them, her heart
+yearned over the helpless women of her tribe whom she had left behind.
+
+"But that cannot be. They were tied fast by their motherhood to the
+homes wherein they may have perished, even as I am tied here by my
+adopted ones. The beasts, too, are tied; but they, at least, may have
+a moment's freedom."
+
+So she loosed them, and guided them to the pool where they could
+drink, and watched them curiously, to see if they would avail
+themselves of the liberty she had thus offered. But they did not. They
+quaffed the clear water, then tossed their velvet nostrils about its
+depths till it was soiled and worthless; yet they turned of their own
+accord away from the wind-swept prairie into the shelter of the trees,
+and grouped themselves beneath one, as if uniting against some common,
+unseen enemy.
+
+"They are wiser than their masters," said Wahneenah, patting her
+Chestnut's beautiful neck; and seeing a deeper glade, where they might
+spend the night even more safely, she led them thither and fastened
+them again. Under ordinary circumstances she would have left them
+untethered; but she knew not then at what moment she might again need
+them, as they had been needed earlier in the day.
+
+When the darkness fell, Wahneenah put aside the brushwood door which
+she had placed before the entrance to the cave, and sat down upon the
+withering branch to watch and wait. The children were both asleep, and
+she knew that if the Black Partridge were still alive and able he
+would seek her there, as he had promised on that day in the past when
+they had discussed the possibility of what had really now occurred.
+
+She was not to be disappointed. While she sat, contrasting the
+happiness that had been hers on just the night before with the
+uncertainty of this, there sounded in the sloping tunnel the tread of
+a moccasined foot. Also, she could hear the crowding of a stalwart
+figure against its sides, and there was something in both sounds which
+told her who was coming.
+
+"My brother is late."
+
+"It is better thus, it may be, than not at all."
+
+"The voice of the Black Partridge is sorrowful."
+
+"The heart of the chief is broken within him."
+
+For a space after that neither spoke. Then Wahneenah rose and set a
+candle in a niche of the wall and lighted it. By its flame she could
+see to move about and she presently had brought some food in a dish
+and placed a gourd of water by the chief's side.
+
+The water he drank eagerly and held the cup for more; but the food he
+pushed aside, relapsing into another silence.
+
+Finally, Wahneenah spoke.
+
+"Has the father of his tribe no message for his sister?"
+
+"Over what the ear does not hear, the heart cannot grieve."
+
+"That is a truth which contradicts itself."
+
+"The warrior of Wahneenah judged well when he chose this cavern for a
+possible home."
+
+"It is needed, then? As the Black Partridge foretold."
+
+"It is needed. There is no other."
+
+The words were quietly spoken; but there was heart-break in each one.
+
+"Our village? The home of all our people? Is it not still safe and a
+refuge for all unfortunates among the nations?"
+
+"Where Muck-otey-pokee laughed by the waterside, there is now a heap
+of ruins. The river that danced in the sunlight is red with the blood
+of the slain and of all the lodges wherein we dwelt, not one remains!"
+
+"My brother! Surely, much brooding has made you distraught. Such
+cannot be. There were warriors, hundreds of them in the settlement and
+before their arrows the pale-faces fall like trees before the
+woodman's axe."
+
+"If the arrows are not in the quiver, can the warrior shoot? Against
+the man who steals up in the rear, can one be prepared? It was a
+short, sharp battle. The innocent fell with the guilty, and the earth
+receives them all. Where Muck-otey-pokee stood is a blackened waste.
+Those who survived have fled, to seek new homes wherever they may find
+them. In her pathways the dead faces stare into the sky as even yet,
+among the sandhills, lie and stare the unburied dead of the Fort
+Dearborn massacre. It is fate. It is nature. It is the game of life.
+To-day one wins, to-morrow another. In the end, for all--is death."
+
+For a while after that, Wahneenah neither moved nor spoke, and the
+Black Partridge lapsed into another profound silence. Finally, the
+woman rose, and going to the fireplace, took handsful of its ashes and
+strewed them upon her head and face. Then she drew her blanket over
+her features, and thus, hiding her sorrow even from the witness of the
+night, she sat down again in her place and became at once as rigid
+and impassive as her brother.
+
+Thus the morning found them. Despite their habit of wandering from
+point to point, the village of Muck-otey-pokee was the rallying-place
+of the Pottawatomies, their home, the ancient burial-ground of their
+dead. Its destruction meant, to the far-seeing Black Partridge, also
+the destruction of his tribe. Therefore, as he had said, his spirit
+was broken within him.
+
+But at the last he rose to depart, and still fasting. With the
+solemnity of one who parted from her forever, he addressed the veiled
+Wahneenah and bade her:
+
+"Put aside the grief that palsies, and find joy in the children whom
+the Great Spirit has sent you. They also are homeless and orphaned.
+There are left now no white soldiers to harry and distress. This
+cavern is warmer than a wigwam, and there is store of food for many
+more than three. Remain here until the springtime and by then I may
+return. I go now to my brother Gomo, at St. Joseph's, to counsel at
+his fireside on what may yet be done to save the remnant of our
+people. You are safer here than in any village that I know. Farewell."
+
+But, absorbed in his own gloomy reflections, the Black Partridge for
+once forgot his native caution; and without waiting to reconnoitre, he
+mounted his horse and rode boldly away from the shelter of the brush
+into the broad light of the prairie and so due north toward the
+distant encampment of his tribesmen.
+
+Yet the glittering eyes of a jealous Indian were watching him as he
+rode. An Indian who had been sheltered by the hospitality of the great
+chief, and for many months, in Muck-otey-pokee; but who had neither
+gratitude nor mercy in his heart, wherein was only room for treachery
+and greed.
+
+As Black Partridge rode away from the cave by the river, the other
+mounted his horse and rode swiftly toward it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+UNDER A WHITE MAN'S ROOF.
+
+
+The log cabin of Abel and Mercy Smith stood within a bit of forest
+that bordered the rich prairie.
+
+As homes went in those early days, when Illinois was only a territory,
+and in that sparsely settled locality, it was a most roomy and
+comfortable abode. The childless couple which dwelt in it were
+comfortable also, although to hear their daily converse with one
+another a stranger would not so have fancied. They had early come into
+the wilderness, and had, therefore, lived much alone. Yet each was of
+a most social nature, and the result, as their few neighbors said, of
+their isolated situation was merely "a case of out-talk."
+
+When Mercy's tongue was not wagging, Abel's was, and often both were
+engaged at the same moment. Her speech was sharp and decisive; his
+indolent, and, to one of her temperament, exceedingly aggravating.
+But, between them, they managed to keep up almost a continuous
+discourse. For, if Abel went afield, Mercy was sure to follow him
+upon various excuses; unless the weather were too stormy, when, of
+course, he was within doors.
+
+However, there were times when even their speech lagged a little, and
+then homesickness seized the mistress of the cabin; and after several
+days of preparation she would set out on foot or on horseback,
+according to the distance to be traversed, for some other settler's
+cabin and a wider exchange of ideas.
+
+On a late November day, when the homesickness had become overpowering,
+Mercy tied on her quilted hood and pinned her heavy shawl about her.
+She had filled a carpet bag with corn to pop and nuts to crack, for
+the children of her expected hostess and had "set up" a fresh pair of
+long stockings to knit for Abel. She now called him from the stable
+into the living room to hear her last remarks.
+
+"If I should be kep' over night, Abel, you'll find a plenty to eat.
+There's a big pot of baked beans in the lean-to, and some apple pies,
+and a pumpkin one. The ham's all sliced ready to fry, and I do hope to
+goodness you won't spill grease 'bout on this rag carpet. I'm the only
+woman anywhere 's round has a rag carpet all over her floor, any way,
+and the idee of your sp'ilin' it just makes me sick. I----"
+
+"But I hain't sp'iled it yet, ma. You hain't give me no chance. If you
+do--"
+
+"If I do! Ain't I leavin' you to get your own breakfast, in case I
+don't come back? It might rain or snow, ary one, an' then where'd I
+be?"
+
+"Right where you happened to be at, I s'pose," returned Abel,
+facetiously.
+
+But it was wasted wit. The idea of being storm-stayed now filled the
+housewife's mind. She was capable, and full of New England gumption;
+but her husband "was a born botch." True, he could split a log, or
+clear a woodland with the best; and as for a ploughman, his richly
+fertile corn bottom and regular eastern-sort-of-garden testified to
+his ability. But she was leaving him with the possibility of woman's
+work to do; and as she reflected upon the condition of her cupboard
+when she should return and the amount of cream he would probably
+spill, should he attempt to skim it for the churning, her mind misgave
+her and she began slowly to untie the great hood.
+
+"I believe I won't go after all."
+
+"Won't go, ma? Why not?"
+
+"I'm afraid you'll get everything upset."
+
+"I won't touch a thing more 'n I have to. I'll set right here in the
+chimney-corner an' doze an' take it easy. The fall work's all done,
+an' I'd ought to rest a mite."
+
+"Rest! Rest? Yes. That's what a man always thinks of. It's a woman who
+has to keep at it, early an' late, winter an' summer, sick or well.
+If I should go an' happen to take cold, I don't know what to the land
+would become of you, Abel Smith."
+
+"I don't either, ma."
+
+There was a long silence, during which Mercy tied and untied her
+bonnet-strings a number of times; and each time with a greater
+hesitancy. Finally, she pulled from her head the uneasy covering and
+laid it on the table. Then she unpinned her shawl, and Abel regarded
+these signs ruefully. But he knew the nature with which he had to
+deal; and the occasional absences that were so necessary to Mercy's
+happiness were also seasons of great refreshment to himself. During
+them he felt almost, and sometimes quite, his own master. He loafed,
+and smoked, and whittled, and even brought out his old fiddle and just
+"played himself crazy"--so his wife declared. Even then he was already
+recalling a tune he had heard a passing teamster whistle and was
+longing to try it for himself. He abruptly changed his tactics.
+
+Looking into Mercy's face with an appearance of great gladness, he
+exclaimed:
+
+"Now ain't that grand! Here was I, thinkin' of myself all alone, and
+you off havin' such a good time, talkin' over old ways out East an'
+hearin' all the news that's going. There. Take right off your things
+an' I'll help put 'em away for you. You've got such a lot cooked up
+you can afford to get out your patchwork, and I'll fiddle a bit
+and----"
+
+"Abel Smith! I didn't think you'd go and begrudge me a little
+pleasure. Me, that has slaved an' dug an' worked myself sick a
+help-meetin' an' savin' for you. I really didn't."
+
+"Well, I'm not begrudging anybody. An' I don't s'pose there is much
+news we hain't heard. Though there was a new family of settlers moved
+out on the mill-road last week, I don't reckon they'd be anybody that
+we'd care about. Folks have to be a mite particular, even out here in
+Illinois."
+
+Mercy paused, with her half-folded shawl in her hands. Then, with
+considerable emphasis, she unfolded it again, and deliberately
+fastened it about her plump person.
+
+"Well, I'm goin'. It's rainin' a little, but none to hurt. I've fixed
+a dose of cough syrup for Mis' Waldron's baby, an' I'd ought to go an'
+give it to her. Them new folks has come right near her farm, I hear.
+If you ain't man enough to look out for yourself for a few hours, you
+cert'nly ain't enough account for me to worry over. But take good care
+of yourself, Abel. I'm goin'. I feel it my duty. There's a roast
+spare-rib an' some potatoes ready to fry; an' the meal for the
+stirabout is all in the measure an'--good-by. I'll likely be back
+to-night. If not, by milkin' time to-morrow morning."
+
+Abel had taken down the almanac from its nail in the wall and had
+pretended to be absorbed in its contents. He did not even lift his
+eyes as his wife went out and shut the door. He still continued to
+search the "prognostics" long after the cabin had become utterly
+silent, not daring to glance through the small window, lest she should
+discover him and be reminded of some imaginary duty toward him that
+would make her return.
+
+But, at the end of fifteen minutes, since nothing happened and the
+stillness remained profound, he hung the almanac back in its place,
+clapped his hands and executed a sort of joy-dance which was quite
+original with himself. Then he drew his splint-bottomed chair before
+the open fire, tucked his fiddle under his chin, and proceeded to
+enjoy himself.
+
+For more than an hour, he played and whistled and felt as royal and
+happy as a king. By the end of that time he had grown a little tired
+of music, and noticed that the drizzle of the early morning had
+settled into a steady, freezing downpour. The trees were already
+becoming coated with ice and their branches to creak dismally in the
+rising wind.
+
+"Never see such a country for wind as this is. Blows all the time,
+the year round. Hope Mercy'll be able to keep ahead of the storm.
+She's a powerful free traveller, Mercy is, an' don't stan' for
+trifles. But--my soul! Ain't she a talker? I realize _that_ when her
+back's turned. It's so still in this cabin I could hear a pin drop, if
+there was anybody round hadn't nothin' better to do than to drop one.
+Hmm, I s'pose I could find some sort of job out there to the barn. But
+I ain't goin' to. I'm just goin' to play hookey by myself this whole
+endurin' day, an' see what comes of it. I believe I'll just tackle one
+of them pumpkin pies. 'Tain't so long since breakfast, but eatin' kind
+of passes the time along. I wish I had a newspaper. I wish somethin'
+would turn up. I--I wouldn't let Mercy know it, not for a farm; but
+_'tis_ lonesome here all by myself. I hain't never noticed it so much
+as I do this mornin'. Whew! Hear that wind! It's a good mile an' a
+half to Waldron's. I hope Mercy's got there 'fore this."
+
+Abel closed the outer door, and crossed to the well-stocked cupboard.
+As he stood contemplating its contents, and undecided as to which
+would really best suit his present mood, there came a sound of
+somebody approaching the house along the slippery footpath. This was
+so unexpected that it startled the pioneer. Then he reflected: "Mercy.
+She's come back!" and remained guiltily standing with his hand upon
+the edge of a pie plate, like a school-boy pilfering his mother's
+larder.
+
+"Rat-a-tat-a-tat!"
+
+"Somebody knockin'! That ain't Mercy! Who the land, I wonder!"
+
+He made haste to see and opened the heavy door to the demand of a
+young boy, who stood shivering before it. At a little distance further
+from the house was, also, a woman wrapped in a blanket that glistened
+with sleet, and which seemed to enfold besides herself the form of a
+little child.
+
+"My land! my land! Why, bubby! where in the world did you drop from?
+Is that your ma? No. I see she's an Indian, an' you're as white as the
+frost itself. Come in. Come right in."
+
+But the lad lingered on the threshold and asked with chattering teeth,
+which showed how chilled he was:
+
+"Can Wahneenah come too?"
+
+"I don't know who in Christendom Wahneeny is, but you folks all come
+straight in out of the storm. 'Twon't do to keep the door open so
+long, for the sleet's beating right in on Mercy's carpet. There'd be
+the dickens to pay if she saw that."
+
+Gaspar, for it was he, ran quickly back toward the motionless
+Wahneenah, and, clutching the corner of her blanket, dragged her
+forward. She seemed reluctant to follow, notwithstanding her
+half-frozen condition and she glanced into Abel's honest face with
+keen inquiry. Yet seeing nothing but good-natured pity in it, she
+entered the cabin, and herself shut the door. Yet she kept her place
+close to the exit, even after Gaspar had pulled the blanket apart and
+revealed the white face of the Sun Maid lying on her breast.
+
+"Why, why, why! poor child! Poor little creatur'. Where in the world
+did you hail from to be out in such weather? Didn't you have ary home
+to stay in? But, there. I needn't ask that, because there's Mercy off
+trapesing just the same, an' her with the best cabin on the frontier.
+I s'pose this Wahneeny was took with a gossipin' fit, too, an' set out
+to find her own cronies. But I don't recollect as I've heard of any
+Indians livin' out this way."
+
+By this time the water that had been frozen upon the wanderers'
+clothing had begun to melt, and was drip-dripping in little puddles
+upon Mercy's beloved carpet. Abel eyed these with dismay, and finally
+hit upon the happy expedient of turning back the loose breadth of the
+heavy fabric which bordered the hearth. Upon the bare boards thus
+revealed he placed three chairs, and invited his guests to take them.
+
+Gaspar dropped into one very promptly, but the squaw did not advance
+until the boy cried:
+
+"Do come, Other Mother. Poor Kitty will wake up then, and feel all
+right."
+
+The atmosphere of any house was always uncomfortable to Wahneenah.
+Even then, she felt as if she had stepped from freedom into prison,
+cold though she was and half-famished with hunger. Personally, she
+would rather have taken her bit of food out under the trees; but the
+thought of her Sun Maid was always powerful to move her. She laid
+aside the wet blanket, and carried the drowsy little one to the
+fireside, where the warmth soon revived the child so that she sat up
+on her foster-mother's lap, and gazed about her with awakening
+curiosity. Then she began to smile on Abel, who stood regarding her
+wonderful loveliness with undisguised amazement, and to prattle to him
+in her accustomed way.
+
+"Why, you nice, nice man! Isn't this a pretty place. Isn't it beau'ful
+warm? I'm so glad we came. It was cold out of doors, wasn't it, Other
+Mother? Did you know all the time what a good warm fire was here? Was
+that why we came?"
+
+"I knew nothing," answered Wahneenah, stolidly.
+
+"But I did!" cried Gaspar. "As soon as I saw the smoke of your chimney
+I said: 'That is a white man's house. We will go and stay in it.' It's
+a nice house, sir, and, like Kitty, I am glad we came. Do you live
+here all alone?"
+
+"No. My wife, Mercy, has gone a visitin'. That's why I happen to be
+here doin' nothin'. I mean--I might have been to the barn an' not
+heard you. You're lookin' into that cupboard pretty sharp. Be you
+hungry? But I needn't ask that. A boy always is."
+
+"I am hungry. We all are. We haven't had anything to eat in--days, I
+guess. Are those pies--regular pies, on the shelves?"
+
+"Yes. Do you like pies?"
+
+"I used to. I haven't had any since I left the Fort."
+
+"Left what?"
+
+"The Fort. Fort Dearborn. Did you know it?"
+
+"Course. That is, about it. But there ain't no Fort now. Don't tell
+stories."
+
+"I'm not. I'm telling the truth."
+
+If this was a refugee from that unhappy garrison, Abel felt that he
+could not do enough for the boy's comfort. He could not refrain his
+suspicious glances from Wahneenah's dark face, but as she kept her own
+gaze fixed upon the ground, he concluded she did not see them. In any
+case, she was only an Indian, and therefore to be treated with scant
+courtesy.
+
+Mercy would have been surprised to see with what handiness her husband
+played the host in her absence and now he whipped off the red woollen
+cover from the table and rolled it toward the fireplace. But she would
+not have approved at all of the lavishness with which he set before
+his guests the best things from her cupboard. There was a cold rabbit
+patty, the pot of beans, light loaves of sweet rye bread, and a pat of
+golden butter. To these he added a generous pitcher of milk, and
+beside Gaspar's own plate he placed both a pumpkin and a dried-apple
+pie.
+
+"I'd begin with these, if I was you, sonny. Baked beans come by
+nature, seems to me, but pies are a gift of grace. Though I must say
+my wife don't stint 'em when she takes it into her head to go
+gallivantin' an' leaves me to housekeep. 'Pears to think then I must
+have somethin' sort of comfortin'. I'd start in on pie, if I was a
+little shaver, an' take the beans last."
+
+This might not have been the best of advice to give a lad whose fast
+had been so long continued as Gaspar's, but it suited that young
+person exactly. Indeed, in all his life he had never seen so well
+spread a table, and he lost no time in obeying his entertainer's
+suggestion. But he noticed with regret that his foster-mother did not
+touch the proffered food, and that she ministered even gingerly to
+Kitty's wants.
+
+Yet there was nobody, however austere or unhappy, who could long
+resist the happy influence of the little girl, and least of all the
+woman who so loved her. As the Sun Maid's color returned to her face,
+and her stiffened limbs began to resume their suppleness, something of
+the anxiety left Wahneenah's eyes, and she condescended to receive a
+bowl of milk and a slice of bread from Abel's hand.
+
+The fact that she would at last break her own fast made all
+comfortable; and as soon as Gaspar's appetite was so far appeased that
+he could begin upon the beans, the settler demanded:
+
+"Now, sonny, talk. Tell me the whole endurin' story from A to Izzard.
+Where'd you come from now? Where was you bound? What's your name? an'
+her's? an' the little tacker's? My! but ain't she a beauty! I never
+see ary such hair on anybody's head, black or white. It's gettin' dry,
+ain't it; an' how it does fly round, just like foam."
+
+"I'm not 'sonny,' nor 'bubby.' I'm Gaspar Keith. I was brought up at
+Fort Dearborn. After the massacre, I was taken to Muck-otey-pokee.
+I--"
+
+But the lad's thoughts already began to grow sombre, and he became so
+abruptly silent that Abel prompted him.
+
+"Hmm, I've heard of that--that--Mucky place. Indian settlement, wasn't
+it? Took prisoner, was you?"
+
+"No. I wasn't a prisoner, exactly. I was just a--just a friend of the
+family, I guess."
+
+"Oh? So. A friend of an Indian family, sonny?"
+
+"If you'd rather not call me Gaspar, you can please say 'Dark-Eye.'
+That's my new Indian name; but I hate those other ones. They make me
+think I am a baby. And I'm not. I am a man, almost."
+
+"So you be. So you be," agreed Abel, admiring the little fellow's
+spirit. "I 'low you've seen sights, now, hain't you?"
+
+"Yes, dreadful ones; so dreadful that I can't talk about them to
+anybody. Not even to you, who have given us this nice food and let us
+warm ourselves. I would if I could, you see; only when I let myself
+think, I just get queer in the head and afraid. So I won't even think.
+It doesn't do for a boy to be afraid. Not when he has his mother and
+sister to take care of."
+
+There was the faintest lightening of the gloom upon the Indian woman's
+face as Dark-Eye said this. But he was, apart from his terror of
+bloodshed and fighting, a courageous lad, and had, during their past
+days of wandering, proved the good stuff of which he was made. Many a
+day he had gone without eating that the remnant of their food might be
+saved for the Sun Maid; and though it was, of course, Wahneenah who
+had taken all the care of the children, if it pleased him to consider
+their cases reversed he should be left to his own opinion.
+
+"You're right, boy. I'll call you Gaspar, easy enough. Only, you see,
+I hain't got no sons of my own an' it kind of makes things seem cosier
+if I call other folkes's youngsters that way. Every little shaver this
+side of Illinois calls me 'Uncle Abe,' I reckon. But go on with your
+yarn. My, my, my! Won't Mercy be beat when she comes home an' hears
+all that's happened whilst she was gone. Go on."
+
+So Gaspar told all that had occurred since the Black Partridge parted
+from his sister in the cavern and rode away toward St. Joseph's. How
+that very day came one of the visiting Indians who had been staying at
+Muck-otey-pokee and whose behavior toward the neighboring white
+settlers had been a prominent cause of bringing the soldiers' raid
+upon the innocent and friendly hosts who had entertained him.
+
+The wicked like not solitude, and in the train of this traitor had
+followed many others. These had turned the cave into a pandemonium and
+had appropriated to their own uses the stores which Black Partridge
+had provided for Wahneenah. When to this robbery they had added
+threats against the lives of the white children, whose presence at the
+Indian village they in their turn declared had brought destruction
+upon it, the chief's sister had taken such small portion of her own
+property as she could secure and had set out to find a new home or
+shelter for her little ones.
+
+Since then they had been always wandering. Wahneenah now had a fixed
+dread of the pale-faces and had avoided their habitations as far as
+might be. They had lived in the woods, upon the roots and dried
+berries they could find and whose power to sustain life the squaw had
+understood. But now had come the cold of approaching winter and the
+Sun Maid had shown the effects of her long exposure. Then, at Gaspar's
+pleading, Wahneenah had put her own distrust of strangers aside and
+had come with him to the first cabin of white people which they could
+find.
+
+"And now we're here, what will you do with us?" concluded the lad,
+fixing his dark eyes earnestly upon his host's face.
+
+Abel fidgetted a little; then, with his happy faculty of putting off
+till to-morrow the evil that belonged to to-day, he replied:
+
+"Well, son--bub--I mean, Gaspar; we hain't come to that bridge yet.
+Time enough to cross it when we do. But, say, that little creatur'
+looks as if she hadn't known what 'twas to lie on a decent bed in a
+month of Sundays. She's 'bout dried off now; an' my! ain't she a
+pretty sight in them little Indian's togs! S'pose your squaw-ma puts
+her to sleep on the bed yonder. Notice that bedstead? There ain't
+another like it this side the East. I'll just spread a sheet over the
+quilt, to keep it clean, an' she can snooze there all day, if she
+likes. I'll play you an' Wahneeny a tune on my fiddle if you want me
+to."
+
+Gaspar was, of course, delighted with this offer but the chief's
+sister was already tired of the hot house and had cast longing glances
+through the small window toward the barn in the rear. That, at least,
+would be cool, and from its doorway she calculated she could keep a
+close watch upon the door of the cabin, and be ready at a second's
+notice to rush to her children's aid should harm be offered them.
+Meanwhile, for this dark day, they would have the comfort to which
+their birthright entitled them. So she went out and left them with
+Abel.
+
+The hours flew by and the storm continued. Abel had never been happier
+nor jollier; and as the twilight came down, and he finally gave up all
+expectation of Mercy's immediate return, he waxed fairly hilarious,
+cutting up absurd antics for the mere delight of seeing the Sun Maid
+laugh and dance in response, and because, under these cheerful
+conditions, Gaspar's face was losing its premature thoughtfulness and
+rounding to a look more suited to his years.
+
+"Now, I'll dance you a sailor's hornpipe, and then I must go out and
+milk. If ma'd been home, it would have been finished long ago. But
+when the cat's away the mice will play, you know; so here goes."
+
+Unfortunately, at that very moment the "cat" to whom he referred,
+Mercy, in fact, approached the cabin from a direction which even
+Wahneenah did not observe, and opened a rear door plump upon this
+unprecedented scene.
+
+Abel stopped short in his jig, one foot still uplifted and his fiddle
+bow half drawn, while the Sun Maid was yet sweeping her most graceful
+curtsey; and even the serious Gaspar had left his seat to prance about
+the room to the notes of Abel's music.
+
+Mercy also remained transfixed, utterly dumfounded, and doubting the
+evidence of her own senses; but after a moment becoming able to
+exclaim:
+
+"So! This is how lonesome you be when I leave you, is it?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+AFTER FOUR YEARS.
+
+
+Despite a really warm and hospitable heart, it was not pleasant for
+Mercy Smith to find that her submissive husband had taken upon himself
+to keep open house in this fashion for all who chose to call; and, as
+she often expressed it, the settler's wife "hated an Indian on sight."
+
+Upon her unexpected entrance, there had ensued a brief silence; then
+the two tongues which were accustomed to wag so nimbly took up their
+familiar task and a battle of words followed. Its climax came rather
+suddenly, and was not anticipated by the housewife who declared with
+great decision:
+
+"I say the children may stay for a spell, till we can find a way to
+dispose of 'em. The boy's big enough to earn his keep, if he ain't too
+lazy. Male creatur's mostly are. An' the girl's no great harm as I
+see, 'nless she's too pretty to be wholesome. But that red-face goes,
+or I do. There ain't no room in this cabin for me an' a squaw to one
+time. You can take your druther. She goes or I do"; and she glanced
+with animosity toward Wahneenah, who, when hearing the fresh voice
+added to the other three, had come promptly upon Mercy's return to
+take her stand just within the entrance. There she had remained ever
+since, silent, watchful, and quite as full of distrust concerning
+Mercy as Mercy could possibly have been toward herself.
+
+"Well," said Abel, slowly, and there was a new note in his voice which
+aroused and riveted his wife's attention. "Well--you hear me. I don't
+often claim to be boss, but when I do I mean it. Them children can
+stay here just as long as they will. For all their lives, an' I'll be
+glad of it. The Lord has denied us any little shavers of our own, an'
+maybe just because in His providence He was plannin' to send them two
+orphans here for us to tend. As for the squaw, she's proved her soul's
+white, if her skin is red, an' she stays or goes, just as she
+elects--ary one. That's all. Now, you'd better see about fixing 'em a
+place to sleep."
+
+Because she was too astonished to do otherwise, Mercy complied. And
+Wahneenah wisely relieved her unwilling hostess of any trouble
+concerning herself. She followed Abel to the barn, to attend him upon
+his belated "chores," and to beg the use of some coarse blankets which
+she had found stored there. Until she could secure properly dressed
+skins or bark, these would serve her purpose well enough for the
+little tepee she meant to pitch close to the house which sheltered her
+children.
+
+"For I must leave them under her roof while the winter lasts. They are
+not of my race, and cannot endure the cold. But I will work just so
+much as will pay for their keep and my own. They shall be beholden to
+the white woman for naught but their shelter. For that, too, I will
+make restitution in the days to come."
+
+"Pshaw, Wahneeny! I wouldn't mind a bit of a sharp tongue, if I was
+you. Ma don't mean no hurt. She's used to bein' boss, that's all; an'
+she will be the first to be glad she's got another female to consort
+with. I wouldn't lay up no grudge. I wouldn't."
+
+But the matter settled itself as the Indian suggested. It was pain and
+torment to her to hear Mercy alternately petting and correcting her
+darlings, yet for their sakes she endured that much and more. She even
+failed to resent the fact that, after a short residence at the farm,
+the Smiths both began to refer to her as "our hired girl, that's
+workin' for her keep an' the childern's."
+
+It did not matter to her now. Nothing mattered so long as she was
+still within sight and sound of her Sun Maid's beauty and laughter;
+and by the time spring came she had procured the needful skins to
+construct the wigwam she desired. Her skill in nursing, that had been
+well known among her own people, she now made a means of sustaining
+her independence. Such aid as she could render was indeed difficult to
+be obtained by the isolated dwellers in that wilderness; and having
+nursed Abel through a siege of inflammatory rheumatism, as he had
+never been cared for before, he sounded her praises far and near, and
+to all of the chance passers-by.
+
+For her service among those who could pay she charged a very moderate
+wage, but it sufficed; and, for the sake of pleasing her children, she
+adopted a dress very like that worn by all the women of the frontier.
+Kitty, also, had soon been clothed "like a Christian" by Mercy's
+decision; but Wahneenah still carefully preserved the dainty Indian
+costume Katasha had given the child; along with the sacred White Bow
+and the priceless Necklace.
+
+As for the three horses on which she and the two children had stolen
+away from their enemies in the cave of refuge, Abel had long ago
+decided that they were but kittle cattle, unfitted for the sober work
+of life which his own oxen and old nag Dobbin performed so well. So
+they were left in idleness, to graze where they pleased, and were
+little used except by their owners for a rare ride afield. The
+Chestnut, however, carried Wahneenah to and fro upon her nursing
+trips; for, unless the case were too urgent to be left, she always
+returned at nightfall to her own lodge and the nearness of her Sun
+Maid.
+
+Thus four uneventful years passed away, and it had come to the time of
+the wheat harvest.
+
+"And it's to be the biggest, grandest frolic ever was in this part of
+the country," declared the settler, proudly.
+
+Whereupon, days before, Mercy began to brew and bake, and even
+Wahneenah condescended to assist in the household labor. But she did
+this that she might if possible lighten that of her Sun Maid, who had
+now grown to a "real good-sized girl an' just as smart as chain
+lightning."
+
+This was Abel's description. Mercy's would have been:
+
+"Kitty's well enough. But she hates to sew her seam like she hates
+poison. She'd ruther be makin' posies an' animals out my nice clean
+fresh-churned butter than learn cookin'. But she's good-tempered.
+Never flies out at all, like Gaspar, 'cept I lose patience with
+Wahneeny. Then, look sharp!"
+
+"Well, I tell you that out in this country a harvestin' is a big
+institution!" cried Abel to Gaspar as, early on the morning of the
+eventful day, they were making all things ready for the accommodation
+of the people who would flock to the Smith farm to assist in the labor
+and participate in the fun. "If there's some things we miss here, we
+have some that can't be matched out East. Every white settler's every
+other settler's neighbor, even though there's miles betwixt their
+clearin's. All hands helpin' so makes light work of raisin' cabins or
+barns, sowin', reapin', or clearin'. I--I declare I feel as excited as
+a boy. But you don't seem to. You're gettin' a great lad now, Gaspar,
+an' one these days I'll be thinkin' of payin' you some wages. If so be
+I can afford it, an'----"
+
+"And Mercy will let you!"
+
+"Hi, diddle diddle! What's struck you crosswise, sonny?"
+
+"I'm tired of working so hard for other people. I want a chance to do
+something for myself. I'm not ungrateful; don't think it. But see. I
+am already taller than you and I can do as much work in a day. Where
+is the justice, then, of my labor going for naught?"
+
+"Why, Gaspar. Why, why, why!" exclaimed the pioneer, too astonished to
+say more.
+
+Gaspar went on with his task of clearing the barn floor and arranging
+tying places for the visitors' teams; but his dark face was clouded
+and anxious, showing little of the anticipation which Abel's did.
+
+"I'm going to ask you, Father Abel, to let me try for a job somewhere
+else; that is, if you can't really pay me anything, as your wife
+declares. Then, by and by, when I can earn enough to get ahead a
+little, I'd pay you back for all you've spent on us three."
+
+Abel's face had fallen, and he now looked as if he might be expecting
+some dire disaster rather than a frolic. But it brightened presently.
+
+"Yes, Gaspar; I know you're big, and well-growed. But you're young
+yet--dreadful young----"
+
+"I'm near fifteen."
+
+"Well, you won't be out your time till you're twenty-one."
+
+"What 'time'?" asked the lad, angrily, though he knew the answer.
+
+"Hmm. Of course, there wasn't no regular papers drawed, but it was
+understood; it was always understood between ma and me that if we took
+you all in, and did for you while you was growin' up, your service
+belonged to us. Same's if you'd been bound by the authorities."
+
+"Get over there, Dobbin!"
+
+"Pshaw! You must be real tried in your mind to hit a four-footed
+creatur' like that. I hain't never noticed that you was short-spoke
+with the stock--not before this morning. I wish you wouldn't get out
+of sorts to-day, boy! I--well, there's things afoot 'at I think you'd
+like to take a share in. There. That'll do. Now, just turn another
+edge on them reapin' knives, an' see that there's plenty o' water in
+the troughs, an' feed them fattin' pigs in the pen, an'--Shucks! He's
+off already. I wonder what's took him so short! I wonder if he's got
+wind of anything out the common!"
+
+The latter part of Abel's words were spoken to himself, for Gaspar had
+taken his knives to the grindstone in the yard and was now calling for
+Kitty to turn the stone for him, while he should hold the blades
+against its surface.
+
+But it was Mercy who answered his summons, appearing in the doorway
+with her sleeves rolled up, her apron floured, and her round face
+aglow with haste and excitement.
+
+"Well? well, Gaspar Keith? What you want of Kit?"
+
+"To help me."
+
+"Help yourself. I can't spare her."
+
+"Then I can't grind the knives. That's all." He tossed them down to
+wait her pleasure, and Mercy groaned.
+
+"If I ain't the worst bestead woman in the world! Here's all creation
+coming to be fed, an' no help but a little girl like Kit an' a grumpy
+old squaw 't don't know enough to 'preciate her privileges. Hey!
+Gaspar! Call Abel in to breakfast. An' after that maybe sissy can turn
+the stun. Here 'tis goin' on six o'clock, if it's a minute, an' some
+the folks'll be pokin' over here by seven, sure!"
+
+Then Mercy retreated within doors and directed the Sun Maid to:
+
+"Fly 'round right smart now an' set the house to one side. Whisk them
+flapjacks over quicker 'an that, then they'll not splish-splash all
+over the griddle. When I was a little girl nine years old I could fry
+cakes as round as an apple. No reason why you shouldn't, too, if you
+put your mind to it."
+
+The Sun Maid laughed. No amount of fret or labor had ever yet had
+power to dim the brightness of her nature. Was it the Sun Maid,
+though? One had to look twice to see. For this tall, slender girl now
+wore her glorious hair in a braid, and her frock was of coarse blue
+homespun.
+
+Her feet were bare, and her plump shoulders bowed a little because of
+the heavy burdens which her "mother Mercy" saw fit to put upon them.
+
+"But I guess I don't want to put my mind to it. I can't see anything
+pretty in 'jacks which are to be eaten right up. Only I like to have
+them taste right for the folks. That's all."
+
+Abel and Gaspar came in, and Kitty placed a plate of steaming cakes
+before them. Mercy hurried to the big churn outside the door and began
+to work the dasher up and down as if she hadn't an ounce of butter in
+her dairy and must needs prepare this lot for the festival. As she
+churned she kept up a running fire of directions to the household
+within, finally suggesting, in a burst of liberality due to the
+occasion:
+
+"You can fry what flapjacks you want for yourself, Wahneeny. An' I
+don't know as I care if you have a little syrup on 'em to-day--just
+for once, so to speak."
+
+However, Wahneenah disdained even the cakes, and the syrup-jug was
+deposited in its place with undiminished contents.
+
+"Be you all through, then? Well, Kit, fly 'round. Clear the table like
+lightning, an' fetch that butter bowl out the spring, an' see if the
+salt's all poun' an' sifted; an' open the draw's an' lay out my
+clothes, an'--Dear me! Does seem 's if I should lose my senses with so
+much to do an' no decent help, only----"
+
+"Hold on, Mercy! What's the use of rushin' through life 's if you was
+tryin' to break your neck?"
+
+"Rushin'! With all that's comin' here to-day!"
+
+"Well, let 'em come. We'll be glad to see 'em. Nobody gladder 'n you
+yourself. But you fair take my breath away with your everlastin'
+hurry-skurry, clitter-clatter. Don't give a man a chance to even kiss
+his little girl good-mornin'. Do you know that, Sunny Maid? Hain't
+said a word to your old Daddy yet!"
+
+The child ran to him and fondly flung her arms as far as they would
+go around the settler's broad shoulders. It was evident that there was
+love and sympathy between these two, though they were to be allowed
+short space "for foolin'" that day, and Mercy's call again interrupted
+them:
+
+"Come and take this butter down to the brook, Kit, an' wash it all
+clean, an' salt it just right--here 'tis measured off--an' make haste.
+I do believe you'd ruther stand there lovin' your old Abel--homely
+creatur'!--than helpin' me. Yet, when I was a little girl your age, I
+could work the butter over fit to beat the queen. Upon my word, I do
+declare I see a wagon movin' 'crost the prairie this very minute! Oh!
+what shall I do if I ain't ready when they get here!"
+
+Catching at last something of the pleasurable excitement about her,
+Kitty lifted the heavy butter-tray and started for the stream. The
+butter was just fine and firm enough to tempt her fingers into a bit
+of modelling, such as she had picked up for herself; and very speedily
+she had arranged a row of miniature fruits and acorns, and was just
+attempting to copy a flower which grew by the bank when Wahneenah's
+voice, close at hand, warned her:
+
+"Come, Girl-Child. The white mistress is in haste this morning. It is
+better to carry back the butter in a lump than to make even such
+pretty things and risk a scolding."
+
+"But father Abel would like them for his company. He is very fond of
+my fancy 'pats'."
+
+"But not to-day. Besides, if there is time for idleness, I want you to
+pass it here with me, in my own wigwam."
+
+The Sun Maid looked up. "Shall you not be at the feasting, dear Other
+Mother? You have many friends among those who are coming."
+
+"Friendship is proved by too sharp a test sometimes. The way of the
+world is to follow the crowd. If a person falls into disfavor with
+one, all the rest begin to pick flaws. More than that: the temptation
+of money ruins even noble natures."
+
+"Why, Wahneenah! You sound as if you were talking riddles. Who is
+tempted by money? and which way does the 'crowd' you mean go? I don't
+understand you at all."
+
+"May the Great Spirit be praised that it is so. May He long preserve
+to you your innocent and loyal heart."
+
+With these words, the Indian woman stooped and laid her hand upon the
+child's head; then slowly entered her lodge and let its curtains fall
+behind her. There was an unusual sternness about her demeanor which
+impressed Kitty greatly; so that it was with a very sober face that
+she herself gathered up her burdens and returned to the cabin.
+
+Yet on the short way thither she met Gaspar, who beckoned to her from
+behind the shelter of a haystack, motioning silence.
+
+"But you mustn't keep me, Gaspar boy. Mother Mercy is terribly hurried
+this morning, and now, for some reason, Other Mother has stopped
+helping and has gone home to the tepee. If I don't work, it will about
+crush her down, Mercy says."
+
+"Hang Mercy! There. I don't mean that. I wish you wouldn't always look
+so scared when I get mad. I am mad to-day, Kit. Mad clear through.
+I've got to be around amongst folks, too, for a while; but the first
+minute you get, you come to that pile of logs near Wahneenah's place,
+and I'll have something to tell you."
+
+"No you won't! No you won't! I know it already. I heard father Abel
+talking. There is to be a horse race, after the harvesting and the
+supper are over. There is a new man, or family, moved into the
+neighborhood and he is a horse trader. I heard all about it, sir!"
+
+"You heard that? Did you hear anything else? About Wahneenah and
+money?"
+
+"Only what she told me herself"; repeating the Indian woman's words.
+
+"Then she knows, poor thing!" cried Gaspar, indignantly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE HARVESTING.
+
+
+Kitty had no time to ask further explanation. Already there was an ox
+team driving up to the cabin and, scanning the prairies, she saw
+others on the way, so merely stopped to cry, eagerly:
+
+"They've come! The folks have come!" before she hastened in with the
+butter and to see if she could in any way help Mercy dress for the
+great occasion.
+
+She was just in time, for the plump housewife was vainly struggling to
+fasten the buttons of a new lilac calico gown which she had made:
+
+"A teeny tiny mite too tight. I didn't know I was gettin' so fat, I
+really didn't."
+
+"Oh! it's all right, dear Mother Mercy. It looked just lovely that day
+you tried it on. I'll help you. You're all trembling and warm. That's
+the reason it bothers."
+
+She was so deft and earnest in her efforts that Mercy submitted
+without protest, and in this manner succeeded in "making herself fit
+to be seen by folks" about the moment that they arrived to observe.
+Then everything else was forgotten, amid the greetings and gayety
+that followed. For out of what purported to be a task the whole
+community was making a frolic.
+
+While the men repaired to the golden fields to reap the grain the
+women hurried to the smooth grassy place where the harvest-dinner was
+to be enjoyed out-of-doors.
+
+Most of the vehicles--which brought whole families, down to the babe
+in long clothes--were drawn by oxen, though some of the pioneers owned
+fine horses and had driven these, groomed with extraordinary care and
+destined, later on, to be entered in the races which should conclude
+the business and fun of the day.
+
+Both horses and oxen were, for the present, led out to graze upon a
+fine pasture and were supposed to be under the care, while there, of
+the young people. These were, however, more deeply engaged in playing
+games than in watching, and for once their stern parents ignored the
+carelessness.
+
+"Oh, such bright faces!" cried the Sun Maid to Mercy. "And yours is
+the happiest of all, even though you did have such a terrible time to
+get ready. See, they are fixing the tables out of the wagon boards,
+and every woman has brought her own dishes. They're making fires, too,
+some of the bigger boys. What for, Mother Mercy?"
+
+"Oh! don't bother me now. It's to boil the coffee on, and to bake the
+jonny-cakes. 'Journey-cakes,' they used to call them. Mis' Waldron,
+she's mixin' some this minute. Step acrost to her table an' watch. A
+girl a'most ten years old ought to learn all kinds of housekeepin'."
+
+Kitty was nothing loath. It was, indeed, a treat to see with what
+skill the comely settler of the wilderness mixed and tossed and patted
+her jonny-cake, famous all through that countryside for lightness and
+delicacy; and as she finished each batch of dough, and slapped it down
+upon the board where it was to cook, she would hand it over to Kitty's
+charge, with the injunction:
+
+"Carry that to one of the fires, an' stand it up slantin', so 's to
+give it a good chance to bake even. Watch 'em all, too; an' as soon as
+they are a nice brown on one side, either call me to turn 'em to the
+other, or else do it yourself. As Mercy Smith says, a girl can't begin
+too early to housekeep."
+
+"But this is out-door keep, isn't it?" laughed the Sun Maid, as, with
+a board upon each arm, she bounded away to place the cakes as she had
+been directed.
+
+In ordinary, Mercy Smith was not a lavish woman; but on such a day as
+this she threw thrift to the wind and, brought out the best she could
+procure for the refreshment of her guests; and everybody knows how
+much better food tastes when eaten out-of-doors than in regular
+fashion beside a table. The dinner was a huge success; and even
+Gaspar, whom Kitty's loving watchful eyes had noticed was more than
+usually serious that day, so far relaxed his indignation as to partake
+of the feast with the other visiting lads.
+
+But, when it was over and the women were gathering up the dishes,
+preparatory to cleansing them for their homeward journey, the child
+came to where Mercy stood among a group of women, and asked:
+
+"Shall I wash the dishes, Mother Mercy?"
+
+"No, sissy, you needn't. We grown folks'll fix that. If you want
+something to do, an' are tired of out-doors, you can set right down
+yonder an' rock Mis' Waldron's baby to sleep. By and by, Abel's got a
+job for you will suit you to a T!"
+
+Kitty was by no means tired of out-doors, but a baby to attend was
+even a greater rarity than a holiday; so she sat down beside the
+cradle, which its mother had brought in her great wagon, and gently
+swayed the little occupant into a quiet slumber. Then she began to
+listen to the voices about her, and presently caught a sentence which
+puzzled her.
+
+"Fifty dollars is a pile of money. It's more 'n ary Indian ever was
+worth. Let alone a sulky squaw."
+
+"Yes it is. An' I need it. I need it dreadful," assented Mercy,
+forgetful of the Sun Maid's presence in the room.
+
+"Well, I, for one, should be afraid of her," observed another visitor,
+clattering the knives she was wiping. "I wouldn't have a squaw livin'
+so near my door, an' that's a fact."
+
+Kitty now understood that these people were speaking of Wahneenah, and
+listened intently.
+
+"Oh! I ain't afraid of her. Not that. But I never did like her, nor
+she me. She's sullen an' top-lofty. Why, you'd think I wasn't no
+better than the dirt under her feet, to see her sometimes. She was
+good to the childern, I'll 'low, afore me an' Abel took 'em in. But
+that's four years ago, an' I've cared for 'em ever since. Sometimes I
+think she's regular bewitched 'em, they dote on her so. If you believe
+me, they'll listen to her leastest word sooner 'n a whole hour of my
+talk!"
+
+"I shouldn't be surprised," quietly commented one young matron, who
+was jogging her own baby to sleep by tipping her chair violently back
+and forth upon its four legs.
+
+Continued Mercy:
+
+"She wouldn't eat a meal of victuals with me if she was starvin'. Yet
+I've treated her Christian. Only this mornin' I give her leave to fry
+cakes for herself, an' even have some syrup, but she wouldn't touch to
+do it. Yes; fifty dollars of good government money would be more to
+me 'n she is, an' she'd be took care of, I hear, along with all the
+rest is caught. It's time the country was rid of the Indians an' white
+folks had a chance. There's all the while some massacrein' an'
+fightin' goin' on somewhere."
+
+"Oh! I guess the government just puts 'em under lock an' key, in a
+guard-house, or some such place, till it gets enough to send away off
+West somewheres. I'd get the fifty dollars, if I was you, and march
+her off. She'll be puttin' notions into the youngsters' heads first
+you see an' makin' trouble."
+
+"I don't know just how to manage it. Abel, he's queer an' sot. He's
+gettin' tired, though, of some things, himself."
+
+"Manage it easy enough. Like fallin' off a log. My man could do you
+that good turn. She could be took along in our wagon as far as the
+Agency. Then, next time he comes by with his grist on his road to
+mill, he could fetch you the money. I'd do it, sure. I only wish I had
+an Indian to catch as handy as she is." Having given this advice,
+Mercy's guest sat down.
+
+There was a rush of small feet and the Sun Maid confronted them. Her
+blue eyes blazed with indignation, her face was white, and her hair,
+which the day's activity had loosed from its braid, streamed backward
+as if every fibre quivered with life. With heaving breast and clenched
+hands, she faced them all.
+
+"Oh, how dare you! How dare you! You are talking of my Wahneenah; of
+selling her, of selling her like a pig or a horse. Even you, Mrs.
+Jordan, though she nursed your little one till it got well, and only
+told you the truth: that if you'd look after it more and visit less it
+wouldn't have the croup so often. You didn't like to hear her say it,
+and you do not love her. But she is good, good, good! There is nobody
+so good as she is. And no harm shall come to her. I tell you. I say
+it. I, the Sun Maid, whom the Great Spirit sent to her out of the sky.
+I will go and tell her at once. She shall run away. She shall not be
+sold--never, never, never!"
+
+The women remained dumfounded where she left them, watching her skim
+the distance between cabin and wigwam, scarcely touching the earth
+with her bare feet in her haste to warn her friend of this new danger
+which threatened her and her race. For it was quite true, this matter
+that had been discussed. The Indians had given so much trouble in the
+sparsely settled country that the authorities had offered a price for
+their capture; and it was this price which money-loving Mercy coveted.
+
+Like a flash of a bird's wing, Kitty had darted into the lodge and
+out again, with an agony of fear upon her features; and then she saw
+Gaspar beckoning.
+
+As she reached him he motioned silence and drew her away into the
+shadow of the forest, that just there fringed the clearing behind the
+tepee.
+
+"But--Wahneenah's gone!" she whispered.
+
+"Don't worry. She's safe enough for the present. Listen to me. Do you
+remember the horse-racing last year?"
+
+"Course. I remember I got so excited over the horses, and so sorry for
+the boys that rode and didn't win. But what of that? Other Mother has
+gone!"
+
+"I tell you she's safe. Safer than you or me. Listen. Abel says _we_,
+too, will have to ride a race to-day! On Tempest and Snowbird. Even if
+we win, the money will belong to him; and if we lose--he's going to
+sell one of our horses to pay his loss. I heard him say it."
+
+"But they are ours!"
+
+"He's kept them all these years, he says. He claims the right to do
+with them as he chooses. Bad as that is, it isn't the worst. Though
+Wahneenah is safe, still she will not be always. You and I will have
+to ride this race--to save her life, or liberty!"
+
+"What do--you--mean?"
+
+"I haven't time to explain. Only--will you do as I say? Exactly?"
+
+"Of course." Kitty looked inquiringly into her foster-brother's face.
+Didn't he know she loved him better than anybody and would mind him
+always?
+
+"When we are on the horses if I say to you: 'Follow me!' will you?"
+
+"Of course. Away to the sky, over yonder, if you want me."
+
+"Even if any grown folks should try to stop you? Even if Abel or
+Mercy?"
+
+"Even"--declared the little girl, sincerely.
+
+"Now go back to the house, or anywhere you please till Abel calls you,
+or I do. Then come and mount. And then--then--do exactly as I tell
+you. Remember."
+
+He went away, back to the group of men about the barn, and Kitty sat
+down in the shady place to wait. But it was not for long. Presently
+she heard Mercy calling her, and saw Abel, with Gaspar, leading the
+black gelding and pretty Snowbird out of the stable toward a ring of
+other horses. She got up and passed toward the cabin very slowly.
+Oddly enough, she began to feel timid about riding before all those
+watching, strange faces; yet did not understand why. Then she thought
+of Wahneenah, and her returning anger made her indifferent to them.
+
+"Abel wants you, Kit!" cried Mrs. Smith, quite ignoring the child's
+recent outbreak, and the girl walked quietly toward him. But it was
+Gaspar who helped to swing her into her saddle, where she settled
+herself with an ease learned long ago of the Snake-Who-Leaps. The lad,
+also, found time to whisper:
+
+"Remember your promise! We are to ride this race for Wahneenah's
+life--though nobody knows that save you and me. So ride your best.
+Ride as you never rode before--and on the road I lead you!"
+
+The sons of the new settler and horse dealer were to ride against
+these two. There were three of these youths, all well mounted, and the
+course was to be a certain number of times around the great wheat
+field so freshly reaped. It was a rough route, indeed, but as just for
+one as another, and in plain sight of all the visitors. The five
+horses ranged in a row with their noses touching a line, held by two
+men, that fell as the word was given:
+
+"One--two--three--GO!"
+
+They went. They made the circuit of the field in fair style, with the
+three strangers a trifle ahead. On the completion of the second heat,
+the easterners passed the starting-point alone.
+
+"Why, Gaspar! Why, Kitty!" shouted Abel reprovingly. "How's this?"
+
+"Maybe they don't understand what's meant," suggested somebody.
+
+Seemingly, they did not. For neither at the third round did they
+appear in leading. On the contrary, they had started off at a right
+angle, straight across the prairie; but now so fast they rode, and so
+unerringly, that long before their deserted friends had ceased to
+stare and wonder they had passed out of sight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+ONCE MORE IN THE OLD HOME.
+
+
+"We can rest a little now, Kit. We are so far away that nobody could
+catch us if they tried. They won't try, any way, I guess. They'll
+think we'll go back."
+
+"Didn't the horses do finely, Gaspar! I never rode like that, I guess.
+Where are we going? What did you mean about saving Wahneenah's life?
+Where is she?"
+
+"Don't ask so many questions. I've got to think. I've got to think
+very hard. I'm the man of our family, you know, Sun Maid. Wahneenah
+and you are my women."
+
+"Oh! indeed!" said the girl, moving a little nearer her foster-brother
+on the grassy hillock where they had slipped from their saddles, to
+rest both themselves and the beasts.
+
+"You see: we've all run away."
+
+"Pooh! That's nothing. I've always been running away. Black Partridge
+said I began life that way."
+
+"You're about ten years old, Kit. You're big enough to be getting
+womanly."
+
+"Father Abel said I was. I can sew quite well. If I'm very, very good,
+I'm to be let stitch a dickey all alone, two threads at a time, for
+him. Mercy said so."
+
+"Do you like stitching shirts for that old man?"
+
+"No. I hate it."
+
+"Poor little Sun Maid. You were made to be happy, and do nothing but
+what you like all day long. Well, I'll be a man some day, and build a
+cabin of my own for you and Wahneenah."
+
+"That will be nice. Though I'll be of some use some way, even if I
+don't like sewing. Where shall we go when we get rested, boy?"
+
+"To the Fort."
+
+"The--Fort! I thought it was all burned up."
+
+"There is a new one on the same old ground. It is our real home, you
+know. We will be refugees. When we meet Wahneenah, we'll go and claim
+protection."
+
+"Oh! Gaspar, where is she? I want her terribly. I am afraid something
+will happen to her."
+
+In his heart the lad was, also, greatly alarmed; but he felt it unwise
+to show this. So he answered, airily:
+
+"Oh! she's on, a piece. I pointed her the road, and told her where to
+meet us. At the top of the sandhills, this side the Fort."
+
+"The sandhills! That dreadful place. You must be getting a real
+'brave,' Gaspar boy, if you don't mind going there again. I've heard
+you talk--"
+
+"I don't want to talk even now, Kit. But I had to have some spot we
+both knew, where we could meet, and we chose that. I expect she'll be
+there waiting, and as soon as the horses get cooled a little, and we
+do, we'll go on."
+
+"I'm hungry. I wish we had brought something to eat."
+
+"I did. It's here in my blouse. I noticed at the dinner that you did
+more serving than eating. There's water yonder, too; in that clump of
+bushes must be a spring," and the prairie-wise lad was right.
+
+The supper he produced was an indiscriminate mixture of meats and
+sweets and, had Kitty not been so really in need of food she would
+have disdained what she promptly pronounced "a mess." But she ate it
+and felt rested by it; so that she began to remember things she had
+scarcely noticed earlier in the day.
+
+"Gaspar, Wahneenah must have known about this--this money being
+offered for her and other Indians. She had taken everything out of her
+wigwam. I thought she was terribly grave this morning, and she kept
+looking at me all the time. Do you think she knew she was going to run
+away as she was?"
+
+"Course. She's known it some days."
+
+"And didn't tell me!"
+
+"She couldn't, because she loves you so. She wouldn't do a thing to
+put you in danger. So I thought the matter over, and I tell you I've
+just taken the business right out their hands. I was tired, any way.
+I'm glad we came. I'm almost a man, Kit; and I won't be scolded by any
+woman as Mercy has scolded me. And when I found Abel was getting
+stingy, too, and claiming our horses for their keep, when they've
+really just kept themselves out on the prairie, or anywhere it
+happened, I--"
+
+"Boy, you talk too fast. I--I don't feel as if I was glad. Except when
+I remember Other Mother. They were horrid, horrid about her. I hate
+them for that, though I love them for other things. I wonder what
+Mother Mercy will say when we don't come home!"
+
+"She'll have a chance to say a lot of things before we do, I guess.
+Well, we'll be going. I wouldn't like to miss Wahneenah, and I don't
+know but they close the Fort gates at night."
+
+"Did she ride Chestnut?"
+
+"Course. What a lot of questions you ask!"
+
+The Sun Maid looked into the boy's face. It was too troubled for her
+comfort, and she exclaimed:
+
+"Gaspar Keith! There's more to be told than you've told me. What is it
+you are keeping back?"
+
+"I--I wonder if you can understand, if I do tell you?"
+
+"I think I can understand a good many things. One is: you are making
+me feel very unhappy."
+
+"Well, then, I'm going to take Wahneenah to the Fort, and give her up
+myself!"
+
+They had remounted their horses, and were pacing leisurely along
+toward the rendezvous, keeping a sharp lookout for the Indian woman;
+but at this startling statement the Sun Maid reined up short, and
+demanded:
+
+"What--do--you--mean?"
+
+"Just exactly what I say. I'm going to give her up and get the money."
+
+Kitty could not speak; and with a perplexity that was not at all
+comfortable to himself, the lad returned her astonished gaze.
+
+"Then--you--are--just--as--mean--as--Mercy--Smith!"
+
+"I am not mean at all! Don't you say it. Don't you understand? I
+do--or I thought I did. It's this way. She can't be given up but once,
+can she? Well, I'll do it, instead of an enemy."
+
+"You--wicked--boy! I can't believe it! I won't! You shall not do it;
+never!"
+
+"Oh, don't be silly! Of course, I'll not keep the money. I'll give it
+right back to her. Then she can do what she likes with it--make a nice
+new wigwam near the Fort, and she can get lots of skins, or even
+canvas, there. Come, let's ride on."
+
+But there was a silence between them for some time, and the scheme
+that had seemed so brilliant, when it had originated in Gaspar's mind,
+began to lose something of its glitter under the clear questioning
+gaze of the Sun Maid.
+
+It was fast falling twilight when they came to the sandhills; and
+though, by all reckoning, Wahneenah should have been long awaiting
+them there was no sign of the familiar Chestnut or its beloved rider.
+
+"Gaspar, will Wahneenah understand it? Will she believe it is right
+for you to do what is wrong for another to do? Will the soldier men
+pay you--just a boy, so--the money, real money, for her, anyway?"
+
+Gaspar lost his patience, with which he was not greatly blessed.
+
+"Kit, I wish you wouldn't keep thinking of things. I didn't tell Other
+Mother, of course. She might--she might not have been pleased. I acted
+for the best. That's the way men always have to do."
+
+The argument was not as convincing to the Sun Maid as she herself
+would have liked; but she trusted Gaspar, and tried to put the money
+question aside, while she strained her eyes to search the darkening
+landscape for the missing one.
+
+But there was no trace of her anywhere; even though Gaspar dismounted
+and scanned the sward for fresh tracks, as his Indian friends had
+taught him; and when, at length, he felt compelled to hasten to the
+Fort and seek its shelter for the Sun Maid, his young heart was heavy
+with foreboding. However, he put the cheerful side of the subject
+before the little girl, observing:
+
+"It's the very easiest thing in the world for people to make mistakes
+in meeting this way. What seems a certain point to one person may look
+very different to another. I've noticed that."
+
+"Oh! you have!" commented Kitty. "I think you've noticed almost too
+much, Gaspar. I--I think it's awful lonely out here, and I don't
+believe Abel would have let anybody hurt Wahneenah, even if Mercy
+would. And--I want her, I want her!"
+
+"Sun Maid! Are you afraid?"
+
+"No, I am not. Not for myself. But if some of those dreadful white
+people whom Wahneenah thought were her friends should overtake her on
+their way home, and--and--take her prisoner! I can't have it,--I must
+go back, and search again and again."
+
+"Sing, Kit! If she's anywhere within hearing, she'll come at the sound
+of your voice. Sing your loudest!"
+
+Obediently, the Sun Maid lifted her clear voice and sang, at the
+beginning with vigor and hope in the notes, but at the end with a
+sorrowful trembling and pathos that made Gaspar's heart ache. So, to
+still his own misgivings, he commanded her, also, to be silent.
+
+"It's no use, girlie. She's out of hearing somewhere. Maybe she has
+gone to the Fort already. Any way, it's getting very dark, and the
+clouds are awful heavy. I believe there's a thunder-shower coming, and
+if it does, it will be a bad one. They always are worse, Mercy says,
+when they come this time of year. We would better hurry on to shelter
+ourselves. If she isn't there, we can look for her in the morning."
+
+"I like a thunder-storm. I believe it would be fine to go under that
+clump of trees yonder and watch it. I have to go to bed so early,
+always, that I think it is just grand to be up late and out-of-doors,
+too."
+
+"You are not afraid of anything, Kitty Briscoe! I never saw a girl
+like you!" cried the lad, reproachfully.
+
+"But you don't know other girls, boy. Maybe they are not afraid,
+either. I can't help it if I'm not, can I?"
+
+Gaspar laughed. "I guess I'm cross, child, that's all. Of course I
+wouldn't want you to be a scared thing. But, let's hurry. The later we
+get there the more trouble we may have to get in."
+
+"Why--will there be trouble? If there is, let's go home."
+
+"We can't go home. We've run away, you know. Besides, there would be
+the same anxiety about Wahneenah. All 's left for us is to go on."
+
+So the Sun Maid settled herself firmly in her saddle and followed
+Tempest's rather reckless pace forward into the darkness. Memory made
+the dim road familiar to Gaspar, and soon the garrison lights came
+into sight.
+
+But martial law is strict and the gates had been closed for the night,
+as the lad had feared. The sentinel on duty did not respond to his
+first summons with the promptness which the boy desired, so, springing
+to his feet upon the gelding's back, he shouted, over the stockade:
+
+"Entrance for two citizens of the United States! In the name of its
+President!"
+
+"Ugh. There is no need for such a noise, pale-face."
+
+These words fell so suddenly upon Gaspar's ears that he nearly tumbled
+backward from his perch. He was further amazed to see the Sun Maid
+leap from her horse, straight through the gloom into the arms of a
+tall Indian who seemed to have risen out of the ground beside them.
+
+In fact, he had merely stepped from a canoe at the foot of the path
+and his moccasined feet had made no sound upon the sward as he
+approached. He received the girl's eager spring with grave dignity,
+and immediately replaced her upon the Snowbird's back.
+
+[Illustration: GASPAR AND KITTY REACH THE FORT. _Page 188._]
+
+"Why, Black Partridge! Don't you know me? Aren't you glad to see me?
+Four years since we said good-by, that day at poor Muck-otey-pokee."
+
+"I remember all things. Why is the Sun Maid here, at this hour?"
+
+Gaspar had recovered himself and now broke into a torrent of
+explanation, which the chief quietly interrupted as soon as he had
+gathered the facts of the case.
+
+"But don't you think, dear Feather-man, that our Wahneenah will soon
+come?" demanded Kitty, anxiously.
+
+"The gates are open. Let us enter," he answered evasively; and the
+novelty of her surroundings so promptly engrossed the girl's mind that
+she forgot to question him further then. Somewhere on the dimly
+lighted campus a bugle was sounding; and it awakened sleeping memories
+of her earliest childhood. So did the regular "step-step" of soldiers
+relieving guard. A new and delightful sense of safety and familiarity
+thrilled her heart, and she exclaimed, joyfully:
+
+"Oh, Gaspar! it is home! it is home! More than the cabin, more than
+Other Mother's tepee, this is home!"
+
+"I hope it will prove so."
+
+"Do you suppose I will find any of the dear white 'mothers' who were
+so good to me? Or Bugler Jim, who used to play me to sleep under the
+trees in the corner? I wish it wasn't so dark. I wish----"
+
+"It's all new, Kit. They are all strangers. The rest, you know--well,
+none of them are here. But these will be kind, no doubt. Yet to me,
+even in this dark, it seems--it seems horrible! It all comes back:
+that morning when I first rode Tempest. The massacre----"
+
+The tone of his voice startled her, and she begged at once:
+
+"Let us go right away again. I am not afraid of the storm, nor the
+darkness, and nothing can harm us if we pray to be taken care of. The
+Great Spirit always hears. Let us go."
+
+"It is too late. It's beginning to rain and that man is ordering us to
+dismount, that he may put the horses in the stables. Jump down."
+
+There were always some refugees at the Fort. Just then there were more
+than ordinary; or, if all were not such, there were many passing
+travellers, journeying in emigrant trains toward the unsettled west,
+to make their new homes there, and these used "Uncle Sam's tavern" as
+an inn of rest and refreshment.
+
+Amid so many, therefore, small attention was paid to the arrival of
+these two young people. They were furnished with a plain supper, in
+the main living room of the building which seemed a big and dreary
+place, and immediately afterward were dismissed to bed. Kitty was
+assigned a cot among the women guests and Gaspar slept in the men's
+quarters.
+
+But neither had very comfortable thoughts, and the talk of her
+dormitory neighbors kept the Sun Maid long awake. Here, as in Mercy's
+cabin, the dominant subject was the reward offered for the capture of
+the Indians, and a fresh fear set her trembling as one indignant
+matron exclaimed:
+
+"There's one of those pesky red-skins in this very Fort this night. He
+came with that girl yonder, but I hope he won't be let to get away as
+easy. The country is overrun with the Indians, and is no place for
+decent white folks. They outnumber us ten to one. That's why I've got
+my husband to sell out. We're on our way back East, to civilization."
+
+"Well, if one's come here to-night, I reckon he'll be taken care of!
+Massacres are more plenty than money, and some man or other'll make
+out to claim the prize. What sort of Indian was he?"
+
+"Oh, like them all. All paint and feather and wickedness. I wish
+somebody'd take and hang him to the sally-port, just for an example."
+
+This was too much for loyal Kitty Briscoe. She could no more help
+springing up in defence of her friends than she could help breathing.
+
+"You women must not talk like that! There are good Indians, and they
+are the best people in the world. They won't hurt anybody who lets
+them alone. That Indian you're talking against is the Black Partridge.
+He is splendid. He is my very oldest friend, except Gaspar. He
+wouldn't hurt a fly, and he'd help everybody needed help. It's this
+horrible offer of money for every Indian caught that has set my
+precious Other Mother wandering over the country this dark night, and
+made Gaspar and me homeless runaways."
+
+There was instant hubbub in the room, and no more desire for sleep on
+anybody's part until Kitty had been made to tell her story, the story
+of her life as she remembered it, over and over again; and when
+finally slumber overtook her, even in the midst of her narrative, her
+dreams were filled with visions of Wahneenah fleeing and forever
+pursued by uniformed soldiers with glistening bayonets, who fired
+after her to the merry sound of a bugle and drum.
+
+In the morning she found Gaspar and related her night's experience.
+He received it gravely, without the sympathy she expected.
+
+"Kit, I don't understand. What you said was true, and right enough for
+me to say. But it's not like you to be so bold. Yesterday, you were
+saucy to the harvest-women and now again to these. Is it because you
+are growing up so fast, I wonder? All women are not like Other Mother.
+They might get angry with you, and punish you. If I should go----"
+
+"If what, Gaspar Keith?"
+
+"Kitty, _I can't stay here_. It would kill me. I must get out into the
+open. I am going away. Right away. Now. This very hour even. You must
+be brave, and understand."
+
+"Go away? I, too? All right. Only don't look so sober. I don't care. I
+promised to go anywhere you wished and I will. I'm ready."
+
+"But--but--It's only I, my Kit. Not you."
+
+"You would go away, and--leave me here? Just because you don't like
+it?"
+
+All the color went out of her fair, round face, and she caught his
+head between her hands, and turned it so that she could look into his
+dark eyes, which could not bear to look into her own startled and
+reproachful ones.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+PARTINGS AND MEETINGS.
+
+
+Gaspar's courage returned, and he led her to a sheltered place under
+the stockade, where he made her sit beside him for the brief time that
+was his.
+
+"Not all because I do not like it; but because I am almost a man and I
+have found the chance of my life. There is one here, a _voyageur_,
+with his boat. The finest vessel I ever saw, though they've not been
+so many. He is going north into the great woods; will sail this
+morning. He is a great trader and hunter and he has asked me to
+apprentice myself to him. He promises he will make my fortune. He has
+taken as great a liking to me, I reckon, as I have to him. We shall
+get on famously together. In that broad, free life I shall grow a full
+man, and soon. I can earn money, and make a home for you and
+Wahneenah, and many another lonely, helpless soul. Yes, I must go. I
+can't let the chance pass. And you must be brave, and the Sun Maid
+still, and forever. I shall want to think of you as always bright and
+full of laughter. Like yourself. But you are not like yourself now,
+Girl-Child. Why don't you speak? Why don't you say something?"
+
+"I guess there isn't any 'say' left in me, Gaspar," answered the girl,
+in a tone so hopelessly sad that it almost made the lad waver in his
+determination. Only that wavering had no portion in the character of
+the ambitious youth, and he looked far forward toward a great good
+beyond the present pain.
+
+When the day was well advanced, the schooner sailed away, from the
+dock at the foot of the path from fort to lake, with Gaspar upon her
+deck, trying to look more brave and manly than he really felt. But a
+forlorn little maid watched with eyes that shed no tears, and a
+pitiful attempt at a smile upon her quivering lips till the vessel
+became a mere speck, then disappeared.
+
+After a long while, she was aroused by something again moving over the
+water.
+
+"He's coming back! My Gaspar's coming back!" she cried, and tossed
+back the hair which the wind blew about her face that she might see
+the clearer. A moment later her disappointment found words: "It's
+nothing but a common Indian canoe!"
+
+However, she remembered her foster-brother had set her a task to do.
+She must begin it right away. She was to be as helpful to everybody
+she ever should meet as it was possible. Here might be one coming who
+hadn't heard about that dreadful fifty-dollar prize money. She must
+call out and warn him. So she did, and never had human voice sounded
+pleasanter to any wayfarer. But her own intentness discovered
+something familiar in the appearance of the young brave, paddling so
+cautiously toward her and keeping so well to the shore. She began to
+question herself where she had seen him, and in a flash she
+remembered. Then, indeed, did she shout, and joyfully:
+
+"Osceolo! Osceolo! Don't you know me? Kitty? The Sun Maid? The
+daughter of your own tribe? Osceolo!"
+
+"By the moccasins of my grandfather! You here? How? When? No matter.
+The brother of the Sun Maid rejoices. Never a friend so convenient.
+Run around to the edge of the wharf. There must be talk between us,
+and at once."
+
+He pushed his little boat close under the shadow of the pier that had
+long since been deserted of those who had come down to watch, as Kitty
+had done, the sailing of the northern-bound schooner. There was none
+to hear them, yet Osceolo chose to muffle his tones and to make
+himself mysterious. In truth, he was fleeing from justice, having been
+mixed up in a raid upon a settler's homestead a few miles back; in
+which, fortunately, there had been no bloodshed, though a deal of
+thieving and other dirty work which would make it uncomfortable for
+the young warrior should he be caught just then. The story he was
+prepared to tell was true as far as it went; and the Sun Maid was too
+innocent to suspect guile in others. She thought he was referring to
+the prize money when he spoke of quite other matters; and after the
+briefest inquiry and answer as to what had befallen either since their
+parting at doomed Muck-otey-pokee, he concluded:
+
+"Now, Sister-Of-My-Heart, Blood-Daughter-Of-My-Chief, you must help
+me. You must give me, or lend me, a horse; and you must bring me food.
+Then I will ride to fetch you back Wahneenah."
+
+"Oh! You know where she is? Can you do it and not be taken?"
+
+"Is not the Brother of the Sun Maid now become a mighty warrior?"
+
+"You--you don't look so very mighty," returned the girl, truthfully.
+
+Osceolo frowned. "That is as one sees. Fetch me the horse and the
+meat, if you would have your Other Mother restored."
+
+"I will. I will!" she cried, and ran back to the Fort. She went first
+to the kitchen, and begged a meal "for a stranger that's just come,"
+and the food was given her without question. Strangers were always
+coming to be fed; herself, also, no longer ago than the last evening.
+
+From the kitchen to the stables, where a bright thought came to her.
+She would lead the Tempest to Osceolo, and herself ride the Snowbird.
+Together they would go to find Wahneenah.
+
+"The black gelding?" asked the soldier of whom she sought assistance.
+"The hostler can maybe tell you. But I think the Black Partridge rode
+away on him before daybreak."
+
+"The Black Partridge! Oh! I had forgotten him in my trouble about
+Gaspar. Did any harm come to him, sir?"
+
+"No. What harm should? If every red-skin in Illinois was like him
+there'd be little need of us fellows out here in this mud-hole. But
+you look disappointed. If you want to take a ride, there's the white
+mare you came on. But you'd better not go far away. It isn't safe for
+a child like you."
+
+"I'm not afraid, but--Well, if Tempest's gone, I can't. That's all."
+
+So the Snowbird was brought out, and she led the pretty creature away
+behind the shelter of the few trees which hid the spot where Osceolo
+had bade her meet him.
+
+"I tried to get Tempest for you, but the Chief has ridden him away. I
+meant to go with you. But you'll have to go alone. Tell my darling
+Other Mother that I am here, and waiting. Tell her about Gaspar, and
+that he said he had found out she would be quite safe here. Why, so, I
+suppose, would you. I didn't think."
+
+"No, I shouldn't," returned the young Indian hastily. Then, noting her
+surprise, explained:
+
+"I'm a warrior, you see. That makes a difference."
+
+"It will be all right, though, I think. And if you cannot come back
+with Wahneenah, do hurry and send her by herself. Will you?"
+
+"Oh, I'll hurry!" answered the youth, evasively, and leaped to the
+Snowbird's back. The food he had stuffed within his shirt till a more
+convenient season, and with a cry that even to Kitty's trusting ears
+sounded in some way derisive, he was off out of sight along the
+lakeside.
+
+As the Snowbird disappeared, Kitty felt that the last link between
+herself and her friends had been severed, and for a moment the tears
+had sway. Then, ashamed of her own weakness and remembering her
+promise to Gaspar that she would be "just the sunniest kind of a girl,
+and true to her name," she brushed them away and entered the busy
+Fort, to proffer her services to the women in charge.
+
+These had already learned her story and had reprimanded her for
+running away from her protectors, the Smiths; but it was nobody's
+business to return her and, meanwhile, she was safe at the Fort until
+they should choose to call for her.
+
+"Well, there is always plenty of work in the world for the hands that
+will do it," said an officer's wife, with a kindly smile. "You seem
+too small to be of much practical use; but, however, if you want a
+task, there are some little fellows yonder who need amusing and
+comforting. Their mother has died of a fever, and their father is more
+of a student and preacher than a nurse. I guess his wife was the
+ruling spirit in the household, and now that she has left him, he is
+sadly unsettled. He doesn't know whether to go on and take up the
+claim he expected or not. He and you, and the oddly-named little sons,
+may all yet have to become wards of the Government."
+
+"I'm very sorry for him."
+
+"You well may be. Yet he's a gentle, blessed old man. No more fit to
+marry and bring that flock of youngsters out here into the wilderness
+than I am to command an army. She was much younger than he, and felt
+the necessity of doing something toward providing for their children
+and educating them. But the more I talk, the more I puzzle you. Run
+along and lend them a hand. The very smallest Littlejohn of the lot
+has filled his mouth with dirt, and is trying to squall it out. See if
+a drink of water won't mend matters."
+
+Kitty hastened to the child, and begged;
+
+"My dear, don't cry like that. You are disturbing the people."
+
+"Don't care. I ain't my dear; I'm Four."
+
+"You're what?"
+
+"Just Four. Four Littlejohns. What pretty hair you've got. May I pull
+it?"
+
+"I'd rather not. Unless it will make you forget the dirt you ate."
+
+But the permission given, the child became indifferent to it. He
+pointed to three other lads crouching against the door-step, and
+explained:
+
+"They're One, Two, and Three. My father, he says it saves trouble.
+Some folks laugh at us. They say it's funny to be named that way. I
+was eating the dirt because I was--I was mad."
+
+"Indeed! At whom?"
+
+"At everybody. I'm just mis'able. I don't care to live no longer."
+
+The round, dimpled face was so exceedingly wholesome and happy,
+despite its transient dolefulness, that Kitty laughed and her
+merriment brought an answering smile to the four dusty countenances
+before her.
+
+"Wull--wull--I is. My father, he's mis'able, too. So, course, we have
+to be. He's a minister man. He can't tell stories. He just tells true
+ones out the Bible. Can you tell Bible stories?"
+
+"No. I--I'm afraid I don't know much about that book. Mercy had one,
+but she kept it in the drawer. She took it out on Sundays, though. She
+didn't let Gaspar nor me touch it. She said we might spoil the cover.
+That was red. It was a reward of merit when she was a girl. It had
+clasps, and was very beautiful. It had pictures in it, too, about
+saints and dead folks; but I never read it. I couldn't read it if I
+tried, you know, because I've never been taught."
+
+This was amazing to the four book-crammed small Littlejohns. One
+exclaimed, with superior disgust:
+
+"Such a great big girl, and can't read your Bible! You must be a
+heathen, and bow down to wood and stone."
+
+"Maybe I am. I don't remember bowing down to anything, except when I
+say my prayers."
+
+"Your prayers! Then you can't be a real heathen. Heathens don't say
+prayers, not our kind. Hmm. What lovely eyes you've got and how pretty
+you are! All the women never saw such wonderful hair as yours, nor the
+men either. I heard them say so. If I had a sister, I'd like her to
+look just like you. But it's wicked to be vain."
+
+"What do you mean, you funny boy?"
+
+"I'm not funny. I'm serious. My mother--my mother said--my mother--Oh!
+I want her! I want her!"
+
+Religion, superiority, priggishness, all flew to the winds as his real
+and fresh grief overcame him; and it was a heart-broken lad that
+hurled himself against the shoulder of this sympathetic-looking girl
+who, though so much taller, was not so very much older than he.
+
+The Sun Maid's own heart echoed the cry with a keen pain, and she
+received the orphan's outburst with exceeding tenderness. Now,
+whatever One, the eldest, did the other young numerals all imitated,
+so that each was soon weeping copiously. Yet, from very excess of
+energy, their grief soon exhausted itself and they regarded each other
+with some curiosity. Then Three began to smile, in a shamefaced sort
+of way, not knowing how far his recovery of composure would be
+approved by sterner One.
+
+After a habit familiar to him the latter opened his lips to reprove
+but, fortunately, refrained, as he discovered a tall, stoop-shouldered
+man crossing the parade-ground.
+
+This gentleman seemed oddly out of place amid that company of
+immigrants and soldiers. Student and bookworm was written all over his
+fine, intellectual countenance, and his eyes had that absent
+expression that had made the commandant's wife call him a "dreamer."
+
+His bearing impressed the Sun Maid with reverent awe; a feeling
+apparently not shared by his sons. For Three ran to him and shook him
+violently, to secure attention, as he eagerly exclaimed:
+
+"Oh, father! We've found one of 'em already! A heathen. Or, any way, a
+heatheny sort of a girl, but not Indian. She doesn't know how to read,
+and she hasn't any Bible. Come and give her one and teach her quick!"
+
+"Eh? What? A heathen? My child, where?"
+
+"Right there with my brothers. That yellow-headed girl. She's nice.
+Are all the heathen as pretty as she is?"
+
+"My son, that young person? Surely, you are mistaken. She must be the
+daughter of some resident at the Fort, or of some traveller like
+ourselves."
+
+"I don't believe she is. She's been taking care of herself all day. I
+haven't heard anybody tell her 'Don't' once. If she belonged to folk
+they'd do it wouldn't they?"
+
+"Very likely. Parents have to discipline their young. Don't drag me
+so. I'm walking fast enough."
+
+"That's what I say, father. 'Don't' shows I belong to you. But I do
+wish you'd come. She might get away before you could catch her."
+
+"Catch her, Three? I don't understand."
+
+"I know it. My mother used to say you never did understand plain
+every-day things. That's why she had to take care of you the same as
+us. Oh! I wish we'd never come to this horrid place."
+
+The reference to his wife and the child's grief roused the clergyman
+more completely than even an appeal for the heathen. Laying his thin
+hand tenderly upon the small rumpled head, he stroked it as he
+answered:
+
+"In my flesh I echo that wish, laddie; but in my spirit I am resigned
+to whatever the Lord sends. If there is a heathen here, there is His
+work to do, and in that I can forget my own distress. I will walk
+faster if you wish."
+
+The other small Littlejohns, with Kitty, now joined their father and
+Three, the girl regarding him with some curiosity, for he was of a
+stamp quite different from any person she had ever seen. But he won
+her instant love as, holding out his hands in welcome, he exclaimed:
+
+"Why, my daughter! Surely the lads were jesting. You look neither
+ignorant nor heathen, and in personal gifts the Lord has been most
+kind to you."
+
+"Has He? But I am rather lonely now."
+
+"And so am I. Therefore, we will be the better friends. Why, sons,
+this is just what we need to make our group complete. Maybe, lassie,
+your parents will spare you to us, now and then."
+
+"I have no parents. I am a ward of Government, though I don't
+understand it. I wish--are you too busy to hear my story, and will you
+advise me? Gaspar told me some things, but he's not old and wise like
+you, dear sir."
+
+"Old I am, indeed, but far from wise. Though, so well as I know I will
+most gladly counsel you. Let us go yonder, to that shady place beside
+the great wall, where there are benches to rest on and quiet to listen
+in."
+
+Now small Four Littlejohns had heard a deal about heathen. They had
+been the dearest theme of all the stories told him, and he caught his
+father's hand with a detaining grasp:
+
+"She might eat you all up, father!"
+
+"Boy, what are you saying?"
+
+"She isn't like the picture in my story-book of the heathen that lived
+in India, and all the people worshipped, that was named a god, One
+told me when I asked him; but I guess heathens can change like
+fairies; and, please don't go, father, don't!"
+
+"Nonsense, Four. What trash are you talking? It is you who are the
+heathen now."
+
+"I, father? _I!_"
+
+In horror of a possible change in his person, the child began to feel
+of his plump face and pinch his fat body. He even imagined he was
+stiffening all over. Suddenly, he drew his wide mouth into a grotesque
+imitation of the engraving as he remembered it, planting his feet
+firmly and setting up a tragic wail.
+
+"I'm not like him. I won't be. I won't, I won't, I won't!"
+
+Kitty understood nothing but the evident distress, which she attempted
+to soothe and merely aggravated.
+
+"Get away! Don't you touch me! You go away home and sit on a table
+with your legs all crooked up--so; and stop playing you're a regular
+girl. Leave go my father's hand, I say!"
+
+Then One came to the rescue. As soon as he could stop laughing, he
+explained the situation to the others, and though the incident seemed
+a trivial one to the younger people to the good Doctor it was weighty
+with reproach for the ignorance he had permitted in his own household.
+It also had its far-reaching results; for it led him to observe the
+Sun Maid critically, and, when he had heard her simple story, to ask
+out of the fulness of his own big heart:
+
+"Will you come and share our home with us, my daughter? Surely, you
+have much good sense and many wonderful gifts. The Lord has thrown us
+into one another's company, and I believe you can, in large measure,
+take their mother's place to these sons of mine. Will you come and
+live in our home, dear Sun Maid?"
+
+"Indeed, I will! And love you for letting me!" cried the grateful
+girl, catching the Doctor's hand and kissing it reverently.
+
+But it did not occur to either of these innocents that there was, at
+that time, no home existing for them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE SHUT AND THE OPEN DOOR.
+
+
+"They are all unfitted to take care of themselves, though the girl has
+the best sense of the lot. The Fort is always overfull. They would be
+happier by themselves, and it will be a blessing to have such a good
+man among us. Let us build them a log cabin and instal them in it."
+
+Such was the Fort commandant's decision and, as he suggested, it was
+quickly done. The old maxim of many hands and light work was verified,
+for in a magically short time the little parsonage was reared and the
+few belongings of the household moved into it.
+
+"That's what it seems to me,"--cried the Sun Maid, as the last stroke
+was given, and a soldier climbed to the roof-peak to thrust a fresh
+green branch into the crevice,--"as if yesterday we dreamed we wanted
+a home, and now it's ours. If only Wahneenah and Gaspar were here, I
+should be almost too happy to live. Yes, and poor Mercy Smith, who
+says she never did have a good time in her life; and Abel, and Black
+Partridge; and----"
+
+"Everybody! I guess you're wanting," reproved the elder son of the
+minister. For, during the time of building, short though it was, the
+orphan girl had become wholly identified with the Littlejohns'
+household and felt as full a right to the cabin as if it had been her
+own especial property.
+
+Now, suddenly, as she stood in the doorway there came into her mind
+the prophecy of old Katasha; and she looked afar, as if she saw
+visions and heard voices denied to the others. So rapt did her gaze
+become that little Four stole his pudgy hand into hers and inquired,
+beneath his breath:
+
+"What is it, Kitty? What do you see?"
+
+"I see crowds and crowds of people. Of all sorts, all forms, all
+colors, all races. Crowding, crowding, and yet not crushing. Only
+coming, more--and more--and more. I see strange buildings. Bigger than
+any pictures in that book you showed me yesterday. They keep rising
+and spreading out on every side. I see ships on the lake; curious
+ones, with tall masts, a hundred times taller than that in which my
+Gaspar sailed away. They are so laden with people and stuff that
+I--I--it seems to choke me!"
+
+She did not notice that the Doctor had drawn near and was listening
+intently; and even when his hand touched her shoulder she found it
+difficult to comprehend what he was saying.
+
+"Wake up, lassie! Why, what is this? My practical new daughter growing
+a star-gazer, like the foolish old man? That won't do for our little
+housekeeper."
+
+"Won't it, sir? I guess I've been dreaming. But I know I shall see all
+that some day, right here in this spot. This is the lake where the big
+ships sail, and this the ground where the houses stand."
+
+One was at hand with his ever-ready reproof.
+
+"That's all nonsense, Kitty Briscoe. A person can't see more than a
+person can. There are neither houses nor ships, such as you talk
+about, and you are sillier than any fairy story I ever read."
+
+Yet long afterward he was to remember that first hour in the new home,
+and the rapt face of the girl gazing skyward.
+
+Then they all went in to supper, which had been provided by the
+thoughtful friends at the Fort across the river; but which, the Sun
+Maid assured the busy women there, must be the only meal supplied that
+was ready prepared.
+
+"For, if I'm to be housekeeper I mean to learn all about that, even
+before I do the books, which the Doctor will teach me and that I am so
+eager to study. But I'll be his home-maker first, and I'll give them
+jonny-cake for breakfast. Mercy said it was cheap and wholesome, and
+we have to be very careful of the Doctor's little money."
+
+How wholesome, rather how most unwholesome, that first jonny-cake
+proved, Kitty never after liked to recall; but she was not the only
+young house mistress who has made mistakes; and, fortunately, the
+master of the house was not critical. And how far the study-craving
+girl would have carried out her own plan of housewifery before reading
+is not known; for, having done the best she could, and having, at
+least, swept and dusted the rooms carefully she took little Four by
+the hand and set out to ask instruction of her Fort friends against
+the dinner-getting.
+
+Now the fascinating dread and interest of this little fellow was an
+Indian; and, trudging along through the dirt, he scanned the horizon
+critically, then suddenly gripped her hand hard and tight.
+
+"Kitty! I do believe--there are--some coming! Run! Run!"
+
+"Why should I run? The Indians are my best and oldest friends. It
+might even be----"
+
+She paused so long, shading her eyes from the sunlight and gazing
+fixedly across the landscape with a gathering surprise and delight
+upon her face, that the child clutched her frock, demanding:
+
+"What is it, Kitty? What do you see? What do you see?"
+
+"The horses! White, black, and--Chestnut! It's Wahneenah! Wahneenah!"
+
+Four watched her disappear behind a clump of bushes that hid the
+sandhills from his lower sight, then hurried back to the new cabin,
+crying out:
+
+"Father, father! She's run away again! We've lost her!"
+
+Before the minister could be made to comprehend his son's excited
+story, voices without drew him to the entrance. Even to him the name
+of Indian had, in those days, a sinister significance. Yet, as he
+reached the threshold, there were the Sun Maid's arms about his neck
+and her ecstatic declaration:
+
+"It's my darling Other Mother! She's come! She'll live with us! And
+the Black Partridge; and Osceolo, and Tempest, and Snowbird, and the
+Chestnut! Oh, all together again; how happy we shall be!"
+
+"Eh? What? Yes, yes, of course," assented the Doctor, though he cast a
+rather perplexed glance about his limited apartments. "Well, if it's
+to be part of my work, I am ready," he added resignedly, and not
+without thought of the quiet study which would be out of the question
+in a tenement so crowded.
+
+The chief and the clergyman had met before, during the former's last
+visit to the Fort, and they greeted each other suavely, as would two
+white gentlemen of culture and unquestioned standing. Then, while the
+Sun Maid drew Wahneenah aside and exhibited the cabin, the two men
+talked together and rapidly became friends.
+
+"The Lord never shuts one door but He opens another. I came here to
+instruct, hoping to pass far onward into the wilderness. Behold! the
+heathen are at my very threshold. He took away my wife and sent me a
+daughter. Now, at her heels, follows a woman of the race I came to
+help, who looks more noble than most of her white sisters. As the Sun
+Maid said, shall we not do? Only--where to house them?"
+
+"That is soon settled. Neither the chief's daughter nor the youth,
+Osceolo, could sleep beneath the tight roof of the pale-face. Their
+wigwams shall be pitched behind this cabin, and there will they abide.
+So will I arrange with the people at the Fort, who are my friends.
+Yet, let the great medicine-man keep a sharp eye to the young brave,
+Osceolo. He is my kinsman. There is good in the youth, and there is,
+also, evil--much evil. He lies upon the ground to dream wild schemes,
+then rises up to practise them. He is like the pale-faces--by birth a
+liar. He is not to be trusted. Only by fear does he become as clay in
+the hands of the potter. If my brother, the great medicine-man, will
+accept this charge I ask of him there shall be always venison in
+plenty, and bear's meat, and the flesh of cattle, at his door. He
+shall have corn from the fields of the scattered Pottawatomies, and
+the fuel for his hearth-fire shall never waste. How says my brother,
+the wise medicine-man?"
+
+"What can I say but that the Black Partridge is as generous as he is
+brave, and that his readiness to support a minister of the gospel
+amazes me? In that more settled East, from which I came, the rich men
+gave grudgingly to their pastor of such things as themselves did not
+need, and I was always in poverty. Therefore, for the sake of my sons,
+I came hither. Truly, in this wilderness, I have received evil at the
+hand of the Lord; but I have, also, received much good. If He wills,
+from this humble tenement shall go forth a blessing that cannot be
+measured. Leave the woman and the undisciplined youth with me. I will
+deal with them as I am given wisdom."
+
+This was the beginning of a new, rich life for the Sun Maid. It opened
+to Wahneenah, also, a period of unbroken happiness. The minister, over
+whose household affairs she promptly assumed a wise control, honored
+her with his confidence and abided by her clear-sighted counsel. She
+was constantly associated with her beloved Girl-Child, and could watch
+the rapid development of her intellect and all-loving heart.
+
+Indeed, Love was the keynote to Kitty Briscoe's character; and out of
+love for everybody about her, and especially in hope to be of use to
+her Indian friends, sprang the greatest incentive to study.
+
+"The more I know, the better I can help them to understand," she said
+to Wahneenah, who agreed and approved.
+
+The years sped quietly and rapidly by, as busy years always do. Some
+changes came to the little settlement of Chicago, but they were only
+few; until, one sunny day in spring, there reached the ears of the Sun
+Maid a sudden cry that seemed to turn all the months backward, as a
+scroll is rolled.
+
+Bending above her table, strewn with the Doctor's notes which she was
+copying, in the pleasant room of a big frame house that was one of the
+few new things of the town, she heard the call; dimly at first, as an
+out-of-door incident which did not concern herself. When it was
+repeated, she started visibly, and cried out:
+
+"I know that voice! That's Mercy Smith! There was never another just
+like it!"
+
+She sprang up and ran to answer, shouting in return:
+
+"Halloo! What is it?"
+
+"Help!"
+
+A few rods' run beyond the clump of trees that bordered the garden
+revealed the difficulty. A heavy wagon, loaded with bags of grain, was
+mired in the mud of the prairie road. A woman stood upright in the
+vehicle, lashing and scolding the oxen, which tried, but failed, to
+extricate the wheels from the clay that held them fast.
+
+"I'm coming! I'm Kitty! And, Mercy--is it really you?"
+
+"Well, if I ain't beat! You're Kitty, sure enough! But what a size!"
+
+"Yes. I'm a woman now, almost. How glad I am to see you! How's Abel?
+Where is he?"
+
+"Must be glad, if you'd let so many years go by without once comin' to
+visit me."
+
+"I didn't know that you'd be pleased to have me. I didn't treat you
+well, to leave you as I did. But where's Abel?"
+
+"Home. Trying to sell out. My land! How pretty you've growed! Only
+that white dress and hair a-streamin'; be you dressed for a party,
+child?"
+
+"Oh, no, indeed! I'll run and get something to help you out with, if
+you'll be patient."
+
+"Have to be, I reckon, since I'm stuck tight. No hurry. The oxen'll
+rest. I've heard about you, out home--how 't you'd found a rich
+minister to take you in an' eddicate you, an' your keepin' half-Indian
+still. Might have taught you to brush your hair, I 'low; an' from
+appearances you'd have done better to have stayed with me. You hain't
+growed up very sensible, have you?"
+
+The Sun Maid laughed, just as merrily and infectiously as when she had
+first crept for shelter into Mercy Smith's cabin.
+
+"Maybe not. I'm not the judge. I'll test my wisdom, though, by trying
+to help you out of that mud. I'll be back in a moment."
+
+She turned to run toward the house, but Mercy remonstrated:
+
+"You can't help in them fine clothes. Ain't there no men around?"
+
+"A few. Most of them are out of the village on a big hunting frolic.
+We'll manage without."
+
+"Humph! They'd better be huntin' Indians."
+
+The girl looked up anxiously. "Is there any trouble?"
+
+"Always trouble where the red-skins are."
+
+Kitty departed, and the settler's wife watched her with feelings of
+mingled admiration, anger, and astonishment.
+
+"She's grown, powerful. Tall an' straight as an Indian, an' fair as a
+snowflake. Such hair! I don't wonder she wears it that way, though I
+wouldn't humor her by lettin' on. I've heard she did it to please her
+'tribe' an' the old minister. Well, there's always plenty of fools.
+They're a crop 'at never fails."
+
+The Sun Maid reappeared. She had not stopped to change her white gown,
+but she brought a pair of snow-shoes, and carried three or four short
+planks across her strong, firm shoulder.
+
+"My sake! Ain't you tough! I couldn't lift one them planks, rugged as
+I call myself, let alone four. But--snow-shoes in the springtime?"
+
+"Yes. I've learned a way for myself of helping the many who get mired
+out here. See how quickly I can set you free."
+
+Putting on the shoes, the girl walked straight over the mud, and
+throwing down the planks before the animals, encouraged them to help
+themselves.
+
+"What are their names? Jim and Pete? Come on, my poor beasts; and,
+once clear, you shall have a fine rest and feed."
+
+"Shucks! There! Go on! Giddap! Gee! Haw!"
+
+There followed a time of suspense, but at last the oxen gained a
+little advance, when Kitty promptly moved the planks forward, and in
+due time the wagon rolled out upon a firmer spot.
+
+"Well, Kitty girl, you may not have sense, but you've got what's
+better--that's gumption. And that's Chicago, is it?"
+
+"Yes. I hope you like it."
+
+"I've got to, whether or no. I'm in awful trouble, Kitty Briscoe, an'
+it's all your fault."
+
+"What can you mean?"
+
+"Abel--Abel----"
+
+"Yes--yes! What is it?"
+
+"Ever sence you run away he's been pinin' to run after you. Said the
+house wasn't home no more. 'Twasn't; though I wouldn't let on to him.
+We've kept gettin' comfortabler off, an' I jawed him from mornin' to
+night to make him contented. But he wouldn't listen. Got so he
+wouldn't work home if he could help it, but lounged round the
+neighbors'. Got hankerin' to go somewheres, an' keep tavern, like his
+father afore him. Now, we've got burnt out----"
+
+"Burned out! Oh, Mercy, that _is_ trouble, indeed! Tell me--No, wait.
+Let us go and get something to eat first; and what were you intending
+to do with that load of stuff?"
+
+"Ship it East, if I can. I've heard there was consid'able that
+business bein' done. Or sell it to the Fort folks."
+
+"I think they'll be glad of it; they are always needing everything.
+I'll go with you there, and your team can be left there, too, till
+Abel comes."
+
+"Abel! You don't think I'd leave him to manage _business_, do you?"
+
+"I thought you said he was now staying behind to sell out--to
+'manage.'"
+
+"He's stayin' to try. There's a big difference 'twixt tryin' an'
+doin'. He can't sell, not easy. And some day, when this whim of his
+is over, we'll go back an' settle again, or move farther on. It's
+gettin' ruther crowded where we be for comfort, these days."
+
+"Crowded? Are there many new neighbors?"
+
+"Lots. Some of 'em ain't more 'n a mile away, an' I call that too
+close for convenience. Don't like to have folks pokin' their noses
+into my very door-yard, so to speak."
+
+"How will you endure it here, where, according to your ideas, the
+houses are so very close?"
+
+"I don't expect to like it. But, pshaw! They be thick, ain't they? I
+declare it makes me think of out East, an' our village; only that
+wasn't built on the bottomless pit, like this."
+
+"This is the Fort. After you've finished your business with the
+officer in charge, we'll go home and get our dinner."
+
+The stranger observed with surprise and some pride the great respect
+with which this girl, who had once been under her own care, was
+treated by all she met. The few soldiers on duty that morning saluted
+her with a smile and military precision, while the women hailed her
+coming with exclamations of:
+
+"Oh, Kitty! You here? I'm so glad; for I wanted to ask you about my
+work"; or: "Say, Kit! There are a lot of new newspapers, only a week
+old, that I've hidden for you to read first before the others get hold
+of them."
+
+One called after her, as they started homeward:
+
+"How are the sick ones to-day?"
+
+"What did she mean?" demanded Mercy.
+
+"Oh, that house on the edge of the village is a sort of hospital and
+school combined. I am there most of the time, though my real home is
+with the Littlejohns, just as it has always been; though the Doctor is
+not rich, as you fancied, in anything save wisdom and goodness."
+
+"You're a great scholar now, Kitty, I s'pose--could even do figurin'
+an' writin' letters."
+
+"I can do that much without being a 'scholar.' I've learned all sorts
+of things that came my way, from civil engineering--enough to survey
+lots for people--to a little Greek. The surveying was taught me by a
+man who was in our sick-room, and in gratitude for the care we gave
+him. It's very useful here."
+
+"Can you sing, or play music?"
+
+"I always sang, you know; and I can play the violin to guide the hymns
+'in meeting.'"
+
+"What's that? A fiddle--to hymns!"
+
+"Yes. Why not, since it's the only instrument we have?"
+
+"My land! You'll be dancin' at worship next!"
+
+"Maybe. There _are_ religious people who dance at their services. But
+here we are. This is the Doctor's house, and you'll meet Wahneenah."
+
+"Wahneeny! You don't tell me that good, pious parson is consortin'
+with that bad-tempered Indian squaw!"
+
+"Wait, Mercy. You must not speak like that of her, nor think so.
+She is as my very own mother. She is nobility itself. Everybody
+acknowledges that. I want there should be peace, even if there can't
+be love, between you two. It's better, isn't it, to understand thing
+in the beginning?"
+
+"Hmm! You can speak your mind out yet, I see. But that's all right. I
+don't care, child. I don't care. It does my old eyes good just to look
+at you; an', for once, I'll 'low Abel was right in wantin' to move out
+here. I'm lookin' for him 'fore night, by the way. But hold on! Who's
+that out in the back yard, with feathers in his hair, an' a blue check
+shirt, grinnin' like a hyena, an' a knife stickin' out his pocket?
+Wait till I get hold of him, my sake!"
+
+Mercy's words poured out without breathing-space or stop, and the Sun
+Maid laughed as she replied:
+
+"Why, that's only Osceolo. Do you know him?"
+
+"Kitty Briscoe! All the wild horses in Illinois can't make me believe
+no different but 'twas him set our barn afire!"
+
+"When? He's not been away--for some days."
+
+"Wait till he catches sight of me!"
+
+But when the young Indian did turn around, and saw the pair watching
+him, he coolly walked toward them, regarding Mercy as if she were an
+utter stranger, and one whom he was rather pleased to meet.
+
+"Friend of yours, Sun Maid? Glad to see her."
+
+"Glad to see me, be you? Wait till Abel Smith comes an' identifies
+you. Then see which side the laugh's on, you--you----"
+
+"Osceolo is my name, ma'am."
+
+Foreseeing difficulties, the girl guided her guest into the kitchen,
+where Wahneenah was preparing dinner, and where the Indian woman
+greeted her old acquaintance with no surprise and, certainly, without
+any of the effusiveness that, for once, rather marked Mercy's manner
+toward her former "hired girl."
+
+"Well, it's a real likely house, now, ain't it? I'd admire to see the
+minister. It's years since I saw one. Is he about?"
+
+Kitty answered:
+
+"Yes. He is studying. I rather hate to disturb him; but at dinner you
+will meet him."
+
+"Studying! Studying what? Why, I thought he was an old man."
+
+"He is. So old, I sometimes fear we will not have him with us long."
+
+"What's the use learnin' anything more, then?"
+
+"One can never know too much, I fancy. Just at present he is writing a
+dictionary of the Indian dialects, so far as he has been able to
+obtain them."
+
+"The--Indian--language! He wouldn't be so silly, now come!"
+
+"He is just so wise. It is a splendid work. I am proud to be his
+helper, even by just merely copying his papers."
+
+"Well! You could knock me down with a feather! One thing--I sha'n't
+never set under his preachin'. I wouldn't demean myself. The idee!"
+
+"Mercy, do you remember the red-covered Bible? Have you it still?"
+
+"Course. I wouldn't let anything happen to that. It was a reward of
+merit. It's wrote in the front: 'To Mercy Balch, for being a Good
+Girl.' That was me afore I was married. It's in my carpet-bag. I mean
+to have it buried with me. I wouldn't never spile it by handlin'."
+
+"I hope you'll use it now, for it's so easy to get another. The Doctor
+will give you one at any time. The Bible Society in the East
+furnishes all he needs."
+
+Dinner was promptly ready, and, after it was over, the Sun Maid
+carried her old friend away with her to the government building, which
+was not only hospital, but schoolhouse and land-office all in one.
+Everything here was so new and interesting to Mercy that surprise kept
+her silent; until, happening to glance through the window, she beheld
+a rough-looking man approaching on horseback.
+
+"Pshaw! there's Abel! Wait an' see him stick where I stuck!" she
+chuckled. "Well, he sold out sudden, didn't he? He'd better come in
+the wagon, but he 'lowed he'd enjoy a ride all by himself. I reckon
+he's had it. See him stare and splash! There he goes! See that old nag
+flounder!"
+
+Kitty sprang up and ran to welcome him, the heartiest of love in her
+clear tones.
+
+"Why, bless my soul! If I thought it could be, I should say it was my
+own lost little Kit!"
+
+As he gazed his rugged face grew beautiful in its wondering joy.
+
+"Oh, Abel! That's the way Chicago receives her new citizens! She
+plants them so deep in the mud that they can't get away! But wait.
+I'll help you out the same way I did Mercy, and then I'll get my arms
+about your neck, you dear old Abel!"
+
+"Help me out? Not much! Not when there's such a pretty girl a few feet
+away waitin' to kiss my homely face!" and, with a spring that was
+marvellous to see, the woodsman leaped from his horse and landed on
+the higher sod beside his "Kit."
+
+"Well, well! To think it! Just to think it once! Well, well, well! How
+big you are, Kit! My, my, my; and as sweet to look at as a locust tree
+in bloom, with your white frock, an' all. I've got here at last! I
+can't scarce believe it. And, lassie, are you as close-mouthed as you
+used to be when you made a promise? Then--don't tell Mercy; but--_I
+done it a-purpose_!"
+
+"Did what? Let us get the poor horse out of the mud before we talk."
+
+"Shucks! He ain't worth pullin' out. If he ain't horse enough to help
+himself, let him stay there a spell, an' think it over. He'll flounder
+round----"
+
+"You don't know our mud, Abel."
+
+"He's all right. He's helpin' himself. He's makin' a genu_ine_ effort.
+A man--or horse--that does that is sure to win. That's how I put it to
+myself. After I'd wrastled with the subject up hill an' down dale,
+till I couldn't see nothin' else in the face of natur', I done it. Out
+in the East, where I come from, they'd 'a' had me up for it; an' I
+don't know but they will here. But I had to, Kit, I had to. I was
+dead sick an' starvin' for a sight of you an' the boy, an' mis'able
+with blamin' myself that I hadn't treated you different when I had
+you, so you wouldn't have run away. You was a master hand at that
+business, wasn't you, girl? I hope you've quit now, though."
+
+"I think so. Here I was born, and here I hope to stay. All my runnings
+have begun and ended here. But what did you do, Father Abel?"
+
+"Oh, Sis! that name does me good. Promise you'll never tell,--not till
+your dyin' day."
+
+"I can't promise that; but I'll not tell if I can help it."
+
+"Well, you always had a tender conscience. Yet I can trust your love
+better 'n ary promise. Well--_I--burnt--it!_"
+
+"Burned it? Your house? Your home? Yours and Mercy's? Why--Abel!"
+
+The pioneer squared his mighty shoulders, and faced her as a defiant
+child might an offended mother.
+
+"Yes, I did. The house, the bed-quilts, the antiquated bedstead, the
+whole endurin' business. It was the only way. Year after year she'd
+keep naggin' for me to move on further into the wilderness. _Me_,
+that was starvin' for folks, an' knew she was! It was just plumb
+lonesomeness made her what she is: a nagger. So, at last--you've heard
+about worms turnin', hain't you? I watched, an' when she'd gone
+trudgin' off on a four-mile tramp, pretendin' somebody's baby was
+sick, but really meanin' she was that druv to hear the sound of
+another woman's voice, I took pity on her--an' myself--an' set
+fire to that hateful old heirloom of a bedstead; an' whilst it was
+burnin' I just whipped out the old fiddle, an' I played--my! how
+I played! Every time a post fell into the middle, I just danced.
+'So much nearer folks!' I thought. And the rag-carpet an' the
+nineteen-hunderd-million-patch-bedspread--Kit, I've set there, day
+after day, an' seen Mercy cuttin' up whole an' decent rags, an' sewin'
+'em together again, till I've near gone stark mad. Fact. I used to
+wonder if it wasn't a sort of craziness possessed her to do that
+foolishness. Now, it's all over. She lays the fire to an Indian feller
+that I've spoke fair to, now an' again, an' that had been round our
+way huntin' not long before. I don't know where he come from, an' I
+never asked him. He never told. Pretended he couldn't talk Yankee.
+Don't know as he could, but he could talk chicken or little pig fast
+enough. Leastways, I missed such after he'd been there. Well, it
+wasn't him. _It was--me!_ I burnt the bedstead, an' now we're
+free folks!"
+
+"But, Abel, why not have brought the bedstead with you, if she loved
+it so? Why destroy----"
+
+"Sissy, you don't know Mercy--not as I do. It was that furniture kept
+her. So long as she had it, so long as she could kind of boast it over
+her neighbors, there she'd set. We couldn't have moved it. She near
+worried herself into her grave gettin' it into the wilderness, first
+off, an' she ain't so young now as she was then. She'd ruther lost a
+leg than had it scratched. I saved that load of feed, an' the ox team,
+an' the old horse. Yes, an' my fiddle. Mercy's got money. She had it
+hid. I'm goin' to settle here an' keep tavern, if I can. If not here,
+then somewheres else. Anywhere where there's folks. Trees are nice;
+prairies are nice; a clearin' of your own is nice; but human natur' is
+nicer. Don't tell Mercy, though, or there'll be trouble! Now, Kit,
+where's Gaspar?"
+
+"_Oh, Abel! Only the dear Lord knows!_"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+A DAY OF HAPPENINGS.
+
+
+"Abel! Abel Smith! Here I am. Right here, in our little Kitty's own
+house. How'd you get along? Did the man buy?"
+
+"Shucks!" groaned the pioneer, as these words reached him where he
+stood beside the Sun Maid, eager to hear what she could tell him of
+the lad Gaspar. "Shucks! I've had a right peaceful sort of day, me and
+old Dobbin, and I'd most forgot it couldn't last. Say, Kit, you look
+like a girl could do a'most ary thing she tried to. Just put your
+shoulder to the wheel, won't you, and shut the power off Mercy's
+tongue. Tell her 'tain't the fashion for women to talk much or loud,
+not in big settlements like this. She's death on the fashion, Mercy
+is. Why, that last gown of hers, cut out a piece of calico a neighbor
+brought from the East--you'd ought to see it. She got hold a
+picture-book, land knows when or where, and copied one the pictures.
+Waist clean up to her neck, it's so short, and sleeves big enough to
+make me a suit of clothes. Fact! Wait till you see it. She's a sight,
+I tell you. But so long 's she thinks it's a touch beyond, why she's
+happy. But don't let her talk so much. 'Tain't proper; not in
+settlements."
+
+The Sun Maid set her head on one side and regarded her old friend
+critically; then frankly, if laughingly, remarked:
+
+"Abel, you dear, you can beat Mercy talking, by a great length. It's
+funny to hear you blaming her for the very thing you do. But I like
+it. You can't guess how I like it, and how it brings back my childish
+days in the forest. Now come in and get something to eat. Then we can
+have another talk."
+
+"I ain't hungry. I had some doughnuts in my saddle-bags, and I munched
+them along the road. Say, Kit. Don't tell Mercy; but I didn't try to
+sell. Just put the question once, so to satisfy her when she asked. We
+hain't no need. She's got a lot of money in a buckskin bag tied round
+her waist. The land's all right. It's a good investment. I'll let it
+stand. This country is bound to grow. Some day it will be worth a
+power, and then I'll sell out, if I'm livin'; and if I ain't, you can.
+One of the reasons I came was to fix things up for you. I always meant
+to make you my legatee. We've no kith nor kin nigh enough to worry
+about, Mercy an' me; an' I 'low she'd be agreeable. So we'll let the
+land lie. Oh, bosh! There she is, calling again. May as well go in for
+she won't stop till we do."
+
+After all, there was real pleasure in the faces of both husband and
+wife at their reunion, short though their separation had been, and
+bitter though their words sounded to a stranger; and, already, there
+was a personal pride in Mercy's tones as she exhibited the house over
+which the Sun Maid presided, and explained the details--supplied by
+her own imagination--of its purposes.
+
+"But about Gaspar, Mercy. Has she told you anything about him yet? I'm
+'lowing to have him help me keep tavern if he's grown up as capable as
+he promised when he was a little shaver."
+
+"No. She hain't said a word. Fact is, I hain't asked. We've been too
+busy with other things. Likely he's round somewheres. Maybe off
+hunting with them lazy soldiers. Shame, I think. The Government
+keepin' 'em just to loaf away their time."
+
+"Hmm! What on earth else could they do with it? I met a man, coming
+along, said there'd been a right sharp lot of wolves prowlin' this
+winter an' spring. They're gettin' most too neighborly for comfort for
+the settlers across the prairies, so the military are trying to clear
+them out. That's not a bad idee. But don't it beat all! That little
+sissy, that used to have to stand on a three-legged stool to turn the
+stirabout, grown like she has? I never saw a finer woman, never; and
+her hair's the same dazzlin' kind it always was. I 'low I'm proud of
+her, and no mistake. Hello! What's yonder? An Indian, on horseback,
+a-stoppin' to this place! What's he after? His face is painted black,
+too. There's Sunny Maid going out to talk with him, and Wahneeny, too.
+Must be somethin' up."
+
+"There's always somethin' up, where there's an Indian. I hate 'em, an'
+they know it."
+
+"I guess they do, ma. Wahneeny, for instance, and--Shucks! That long,
+lanky, copper-face out back there, settin' flat on the ground, trying
+to pitch jack-knives with a lot of other boys, white ones; he's the
+chap that hung around our place so much--the chicken-stealer. I'm
+going to speak to him."
+
+"And I'm going to get him took up, just as soon as the Captain gets
+back, for setting our house afire. It wouldn't have happened if I'd
+been home; but you never could be trusted to look after things."
+
+Abel thought it time to change the subject, and retreated, while
+Mercy's attention became riveted upon the group before the house. The
+faces of all three were very grave, and Wahneenah, who had come across
+to nurse a sick child, paid no heed to its fretful calls for her. The
+Indian horseman tarried but a brief time, then wheeled about and rode
+westward over the prairie, avoiding the regular road and the mud
+where the Smiths had suffered such annoyance.
+
+Wahneenah returned to her charge, and the Sun Maid disappeared in the
+direction of the Fort. Before Mercy could decide whether to follow or
+not, the girl reappeared, and her old friend viewed her with
+amazement. She had mounted the Snowbird, which looked no older than
+when Mercy had watched her gallop away across the prairie, and had
+slung the famous White Bow upon her saddle horn. About her floating
+hair she had wound a fillet of white beads and feathers, and fastened
+the White Necklace of Lahnowenah, the Giver, around her fair throat.
+She sat her horse as only one trained to the saddle from infancy could
+have done, and her commanding figure seemed perfect in every outline.
+
+"To the land's sake! Ain't she splendid! I never saw such a sight.
+Never. Never. Abel! Abel! A-b-e-l!!"
+
+"Yes, yes; what? Mercy, Mercy Smith, hold your tongue! Don't you know
+folks can't bawl in a settlement as they do in the backwoods? What
+ails you? I'm coming as fast as a man in reason can. Hey? Kitty? Well,
+why didn't you say so? Where? Out front? My--land! Well, well, well!
+It ain't--it can't be--it is! Well, Kitty girl, you beat the Dutch!"
+
+The young horsewoman rode up to the front door of her house, and
+paused to let her old friends admire her to their satisfaction. But
+their admiration aroused neither surprise nor vanity in her simple,
+straightforward mind. Years before, the old clergyman had said to her,
+upon their first meeting, that the Lord had been very good to her in
+giving her a beauty so remarkable and impressive; and under his wise
+instruction she had accepted the fact as she did all the others of her
+life. Only she had striven to keep her soul always worthy of the
+glorious form in which it was housed and to use all her gifts and
+graces for good. So she stood a while, letting the honest couple
+inspect and comment, and finally answering Abel's curiosity, in honest
+modesty.
+
+"Why am I so dressed up? Because I have a mission to perform, and I
+need to make myself as beautiful as possible."
+
+"Kit--ty Bris--coe! I've read in my red Bible that 'favor is deceitful
+and beauty is vain.' I'm amazed at you. Livin' with a minister, too.
+Well, _he_ can't preach to _me_. I'd despise to set under him."
+
+Abel's eyes twinkled, but the gravity of the Sun Maid's face did not
+lessen. She explained gently, yet with unshaken decision, that her
+self-adornment was right, and gave her reasons.
+
+"You will remember, dears, that I am a 'Daughter of the
+Pottawatomies.' They believe that I have supernatural gifts, and that
+I am a spirit living in a human form."
+
+"And you let 'em, Kit, you let 'em?"
+
+"I couldn't prevent it if I tried. And I do not try. That idea of
+theirs is far too powerful a factor for good. Even Wahneenah, who
+knows better and is to me as a real mother, even she treats me a
+little more deferentially when I attire myself like this."
+
+"Put on your war paint, eh?"
+
+"No, indeed: my peace paint," laughed the girl. "The messenger you saw
+talking with Wahneenah and me is from an encampment a dozen miles or
+so to the westward. There are about five hundred Indians in the camp,
+and they are getting restless. They are always restless, it seems to
+me," and she sighed profoundly. "It is such a problem, isn't it? They
+think they have right on their side, and the whites think _they_ have;
+and there is so much that is good, so much that is evil, on both.
+Well, the red people are planning treachery. The brave you saw is a
+real friend to the pale-faces, and one of my closest confidants. He
+came to warn me. His tribe, or the mixed tribes in the camp, are
+getting ready for an attack upon us, or some other near-by settlement.
+I must go out and stop it,--find out their grievance and right it if I
+can. If not--Well, I must make peace. I may be gone for several days,
+and I may be back before morning. You must make yourselves comfortable
+somewhere. Ask Doctor Littlejohn. If he is too absorbed in his
+studies, then talk with One, his eldest son. He is a fine fellow, and
+knows everything about this village. Good-by."
+
+"But, child alive! You ain't going alone, single-handed, to face five
+hundred bloody Indians! You must be crazy!"
+
+"Oh, no, I'm not. It is all right. I am not afraid. There isn't an
+Indian living who would harm a hair of my head, if he knew me; and
+almost all in Illinois do know me, either by sight or reputation. I am
+very happy with them and shall have a pleasant visit; that is, after I
+have dissuaded them from this proposed attack."
+
+"Kit, you couldn't do it. 'Tain't in nature. A young girl, alone,
+pretty as you are--You _sha'n't_ do it,--not with my consent; not
+while I'm alive and can set a horse or handle a gun. No, sirree. If
+you go, I go, and that's the long and short of it."
+
+"No, dear Father Abel; you must not go; indeed you must not. It would
+ruin everything. It makes me very sad to have these constant broils
+and ill-feelings coming up between my white-faced and red-faced
+friends; yet the Lord permits it, and I try to be patient. But I tell
+you again, and you must believe it, that I am as safe out yonder in
+that camp of savages as I am here, this minute, with you. I am the Sun
+Maid, the Unafraid, the Daughter of Peace, the Snowflake. They have as
+many names for me as I am years old, I fancy. Each name means some
+noble thing they think they see in my character, and so I try to
+live up to it. It's hard work, though, because I'm--well, I'm so
+quick-tempered and full of faults. But I suppose if God didn't mean me
+to do this work, be a sort of peacemaker, He wouldn't have made me
+just as I am or put me in just this place. That's what the Doctor
+says, and so I do the best I can. After all, it's a great honor, I
+think, to be let to serve people in this way, and so--Good-by,
+good-by!"
+
+The Snowbird sprang forward at a word and, by experience trained to
+shun the sloughs and mud-holes, skimmed lightly across the prairie and
+out of sight. The Smiths stood and watched its disappearance, and the
+erect white figure upon its back, till both became a speck in the
+distance. Then, completely dumfounded by the incident, Abel sat down
+near the door-step to reflect upon it, while the more energetic Mercy
+departed for the Fort, declaring:
+
+"I'll see what that all means, or I'll never say another word's long
+as I live! The idee! _Men_--folks calling themselves _men_--and
+wearing government breeches, as I suppose they do, letting a girl
+like that go to destruction without a soul to stop her! But, my land!
+she was a sight to see, and no mistake!"
+
+Meanwhile that was happening down at the little wharf which set all
+tongues a-chatter and fascinated all eyes.
+
+"A fleet is coming in! A regular fleet of schooners, from the north
+and the upper lakes!"
+
+Those who had not gone hunting crowded to the shore, and even the
+women caught their babies up and followed the men, Abel among the
+others, roused from his anxious brooding over the Sun Maid's daring
+and catching the excitement.
+
+"Shucks! Something must be up down that direction. Beats all. Here
+I've been only part of a day, and more things have gone on than would
+at our clearing in a month of Sundays. I--I'm all of a fluster to kind
+of keep my head level an' my judgment cool. 'Twouldn't never do to let
+on to ma how stirred up I be. Dear me! Seems as if I wouldn't never
+get there. I do hope they'll wait till I do."
+
+After all, it was the quietest and drowsiest of little hamlets,
+dropped down in the mud beside a great waterway; and the "fleet,"
+which had roused so much interest, was but a modest one of a
+half-dozen small schooners, laden with furs and peltries and manned by
+the smallest of crews.
+
+However, to Abel, and to many another, it was a memorable event; and
+he made a pause at the Fort, which in itself was an object of great
+interest to him, to inform Mercy of the spectacle she was losing.
+
+"Come on, ma! It's a regular show down there. Real sailors and
+ships--we hain't seen the like since we left the East and the coast of
+old Massachusetts."
+
+"Ships? My heart! I never expected to look upon another. Just to think
+it!"
+
+The foremost vessel came to shore and was made fast; and there upon
+its deck stood a tall, dark-bearded man, who appeared what he
+was--the commander of the fleet; and he gave his orders in a clear,
+ringing voice that was instantly obeyed. His manner was grave, even
+melancholy; and his interest in the safe landing seemed greater than
+in any person among the expectant groups. He had tossed his hat aside
+and waited bareheaded in the sunshine till all was ready, when he
+stepped quietly ashore.
+
+Then, indeed, he cast an inquiring glance around, in the possibility,
+though not probability, of meeting a familiar face. All at once, his
+dark eyes brightened and his bearing lost its indifference. Pushing
+his way rapidly through the crowd, he approached Abel and Mercy and
+extended his hands in greeting.
+
+"Hail, old friends! Well met!"
+
+"Hey? What? Ruther think you've got the better of me, stranger," said
+the pioneer, awkwardly extending his own hardened palm.
+
+"Probably the years since we met have made a greater change in me than
+in you. You both look exactly as you did that last day I saw you at
+the harvesting."
+
+"Hey? Which? When? I can't place you, no how. I ain't acquainted with
+ary sailor, so far forth as I remember."
+
+"But Gaspar, Father Abel? Surely, you and Mercy remember Gaspar Keith,
+whom you sheltered for so many years, and who treated you so badly at
+the end?"
+
+"Glory! It ain't! My soul, my soul! Why, Gaspar--_Gaspar!_ If it's
+you, I'm an old man. Why, you was only a stripling, and now----"
+
+"Now, I'm a man, too. That's all. We all have to grow up and mature. I
+feel older than you look. And Mercy, the years have certainly used you
+well. It is good, indeed, to see your faces here, where I looked for
+strangers only."
+
+"Them's us, lad. Them's us. _We're_ the strangers in these parts. Just
+struck Chicago this very day. Got stuck in the mud, and had to be
+fished out like a couple of clams. And who do you think done the
+fishing? Though, if you hadn't spoke that odd way just now, I'd have
+thought you would have known first off. Who do you suppose?"
+
+"Oh, he'll never guess. A man is always so slow," interrupted Mercy,
+eagerly. "Well, 'twas nobody but our own little Kit! The Sun Maid, and
+looking more like a child of the sunshine even than when you run off
+with her so long ago."
+
+"The--Sun--Maid! _Kit-ty, my Kitty?_"
+
+Gaspar's face had paled at the mention of the Sun Maid to such a
+grayness beneath its brown that Mercy reached her hand to stay him
+from falling; but at his second question her womanly intuition told
+her something of the truth.
+
+"Yes, Gaspar, boy. Your Kitty, and ours. We hadn't seen her till
+to-day, neither; not since that harvestin'. But the longing got too
+strong and, when we was burnt out, we came straight for her. Didn't
+you know she was here yet? Or didn't you know she was still alive?"
+
+"No. No, I didn't. That very next winter after I went away--and that
+was the next day after we came here together--an Indian passed where I
+was hunting with my master and told me she had died. He was one we had
+known at Muck-otey-pokee--the White Pelican. He said a scourge of
+smallpox had swept the Fort and this settlement and that my little
+maid had passed out of the world forever. But you tell me--_she is
+alive_? After all these years of sorrow for her, she is still alive?
+I--it is hard to believe it."
+
+Mercy laid her hand upon the strong shoulder that now trembled in
+excitement.
+
+"There, there, son; take it quiet. Yes, she's alive, and the most
+beautiful woman the good Lord ever made. Never, even in the East,
+where girls had time to grow good-looking, was there ever anybody like
+her. I ain't used to it myself, yet. I can't realize it. She's that
+well growed, and eddicated, and masterful. Why, child, the whole
+community looks up to her as if she were a sort of queen. I've found
+that out in just the few hours I've been here, and from just the few
+I've met. Even Wahneeny--she's here, too; has been most all the time.
+The Black Partridge, Indian chief, he that was her brother, that took
+care of you two children when the massacre was, he didn't expect she'd
+ever come again; but still, it appears, just on the chance of it, he
+rode off up country somewhere, and he happened to strike her trail,
+and that Osceolo's--the scamp--that had run off with Kitty's white
+horse, and fetched 'em all back. The women in the Fort was tellin' me
+the whole story just now. I hain't got a word out of Wahneeny, yet.
+She's as close-mouthed as she ever was; but there's more to hear than
+you could hark to in a day's ride, and--Where you going, Gaspar?"
+
+"To find my Kitty."
+
+"Well, you needn't. And I don't know as she's any more yours than she
+is ours, seein' we really had the credit of raisin' her. For she's
+took her life in her hand, and has gone alone, without ary man to
+protect her, out across the prairie to face five hunderd Indians on
+the war-path, and--Hold on! What you up to?"
+
+The sailor, or hunter, whichever he might be, had started along the
+footpath to the Fort, and halted, half angrily, at this interruption.
+
+"Well? What? I'll see you by and by. I must find Kitty!"
+
+"Right you are, lad. Find her, and fetch her back. And, say! Mercy
+says your own old Tempest horse is in the stable at the Fort; that it
+now belongs to the Sun Maid, and she's the only one who ever rides it.
+The Captain gave it to her because she grieved so about you. I
+wouldn't wonder if he'd travel nigh as fast as he used--when he run
+away before. I never saw the beat of you two young ones! As fast as a
+body catches up to you, off you run!"
+
+Even amid the anxiety now renewed in Abel's mind regarding Kitty, the
+humorous side of the situation appealed to him; but there was no
+answering smile on Gaspar's face; only an anxiety and yearning beyond
+the comprehension of either of these honest, simple souls.
+
+"Well, go on, then. Run your beatingest, in a bee line, due west.
+That's the way she took, and that's the trail you'll find her on, if
+so be you find her at all."
+
+Those at the Fort looked, wondered, but did not object, as this dark
+_voyageur_ strode straight into the stables and to a box stall where
+Tempest enjoyed a life of pampered indolence. They realized that this
+was no stranger, but one to whom all things were familiar--even the
+animal which answered so promptly to the cry:
+
+"Tempest, old fellow!"
+
+It was a voice he had never forgotten. The black gelding's handsome
+head tossed in a thrill of delight, and the answering neigh to that
+love call was good to hear. In a moment Gaspar had found a saddle,
+slipped it into place, and, scarcely waiting to tighten its girth, had
+leaped upon the animal's back.
+
+"Forward, Tempest! Be true to your name!"
+
+Those who saw the rush of the gallant creature through the open gates
+of the stockade acknowledged that he would be.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+WESTWARD AND EASTWARD OVER THE PRAIRIE.
+
+
+"Fast, Tempest, fast!"
+
+The sunshine was in his eyes, and a warmer sunshine in his heart, as
+Gaspar urged the gelding forward.
+
+Fast it was. The faithful creature recognized the burden he carried,
+and his clean, small feet reeled off the distance like magic, till the
+village by the lake was left far behind, and only the limitless
+prairie stretched beyond. Yet still there was no sign of the Snowbird
+along the horizon, nor any point discernible where an Indian
+encampment might be.
+
+At length the rider paused to consider the matter.
+
+"It's strange I don't see her. If she were crossing the level,
+anywhere, I should, for my eyes are trained to long distances. It must
+be that Abel gave me the wrong direction. I'll turn north, and try."
+
+But, keen-sighted though he was, for once the woodsman blundered.
+Between him and the lowering sun the prairie dipped and rose again,
+the two borders of the hidden valley seeming to meet in one unbroken
+plain. It was in this little depression that the wigwams were pitched,
+and among them the Sun Maid was already moving and pleading with her
+friends for patience and peace.
+
+Meanwhile, Gaspar continued on his chosen route, at a direct right
+angle from that he should have followed, till the twilight came down
+and the whole landscape was swathed in mist. For there had been heavy
+rains of late, and the vapor rose from the soaked and sun-warmed earth
+like a great white pall, filling the hunter's nostrils and blinding
+his sight.
+
+"Well, this is hopeless. I might ride over her and not find her in
+this fog. But I can't stay here. It's choking. Heaven grant my Kitty's
+safe under shelter somewhere. My own safety is to keep moving. Good
+boy, Tempest! Take it easy, but don't stop."
+
+After that, there was nothing to do but trust the horse's instinct to
+find a path through the mist and to be grateful that the ground was so
+level.
+
+"It's a long lane that has no turning. It must be that we'll strike
+something different after a while; if not a settler's house, at least
+a clump of trees. Any shelter would be better than none, in this
+creeping moisture. It would be easy to get lost; and what a situation!
+Oh! if I knew that she was out of it. A messenger to the Indians, eh?
+My little Kit, my dainty foster-sister!"
+
+The gelding's nose was to the ground and, as a dog would have done, he
+picked his way, cautiously, yet surely, straight north where lay,
+though Gaspar did not know it, a settler's clearing and comfortable
+cabin. The rider's thoughts passed from his present surroundings back
+to the past and forward to the future; and when there sounded, almost
+at his feet, a cry of distress he did not hear it in his absorption.
+
+But Tempest did. At the second wail he stopped short, and it was this
+that roused Gaspar from his reverie.
+
+"Tired, old Tempest, boy? It won't do to rest here. Take a breath, if
+you like, and get on again. Keeping at it is salvation."
+
+"Mamma! I want--my--mamma!"
+
+"Whew! What's that? Hello!"
+
+The sound was not repeated, and yet Tempest would not advance.
+
+"Hello!" shouted Gaspar; and after a moment of strained listening,
+again he caught the echo of a child's sob.
+
+"My God! A baby--here! Lost in this fog!"
+
+He was off his horse and down upon his knees, reaching, feeling,
+creeping--calling gently, and finally touching the cold, drenched
+garment of the child he could not see.
+
+In its terror at this fresh danger the little one shrieked and rolled
+away; but the man lifted it tenderly, and soothed it with kind words
+till its shrieks ceased and it clung close to its rescuer.
+
+"There, there, poor baby! How came you here? Don't be afraid. I'll
+take you home. Tempest will find the way. Feel--the good horse knows.
+It was he that found you; we'll get on his back and ride straight to
+mamma, for whom you called."
+
+Climbing slowly back into his saddle, because of the little one he
+held so carefully, Gaspar laid its cold hand upon the gelding's neck,
+but it slid listlessly aside and he realized that he had come not a
+moment too soon.
+
+All night they wandered, the child lying on Gaspar's breast wrapped in
+his coat, while the mist penetrated his own clothing and seemed to
+creep into his very thoughts, numbing them to a sort of despair that
+no effort could cast off. The wail of the child lost in that
+dreariness had brought back, like a lightning's flash, the earliest
+memories of his life and revived his never-dying hatred of his
+parent's slayers.
+
+"An Indian's hand was in this work!" he mused. "Doubtless, the mother
+for whom it grieved has met the fate which befell my own. And Abel
+said that it was among such as these my Sun Maid had gone!"
+
+Then justice called to mind his knowledge of Wahneenah, of the Black
+Partridge, old Winnemeg, and others, and his mood softened somewhat;
+but still memory tormented him and the white fog seemed a background
+for ghastly scenes too awful for words. Above all and through all, one
+consciousness was keener and fiercer than the others:
+
+"My Kitty is among them at this moment! O, God, keep her!"
+
+It was the strongest cry of his yearning heart; yet underneath lay an
+impotent rage at his own powerlessness to help in this preservation.
+
+"For what is my manhood or my courage worth to her now? And even the
+Deity seems veiled by this deadening, suffocating mist!"
+
+But Tempest moved steadily on once more, and the little child warmed
+to life on his breast; and by degrees the man's self-torment ceased.
+Then he lifted his eyes afresh and struggled to pierce the gloom.
+
+What was that? A light! A little yellow spot in the gray whiteness,
+which the horse was first to see and toward which he now hastened with
+a firmer speed.
+
+"It's a fire. No, a lamp in a house window. There, it's gone. A
+will-o'-the-wisp by some hidden pool. It shines again. Well, Tempest
+sees it and believes in it."
+
+The man lacked the animal's faith, and even when they had come to
+within a short distance of the glow, the clouds of vapor swept
+between it and them and Gaspar checked Tempest's advance. But at last
+a slight wind rose, and the mist which rolled toward them was tinged
+with the odor of smoke, so the rider knew that his first surmise had
+been correct.
+
+"It is a fire. A settler's cabin, probably once this lost child's
+home. The red man's work!"
+
+When he reached the very spot there were, indeed, the remnants of a
+great burning, yet in the circle of the light Gaspar saw a house still
+standing. He was at its threshold promptly, and entered through its
+open door upon a scene of desolation. A woman crouched by the hearth
+that was strewn with ashes, and her moans echoed through the gloom
+with so much of agony in them that the stranger's worst fears were
+confirmed. Then he caught her murmured words, and they were all of one
+tenor:
+
+"My baby! my baby! my baby! My one lost little child! The wolves--my
+little one--my all!"
+
+Gaspar strode into the room, lighted only by the fitful glare from the
+ruins without, and gently spoke:
+
+"Don't grieve like that! The child is safe. It is here in my arms."
+
+"What? Safe! safe!"
+
+The mother was up, and had caught the little one from him before the
+words had left her lips, and the passion of her rejoicing brought the
+tears to the man's eyes as her sorrow had not done.
+
+After a moment, she was able to speak clearly and to demand his story.
+Then she gave hers.
+
+"I was here alone. My husband had gone hunting, and I went into the
+barn to seek for eggs. The loft was dark----"
+
+"Spare yourself. I can guess. The Indians."
+
+"The Indians? No, indeed. Myself. My own carelessness. I carried a
+candle, and dropped it. The hay caught. I barely escaped from having
+my clothing burned on me; but I did. Then I forgot everything except
+my terrible loss and my husband's anger when he returns. I began to
+fight the fire. I remember my little one crying with fright, but I
+paid no attention, and when at length I realized that it was too late
+for me to save our stock I stopped to look for him. Fortunately, the
+cabin was too far from the barn to catch easily, and there was a wind
+blowing the other way. That's all that saved the home; yet, when I
+missed my baby, I wished that it would burn, too, and me with it. Life
+without him would be a living death. And he would have died, any way.
+The wolves are awful troublesome this spring. We've lost more than
+twenty of our hogs and the only pair of sheep we had. So husband
+joined a party and went out to hunt them. What will he say, what will
+he say, when he comes back!"
+
+In Gaspar's heart there sprang up a great happiness. The ill which
+had happened here was so much less than he had anticipated that he
+took courage for himself. After all, the Sun Maid might be safe, as
+Abel had declared she said she should be. He remembered, at last, that
+not all men are evil, even red ones; and in the reaction of his own
+feelings, he exclaimed:
+
+"What can he say, but give thanks that no worse befell him!"
+
+However, now that her child was safe within her arms, the woman began
+to suffer in advance the torment she would have to undergo when she
+faced her indignant husband; and she retorted sharply:
+
+"Worse! Well, I suppose so. But I don't see why in the name of common
+sense I was let to be such a fool in the first place. He won't,
+neither. It's all very well when you've lost half your property to
+give thanks for not losing your life, too; but I don't see any cause
+for losing ary one."
+
+This sounded so like Mercy and her philosophy that Gaspar threw back
+his head and laughed; which angered his new friend first, and then
+affected her, also, with something of his mirth.
+
+"I can't see a thing to laugh at, I, for one," she remarked, trying to
+be stern.
+
+"Oh! but I can. And I'm not a laughing man, in ordinary. But there's
+one thing I know--I'm powerful hungry. Can't we make another fire, one
+that we can control, and get a bit of supper? If there's anything in
+the house to cook, I can cook it while you tend baby. Then we'll talk
+over your affairs."
+
+"There's plenty to cook, but you'll not cook it, sir. I owe you my
+child's life, and now things are getting straighter in my muddled
+mind. I lost the barn for Jacob, and I must help replace it. I've been
+a hard worker always, but I can stretch another point, I guess. Pshaw!
+I believe it's getting daylight. It'll be breakfast instead of supper,
+this time."
+
+It was daylight, indeed; and in a half-hour the simple meal was
+smoking on the table, and Gaspar sitting to eat it with the hearty
+appetite of a man who has lived always out-of-doors. But he could talk
+as fast as eat, when he was anxious as on that morning; and before he
+had drained his last cup of the "rye coffee" he had learned from his
+hostess that the Indian encampment he sought lay well to the
+southwestward of her cabin, and that by a way she could direct him he
+could reach it easily in a two-hours' ride. This to Tempest, who had
+rested and fed, would be nothing, if he was anything the horse he used
+to be, and Gaspar believed, from the past night's experience, that
+sometimes even a horse can improve with age.
+
+"Well, I'll be off, then. I'm anxious to get there. If all goes well
+I'll get around this way again before long. Thank you for my
+entertainment, and here's a trifle for the baby."
+
+He tossed a gold piece on the table and was leaving the cabin. But she
+restrained him.
+
+"No, sir, I can't take that, nor let the little one. And as for
+thanking me, I shall never cease to thank you, and the Lord for you,
+that you lost your way last night. But let me beg you, sir, to take a
+second thought. Jacob says the Indians are getting ready for an
+outbreak. It is like running your neck into a halter to go among them
+just now. I--I wish you wouldn't. I couldn't bear to have harm come to
+you after what you've done for me."
+
+"Thank you, but I must go. I am not much afraid for myself at any
+time, for I've known the red-skins always and--trusted them never! But
+a girl--did you ever hear of the Sun Maid?"
+
+"Hear of her? Her? Well, I guess so! Who hasn't, in these parts? Why?"
+
+"It was to find her and protect her that I started last night from the
+Fort."
+
+"To _protect_ her? Well, you could have saved your trouble. I wish
+that I was as safe in this wild country as she is. There is an old
+saying that her life is charmed; that nothing evil can ever happen to
+her; and so far it has proved true. As for the Indians, even the
+wickedest in the whole race would die to save her life. I hope you'll
+find her, sir, all right; but if there's any protecting to be done,
+she'll protect you, not you her. Well, good-by, and good luck!"
+
+Gaspar bared his head and rode away, on a straight trail this time,
+and with the exhilaration of the morning tingling through his
+healthful veins. On every side the great clouds of white mist rose and
+rolled apart. Blue violets and white windflowers began to peep upward
+at him from his path, and he remembered Kitty's love for them. Then
+the sun broke through, and only those who have thus ridden across a
+dew-drenched prairie, at such an hour in such a season, can picture
+what that ride was like.
+
+The spirit of life and love and that glorious morning thrilled both
+horse and master as they leaped forward and still forward till, on the
+top of a grassy rise, a sudden halt was made.
+
+For what was this coming out of the west?--this fair white creature on
+her snowy mount, with the golden sunlight on her yellow hair, her
+glowing face, her modest maiden breast. Flowers wreathed her all about
+and a White Bow gleamed at her saddle horn. Behind her, and one on
+either side, rode dusky warriors, brave in their finest trappings and
+turning a reverent, attentive ear to the Maid's words. Their horses'
+footfalls deadened by the sodden grass, slowly they came into fuller
+view, as a picture grows under the painter's brush.
+
+Still the man on the black horse facing them sat still, spellbound.
+Could this be Kitty, his Kitty; to whom his thoughts had turned as to
+a half-grown, playful child, and over whom he had domineered with the
+masterful pride of boyhood? He was a man now, boyhood was past; but he
+had quite forgotten that girlhood also passes and the child becomes a
+woman.
+
+He had grown rich and strong. After her supposed death he had devoted
+himself wholly to money-getting with the singleness of purpose that
+never fails of its object. He had come back to his old home to spend
+the fortune he had gained, feeling himself a master among men and his
+strength that of wisdom as well as wealth.
+
+Now all his pride and arrogance passed from him before the nobility of
+this woman approaching. For on her youthful face sat the dignity which
+is higher than pride and from her beautiful eyes gleamed the
+beneficent love more far-reaching than wealth.
+
+After a moment Gaspar rode slowly forward again, and soon espying, but
+not recognizing, him, the Sun Maid advanced. Then all at once the
+black horse and the white galloped to a meet.
+
+"Kitty! My Kitty!"
+
+[Illustration: "KITTY! MY KITTY!" _Page 258_.]
+
+"Gaspar!"
+
+Their hands closed in a clasp that banished years of separation, and
+the black eyes searched the blue, questioning for the one sweet answer
+that rules all the world. There was a swift self-revelation in both
+hearts; a consciousness that this was what the God who made them had
+meant from the beginning. With a grave exaltation too deep and too
+high for words, the pure man and the pure woman came to their destiny
+and accepted it. Then their hands fell apart, the black Tempest
+wheeled into place beside the white Snowbird, and, as on a day long in
+the past, the pair passed swiftly and lightly eastward toward the
+lakeside village and their home.
+
+"Ugh! The Sun Maid has found her mate!" muttered the foremost warrior
+grimly, and followed with his company at a soberer pace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE CROOKED LOG.
+
+
+"I tell you what, Chicago's a-growing. First _we_ come; then Gaspar;
+then Kitty and him get married; and I go to keeping tavern in the
+parson's house; and his son, One, goes up north to take a place in
+Gaspar's business; and Gaspar sends Two and Three east to study law
+and medicine; and Four and his pa come to board in our tavern; and
+Osceolo----"
+
+"For the land's sake, Abel Smith, do hold your tongue. Here you've got
+to be as big a talker as old Deacon Slim, that I used to hear about,
+who begun the minute he woke up and never stopped till his wife tied
+his mouth shut at night. Even then----"
+
+"Mercy, Mercy! Take care. Set me a good example, if you can; but don't
+go to denying that this is a growin' village."
+
+"I've no call to deny it. Why should I? But, say, Abel, just step
+round to the store, won't you, an' buy me some of that turkey red
+calico was brought in on the last team from the East. I'd admire to
+make Kitty a rising sun quilt for her bedroom. 'Twould be so
+'propriate, too."
+
+"Fiddlesticks! Not a yard of stuff will I ever buy for you to set an'
+snip, snip, like you used to in the woods. We've got something else to
+do now. As for Kit, between the Fort folks and the Indians, she's had
+so many things give her a'ready, she won't have room to put 'em. The
+idee! Them two children gettin' married. Seems just like play make
+believe."
+
+"Well, there ain't no make believe. It's the best thing 't ever
+happened to Chicago. Wonderful how they both 'pear to love the old
+hole in the mud," answered Mercy.
+
+"Yes, ain't it? To hear Gaspar talk, you'd think he'd been to
+Congress, let alone bein' President. All about the 'possibilities of
+the location,' the 'fertility of the soil,' the 'big canawl,' and the
+whole endurin' business; why, I tell you, it badgers my wits to foller
+him."
+
+"Wouldn't try, then, if I was you. Poor old wits 'most wore out, any
+how, and better save what's left for this tavern business. Between you
+and your fiddle, thinkin' you've got to amuse your guests, I'm about
+beat out. All the drudgery comes on _me_, same's it always did."
+
+"Drudgery, Mercy? Now, come. Take it easy. Hain't Kitty fetched you a
+couple of squaws to do your steps and dish washin'? All you have to
+do is to cook and----"
+
+"Oh! go along, Abel, and get me that calico. Don't set there till you
+take root. I ain't a-complainin', an' I 'low I'm as much looked up to
+here in Chicago without my bedstead as I was in the woods with it."
+
+"Looked up to? I should say so. There ain't a woman in the settlement
+holds her head as top-lofty as you do. And with good reason, I 'low. I
+don't praise you often, ma, but when I do, I mean it. If you hadn't
+been smarter 'n the average, and had more gumption to boot, you'd
+never been asked in to help them army women cook Kitty's weddin'
+supper. By the way, where are the youngsters now? I hain't seen 'em
+to-day."
+
+"Off over the prairie on their horses, just as they used to be when
+they were little tackers. I never saw bridal folks like them; from the
+very first not hangin' round by themselves, but mixing with everybody,
+same's usual, and beginning right away to do all the good they can
+with Gaspar's money. Off now to see some folks burned their own barn
+up----"
+
+"W-H-A-T?" demanded Abel, with paling face.
+
+"What ails you? A fool of a woman took a lighted candle into her hay
+loft and ruined herself. That happened the night Gaspar found Kitty;
+and they call it part of their weddin' tower to go there and lend the
+farmer the money to replace it. Gaspar was for giving it outright,
+though he's a shrewd feller too, but Kit wouldn't. 'They aren't
+paupers, and it would hurt their pride,' she said. 'Lend it to them on
+very easy terms, and they'll respect themselves and you.'"
+
+"Well, of course he done it."
+
+"Sure. When a man gets a wife as wise as Kitty he'd ought to hark to
+her."
+
+"I'll go and get the calico now, Mercy," said Abel, and left rather
+suddenly.
+
+At nightfall the young couple rode homeward once more, facing the
+moonlight that whitened the great lake and touched the homely hamlet
+beside it with an idealizing beauty; and looking upon it, the Sun Maid
+recalled her vision concerning it and repeated it to her husband.
+
+"Ever since then, my Gaspar, the dream comes back to me in some form
+or shape. But it is always here, right here, that the crowds gather
+and the great roar of life sounds in my ears. In some strange way we
+are to be part of it; part of it all. In the dream I see the tall
+spires of churches, thick and shouldering one another like the trees
+in the forest behind us."
+
+"But, my darling, you have never seen a church of any sort. How,
+then, can you dream of them?"
+
+"That I don't know, unless it is from the pictures in the good
+Doctor's books. I have learned so much from the pictures always. But,
+oh! I wish I could make you know some of the delight I felt when first
+I could read!"
+
+"I do know it, sweetheart. I, too, craved knowledge and dug it out for
+myself, up there in the northern forests, from the few books that came
+my way and the rare visit of a man who could teach. The first dollar I
+had that was all my own I put aside for you. That was the beginning of
+our fortune. The second I invested in a spelling-book. The study,
+dear, was all that helped me bear the pain of your death. But you are
+not dead! Rather the most alive of any human being whom I ever saw."
+
+"That is true, Gaspar. I _am_ alive. I just quiver with the force that
+drives me on from one task to another, from one point reached to one
+beyond. And now, with you beside me, there is no limit, it seems, to
+the help we can be to every single person who will come within our
+reach. Wasn't the woman glad and grateful; and don't you see, laddie,
+that it is better as I planned? You say you have been penurious,
+saving every cent not expended for your books and necessaries: and
+yet, now that you are happy again, you are ready to rush to the other
+extreme and throw your money away in thoughtless charity."
+
+She looked so young, so childlike, in the glimmering moonlight that
+the tall woodsman laughed.
+
+"To hear my little Kit teaching her elders!"
+
+"The elders must listen. It is for our home. You must spend every
+dollar you have, but you must do it in such a way that somebody will
+be helped. We don't want money, just money, for itself. To hold it
+that way would make us ignoble. It's the wealth we spend that will
+make us rich."
+
+"Kit, there's some dark scheme afloat in that fair head of yours. Out
+with it!"
+
+"Just for a beginning of things--this: There was a family came to the
+Fort to-day. The father is a skilled wood-carver. He is not over
+strong and his wife is frailer than he. They have a lot of little
+children and he must earn money. It has cost them more than they
+expected to get as far as this, even, and they should not go farther.
+Yet he is a man, a master workman. It would be an insult to offer him
+money. But give him work and you feed his soul as well as his body."
+
+"How, my love? Who that dwells in a log cabin needs fine carvings or
+would appreciate them if they had them?"
+
+"Educate them to want and appreciate them. Open a school for just that
+branch. I myself will be his pupil. I remember with what delight I
+used to mould Mercy's butter. Well, I've been moulding something ever
+since."
+
+"Your husband, for instance."
+
+"He's a little difficult material; but time will improve him! Then
+there are the Doctor's botanical treatises and specimens. Open a
+school. If you have to begin with a few only, still _begin_. Lay the
+seed. From our little workroom and classroom may grow one of those
+mighty colleges that have made Englishmen great and are making
+Americans their equals."
+
+"Hello there, child! Hold on a bit. Their equals? And you a soldier's
+daughter!"
+
+"Since I am a soldier's daughter, I can afford to be just, and even
+generous. It is all nonsense, because we have gained our independence,
+to say we are better than our fathers were. For they were our fathers,
+surely; and they had had time in their rich country, with their ages
+of instruction, to grow learned and great. But we Americans are their
+children, and, just as is already proving, each generation is wiser
+than the one which went before. So presently we shall be able to do
+even better than they----"
+
+"Give them another dose of Yankee Doodle?"
+
+"If they require it, yes. But come back to just right here in this
+little town. Besides the schools for white children, can't we have
+those for the Indians?"
+
+"No, dear; not here. Not anywhere, I fear, that will ever result in
+permanent good. At least, the time is not yet ripe for that part of
+your dreaming to come true."
+
+"But think of Wahneenah. She is teachable and there is none more
+noble. Yet she is an Indian."
+
+"She is one, herself. In all her race I have seen none other like her.
+There is Black Partridge, too, and Gomo, and old Winnemeg. They are
+exceptions. But, my love, there are, also, the Black Hawk and the
+Prophet."
+
+He did not add his opinion, which agreed with that of the wisest men
+he knew, that Illinois would know no real prosperity till the savages,
+which disturbed its peace, were removed from its borders. For she
+loved them, hoped for them, believed in them; even though her own
+common sense forced her to agree with him that the time was not ripe
+then, if it ever would be, for their civilization. So he held his
+peace and soon they were at home.
+
+"Heigho! There are lights in our cabin. Hear me prophesy: Mother Mercy
+has come over with a roast for our supper and Mother Wahneenah has
+quietly set it aside to wait until her own is eaten. Ho there within!"
+he called merrily. "Who breaches our castle when its lord is absent?"
+
+Mercy promptly appeared in the doorway. She was greatly excited and
+hastily led them to the rear of the house, pointing with both hands to
+an animal fastened behind it.
+
+"There's your fine Indian for you! See that?"
+
+"Indeed I do!" laughed Kitty. "An ox, Jim, isn't it? with the Doctor's
+saddle on his back and his botanizing box, and--What does it mean? I
+knew he was absent-minded, but not like this."
+
+"Absent-minded. Absent shucks! That's Osceolo--_that_ is!" in a tone
+of fiercest indignation. "He's such a crooked log he can't lie still."
+
+"Is that his work? He dared not play his tricks on the dear Doctor!"
+
+"Yes, it's his'n. The idee! There was Abel went and gave old Dobbin to
+the parson, to save his long legs some of their trampin' after weeds
+and stuff and 'cause he was afraid to ride ary other horse in the
+settlement. And there was Osceolo, that for a feller's hired out to a
+regular tavern-keeper like us, to be a hostler and such, he don't earn
+his salt. All the time prankin' round on some tomfoolery. And Abel's
+just as bad. A man with only two or three little weeny tufts o' hair
+left on his head and mighty little sense on the inside, at his time of
+life, a-fiddlin' and cuttin' up jokes, I declare--I declare, I'm beat,
+and I wish----"
+
+"But what is it?" demanded Kitty, bringing her old friend back to
+facts.
+
+"Why, nothing. Only when the dominie came home and stopped here, as he
+always does after he's been a-prairieing, to show you his truck and
+dicker, Osceolo happens along and is took smart! The simpleton! Just
+set old Dobbin scamperin' off back into the grass again and clapped
+the saddle and tin box and what not on to the ox's back. Spected he'd
+see the parson come out and mount and never notice. 'Stead of that,
+along comes Abel--strange how constant he has to visit to your
+house!--and sees the whole business. Well, he'd caught some sort of a
+wild animal, and--say, Kitty Briscoe, I mean Keith!--_that Indian'd
+drink whiskey, if he got a chance_, just as quick as one raised in the
+woods, instead of one privileged to set under such a saint as the
+Doctor all his days. I tell you--Well, what you laughing at, Gaspar
+Keith? Ain't I tellin' the truth?"
+
+"Yes, Mother Mercy, doubtless you are. But it isn't so long back, as
+Abel says, that you objected to 'setting under' the Doctor yourself."
+
+"Suppose it wasn't? I didn't know him then, not as I do now. He's
+orthodox, I found out, and that's all I wanted. But I know what I'm
+talkin' about. Osceolo, he's always beggin' for Abel to keep liquor:
+an' we teetotallers! An' he's teased so much that the other day Abel
+thought he'd satisfy him. So he got an old bottle, looked as if some
+tipsy Indian had thrown it away, and filled it with a dose of boneset
+tea. He made a terrible mystery of the whole matter, pretendin' to be
+sly of me, and took it out from under his coat and gave it to Ossy out
+behind in the stable, like it was a wonderful secret. Do you know,
+that Indian hain't never let on a single word about that business yet?
+Oh! he's a master hand for bein' close-mouthed. They all be. They just
+_do_--but don't talk."
+
+"Mercy, if _you_ were only a little more talkative, you'd be better
+company!" teased Gaspar, who was eager for the finish of the story and
+his supper.
+
+"Now--you! Well, laugh away. I don't mind. All is, when Abel saw the
+trick Ossy had played on the Doctor, he plays one on Ossy. He'd caught
+a queer sort of animal, as I said, and he was fetchin' it to Kit.
+Everybody brings her everything, from rattlesnakes up. But when he saw
+that ox, he just opens the tin box and claps the creature inside and
+then hunts up Ossy. He says: 'There's something in that box pretty
+suspicious, boy. You might look an' see what 'tis but don't let on.'
+He's that curiosity, Osceolo has, that he forgot everything else and
+stuck his hand in sly. I expect he thought it was something to eat, or
+likely to drink, and he got bit. Hand's all tore and sore, and now
+Abel's scared and gone off with him to the surgeon at the Fort, and
+there'll be trouble. Ossy was muttering something about the 'Black
+Hawk coming and that he'd had enough of the white folks. He was born
+an Indian, and an Indian he'd die'; and to the land! I hope he will!
+He makes more mischief in this settlement than you can shake a stick
+at!"
+
+"'It's hard for a bird to get away from its tail,'" quoted Gaspar,
+lightly. "Osceolo began life wrong and his reputation clings to him.
+I'll take the saddle off Jim, and let's go in to supper. None of my
+Sun Maid's tribe is to be feared, I think, no matter how direly they
+may threaten."
+
+Yet the young husband glanced toward his wife with an anxiety that he
+would not have liked her to see. During the weeks since his return to
+the village he had learned much more than he had told her of a
+movement far beyond the Indian encampments she was accustomed to
+visit, which would bring serious trouble, if not complete disaster,
+upon their beloved home. Osceolo was the Sun Maid's devoted follower;
+yet the prank he had played upon the old Doctor, whom she so
+reverenced, showed that he was already throwing aside the restraints
+of his enforced civilization; and the sign was ominous.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+ENEMIES, SEEN AND UNSEEN.
+
+
+But the time passed on and the rumors died away, or ended in nothing
+more serious than had always disturbed the dwellers in that lonely
+land. Now and again a friendly, peace-loving chief would ride up to
+the door of the Sun Maid's home, and, after a brief consultation she
+would put on her Indian attire and ride back with him across the
+prairies. As of old, she went with a heart full of love for her Indian
+friends, but it was not the undivided love that she had once been able
+to give them.
+
+Over her beautiful features had settled the brooding look which
+wifehood and motherhood gives; and though she listened as attentively
+as of old and counselled as wisely, she could not for one moment
+forget the little children waiting for her by her own hearthside or
+the brave husband who was so often away on his long journeys to the
+north; and the keen intelligence of the red men perceived this.
+
+"She is ours no longer," said a venerable warrior, after one such
+visit. "She has taken to herself a pale-face, he who met her on the
+prairie in the morning light, and her heart has gone from her. It is
+the way of life. The old passes, the new comes to reign. We are her
+past. Her Dark-Eye is her present. Her papooses are her future. The
+parting draws near. She is still the Sun Maid, the White Spirit, the
+Unafraid. As far as the Great Spirit wills, she will be faithful to
+us; but now when she rides homeward from a visit to our lodge it is no
+longer at the easy pace of one whose life is all her own, but wildly,
+swiftly, following her heart which has leaped before."
+
+Each morning, nearly, as the Sun Maid ministered to her little ones or
+busied herself among the domestic duties of her simple home she would
+joyfully exclaim to Wahneenah:
+
+"I don't believe there was ever a woman in the world so happy as I
+am!" And the Indian foster-mother would gravely reply:
+
+"Ask the Great Spirit that the peace may long continue."
+
+Till, on one especial day, the younger woman demanded:
+
+"Well, why should it not, my Mother? It is now many weeks since I have
+been called to settle any little quarrel among our people. Surely they
+are learning wisdom fast. Do you know something? I intend that some of
+the squaws who are idle shall make my baby, Gaspar the Second, a
+little costume of our own tribe. It shall be all complete; as if he
+were a tiny chief himself, with his leggings and head-dress, and--yes,
+even a little bow and quiver. I'll have it finished, maybe, before his
+father comes down from this last trip into the far-away woods. Oh! I
+shall be glad when my 'brave' can trust all his business of mining and
+fur-buying and lumbering to somebody else. I miss him so. But won't he
+be pleased with our little lad in feathers and buckskin?"
+
+Wahneenah's dark eyes looked keenly at her daughter's face.
+
+"No, beloved; he will not be pleased. In his heart of hearts, the
+white chief was ever the red man's enemy. Me he loves and a few more.
+But let the White Papoose" (Wahneenah still called her foster-child by
+the old love names of her childhood) "let the White Papoose hear and
+remember: the day is near when the Dark-Eye will choose between his
+friends and the friends of his wife. It is time to prepare. There is a
+distress coming which shall make of this Chicago a burying-ground. Our
+Dark-Eye has bought much land. He is always, always buying. Some day
+he will sell and the gold in his purse will be too heavy for one man's
+carrying. But first the darkness, the blood, the death. Let him choose
+now a house of refuge for you and the little children; choose it
+where there are trees to shelter and water to refresh. Let him build
+there a tepee large enough for all your needs,--a wigwam, remember,
+not a house. Let him stock it well with food and clothing and the guns
+which protect."
+
+"Why, Other Mother! What has come over you? Such a dismal prophecy as
+that is worse than any which old Katasha ever breathed. Are you ill,
+Wahneenah, dearest?"
+
+"There is no sickness in my flesh; yet in my heart is a misery that
+bows it to the earth. But I warn you. If you would find favor in the
+eyes of your brave, clothe not his son in the costume of the red man."
+
+Kitty was unaccountably depressed. Hitherto she had been able to laugh
+aside the sometimes sombre auguries of the chief's sister; but now
+something in the woman's manner made her believe that she knew more
+than she disclosed of some impending disaster. However, it was not in
+her nature, nor did she believe it right, that she should worry over
+vague suggestions. So she answered once more before quite dismissing
+the subject:
+
+"Well, we were already discussing the comfort of having another home
+out in the forest, and Abel has suggested that we build it on the land
+which was his farm and which Gaspar has bought. We both liked that; to
+have our own children play where we played as children. I want my
+little ones to learn about the wild things of the woods, and the dear
+old Doctor is still alive to teach them. You will like it, too, Other
+Mother. When the days grow hot and long we will ride to the 'Refuge';
+and I think the wigwam idea is better, after all, than the house;
+though I do not know what my husband will decide."
+
+"Before the days grow long, the 'Refuge' must be finished, and the
+earlier the better. It is rightly named, my daughter, and the time is
+ripe."
+
+Ere many hours had passed, and most unexpectedly to his wife, Gaspar
+returned. In the first happiness of welcoming him she did not observe
+that his face was stern and troubled; but she did notice, when bedtime
+came, that he did what had never before been done in their home: he
+locked or bolted the doors and stoutly barred the heavy wooden
+shutters. He had also brought Osceolo with him, from Abel's tavern,
+and had peremptorily bidden the Indian to "Lie there!" pointing to a
+heap of skins on the floor beside the fire.
+
+Toward morning Kitty woke. To her utter amazement, she saw in her
+living room her Gaspar and Osceolo engaged in what seemed a battle to
+the death. Then she sprang up and ran toward them, but her husband
+motioned her back.
+
+[Illustration: OSCEOLO AND GASPAR. _Page 276_.]
+
+"Leave him to me. I'll fix him so that he'll do no more mischief for
+the present."
+
+"But, Gaspar! What is it?"
+
+"Treachery, as usual. Get into your clothes, my girl, and call
+Wahneenah. Let the children be dressed,--warmly, for the air is cool
+and we may have to leave suddenly."
+
+"_What_ is it?"
+
+"An outbreak! The settlers are flocking into the Fort in droves. Black
+Hawk and his followers have come too close for comfort. This miserable
+fellow has been tampering with the stores. He couldn't get at the
+ammunition, but he's done all the evil he could. I caught him
+hobnobbing with a low Sac; a spy, I think. There. He's bound, and now
+I'll fasten him in the wood-shed. He knows too much about this town to
+be left in freedom."
+
+Yet, after all, they did not have to flee from home, as Gaspar had
+feared, though the Sun Maid put on her peace dress and unbound her
+glorious hair, ready at any moment to ride forth and meet the Indians
+and to try her powers of promoting good-feeling. The Snowbird stood
+saddled for many days: yet it was only upon errands of hospitality and
+charity that he was needed.
+
+Gaspar, however, was always in the saddle. When he was not riding far
+afield, scouting the movements of the Black Hawk forces, he was
+searching the countryside for provisions and himself guiding the
+wagons that brought in the scant supplies. One evening he returned
+more cheerful than he had seemed for many days and exclaimed as he
+tossed aside his cap:
+
+"This has been a good trip, for two reasons."
+
+"What are they, dear?"
+
+"Starvation is staved off for a while and the Indians are evidently in
+grave doubts of their own success in this horrid war."
+
+"Starvation, Gaspar? Has it been as bad as that?"
+
+"Pretty close to it. But I've found a couple of men who had about a
+hundred and fifty head of cattle, and they've driven them here into
+the stockade. As long as they last, we shall manage. The other good
+thing is--that the Black Hawks are sacrificing to the Evil Spirit."
+
+"They are! That shows they are hopeless of their own success."
+
+"Certainly very doubtful of it. It is the dog immolation. I saw one
+instance myself and met a man who had come from the southwest. He has
+passed them at intervals of a day's journey; always the same sort. The
+wretched little dog, fastened just above the ground, the nose pointing
+straight this way and the fire beneath."
+
+"Oh, Gaspar, it's dreadful!"
+
+"That they are discouraged? Kit, you don't mean that?"
+
+"No. No, no! You know better. But that they are such--such heathen!"
+
+Another voice broke in upon them:
+
+"Heathen! Heathen, you say? Well, if ever you was right in your life,
+you're right now. I never saw such folks. Here I've been cookin' and
+cooking till I'm done clean through myself; and in there's come
+another lot, just as hungry as t'others. Dear me, dear me! Why in the
+name of common sense couldn't I have stayed back there in the woods,
+and not come trapesing to Chicago to turn head slave for a lot of
+folks that act as if I'd ought to be grateful for the chance to kill
+myself a-waitin' on them. And say, Gaspar Keith, have you heard the
+news? When did you get home?"
+
+It was Mercy, of course, who had rushed excitedly into the house, yet
+had been able to rattle off a string of sentences that fairly took her
+hearers' breath away, if not her own.
+
+But Kitty was at her side at once, tenderly removing the great
+sun-bonnet from the hot gray head and offering a fan of turkey wings,
+gayly decorated with Indian embroideries of beads and weavings.
+
+"No, Kit. No, you needn't. Not while I know myself; there ain't never
+no more red man's tomfoolery going to be around me! Take that there
+Indian contraption away. I'd rather have a decent, honest cabbage-leaf
+any day. I'm beat out. My, ain't it hot!"
+
+"Yes, dear, it is awfully hot. Sit here in the doorway, in this big
+chair, and get what little breeze there is. Here's another fan, which
+I made myself; plain, good Yankee manufacture. Try that. Then, when
+you get cooled off, tell us your 'news.'"
+
+"Cooled off? That I sha'n't never be no more; not while I've got to
+cook for all creation."
+
+"Mother Mercy, Mother Mercy! You are a puzzler. You won't let the
+people go anywhere else than to your house as long as there's room to
+squeeze another body in; and----"
+
+"Ain't it the tavern?"
+
+"Of course. But people who keep taverns usually take pay for
+entertaining their guests."
+
+"Gaspar Keith! You say that to me, after the raisin' I gave you? The
+idee! When not a blessed soul of the lot has got a cent to bless
+himself with."
+
+"But I have cents, plenty of them; and I want you to let me bear this
+expense for you. I insist upon it."
+
+"Well, lad, I always did think you was a little too sharp after the
+money. But I didn't 'low you'd begrudge folks their _blessings_, too."
+
+"Blessings? Aren't you complaining about so much hard work, and
+haven't you the right? I know that no private family has cared for so
+many as you have, and----"
+
+"Oh, do drop that! I tell you _I_ ain't a private family; I'm a
+tavern. Oh! I don't know what I am nor what I'm sayin'. I--I reckon
+I'm clean beat and tuckered out."
+
+"So you are, dear. But rest and I'll make you a cup of tea. If you
+leave those people to themselves and they get hungry again they'll
+cook _for_ themselves. They'll have to. But to a good many of these
+refugees this is a sort of picnic business. They have left their
+homes, it's true; but they haven't seen so many human faces in years
+and----"
+
+"They haven't had such a good time! I noticed that. They seemed as
+bright as children at a frolic. Well, we ought to help them get what
+fun they can out of so serious a matter," commented Gaspar.
+
+"Serious! I should say so. That's what sent me here. Abel, he was on
+the wharf, and he says the ships are coming down the lake full of
+soldiers; and what with them and the folks already here and only a
+hundred and fifty head to feed 'em with, and some of these refugees
+eat as much as ary parson I ever saw, and the old Doctor trying to
+preach to 'em, sayin' it's the best opportunity--my land! The way
+some folks can get sweet out of bitter is a disgrace, I declare. And
+as for that Ossy, the dirty scamp, he's broke more dishes, washing
+them, than I've got left. And I run over to see if you'd let me have
+ary dish you've got, or shall I give 'em their stuff right in their
+hands? And how long have I got to go on watchin' that wild Osceolo? I
+wish you'd take him back and shut him up in your wood-shed again."
+
+"But, Mother Mercy, it was you who begged his release. And I'm sure
+it's better for him in your kitchen, working, than lying idle in an
+empty building, plotting mischief. Hello, here's Abel. And he seems as
+excited as--as you were," said Gaspar.
+
+"Glory to government, youngsters! The military is coming! The
+General's in sight! Now hooray! We'll show them pesky red-skins a
+thing or two. If they ain't wiped clean out of existence this time my
+name's Jack Robinson. Say, Kit, don't look so solemn. Likely they'll
+know enough to give up licked without getting shot; and they're
+nothin' but Indians, any how."
+
+The Sun Maid came softly across and held up her little son to be
+admired. Her face was grave and her lips silent. All this talk of war
+and bloodshed was awful to her gentle heart, that was torn and
+distracted with grief for both her white and her red-faced friends.
+
+But there was only grim satisfaction on the countenance of her young
+husband; and he turned to Abel, demanding:
+
+"Are you sure that this good news is true? Are the soldiers coming?
+Who saw them?"
+
+"I myself, through the commandant's spy-glass. They're aboard the
+ships, and I could almost hear the tune of _Yankee Doodle_. They're
+bound to rout the enemy like chain lightning. Hooray!"
+
+The soldiers were coming indeed; but alas! an enemy was coming with
+them far more deadly than the Indians they meant to conquer.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH.
+
+
+"Oh, Kit; I can't bear to leave you behind! It breaks my old heart all
+to flinders!" lamented Abel, laboriously climbing into the great wagon
+which Jim and Pete were now to draw back to their old home and wherein
+were already seated Mercy, with Kitty's children. "If it wasn't for
+these babies of yourn, I'd never stir stick nor stump out this
+afflicted town."
+
+"Well, dear Abel, the babies _are_, and must be cared for. I know that
+you and Mother Mercy will spoil them with kindness; but I hope we'll
+soon be all together again. Good-by, good-by."
+
+The Sun Maid's voice did not tremble nor the light in her brave face
+grow dim, though her heart was nearer breaking than Abel's; in that
+she realized far more keenly than he the peril in which she was
+voluntarily placing herself.
+
+"Well, Kitty, lamb, do take care. Take the herb tea constant and keep
+your feet dry."
+
+"That will be easy to do, if this heat remains," answered the other
+quietly, looking about her as she spoke upon the sun-parched ground
+and the hot, brazen sky. "And you must not worry, any of you. Gaspar
+says the tepees are as comfortable as the best log cabins, though so
+hastily put up. You will have plenty of air and the delicious shade of
+the trees; the blessed spring water, too; and if you don't keep well
+and be as happy as kittens, I--I'll be ashamed of you. I declare,
+Mercy dear, your face is all a-beam with the thought of the old
+clearing, and the bleaching ground, and all. So you needn't try to
+look grave, for, as soon as we can, Wahneenah and I will follow."
+
+Then she turned to speak to Gaspar, who sat on Tempest close at hand,
+his handsome face pale with anxiety and divided interests, but stern
+and resolute to do his duty as his young wife had shown it to him. And
+what these two had to say to one another is not for others to hear;
+for it was a parting unto death, it might be, and the hearts of the
+twain were as one flesh.
+
+Also, if Mercy's face was alight with the glow of her home returning,
+it was moved by the sight of the two women--Wahneenah and her
+daughter--who were taking their lives in their hands for the service
+of their fellow-men.
+
+Never had the Indian woman's comeliness shown to such advantage; and
+her bearing was of one who neither belittled nor overrated the dignity
+of the self-sacrifice she was making. She wore a white cotton gown,
+which draped rather than fitted her tall figure, and about her dark
+head was bound a white kerchief that seemed a crown. With an impulse
+foreign to her, Mercy held out her hand; because in ordinary she
+"hated an Indian on sight."
+
+"Well, Wahneeny, I'd like to shake hands for good-by. There hain't
+never been no love lost 'twixt you an' me, but I 'low I might have
+been more juster than I was. I think you're--you're as good as ary
+white women I ever see, savin' our Kit, of course; an'--an'--I--I wish
+you well."
+
+There was a moment's hesitation on Wahneenah's part; then her slim
+brown hand was extended and closed upon Mercy's fat palm with a
+friendly pressure.
+
+"In the light of the Unknown Beyond, the little hates and loves of
+earth must disappear. You have judged according to the wisdom that was
+in you, and if I bore you a grudge, it is forgotten. Farewell."
+
+Then the foster-mother slipped her arm about the waist of her beloved
+Sun Maid and supported her firmly as the oxen moved slowly forward,
+the heavy wheels creaking and the three children shouting and clapping
+their hands in innocent glee, quite unconscious of the tragedy of the
+parting they had witnessed.
+
+Abel gee-ed and haw-ed indiscriminately and confusingly, then
+belabored his patient beasts because they did not understand
+conflicting orders. Mercy sat twisted around upon the buffalo-covered
+seat, her arms holding each a child as in a vise and her neck in
+danger of dislocation, as long as her swimming eyes could catch one
+glimpse of the two white-robed women left on the dusty road.
+
+"They look as pure as some them Sisters of Charity I've seen in Boston
+city. And they won't spare themselves no more, neither. Poor Gaspar
+boy! How'll he ever stand it without his Kit, and if--ah, if--she
+should catch--Oh, my soul! oh--my--soul! I wonder if he's takin' it
+terrible hard!"
+
+But though she brought her body back to a normal poise, her morbid
+curiosity was doomed to disappointment, for Tempest had already borne
+his master out of sight at a mad pace across the prairie.
+
+The enemy which had come with the infantry over the great water was
+the most terrible known,--a disease so dread and devastating that men
+turned pale at the mere mention of its name--the Asiatic cholera.
+
+When it appeared, the garrison was crowded with the settlers who had
+fled before the anticipated attacks of the Indians and, as has been
+said, every roof in the community sheltered all it could cover. But
+when the soldiers began to die by dozens and scores the refugees were
+terrified. Death by the hand of the red man was possible, even
+probable; but death of the pestilence was certain.
+
+The town was now emptied far more rapidly than it had filled; and
+early in this new disaster Gaspar had hastened to the old clearing of
+the Smiths and had made Osceolo, aided by a few more frightened,
+willing men, toil with himself to erect wigwams enough to accommodate
+many persons. He had then returned for his household and had been met
+by his wife's first resistance to his will.
+
+"No, Gaspar, I cannot go. I have no fear. I am perfectly 'sound.'
+Probably no healthier woman ever lived than I am. I have learned much
+of nursing from Wahneenah, and my place, my duty, is here. I cannot
+go."
+
+"Kit! my Kitty! Are you beside yourself? Where is your duty, if not to
+me and to our children?"
+
+"Here, my husband, right here; in our beloved town, among the lonely
+strangers who have come to save it from destruction and have laid
+their lives at our feet."
+
+"That is sheer nonsense. Your life is at stake."
+
+"Is my life more precious than theirs?"
+
+"Yes. Infinitely so. It is mine."
+
+"It is God's--and humanity's--first, Gaspar."
+
+"Your children, then; if you scorn my wishes."
+
+"Don't make it hard for me, beloved; harder than God Himself has made
+it. Do you take Mother Mercy and Abel and go to the place you have
+prepared. The children will be as safe with her as with me; safer, for
+she will watch them constantly, while I believe in leaving them to
+grow by themselves. Between them and us you may come and go--up to a
+certain point; but not to the peril of your taking the disease. The
+Indians are no less on the war-path because the cholera has come.
+_Your_ duty is afield, guarding, watching, preventing all the evil
+that a wise man can. Mine is here, using the skill I have learned from
+Wahneenah and faithfully at her side."
+
+"Wahneenah? Does she wish to stay too; to nurse the pale-faces, the
+men who have come here to fight her own race?"
+
+"Yes, Gaspar, she is just so noble. Can I do less? I, with my
+education, which the dear Doctor has given me, and my youth, my
+perfect health, my entire fearlessness. You forget, sweetheart; I am
+the Unafraid. Never more unafraid than now, never more sure that we
+will come out of this trouble as we have come out of every other. Why,
+dear, don't you remember old Katasha and her prophecy? I am to be
+great and rich and beneficent. I am to be the helper of many people.
+Well, then, since I am not great, and rich only through you, let me
+begin at the last end of the prophecy, and be beneficent. Wait; even
+now there is somebody coming toward us asking me for help."
+
+"Kit, I can't have it. I won't. You are my wife. You shall obey me.
+You shall stop talking nonsense. You may as well understand. Pick
+together what duds you need and let's get off as soon as possible.
+Every hour here is fresh danger. Come. Please hurry."
+
+But she did not hurry, not in the least. Indeed, had she followed her
+heart wholly, she would never have hastened one degree toward the end
+she had elected. But she followed it only in part; so she stole
+quietly up to where the man fumed and flustered and clasped her arms
+about his neck and laid her beautiful face against his own.
+
+"Love: this is not our first separation, nor our longest. Many a month
+have you been away from me, up there in the north, getting money and
+more money, till I hated its very name,--only that I knew we could use
+it for others. In that, and in most things, I will obey you as I have.
+In this I must obey the voice of God. Life is better than money, and
+to save life or to comfort death is the price of this, our last
+separation."
+
+After that he said no more; but recognizing the nobility of her
+effort, even though he still felt it mistaken, and with a credulous
+remembrance of Katasha's saying, he made her preparations and his own
+without delay and parted from her as has been told.
+
+"Well, my dear Other Mother, there is one thing to comfort! Hard as it
+was to see them all go, we shall have no time to brood. And we shall
+be together. Let us get on now to our work. There were five new cases
+this morning; and time flies! Oh, if I were wiser and knew better what
+to do for such a sickness! The best we can--that's all."
+
+"What the Great Spirit puts into our hands, that we can always lift,"
+replied Wahneenah, and, with her arm still about her darling's waist,
+they walked together Fortward. It may be that in the Indian's jealous,
+if devoted, heart there was just a tinge of thankfulness for even an
+evil so dire, since it gave her back her "White Papoose" quite to
+herself again.
+
+"Well, I can watch her all I choose, and no burden shall fall to her
+share that I can spare her. The easy part--the watching and the
+soothing and the Bible reading--that shall be hers. Mine will be the
+coarsest tasks," she thought, and--as Gaspar had done--reckoned
+without her host.
+
+"It is turn and turn about, Other Mother, or I will drive you out of
+the place," Kitty declared; and after a few useless struggles, which
+merely wasted the time that should have been given their patients, it
+was so settled; and so continued during the dreadful weeks that
+followed.
+
+Until just before midsummer the nurses were almost wholly at the
+Fort, where it seemed to Kitty that a "fresh case" and a "burial"
+alternated with the regularity of a pendulum; and then a little relief
+was gained by taking their sick across to Agency House and its ampler
+accommodations. But even these were meagre compared to the needs; and
+more and more as the days went by did the Sun Maid long for greater
+wisdom.
+
+"That is one of the things Gaspar and I must do. We must have a
+regular hospital, such as are in Eastern cities; and there must be men
+and women taught to understand all sorts of diseases and how to care
+for them. I know so little--so little."
+
+But experience taught more than schools could have done; and many a
+poor fellow who had come from a far-away home sank to his last rest
+with greater confidence because of the ministrations of these two
+devoted women. And at last, very suddenly, there appeared one among
+them whom both Wahneenah and her daughter recognized with a sinking
+heart.
+
+"Doctor! Oh, Doctor Littlejohn! I thought you were safe at the
+'Refuge' with Mercy and Abel. How came you here? and why? You must go
+away at once. You must, indeed. Where is the horse you rode?"
+
+"I rode no horse, my dear. If I had asked for one, I should have been
+prevented,--even forcibly, I fear. So I walked."
+
+"Walked? In this heat, all that distance? Will you tell me why?"
+
+But already, before it was spoken, the Sun Maid guessed the answer.
+
+"Because, at length, through all the shifting talk about me, it
+penetrated to my study-dulled brain that there was a need more urgent
+than that the Indian dialects should be preserved; that I, a minister
+of the gospel, was letting a woman take the duty, the privilege, that
+was mine. I have come, daughter of my old age, to encourage the
+sufferers you relieve and bury the dead you cannot save."
+
+"But--for _you_, in your feebleness----"
+
+He held up his thin white hand that trembled as an aspen leaf.
+
+"It is enough, my dear. Consider all is said. I heard a fresh groan
+just then. Somebody needs you--or me."
+
+Wahneenah now had two to watch, and she did it jealously, at the cost
+of the slight rest she had heretofore allowed herself. The result of
+overstrain, in the midst of such infection, was inevitable. One
+evening she crept languidly toward the empty house which had been her
+darling's home and behind which still stood her own deserted lodge.
+She was a little wearier than usual, she thought, but that was all. To
+lie down on her bed of boughs and draw her own old blanket over her
+would make her sleep. She longed to sleep--just for a minute; to shut
+out from her eyes and her thoughts the scenes through which she had
+gone. How long ago was it since the wagon and the fair-haired babies
+went away?
+
+She was a little confused. She was falling asleep, though, despite the
+agony that tortured her. _Her?_ She had always hated pain and despised
+it. It couldn't be Wahneenah, the Happy, crouching thus, in a cramped
+and becrippled attitude. It was some other woman,--some woman she had
+used to know.
+
+Why, there was her warrior: her own! And the son she had lost! And
+now--what was this in the parting of the tent curtains? The moonlight
+made mortal?
+
+No. Not a moon-born but a sun-born maiden she, who stooped till her
+white garments swept the earth and her beautiful, loving face was
+close, close. Even the glazing eyes could see how wondrously fair it
+was in the sight of men and spirits. Even the dulled ears could catch
+that agonized cry:
+
+"Wahneenah! Wahneenah! My Mother! Bravest and noblest! and yet--a
+savage!"
+
+"Who called her so knew not of what he spake. From one God we all came
+and unto Him we must return. Blessed be His Name!" answered the
+clergyman who had followed.
+
+Then the frail man, who had so little strength for himself, was given
+power to lift the broken-hearted Maid and carry her away into a place
+of safety.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+GROWING UP.
+
+
+"Well, I'm beat! I don't know what to do with myself. Out there to the
+clearing I was just crazy wild to get back to town; and now I'm here
+I'm nigh dead with plumb lonesomeness. My, my, my! Indians licked out
+of their skins, about, and cleared out the whole endurin' State. Old
+Black Hawk marched off to the East to be shown what kind of a nation
+he'd bucked up against, the simpleton! And Osceolo takin' himself and
+his pranks, with his tribe, clear beyond the Mississippi; an' me an'
+ma lived through watchin' them little tackers of Kit's--oh, hum! I'd
+ought to take some rest; but somehow I 'low I can't seem to."
+
+Mercy looked up from the unbleached sheet she was hemming and smiled
+grimly.
+
+"Give it up, pa. Give it up. I've been a-studyin' this question, top
+and bottom crust and through the inside stuffin', and I sum it this
+way: _It's in the soil!_"
+
+"What's in the soil? The shakes? or the homesickness when a feller's
+right to home? or what in the land do you mean?"
+
+"The restlessness. The something that gets inside your mind and keeps
+you movin'. I've noticed it in everybody ever come here. Must be
+doin'; can't keep still; up an' at it, till a body's clean wore an'
+beat out. Me, for one. Here I've no more need to hem sheets than I
+have to make myself a pink satin gown, which I never had nor hope to
+have even----"
+
+"The idee! I should hope not, indeed. You in a pink satin gown, ma;
+'twould be scandalous!"
+
+"Didn't I say I wasn't thinkin' of gettin' one, even so be I could, in
+this hole in the mud? I was talkin' about Chicago. It ain't a town to
+brag of, seein' there ain't two hundred left in it after the ravagin'
+of the cholera; an' yet I don't know ary creature, man, woman, or
+child, ain't goin' to plannin' right away for something to be done.
+I've heard more talk of improvements and hospitals and schools an'
+colleges and land knows what more truck an' dicker--Pshaw! It takes my
+breath away."
+
+"It does mine, ma."
+
+"Well,--_that's_ Chicago! You can always tell by a child when it's a
+baby what it's goin' to be when it's a man. Chicago's a baby now, an'
+a mighty puny one, too; but it's kickin' like a good feller, an' it's
+gettin' strong; an', first you know, folks will be pourin' in here
+faster 'n the Indians or cholera carried 'em off, ary one."
+
+"Them ain't your own idees; they're Gaspar's and Kit's. He's gone
+right to work, an' so has she; layin' out buildin' sites an' sendin'
+East for any poor man that's had hard luck and wants to begin all over
+again. Say--do you know--I--believe--that our Gaspar writes for the
+newspapers. _Our Gaspar, ma! Newspapers! Out East!_"
+
+"Well, I don't know why he shouldn't. Didn't I raise him?"
+
+"Where do I come in, Mercy?"
+
+"Wherever you can catch on, Abel. The best place I can see for you to
+take hold is to start in an' build a new tavern,--a tavern big enough
+to swing a cat in. Then I'll have a place to keep my sheets an' it'll
+pay me to go and make 'em."
+
+"How'd you know what was in my mind, Mercy?"
+
+"Easy enough. Ain't I been makin' stirabout for you these forty years?
+Don't I know the size of your appetite? Can't I cal'late the size of
+your mind the same way? Why, Abel, I can tell by the way you brush
+your wisps----"
+
+"Ma, I'll send East an' buy me a wig. I 'low when a man's few hairs
+can tattle his inside thoughts to the neighbors, it's time I took a
+stand."
+
+"Well, I think you might 's well. I think you'd look real becomin' in
+a wig. I'd get it red and curly if I was you; and you'd ought to wear
+a bosomed shirt every day. You really had."
+
+"Mercy Smith! Are you out your head?"
+
+"No. But when a man's the first tavern-keeper in this risin' town he
+ought to dress to fit his station. I always did like you best in your
+dickeys."
+
+"Shucks! I'll wear one every day."
+
+"I'm goin' to give up homespun. Calico's a sight prettier an' we can
+afford it. We're real forehanded now, Abel."
+
+"Hello! Here comes Kit. Let's ask her about the tavern. She's got more
+sense in her little finger than most folks have in their whole bodies.
+She's a different woman than she was before Wahneeny died. I shall
+always be glad you an' her was reconciled when you parted. Hum, hum.
+Poor Wahneeny! Poor old Doctor! Well, it can't be very hard to die
+when folks are as good as they was. Right in the line of duty, too."
+
+"Yes, Abel; but all the same I'm satisfied to think _our_ duty laid
+out in the woods, takin' care Kit's children, 'stead of here amongst
+the sickness. Wonderful, ain't it, how our girl came through?"
+
+"She'll come through anything, Sunny Maid will; right straight through
+this open door into her old Father Abel's arms, eh? Well, my dear,
+what's the good word? How's Gaspar and the youngsters?"
+
+"Well, of course. We are never ill; but, Mother Mercy, I heard you
+were feeling as if you hadn't enough to do. I came in to see about
+that. It's a state of things will never answer for our Chicago, where
+there is more to be done than people to do it. Didn't you say you had
+a brother out East who was a miller?"
+
+"Yes, of course. Made money hand over fist. He's smarter 'n chain
+lightning, Ebenezer is, if I do say it as hadn't ought to, bein' I'm
+his sister."
+
+"Well, I'd like his address. Gaspar wants him here. We must have
+mills. The idea of our using hand-mills and such expedients to get our
+flour and meal is absurd for these days."
+
+"Pshaw, Kit! 'Tain't long since I had to ride as far as fifty miles to
+get my grist ground, and when I got there there'd be so many before
+me, I'd have to wait all night sometimes. 'First come first served' is
+a miller's saying, and they did feel proud of the row of wagons would
+be hitched alongside their places. I----"
+
+"Come, Abel, don't reminisce. If there's one thing more tryin' to a
+body's patience than another, it's hearin' about these everlastin'
+has-beens."
+
+Abel threw back his head and laughed till the room rang.
+
+"Hear her, my girl! Just hear her! That's ma! That's Mercy! She's
+caught the fever, or whatever 'tis, that ails this town. She's got no
+more time to hark back. It's always get up and go ahead. What you
+think? She's advising me to build a new tavern. _Me! Mercy_ advising
+it! What do you think of that?"
+
+"That it's a capital idea. We shall need it. We shall need more than
+one tavern if all goes well. And it will. Now that the Indians are
+gone forever,"--here Kitty breathed a gentle sigh,--"the white people
+are no longer afraid. They have heard of our wonderful country and our
+wonderful location,--right in the heart of the continent, with room on
+every side to spread and grow eternally, indefinitely."
+
+"Kitty, I sometimes think you an' Gaspar are a little _off_ on the
+subject of your native town; for 'twasn't his'n; seein' what a
+collection of disreputable old houses an' mud holes an' sloughs
+of despond there's right in plain sight. But you seem to think
+something's bound to happen and you two'll be in the midst of it."
+
+The Sun Maid laughed, as merrily as in the old days, and answered
+promptly:
+
+"_I've_ never found any sloughs of despond and something _is_ bound
+to happen. Katasha's dreams, or prophecies, whichever they were, are
+to come true. There is something in the very air of our lake-bordered,
+wind-swept prairie that attracts and exhilarates, and binds. That's
+it,--_binds_. Once a dweller here by this great water, a man is bound
+to return to it if he lives. Those soldiers who have gone away from
+us, a mere handful, so to speak, will spread the story of our
+beautiful land and will come again--a legion. It is our dream that
+this little pestilence-visited hamlet will one day be one of the
+marvels of the world; that to it will assemble people from all the
+nations, to whom it will be an asylum, a home, and a treasure-house
+for every sort of wealth and wisdom. In my fancies I can see them
+coming, crowding, hastening; as in reality I shall some day see them,
+and not far off. And in the name of all that is young and strong and
+glorious--I bid them welcome!"
+
+She stood in the open doorway and the sunlight streamed through it,
+irradiating her wonderful beauty. The two old people, types of the
+past, regarded her transfigured countenance with feelings not unmixed
+with awe, and after a moment Abel spoke:
+
+"Well, well, well! Kitty, my girl. Hum, hum! You yourself seem all
+them things you say. Trouble you've had, an' sorrow; the sickness an'
+Wahneeny; an' growin' up, an' love affairs; an' motherhood, an' all;
+yet there you be, the youngest, the prettiest, the hopefullest, the
+courageousest creature the Lord ever made. What is it, child; what is
+it makes you so different from other folks?"
+
+"Am I different, dear? Well, Mother Mercy, yonder, is looking
+mystified and troubled. She doesn't half like my prophetic moods, I
+know. I merely came, for Gaspar, to inquire about the miller. But I
+like your own idea of the new tavern, and you should begin it right
+away. Gaspar will lend you the money if you need it; and if you have
+time for more sheets than these, Mercy dear, I'll send you over some
+pieces of finer muslin and you might begin on a lot for our hospital."
+
+"Your hospital? 'Tain't even begun nor planned."
+
+"Oh, yes, it is planned. From my own experience and from books I can
+guess what we will need. But there are doctors and nurses coming after
+a time--There, there, dear. I will stop. I won't look ahead another
+step while I'm here. But--it's coming--all of it!" she finished gayly,
+as she turned from the doorway and passed down the forlorn little
+street.
+
+Was it "in the air," as the Sun Maid protested, that indomitable
+courage and faith to do and dare, to plan, to begin, and to achieve?
+Certain it is that in five years from that morning when Kitty Keith
+had lingered in Mercy's doorway foretelling the future some, at least,
+of her prophecies had materialized. Where then had been but two
+hundred citizens were now more than twenty times that number. The
+"crowding" had begun; and there followed years upon years of wonderful
+growth; wherein Gaspar's cool head and shrewd business tact and
+ever-deepening purse were always to the fore, at the demand of all who
+needed either. In an unswerving singleness of purpose, he devoted his
+energy and his ambition toward making his beloved home, as far as in
+him lay, the leading home and mart of all the civilized world.
+
+And the Sun Maid walked steadfastly by his side, adding to his efforts
+and ambitions the sympathy of her great heart and cultured,
+ever-broadening womanhood.
+
+Thus passed almost a quarter-century of years so full and peaceful
+that nothing can be written of them save the one word--happy. Yet at
+the end of this long time, wherein Abel and Mercy had quietly fallen
+on sleep and "Kit's little tackers" had grown up to be themselves
+fathers and mothers, the Sun Maid's joy was rudely broken.
+
+Not only hers, but many another's; for a drumbeat echoed through the
+land, and the sound was as a death-knell.
+
+Kitty looked into her husband's face and shivered. For the first time
+in all his memory of her the Unafraid grew timid.
+
+"Oh, Gaspar! War? Civil War! A family quarrel, of all quarrels the
+most bitter and deadly. God help us!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+HEROES.
+
+
+The Sun Maid's gaze into her husband's face was a prolonged and
+questioning one. Before it was withdrawn she had found her answer.
+
+There was still a silence between them, which she broke at last, and
+it touched him to see how pale she had become and yet how calm.
+
+"You are going, Gaspar?"
+
+"Yes, my love; I am going. Already I have pledged my word, as my arm
+and my purse."
+
+"But, my dear, do you consider? We are growing old, even we, who have
+never yet had time to realize it--till now. There are younger men,
+plenty of them. Your counsels at home----"
+
+"Would be empty words as compared to my example in the field. The
+young of heart are never old. Besides, do you remember that once,
+against my stubborn will, you resisted for duty's sake? We have never
+regretted it, not for a day. More than that, when our first-born came
+to us, do you remember how we clasped his tiny hand and resolved
+always to lead it onward to the right? _Lead_ it, sweetheart. We
+vowed never to say to him: 'Go!' to this or that high duty; but
+rather, still holding fast to him, say: 'Come.' There is such a wide,
+wide difference between the two."
+
+Then, indeed, again she trembled. The mother love shook her visibly
+and a secret rejoicing died a sudden death.
+
+"'Come,' you say. But they are not here, in our own unhappy land.
+Gaspar in Europe, Winthrop in South America, and Hugh in Japan. They
+are better so."
+
+"Are they better there? You will be the first to say 'no' when this
+shock passes. A telegram will summon each as easily as we could call
+them from that other room--supposing that they, your sons, wait for
+the call. But they'll not. I know them and trust them. They are
+already on the railways and steamships that will bring them fastest;
+and it will truly be the 'Come with me!' that we elected, for we shall
+all march together."
+
+So they did; and it was the Sun Maid herself, standing proudly among
+her daughters and daughters-in-law, yet more beautiful than any, who
+fastened the last glittering button over each manly breast and flicked
+away an imaginary mote from the spotless uniforms. Then she stood
+aside and let them go; two by two, "step," "step"--as if in echo to
+the first sound which had greeted her own baby ear.
+
+But as they passed out of sight, transgressing military discipline
+Gaspar turned; and once more the black eyes and the blue read in each
+other's depths the unfathomable love that filled them. Then he was
+gone and the younger Gaspar's wife lifted to her own aching bosom the
+form that had sunk unconscious at her feet. For the too prescient
+heart of the Sun Maid had pierced the future and she knew what would
+befall her.
+
+Yet before the gray shadow had quite left her face she rallied and
+again smiled into the anxious countenances bending over her.
+
+"Now, my dears, how foolish I was and how wasteful of precious time!
+There is so much to be done for them and for ourselves. Gaspar's
+business must not suffer, nor Son's (as she always called her eldest),
+nor his brothers'. There are new hospitals to equip and nurses to
+secure. Alas! there should be a Home made ready, even so soon, for the
+widows and orphans of our soldiers. Let us organize into a regular
+band of workers; just ourselves, as systematically as your father has
+trained us to believe is best. There are six of us, a little army of
+supplies and reinforcements. Though, Honoria, my daughter, shall I
+count upon you?"
+
+"Surely, Mother darling, though not here. Thanks to the hospital
+course you let me enjoy, I can follow my father and brothers to the
+front. I am a trained nurse, you know, and some will need me there."
+
+The Sun Maid caught her breath with a little gasp. Then again she
+smiled.
+
+"Of course, Honoria; if you wish it. It is only one more to give; yet
+you will be in little danger and your father in so much the less
+because of your presence. Now let us apportion the other duties and
+set about them."
+
+This was quickly done; and to the mother herself remained the
+assumption of all monetary affairs in her husband's private office in
+their last new home; where, when they had removed to it, she had
+inquired:
+
+"Why such a palace, Gaspar, for two plain, simple folk like you and
+me? It is big enough for a barrack, and those great empty 'blocks' on
+every side remind me of our old days in Mercy's log cabin among the
+woods."
+
+"I like it, dear. There will be room in this big house to entertain
+guests of every rank and station as they should be entertained in
+our dear city. These empty squares about us shall keep their old
+trees intact, but the grounds shall be beautified by the highest
+landscape art, to which the full view of our grand lake will give
+crowning charm. When we have done with it all we will give it to the
+little children for a perpetual playground. Even the proposed new
+enlargement of the city limits will hardly encroach upon us here."
+
+"But it will, Gaspar, it surely will! When I hark back, as Abel used
+to say, I find Katasha's prophecies and my old dreams more than
+fulfilled. But the end is not yet, nor soon."
+
+Now that her daughters were scattered to their various points of
+usefulness and the Sun Maid was left alone with Hugh's one motherless
+child--another Kitty--the great house seemed more empty than ever; and
+its brave mistress resolved to people it with something more
+substantial and needy than memories. So she gathered about her a host
+to whom the cruel war had brought distress of one form or another;
+while out among the trees of the park she erected a great barrack,
+fitted with every aid to comfort and convalescence. This, like the
+mansion, was speedily filled, and the "Keith Rest" became a household
+word throughout the land.
+
+The war which wise folk augured at its beginning, would be over in a
+few days dragged its weary length into the months, and though for a
+time there were many and cheerful letters, these ceased suddenly at
+the last, giving place to one brief telegram from Honoria: "Mother, my
+work here is ended. I am bringing home your heroes--four."
+
+Upon the hearth-rug, Kitty the younger, lay stretched at her ease,
+toying with the sharp nose of her favorite collie. She had the Sun
+Maid's own fairness of tint and the same wonderful hair; but her eyes
+were dark as her grandsire Gaspar's and saw many things which they
+appeared not to see; for instance, that one of the numerous telegrams
+her busy grandmother was always receiving had been read and dropped
+upon the floor. Yet this was a common circumstance, and though she
+felt it her duty to rise and return the yellow paper to the hand which
+had held it, she delayed a moment, enjoying the warmth and ease. Then
+Bruce, the collie, sat up and whined,--dolefully, and so humanly, it
+seemed, that the girl also sprang up, demanding:
+
+"Why, Bruce, old doggie, what do you hear? What makes you look so
+queer?"
+
+Then her own gaze followed the collie's to her grandmother's face and
+her scream echoed through all the house.
+
+"Grandmother! My darling Grandmother! Are you--are you
+dead--dying--what----"
+
+She picked up the telegram and read it, and her own happy young heart
+faltered in its rhythm.
+
+"Oh! awful! 'Bringing'--those precious ones who cannot come of
+themselves. This will kill her. I believe it will kill even me."
+
+But it did neither. After a space the rigidity left the Sun Maid's
+figure and her staring eyes that had been gazing upon vacancy resumed
+intelligence. Rising stiffly from her seat, she put the younger Kit
+aside, yet very gently and tenderly, because of all her race this was
+the dearest. Had not the child Gaspar's eyes?
+
+"My girl, you will know what to do. I am going to my chamber, and must
+be undisturbed."
+
+Then she passed out of the cheerful library into that "mother's room,"
+where her husband and her sons had gathered about her so often and so
+fondly and in which she had bestowed upon each her farewell and
+especial blessing. As the portiere fell behind her it seemed to her
+that already they came hurrying to greet her, and softly closing the
+door she shut herself in from all the world with them and her own
+grief.
+
+For the first time in all her life the Sun Maid considered her own
+self before another; and for hours she remained deaf to young Kitty's
+pleading:
+
+"Let me come in, Grandmother. Let me come in. I am as alone as you--it
+was my father, too, as well as your son!"
+
+It was the dawn of another day before the door did open and the
+mourner came out. Mourner? One could hardly call her that; for, though
+the beautiful face was colorless and the eyes heavy with unshed
+tears, there was a rapt, exalted look upon it which awed the
+grandchild into silence. Yet for the first time she was startled by
+the thought:
+
+"We have lived together as if we were only elder and younger sister,
+for she has had the heart of a child. But now I see--she is, indeed,
+my grandmother--and she is growing old."
+
+"Let all things be done decently and in order when Gaspar and the boys
+come home," was all the direction the Sun Maid gave, and it was well
+fulfilled. Yet, because she could not bear to be far apart from them,
+she sat out the hours of watching in the little ante-room adjoining
+the great parlor where her heroes lay in state, while all Chicago
+gathered to do them reverence.
+
+There was none could touch her grief, not one. It was too deep. It
+benumbed even herself. Perhaps in all the land, during all that
+dreadful time, there was no person so afflicted as she, who had lost
+four at a blow. But she rose from her sorrow with that buoyant faith
+and hopefulness which nothing could for long depress.
+
+"There is unfinished work to do. Gaspar left it when he went away,
+knowing I would take it up for him if he could never do it for
+himself. There is no time in life for unavailing sorrow. Come, Kitty,
+child. Others have their dead to bury, let us go forth and comfort
+them."
+
+Obedient Kitty went, her thoughts full of wonder and admiration:
+
+"By massacre, famine, pestilence, and the sword! How has my dear 'Sun
+Maid' been chastened, and how beautifully she has come through it all!
+She could not have been half so lovely as a girl, when Grandfather met
+and wooed her that morning on the prairie. I wonder have her trials
+ended? or are there more in store before she is made perfect? I cannot
+think of anything still which could befall her, unless I die or her
+beloved city come to ruin. Well, I'll walk with her, hand in hand, and
+if I live, I'll be as like her as I can."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+
+"What shall we do to celebrate your birthday, my child?" asked
+Grandmother Kitty, early in that first week of October on whose
+Saturday the young girl would reach to the dignity of sixteen years.
+"All the conditions of your life are so different from mine at your
+age: seeming to make you both older and younger--if you understand
+what I mean--that I would like to hear your own wishes."
+
+"They shall be yours, Grandma dearest. You always have such happy
+ideas. I'd like yours best."
+
+"No, indeed! Not this time. I want everything to be exactly as you
+like this year; especially since you are now to assume the main charge
+of some of our charities."
+
+"I feel so unfitted for the responsibility you are giving me, Sun
+Maid. I'm afraid I shall make many blunders."
+
+"Doesn't everybody? And isn't it by seeing wherein we blunder and
+avoiding the pitfall a second time that we learn to walk surely and
+swiftly? You have been well trained to know the value of the money
+which God has given you so plentifully and of that loving sympathy
+which is better and richer than the wealth. I am not afraid for you,
+though it is an excellent sign that you are afraid for yourself. Now a
+truce to sermons. Let's hear the birthday wish. I am getting an old
+lady and don't like to be kept waiting."
+
+"Sunny Maid! you are not old, nor ever will be!"
+
+"Not in my heart, darling. How can I feel so when there is so much
+in life to do and enjoy? I have to bring myself up short quite
+often and remind myself how many birthdays of my own have gone by;
+though it seems but yesterday that Gaspar and I were standing by the
+Snake-Who-Leaps and learning how to hold our bows that we might shoot
+skilfully, even though riding bareback and at full speed, yet----"
+
+"I believe that you could do the very same still; and that there isn't
+another old lady----"
+
+"Let me interrupt this time. Aren't you contradicting yourself? Were
+you speaking of 'old' ladies?"
+
+"You funny Grandma! Well, then, I don't believe there's another
+young-old person in this great city can sit a horse as you do. If you
+would only ride somewhere besides in our own park and just for once
+let people see you! How many Snowbirds have you owned in your
+lifetime, Grandmother?"
+
+"One real Snowbird, with several imitations. Still, they have been
+pretty fair, for Gaspar selected them and he was a fine judge of
+horseflesh. You must remember that as long as he was with me we rode
+together anywhere and everywhere he wished. He was a splendid
+horseman."
+
+"He was 'splendid' in all things, wasn't he, Sun Maid?" asked the
+girl, with a lingering tenderness upon the other's Indian name and
+knowing that it still was very pleasant in the ears of her who owned
+it.
+
+"He was a man. He had grown to the full stature of a man. That covers
+all. But let's get back to birthday wishes. What are they?"
+
+"They're pretty big; all about the new 'Girls' Home' where I am to
+work for you. I think if the girls knew me, not as just somebody who
+is richer than they and wants to do them good, but as an equal,
+another giddy-head like themselves, it would make things ever so much
+easier for all of us. I would like to go through all the big stores
+and factories and places and find out every single girl who is sixteen
+and have them out to Keith House for a real delightful holiday. And
+because I like boys, and presume other girls do, too--Don't stiffen
+your neck, please, Grandmother; remember there were you and
+Gaspar----"
+
+"But we were different."
+
+"Maybe; yet these girls have brothers, and I wish I had. Never mind,
+though. I'd like to invite them all out here for Saturday and Sunday.
+On Saturday evening we'd have an old-fashioned young folks' party,
+with games and frolics such as were common years and years ago. Then,
+for Sunday, there'd be the ministers who are to stop here during that
+convention that's coming, and they'd be glad, I know, to speak to us
+young folks. It's perfect weather, and all day these young things who
+are shut up all the week could roam about the park, or read, or rest
+in the picture-gallery or library, and--eat."
+
+The Sun Maid laughed.
+
+"Do you really stop to think about the eating? How many do you imagine
+would have to be fed? And I assure you, my young dreamer, that, though
+it doesn't sound especially well, the feeding of her guests is one of
+the most important duties of every hostess. But I'll take that part
+off your hands. You attend to the spiritual and moral entertainment
+and I'll order the table part. Yet your plan calls for many sleeping
+accommodations. How about that?"
+
+"I thought, Grandmother, maybe you'd let me open the 'Barrack' again.
+That would do for the boys, and there's surely room enough in this
+great house for all the girls who'd care to stay."
+
+A shadow passed over the Sun Maid's face, but it--_passed_. In a
+moment she looked up brightly and answered as, a few hours later, she
+was to be most thankful she had done:
+
+"Very well. After the war was over and I closed it I felt as if I
+could never reopen the place. Though Gaspar and my boys never saw it,
+somehow it seemed always theirs. I suppose because it had been built
+for the benefit of those who had fought and suffered with them. Now I
+see that this was morbid; and I am glad I have never torn the building
+down, as I have sometimes thought I would. You may have it for your
+friends and should set about airing and preparing it at once. Also, if
+you are to give so many invitations, you would better start upon
+them."
+
+"Couldn't I just put an advertisement in the papers? That's so easy
+and short."
+
+"And--rude!"
+
+"Rude?"
+
+"Yes. There would be no compliment in a newspaper invitation. Would
+you fancy one for yourself?"
+
+"No, indeed, I should not. That rule of yours, to 'put yourself in his
+place,' is a pretty good one, after all, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes. Now order the carriage and I'll go with you on your rounds and
+make a list as we do so of how many will need to be provided for. We
+shall have a busy week before us."
+
+"But a happy one, Grandmother. Your face is shining already, even more
+than usual. I believe in your heart of hearts you love girls better
+than anything else in this world."
+
+"Maybe. Except--boys."
+
+"And flowers, and animals. How they will enjoy the conservatories! And
+it wouldn't be wrong, would it, to have out the horses between times
+on Sunday and let these young things, who'd never had a chance, see
+how glorious a feeling it is to ride a fine horse? Just around the
+park, you know."
+
+"Which would be quite as far as most of them would care to ride, I
+fancy, for there are very few people who call their first experience
+on horseback a 'glorious' one."
+
+It was a busy week indeed, but a joyful one, full of anticipation
+concerning the coming festivities. Never had the Sun Maid appeared
+younger or gayer or entered more heartily into the preparations for
+entertainment. A dozen times, maybe, during those mornings of shopping
+and ordering and superintending, did she exclaim with fervor:
+
+"Thank God for Gaspar's money, that makes us able to give others
+pleasure!"
+
+"Grandmother, even for a foreign nobleman you wouldn't do half so
+much!"
+
+"Foreign? No, indeed. To all their due; and to our own young
+Americans, these toilers who are the glory of our nation, let every
+deference be paid. Did you write about the orchestra? That was to play
+during Saturday's supper?"
+
+"Yes, indeed. I believe nothing is forgotten."
+
+To the guests, who came at the appointed time, it certainly did not
+seem so; and almost every one was there who had been asked.
+
+"I did not believe that there could be found so many working girls in
+Chicago who are just sixteen," cried the gay young hostess, standing
+upon the great stair and looking down across the wide parlor, crowded
+with bright, graceful figures.
+
+"I did. My Chicago is a wonderful city, child. But I do not believe
+that in any other city in the world could be gathered another such
+assemblage. Typical American girls, every one. May God bless them!
+Their beauty, their bearing, even their attire, would compare most
+favorably with any company of young women who are far more richly
+dowered by dollars. And the boys; even with their greater shyness, how
+did they ever learn to be so courteous, so----"
+
+"Oh, my Sun Maid! Answer yourself, in your own words. 'It's in the
+air. It's just--Chicago!'"
+
+When the fun was at the highest, there came a belated guest who
+brought news that greatly disquieted the elder hostess, though none of
+the merrymakers about her seemed to think it a matter half as
+important as the next game on the list.
+
+"A fire, broken out in the city? That is serious. The season is so dry
+and there are many buildings in Chicago that would burn like
+kindlings. However, let us hope it will soon be subdued; and there is
+somebody calling you, I think."
+
+Although anything which menaced the prosperity of the town she loved
+so well always disturbed the Sun Maid, she put this present matter
+from her almost as easily as she dismissed the youth who had brought
+the bad tidings. The housing and entertaining of Kitty's guests was an
+engrossing affair; and all Sunday was occupied in these duties; but on
+Sunday night came a time of leisure.
+
+It was then, while resting among her girls and discussing their early
+departure in the morning--which their lives of labor rendered
+necessary--that a second messenger arrived with a second message of
+disaster.
+
+"There's another fire downtown, and it's burning like a whirlwind!"
+
+"We have an excellent fire department," answered the hostess, with
+confident pride.
+
+"It can't make much show against this blaze. I think those of us who
+can should get home at once."
+
+The Sun Maid's heart sank. The coming event had cast its shadow upon
+her and, foreseeing evil, she replied instantly:
+
+"Those who must go shall be conveyed at once; but I urge all who will
+to remain. Keith House is as safe as any place can be if this fire
+continues to spread. It is not probable, even at the best, that any of
+you will be wanted at your employers' in the morning. The excitement
+will not be over, even if the conflagration is."
+
+The company divided. There were many who were anxious about home
+friends and hastened away in the vehicles so hastily summoned; but
+there were also many whose only home was a boarding-house and who were
+thankful for the shelter and hospitality offered. Among these last
+were some of the young men, and the Sun Maid summoned them to her own
+office and discussed with them some plans of usefulness to others.
+
+"We shall none of us be able to sleep to-night. I have a feeling that
+we ought not. I wish, therefore, you would go out and engage all the
+teams you possibly can from this neighborhood; and go with them and
+their drivers to the threatened districts, as well as those already
+destroyed. Our great house and grounds are open to all. Bring any who
+wish, and assure them that they will be cared for."
+
+"But there may be thieves among them," objected one lad, who had a
+keener judgment of what might occur.
+
+"There is always evil amid the good; but not for that reason should
+any poor creature suffer. Remember I am able to help liberally in
+money, and never so thankful as now that this is so. Go and do your
+best."
+
+They scattered, proud to serve her, and thrilled with the excitement
+of that awful hour; but many were amazed to find that after a brief
+time she had followed them herself.
+
+The younger Kitty pleaded, though vainly, to prevent her grandmother's
+departure, for the Sun Maid answered firmly:
+
+"You are to take my place as mistress here. I will have the old
+coachman drive me in the phaeton to the nearest point advisable. I
+must be on the spot, but I will not recklessly risk myself. Only, my
+dear, it is _our city_, Gaspar's and mine; almost a personal
+belonging, since we two watched its growth from a tiny village to the
+great town it has become. Gaspar would be there with his aid and
+counsel. I must take his place."
+
+There were many who saw her, and will forever remember the noble
+woman, standing upright in the low vehicle at a point where two ways
+met; with the light of the burning city falling over her wonderful
+hair, that had long since turned snowy white, and bringing out the
+beauty of a face whose loveliness neither age nor sorrow could dim.
+
+The sadness in her tender eyes deepened as she could see the cruel
+blaze sweeping on and on, wiping out home after home and hurling to
+destruction the mighty structures of which she had been so personally
+proud.
+
+"Oh, I have loved it, I have loved it! Its very paving-stones have
+been dear to me, and it is as if all these fleeing, homeless ones were
+my own children. Well, it is--Chicago,--a city with a mission. It
+cannot die. Let the fire do its worst; not all shall perish. There are
+things which cannot burn. Again and again and again I have thanked God
+for the wealth he led my Gaspar, the penniless and homeless, to
+gain--for His own glory. Let the flames destroy unto the limit He has
+set. Out of their ruins shall rise another city, fairer and lovelier
+than this has been; richer because of this purification and far more
+tender in its broad welcome to humanity."
+
+Hour after hour she waited there, directing, comforting, assisting;
+giving shelter and sustenance, and, best of all, the influence of her
+high faith and indomitable courage. As it had done before, her clear
+sight gazed into the future and beheld the glory that should be; and,
+like every prophecy her tongue had ever uttered, this, spoken there in
+the very light of her desolation, as it were, has already been more
+than verified.
+
+This all who knew the Beautiful City as it was and now know it as it
+is will cheerfully attest; and some there are among these who deem it
+their highest privilege to go sometimes to a stately mansion, set
+among old trees, where in a sunshiny chamber sits an old, old lady,
+who yet seems perennially young. Her noble head still keeps its heavy
+crown of silver, her eye is yet bright, her intellect keen, and her
+interest in her fellow-men but deepens with the years.
+
+Very like her is the younger Kitty, who is never far away; who has
+grown to be a person of influence in all her city's beneficence; and
+who believes that there was never another woman in all the world like
+her grandmother.
+
+"Yes," she assures you earnestly, "she is the Sun Maid indeed,--a
+fountain of delight to all who know her. She has still the heart of a
+child and a child's perfect health. I confidently expect to see her
+round her century."
+
+
+
+
+
+      *      *      *      *      *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+Minor changes have been made to correct typesetters' errors; otherwise
+every effort has been made to remain true to the author's words and
+intent.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SUN MAID***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 32843-8.txt or 32843-8.zip *******
+
+
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/2/8/4/32843
+
+
+
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+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" />
+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Sun Maid, by Evelyn Raymond</title>
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+<body>
+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Sun Maid, by Evelyn Raymond</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: The Sun Maid</p>
+<p>       A Story of Fort Dearborn</p>
+<p>Author: Evelyn Raymond</p>
+<p>Release Date: June 16, 2010  [eBook #32843]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SUN MAID***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4>E-text prepared by D Alexander<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net/c/">http://www.pgdp.net</a>)<br />
+    from page images generously made available by<br />
+    Internet Archive/American Libraries<br />
+    (<a href="http://www.archive.org/details/americana">http://www.archive.org/details/americana</a>)</h4>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;" cellpadding="10">
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">
+      Note:
+    </td>
+    <td>
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive/American Libraries. See
+      <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/sunmaidstoryoffo00raym">
+      http://www.archive.org/details/sunmaidstoryoffo00raym</a>
+	</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 314px;">
+<img src="images/icover.jpg" width="314" height="500" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<hr class="large" />
+
+<h1>THE SUN MAID</h1>
+
+<h2>A STORY OF FORT DEARBORN</h2>
+
+<h4>BY</h4>
+
+<h3>EVELYN RAYMOND</h3>
+
+<p class="center smaller">AUTHOR OF &#8220;THE LITTLE LADY OF THE HORSE,&#8221; ETC.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;">
+<img src="images/i001.jpg" width="300" height="121" alt="FORT DEARBORN" title="" />
+<span class="caption">FORT DEARBORN</span>
+</div>
+
+<p class="ispace">&#160;</p>
+
+<h4>NEW YORK</h4>
+
+<h3>E. P. DUTTON &amp; COMPANY</h3>
+
+<h4>31 <span class="smcap">West Twenty-third St.</span></h4>
+
+<hr class="large" />
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Copyright</span>, 1900<br />
+<br />
+BY<br />
+<br />
+E. P. DUTTON &amp; CO.</p>
+
+<p class="smallgap">&#160;</p>
+
+<p class="center">The Knickerbocker Press, New York</p>
+
+<hr class="large" />
+<p><a name="Frontispiece" id="Frontispiece"></a></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 337px;">
+<img src="images/i003.jpg" class="jpg" width="337" height="500" alt="Page 22. KITTY AND THE SNAKE. Frontispiece." title="" />
+<span class="caption">Page <a href="#Page_22">22</a>. KITTY AND THE SNAKE. Frontispiece.</span>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="large" />
+<h4>TO ALL YOUNG HEARTS<br />
+IN THAT FAIR CITY BY THE INLAND SEA</h4>
+<h3>CHICAGO</h3>
+
+<hr class="large" />
+<h2>PREFACE.</h2>
+
+<p>In some measure, the story of the Sun Maid is an allegory.</p>
+
+<p>Both the heroine and the city of her love grew from insignificant
+beginnings; the one into a type of broadest womanhood, the other into
+a grandeur which has made it unique among the cities of the world.</p>
+
+<p>Discouragements, sorrows, and seeming ruin but developed in each the
+same high attributes of courage, indomitable will power, and
+far-reaching sympathy. The story of the youth of either would be a
+tale unfinished; and those who have followed, with any degree of
+interest, the fortunes of either during any period will keep that
+interest to the end.</p>
+
+<p>There are things which never age. Such was the heart of the Maid who
+remained glad as a girl to the end of her century, and such the
+marvellous Chicago with a century rounded glory which is still the
+glory of a youth whose future magnificence no man can estimate.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">E. R., Baltimore</span>, January, 1900.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" />
+<h2>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+<hr class="tiny" />
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" width="80%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1" summary="CONTENTS">
+
+<tr>
+<td><p class="smaller">CHAPTER</p></td>
+<td align="left">&#160;</td>
+<td align="right"><p class="smaller">PAGE</p></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">I.</td>
+<td align="left">AS THE SUN WENT DOWN</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">II.</td>
+<td align="left">TWO FOR BREAKFAST</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_13">13</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">III.</td>
+<td align="left">IN INDIAN ATTIRE</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_27">27</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">IV.</td>
+<td align="left">THE WHITE BOW</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_38">38</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">V.</td>
+<td align="left">HORSES: WHITE AND BLACK</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_50">50</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">VI.</td>
+<td align="left">THE THREE GIFTS</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_64">64</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">VII.</td>
+<td align="left">A THREEFOLD CORD IS STRONGEST</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_77">77</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">VIII.</td>
+<td align="left">AN ISLAND RETREAT</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_91">91</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">IX.</td>
+<td align="left">AT MUCK-OTEY-POKEE</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_107">107</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">X.</td>
+<td align="left">THE CAVE OF REFUGE</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_124">124</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">XI.</td>
+<td align="left">UNDER A WHITE MAN&#8217;S ROOF</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_138">138</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">XII.</td>
+<td align="left">AFTER FOUR YEARS</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_156">156</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">XIII.</td>
+<td align="left">THE HARVESTING</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_169">169</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">XIV.</td>
+<td align="left">ONCE MORE IN THE OLD HOME</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_180">180</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">XV.</td>
+<td align="left">PARTINGS AND MEETINGS</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_194">194</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">XVI.</td>
+<td align="left">THE SHUT AND THE OPEN DOOR</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_209">209</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">XVII.</td>
+<td align="left">A DAY OF HAPPENINGS</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_231">231</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">XVIII.</td>
+<td align="left">WESTWARD AND EASTWARD OVER THE PRAIRIE</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_247">247</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">XIX.</td>
+<td align="left">THE CROOKED LOG</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_260">260</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">XX.</td>
+<td align="left">ENEMIES, SEEN AND UNSEEN</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_272">272</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">XXI.</td>
+<td align="left">FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_284">284</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">XXII.</td>
+<td align="left">GROWING UP</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_296">296</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">XXIII.</td>
+<td align="left">HEROES</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_306">306</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">XXIV.</td>
+<td align="left">CONCLUSION</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_315">315</a></td></tr>
+
+</table></div>
+
+<hr class="large" />
+<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2>
+
+<hr class="tiny" />
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" width="80%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1" summary="ILLUSTRATIONS">
+
+<tr>
+<td>&#160;</td>
+<td>&#160;</td>
+<td align="right"><p class="smaller">PAGE</p></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>FORT DEARBORN</td>
+<td align="right"><i>Title-page</i></td>
+<td align="right">&#160;</td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>BLACK PARTRIDGE AND THE SUN MAID</td>
+<td align="right">&#160;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#illo1">6</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>KITTY AND THE SNAKE</td>
+<td align="right"><i>Frontispiece</i></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Frontispiece">22</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>THE GIFT OF THE WHITE BOW</td>
+<td align="right">&#160;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#illo2">48</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>SNOWBIRD AND THE SUN MAID</td>
+<td align="right">&#160;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#illo3">68</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>GASPAR AND KITTY REACH THE FORT</td>
+<td align="right">&#160;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#illo4">188</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>&#8220;KITTY! MY KITTY!&#8221;</td>
+<td align="right">&#160;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#illo5">258</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td>OSCEOLO AND GASPAR</td>
+<td align="right">&#160;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#illo6">276</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="THE_SUN_MAID" id="THE_SUN_MAID"></a>THE SUN MAID.</h2>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+<h3>AS THE SUN WENT DOWN.</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:5px;padding-bottom:1px;">W</span>ith gloom in his heart, Black Partridge strode homeward along the
+beach path.</p>
+
+<p>The glory of a brilliant August sunset crimsoned the tops of the
+sandhills on the west and the waters of the broad lake on the east;
+but if the preoccupied Indian observed this at all, it was to see in
+it an omen of impending tragedy. Red was the color of blood, and he
+foresaw that blood must flow, and freely.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;They are all fools. All. They know that Black Partridge cannot lie,
+yet they believe not his words. The white man lies, and works his own
+destruction. His doom be on his head!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>As his thought took this line the chief&#8217;s brow grew still more stern,
+and an expression of contempt curled the corners of his wide, thin
+lips. A savage though he was, at that moment he felt himself
+immeasurably superior to the pale-faces whom he had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span>known; and in the
+consciousness of his integrity he held his tall form even more erect,
+while he turned his face toward the sky in gratitude to that Great
+Spirit who had made him what he was.</p>
+
+<p>Then again he remembered the past, and again his feather-adorned head
+drooped beneath its burden of regret, while his brown fingers clasped
+and unclasped themselves about a glittering medal which decorated his
+necklace, and was the most cherished of his few possessions.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I have worn it for long, and it has rested lightly upon my heart; but
+now it becomes a knife that pierces. Therefore I must return it whence
+it came.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Yet something like a sigh escaped him, and his hands fell down
+straight at his sides. Also, his narrow eyes gazed forward upon the
+horizon, absently, as if their inward visions were much clearer than
+anything external. In this manner he went onward for a little
+distance, till his moccasined foot struck sharply against something
+lying in his path, and so roused him from his reverie.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ugh! Ugh! So. When the squaw dies the papoose must suffer.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The soft obstruction was a little child, curled into a rounded heap,
+and fast asleep upon this primitive public highway. The touch of the
+red man&#8217;s foot had partially wakened the sleeper, and when he bent and
+laid his hand upon her shoulder, she <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span>sprang up lightly, at once
+beginning to laugh and chatter with a gayety that infected even the
+stolid Indian.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ugh! The Little-One-Who-Laughs. Why are you here alone, so far from
+the Fort, Kitty Briscoe?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I runned away. Bunny rabbit runned away. I did catch him two times. I
+did find some posies, all yellow and round and&mdash;posies runned away,
+too. Ain&#8217;t that funny? Kitty go seek them.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Her laughter trilled out, bird clear, and a mischievous twinkle
+lighted her big blue eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I runned away. Bunny rabbit runned to catch me. I runned to catch
+bunny. I caught the posies. Yellow posies gone&mdash;I go find them, too.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>As if it were the best joke in the world, the little creature still
+laughed over her own conceit of so many runnings till, in whirling
+about, she discovered the remnants of the flowers she had lost upon
+the heat-hardened path behind her. Indeed, when she had dropped down
+to sleep, overcome by sudden weariness, it had been with the cool
+leaves and blossoms for a couch. Now the love of all green and growing
+things was an inborn passion with this child, and her face sobered to
+a keen distress as she gazed upon her ruined treasures. But almost at
+once the cloud passed, and she laughed again.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Poor posies, tired posies, sleepy, too. Kitty <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>sorry. Put them in the
+water trough and wake them up. Then they hold their eyes open, just
+like Kitty&#8217;s.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ugh! Where the papoose sleeps the blossoms wither,&#8221; remarked Black
+Partridge, regarding the bruised and faded plants with more attention.
+They were wild orchids, and he knew that the child must have wandered
+far afield to obtain them. At that time of year such blooms were
+extremely rare, and only to be found in the moist shadows of some
+tree-bordered stream quite remote from this sandy beach.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, dear! Something aches my feet. I will go home to my little bed.
+Pick up the posies, Feather-man, and take poor Kitty.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>With entire confidence that the Indian would do as she wished, the
+small maid clasped his buckskin-covered knee and leaned her dimpled
+cheek against it. It proved a comfortable support, and with a babyish
+yawn she promptly fell asleep again.</p>
+
+<p>Had she been a child of his own village, even of his own wigwam, Black
+Partridge would have shaken her roughly aside, feeling his dignity
+affronted by her familiarity; but in her case he could not do this and
+on this night least of all.</p>
+
+<p>The little estray was the orphan of Fort Dearborn; whose soldier
+father had met a soldier&#8217;s common fate, and whose mother had quickly
+followed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span>him with her broken heart. Then the babe of a few weeks
+became the charge of the kind women at the Fort, and the pet of the
+garrison in general.</p>
+
+<p>But now far graver matters than the pranks of a mischievous child
+filled the minds of all her friends. The peaceful, monotonous life of
+the past few years was over, and the order had gone forth that the
+post should be evacuated. Preparations had already begun for the long
+and hazardous journey which confronted that isolated band of white
+people, and the mothers of a score of other restless young folk had
+been too busy and anxious to notice when this child slipped away to
+wander on the prairie.</p>
+
+<p>For a brief time the weary baby slumbered against the red man&#8217;s knee,
+while he considered the course he would best pursue; whether to return
+her at once to the family of the commandant, or to carry her southward
+to the Pottawatomie lodge whither he was bound. Then, his decision
+made, he lifted the child to his breast and resumed his homeward way.</p>
+
+<p>But the bright head pillowed so near his eyes seemed to dazzle him,
+and its floating golden locks to catch and hold, in a peculiar
+fashion, the rays of the sunset. From this, with his race instinct of
+poetic imagery, which finds in nature a type for everything, he caught
+a quaint suggestion.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;She is like the sun himself. She is all warmth <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>and brightness. She
+is his child, now that her pale-faced parents sleep the long sleep,
+and none other claims her. None? Yes, one. I, Black Partridge, the
+Man-Who-Lies-Not. In my village, Muck-otey-pokee, lives my sister, the
+daughter of a chief, her whose one son died of the fever on that same
+dark night when the arrow of a Sioux warrior killed a brave, his sire.
+In her closed tepee there will again be light. The Sun Maid shall make
+it. So shall she escape the fate of the doomed pale-faces, and so
+shall the daughter of my house again be glad.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Thus, bearing her new name, and all unconsciously, the little Sun Maid
+was carried southward and still southward till the twilight fell and
+her new guardian reached the Pottawatomie village, on the Illinois
+prairie, where he dwelt.</p>
+
+<p>Sultry as the night was, there was yet a great council fire blazing in
+the midst of the settlement, and around this were grouped many young
+braves of the tribe. Before the arrival of their chief there had been
+a babel of tongues in the council, but all discussion ceased as he
+joined the circle in the firelight.</p>
+
+<p>The sudden silence was ominous, and the wise leader understood it; but
+it was not his purpose then to quarrel with any man. Ignoring the
+scowling glances bestowed upon him, he gave the customary evening
+salutation and, advancing directly to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>the fire, plucked a blazing fagot from it. This he lifted high and
+purposely held so that its brightness illuminated the face and figure
+of the child upon his breast.</p>
+
+<p><a name="illo1" id="illo1"></a></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 331px;">
+<img src="images/i014.jpg" class="jpg ispace" width="331" height="500" alt="BLACK PARTRIDGE AND THE SUN MAID. Page 6." title="" />
+<span class="caption">BLACK PARTRIDGE AND THE SUN MAID. <i>Page <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.</i></span>
+</div>
+
+<p>A guttural exclamation of astonishment ran from brave to brave. The
+action of their chief was significant, but its meaning not clearly
+comprehended. Had he brought the white baby as a hostage from the
+distant garrison, in pledge that the compact of its commandant would
+surely be kept? Or had some other tribe anticipated their own in
+obtaining the gifts to be distributed?</p>
+
+<p>Shut-Hand, one of the older warriors, whose name suggested his
+character, rose swiftly to his feet, and demanded menacingly:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What means our father, thus bringing hither the white papoose?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That which the Black Partridge does&mdash;he does.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Rebuked, but unsatisfied, the miserly inquirer sat down. Then, with a
+gesture of protection, the chief raised the sleeping little one, that
+all within the circle might better see her wonderful, glowing beauty,
+intensified as it was by the flare of the flames as well as by
+contrast to the dusky faces round about.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Who suffers harm to her shall himself suffer. She is the Sun Maid,
+the new daughter of our tribe.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p><p>Having said this, and still carrying the burning fagot, he walked to
+the closed tepee of his widowed sister and lifted its door flap.
+Stooping his tall head till its feathered crest swept the floor he
+entered the spacious lodge. But he sniffed with contempt at the
+stifling atmosphere within, and laying down his torch raised the other
+half of the entrance curtain.</p>
+
+<p>At the back of the wigwam, crouching in the attitude she had sustained
+almost constantly since her bereavement, sat the Woman-Who-Mourns. She
+did not lift her head, or give any sign of welcome till the chief had
+crossed to her side, and in a tone of command bade her:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Arise and listen, my sister, for I bring you joy.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There is no joy,&#8221; answered the woman, obediently lifting her tall
+figure to a rigidly erect posture; by long habit compelled to outward
+respect, though her heart remained indifferent.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Put back the hair from your eyes. Behold. For the dead son I give you
+the living daughter. In that land to which both have gone will her
+lost mother care for your lost child as you now care for her.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Slowly, a pair of lean, brown hands came out from the swathing blanket
+and parted the long locks that served as a veil to hide a haggard,
+sorrowful face. After the deep gloom the sudden firelight <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>dazzled the
+woman&#8217;s sight, and she blinked curiously toward the burden upon her
+brother&#8217;s breast. Then the small eyes began to see more clearly and to
+evince the amazement that filled her.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Dreams have been with me. They were many and strange. Is this
+another?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;This a glad reality. It is the Sun Maid. She has no parents. You have
+no child. She is yours. Take her and learn to laugh once more as in
+the days that are gone.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Then he held the little creature toward her; and still amazed, but
+still obedient, the heart-broken squaw extended her arms and received
+the unconscious foundling. As the warm, soft flesh touched her own a
+thrill passed through her desolate heart, and all the tenderness of
+motherhood returned.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Who is she? Whence did she come? Where will she go?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;She is the Sun Maid. From the Fort by the great lake, where are still
+white men enough to die&mdash;as die they must. For there is treachery
+afoot, and they who were first treacherous must bear their own
+punishment. Only she shall be saved; and where she will go is in the
+power of the Woman-Who-Mourns, and of her alone.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Without another word, and leaving the still blazing fagot lying on the
+earthen floor, the chief went swiftly away.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span></p><p>But he had brought fresh air and light and comfort with him, as he had
+prophesied. The small Sun Maid was already brightening the dusky lodge
+as might an actual ray from her glorious namesake.</p>
+
+<p>It was proof of her utter exhaustion that she still slept soundly
+while her new foster-mother prepared a bed of softest furs spread over
+fresh green branches and went hurriedly out to beg from a neighbor
+squaw a draught of evening&#8217;s milk. This action in itself was
+sufficiently surprising to set all tongues a-chatter.</p>
+
+<p>The lodge of Muck-otey-pokee had many of the comforts common to the
+white men&#8217;s settlements. Its herd of cattle even surpassed that at
+Fort Dearborn itself, and was a matter of no small pride to the
+Pottawatomie villagers. From the old mission fathers they had learned,
+also, some useful arts, and wherever their prairie lands were tilled a
+rich result was always obtainable.</p>
+
+<p>So it was to a home of plenty, as well as safety, that Black Partridge
+had brought the little Sun Maid; and when she at length awoke to see a
+dusky face, full of wonderment and love, bending above her, she put
+out her arms and gurgled in a glee which brought an answering smile to
+lips that had not smiled for long.</p>
+
+<p>With an instinct of yearning tenderness, the Woman-Who-Mourns had
+lightened her sombre <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>attire by all the devices possible, so that
+while the child slept she had transformed herself. She had neatly
+plaited her heavy hair, and wound about her head some strings of gay
+beads. She had fastened a scarlet tanager&#8217;s wing to her breast, now
+covered by a bright-hued cotton gown once sent her from the Fort, and
+for which she had discarded her dingy blanket. But the greatest
+alteration of all was in the face itself, where a dawning happiness
+brought out afresh all the good points of a former comeliness.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh! Pretty! I have so many, many nice mammas. Are you another?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes. All your mother now. My Sun Maid. My Girl-Child. My papoose!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That is nice. But I&#8217;m hungry. Give me my breakfast, Other Mother.
+Then I will go seek my bunny rabbit, that runned away, and my yellow
+posies that went to sleep when I did. Did you put them to bed, too,
+Other Mother?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There are many which shall wake for you, papoose,&#8221; answered the
+woman, promptly; for though she did not understand about the missing
+blossoms, it was fortunate that she did both understand and speak the
+language of her adopted daughter. Her dead husband had been the
+tribe&#8217;s interpreter, and both from him and from the Fort&#8217;s chaplain
+she had acquired considerable knowledge.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span></p><p>Until her widowhood and voluntary seclusion the Woman-Who-Mourns had
+been a person of note at Muck-otey-pokee; and now by her guardianship
+of this stranger white child she bade fair to again become such.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+<h3>TWO FOR BREAKFAST.</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:5px;padding-bottom:1px;">T</span>he dead son of the Woman-Who-Mourns had never been disobedient, and
+small Kitty Briscoe had never obeyed anybody. She had laughed and
+frolicked her way through all rules and over all obstacles with a
+merry indifference that would have been insolent had it been less
+innocent and charming. During her short life the orphan had heard no
+voice but was full of tenderness, toward her at least; and every
+babyish misdemeanor had been pardoned almost before it was committed,
+by reason of her exceeding loveliness and overflowing affection. She
+had so loved all that she feared none, and not one of the kind mothers
+at the Fort had felt it her especial duty to discipline so sweet and
+fearless a nature. By and by, when she grew older, why, of course, the
+child must come under the yoke, like other children of that stern
+generation; but for the present, what was she but an ignorant baby, a
+motherless babe at that?</p>
+
+<p>So that, on that first morning of their life <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>together, it gave the
+latest foster-mother a very decided shock when she directed:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Take your bowl of suppawn and milk, and eat it here by the fire,
+Girl-Child,&#8221; to have the other reply, with equal decision:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Kitty will take it to the out-doors.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;How? The papoose must eat her breakfast here, as I command.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But Kitty must take it out the doors. What will the pigeons say? Come
+with me, Other Mother.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Quite to her own astonishment, the proud daughter of a chief complied.
+Superstition had suggested to her that this white-robed little
+creature, with her trustful eyes and her wonderful hair, who seemed
+rather to float over the space to the threshold than to tread upon the
+earthen floor, was the re-embodied spirit of her own lost child come
+back to comfort her sorrow and to be a power for good in her tribe.</p>
+
+<p>But if the Sun Maid were a spirit, she had many earthly qualities; and
+with a truly human carelessness she had no sooner stepped beyond the
+tent flap than she let fall her heavy bowl and spilled her breakfast.
+For there stood her last night&#8217;s rescuer, his arms full of flowers.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, the posies! the posies! Nice Feather-man did bring them.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ugh! Black Partridge, the Truth-Teller. I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>have come to take my
+leave. Also to ask you, my sister, shall I carry away the Sun Maid to
+her own people? Or shall she abide with you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Take her away, my brother? Do you not guess, then, who she is?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why should I guess when I know. I saw her father die, and I stood
+beside her mother&#8217;s grave. The white papoose has neither tribe nor
+kinsman.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There for once the Truth-Teller speaks unwisely. The Sun Maid, whom
+you found asleep on the path, is my own flesh and blood.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>In surprise Black Partridge stared at the woman, whose face glowed
+with delight. Then he reflected that it would be as well to leave her
+undisturbed in her strange notion. The helpless little one would be
+the better cared for, under such circumstances, and the time might
+speedily come when she would need all the protection possible for
+anybody to give.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It is well&mdash;as you believe; yet then you are no longer the
+Woman-Who-Mourns, but again Wahneenah, the Happy.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>For a moment they silently regarded the child who had thrown herself
+face downward upon the great heap of orchids that Black Partridge had
+brought, and which he had risen very early to gather. They were of the
+same sort that the little one had grieved over on the night before,
+only much larger and fairer, and of far greater number. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>Talking to
+the blossoms and caressing them as if they were human playmates, the
+Sun Maid forgot that she was hungry, until Wahneenah had brought a
+second bowl of porridge and, gently lifting her charge to a place upon
+the mat, had bidden her eat.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, yes! My breakfast. I did forget it, didn&#8217;t I? Oh, the darling
+posies! Oh! the pretty Feather-man, that couldn&#8217;t tell a naughty
+story. I know &#8217;bout him. We all know &#8217;bout him to our Fort. My Captain
+says he is the bestest Feather-man in all the&mdash;everywhere.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ugh! Ugh!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The low grunt of assent seemed to come from every side the big wigwam.
+At all times there were many idle Indians at Muck-otey-pokee, but of
+late their number had been largely increased by bands of visiting
+Pottawatomies. These had come to tarry with their tribesmen in the
+village till the distribution of goods should be made from Fort
+Dearborn, as had been ordered by General Hull; or until the hour was
+ripe for their treacherous assault upon the little garrison.</p>
+
+<p>The Man-Who-Kills was in the very centre of the group which had
+squatted in a semi-circle as near as it dared before the tepee of
+their chief&#8217;s sister, and the low grunts came from this band of
+spectators.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We will sit and watch. So will we learn what the Black Partridge
+means,&#8221; and when Spotted <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>Rabbit so advised his brothers, they had
+come in the darkness and arranged themselves as has been described.</p>
+
+<p>The chief had found them there when, before dawn, he came with his
+offering of flowers, and Wahneenah had seen them when she raised the
+curtain of her tent and looked out to learn what manner of day was
+coming. But neither had noticed them any more than they did the birds
+rustling in the cottonwood beside the wigwam, or the wild creatures
+skurrying across the path for their early drink at the stream below.</p>
+
+<p>Neither had the Sun Maid paid them any attention, for she had always
+been accustomed to meeting the savages both at the Fort and on her
+rides abroad with any of her garrison friends; so she deliberately
+sipped her breakfast, pausing now and then to arrange the pouch-like
+petals of some favored blossoms and to converse with them in her
+fantastic fashion, quite believing that they heard and understood.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Did the nice Feather-man bring you all softly, little posies? Aren&#8217;t
+you glad you&#8217;ve come to live with Kitty? Other Mother will give you
+all some breakfast, too, of coldest water in the brook. Then you will
+sit up straight and hold your heads high. That&#8217;s the way the children
+do when my Captain takes the book with the green cover and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>makes them
+spell things out of it. Oscar doesn&#8217;t like the green book. It makes
+him wriggle his nose&mdash;so; but Margaret is as fond of it as I am of
+you. Oh, dear! Some day, all my mothers say, I, too, will have to sit
+and look on the printing and spell words. I can, though, even now.
+Listen, posies. D-o-g&mdash;that&#8217;s&mdash;that&#8217;s&mdash;I guess it&#8217;s &#8216;cat.&#8217; Isn&#8217;t it,
+posies? But you don&#8217;t have to spell things, do you? I needn&#8217;t either.
+Not to-day, and maybe not to-morrow day. Because, you see, I runned
+away. Oh, how I did run! So fast, so far, before I found your little
+sisters, posies, dear. Then I guess I went to sleep, without ever
+saying my &#8216;Now I lay me,&#8217; and the black Feather-man came, and&mdash;that&#8217;s
+all.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Wahneenah had gone back to her household duties, for she had many
+things on hand that day. Not the least, to make her neglected tepee a
+brighter, fitter home for this stray sunbeam which the Great Spirit
+had sent to her out of the sky, and into which He had breathed the
+soul of her lost one. Indistinctly, she heard the murmuring of the
+babyish voice at the threshold and occasionally caught some of the
+words it uttered. These served but to establish her in her belief that
+the child had more than mortal senses; else how should she fancy that
+the blossoms would hear and understand her prattle?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Listen. She talks to the weeds as the white <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>men talk to us. She is a
+witch,&#8221; said the Man-Who-Kills to his neighbor in the circle, the
+White Pelican.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;She is only a child of the pale-faces. The Black Partridge has set
+her among us to move our hearts to pity.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The White Pelican was ever a coward,&#8221; snorted the Man-Who-Kills.</p>
+
+<p>But the younger warrior merely turned his head and smiled
+contemptuously. Then he critically scrutinized the ill-proportioned
+figure of the ugly-tempered brave. The fellow&#8217;s crooked back,
+abnormally long arms and short legs were an anomaly in that race of
+stalwart Indians, and the soul of the savage corresponded to his
+outward development. For his very name had been given him in derision;
+because, though he always threatened and always sneaked after his
+prey, he had never been known to slay an enemy in open combat.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That is as the tomahawks prove. The scalps hang close on the pole of
+my wigwam,&#8221; finally remarked the Pelican.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ugh! But there was never such a scalp as that of the papoose yonder.
+It shall hang above all others in <i>my</i> tepee. I have said it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Having said it, you may unsay it. That is no human fleece upon that
+small head. She is sacred.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;How? Is the White Pelican a man of dreams?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p><p>The elder brave also used a tone of contempt, though not with marked
+success. His thought reverted to the night before, when the chief had
+stood beside the council fire holding the sleeping child in his arms.
+Her wonderful yellow hair, fine as spun cobwebs and almost as light,
+had blown over the breast of Black Partridge like a cloud, and it had
+glistened and shimmered in the firelight as if possessed of restless
+life. The little figure was clothed in white, as the Fort mothers had
+fancied best suited their charge&#8217;s fairness, even though the fabric
+must of necessity be coarse; and this garment likewise caught the glow
+of the dancing flames till it seemed luminous in itself.</p>
+
+<p>As an idle rumor spreads and grows among better cultured people so
+superstition held in power these watchful Indians. Said one:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The father of his tribe has met a spirit on the prairie and brought
+it to our village. Is the deed for good or evil?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>This was what the men in the semi-circle had come to find out. So they
+relapsed again into silence, but kept a fixed gaze upon the
+indifferent child before them. She continued her playing and feeding
+as unconsciously as if she, the flowers, and the sunshine, were quite
+alone. Some even fancied that they could hear the orchids whispering
+in return; and it was due to that morning&#8217;s incident <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>that,
+thereafter, few among the Pottawatomies would lightly bruise or break
+a blossom which they then learned to believe was gifted with a sensate
+life.</p>
+
+<p>But presently a sibilant &#8220;Hst!&#8221; ran the length of the squatting line,
+and warriors who feared not death for themselves felt their muscles
+stiffen under a tension of dread as they saw the slow, sinuous
+approach of a poisonous reptile to the child on the mat; and the
+thought of each watcher was the same:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now, indeed, the test&mdash;spirit or mortal?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The snake glided onward, its graceful body showing through the grass,
+its head slightly upraised, and its intention unmistakable.</p>
+
+<p>An Indian can be the most silent thing on earth, if he so wills, and
+at once it was as if all that row of red men had become stone. Even
+Wahneenah, in the wigwam behind, was startled by the stillness, and
+cautiously tiptoed forward to learn its cause. Then her heart, like
+theirs, hushed its beating and she rigidly awaited the outcome.</p>
+
+<p>Only the child herself was undisturbed. She did not cease the slow
+lifting of the clay spoon to her lips, and between sips she still
+prattled and gurgled in sheer content.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Kitty is most fulled up, &#8217;cause she did have so big a breakfast, she
+did. Nice Other Mother did <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>give it me. I wish my bunny rabbit had not
+runned away. Then he could have some. Never mind. Here comes a
+beau&#8217;ful cunning snake. I did see one two times to my Fort. Bad Jacky
+soldier did kill him dead, and that made Kitty cry. Come, pretty
+thing, do you want Kitty&#8217;s breakfast? Then you may have it every bit.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>So she tossed her hair from her eyes and sat with uplifted spoon while
+the moccasin glided up to the mat and over it, till its mouth could
+reach the shallow bowl in the child&#8217;s lap.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh! the funny way it eats. Poor thing! It hasn&#8217;t any spoon. It might
+have Kitty&#8217;s, only&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The bright eyes regarded the rudely shaped implement and the mouth it
+was to feed; then the little one&#8217;s ready laughter bubbled forth.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Funny Kitty! How could it hold a spoon was bigger &#8217;n itself&mdash;when its
+hands have never grown? Other pretty one, that Jacky killed, that
+didn&#8217;t have its hands, either. Hush, snaky. Did I make you afraid, I
+laugh so much? Now I will keep very, very still till you are through.
+Then you may go back home to your childrens, and tell them all about
+your nice breakfast. Where do you live? Is it in a Fort, as Kitty
+does? Oh, I forgot! I did promise to keep still. Quite, quite still,
+till you go way away.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p><p>So she did; while not only the red-skins, but all nature seemed to
+pause and watch the strange spectacle; for the light breeze that had
+come with the sunrise now died away, and every leaf stood still in the
+great heat which descended upon the earth.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed to Wahneenah, watching in a very motherly fear, and to the
+squatting braves, in their increasing awe, as if hours passed while
+the child and the reptile remained messmates. But at length the
+dangerous serpent was satisfied and, turning slowly about, retreated
+whence it came.</p>
+
+<p>Then Mistress Kitty lifted her voice and called merrily:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Come, Other Mother! Come and see. I did have a lovely, lovely creepy
+one to eat with me. He did eat so funny Kitty had to laugh. Then I
+remembered that my other peoples to my Fort tell all the children to
+be good and I was good, wasn&#8217;t I? Say, Other Mother, my posies want
+some water.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;They shall have it, White Papoose, my Girl-Child-Who-Is-Safe. She
+whom the Great Spirit has restored nothing can harm.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Then she led the Sun Maid away, after she had gathered up every
+flower, not daring that anything beloved of her strange foster-child
+should be neglected.</p>
+
+<p>The watching Indians also rose and returned into <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>the village from
+that point on its outskirts where Wahneenah&#8217;s wigwam stood. They spoke
+little, for in each mind the conviction had become firm that the Sun
+Maid was, in deed and truth, a being from the Great Beyond, safe from
+every mortal hurt.</p>
+
+<p>Yet still, the Man-Who-Kills fingered the edge of his tomahawk with
+regret and remarked in a manner intended to show his great prowess:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Even a mighty warrior cannot fight against the powers of the sky.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>After a little, one, less credulous than his fellows, replied
+boastfully:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Before the sun shall rise and set a second time the white scalp will
+hang at my belt.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Nobody answered the boast till at length a voice seemed to come out of
+the ground before them, and at its first sound every brave stood still
+to listen for that which was to follow. All recognized the voice, even
+the strangers from the most distant settlements. It was heard in
+prophecy only, and it belonged to old Katasha, the One-Who-Knows.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No. It is not so. Long after every one of this great Pottawatomie
+nation shall have passed out of sight, toward the place where the day
+dies, the hair of the Sun Maid&#8217;s head shall be still shining. Its gold
+will have turned to snow, but generation after generation shall bow
+down to it in honor. Go. The road is plain. There is blood upon it,
+and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>some of this is yours. But the scalp of the Sun Maid is in the
+keeping of the Great Spirit. It is sacred. It cannot be harmed. Go.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Then the venerable woman, who had risen from her bed upon the ground
+to utter her message, returned to her repose, and the warriors filed
+past her with bowed heads and great dejection of spirit. In this mood
+they joined another company about the dead council fire, and in angry
+resentment listened to the speech of the Black Partridge as he pleaded
+with them for the last time.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;For it is the last. This day I make one more journey to the Fort, and
+there I will remain until you join me. We have promised safe escort
+for our white neighbors through the lands of the hostile tribes who
+dare not wage war against us. The white man trusts us. He counts us
+his friends. Shall we keep our promise and our honor, or shall we
+become traitors to the truth?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It was Shut-Hand who answered for his tribesmen:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It is the pale-face who is a traitor to honesty. The goods which our
+Great Father gave him in trust for his red children have been
+destroyed. The white soldiers have forgotten their duty and have
+taught us to forget ours. When the sun rises on the morrow we will
+join the Black Partridge at the Fort by the great water, and we will
+do what seems <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>right in our eyes. The Black Partridge is our father
+and our chief. He must not then place the good of our enemies before
+the good of his own people. We have spoken.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>So the great Indian, who was more noble than his clansmen, went out
+from among them upon a hopeless errand. This time he did not make his
+journey on foot, but upon the back of his fleetest horse; and the
+medal he meant to relinquish was wrapped in a bit of deerskin and
+fastened to his belt.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, at least the Sun Maid will be safe. When the braves, with the
+squaws and children, join their brothers at the camp, Wahneenah will
+remain at Muck-otey-pokee; as should every other woman of the
+Pottawatomie nation, were I as powerful in reality as I appear. It is
+the squaws who urge the men to the darkest deeds. Ugh! What will be
+must be. Tchtk! Go on!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>But the bay horse was already travelling at its best, slow as its pace
+seemed to the Black Partridge.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+<h3>IN INDIAN ATTIRE.</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:5px;padding-bottom:1px;">N</span>ot many hours after Black Partridge turned his back upon
+Muck-otey-pokee, all its fighting men, with their squaws and children,
+also left it, as their chief had foreseen they would. They followed
+the direction he had taken, though they did not proceed to the
+garrison itself.</p>
+
+<p>The camp to which they repaired was a little distance from the Fort,
+and had been pitched beside the river, where was then a fringe of
+cottonwoods and locusts affording a grateful shade. Here the squaws
+cooked and gossiped, while their sons played the ancient games of
+throwing the spear through the ring, casting the hatchet, and shooting
+birds on the wing.</p>
+
+<p>The braves tested their weapons and boasted of many valorous deeds; or
+were else entirely silent, brooding upon mischief yet to come. Over
+all was the thrill of excitement and anticipation, which the great
+heat of the season seemed to deepen rather than dispel.</p>
+
+<p>At the Fort, Black Partridge pleaded finally and in vain.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;We have been ordered to evacuate, and we will obey. All things are in
+readiness. The stores are already in the wagons, and other wagons wait
+for the sick, the women, and the children. Your people have promised
+us a safe conveyance through their country, and as far as we shall
+need it. They will be well paid. Part they have received, and the rest
+of their reward will be promptly delivered at the end of the journey.
+There is no more to be said&#8221;; and with this conclusion the weary
+commandant sat down in his denuded home to take a bit of food and a
+few moments&#8217; rest. He nodded hospitably toward an empty chair on the
+farther side of the deal table, by way of invitation that the Indian
+should join him, but this the honest chief declined to do.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, good father, that can no longer be. I have come to return you
+this medal. I have worn it long and in peace. It was the gift of your
+people, a pledge between us of friendship. My friendship remains
+unbroken, but there also remains a tie which is stronger. I am the
+chief of my tribe. My young men are brave, and they have been
+deceived. They will punish the deceivers, and I have no power to
+prevent this. Nor do I blame them, though I would hold them to their
+compact if I could.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Cannot the Truth-Teller compel his sons to his own habit?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Not when his white father sets them a bad example.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Black Partridge, your words are bold.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Your deed was bolder, father. It was the deed of a fool.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Take care!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>As if he had not heard, the chief spoke steadily on:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;My tribesman, Winnemeg&mdash;the white man&#8217;s friend&mdash;brought the order
+that all goods stored here should be justly distributed among my
+people, to every man his portion. Was it thus done?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Come, Black Partridge, you are not wanting in good sense nor in
+honesty. You must admit that such a course would have been hazardous
+in the extreme. The idea of putting liquor and ammunition into the
+hands of the red men was one of utter madness. It was worse than
+foolhardy. The broken firearms are safe in the well, and the more
+dangerous whiskey has mingled itself harmlessly with the waters of the
+river and the lake.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There is something more foolish than folly,&#8221; said the Indian,
+gravely, &#8220;and that is a lie! The powder drowned in the well will kill
+more pale-faces than it could have done in the hands of your red
+children. The river-diluted whiskey will inflame more hot heads than
+if it had been dispensed honorably and in its full strength. But now
+the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>end. Though I will do what I can do, even the Truth-Teller cannot
+fight treachery. Prepare for the worst. And so&mdash;farewell!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Then the tall chief bowed his head in sadness and went away; but the
+terrible truth of what he then uttered all the world now knows.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, in the almost empty village among the cottonwoods, the Sun
+Maid played and laughed and chattered as she had always done in her
+old home at the Fort. And all day, those wiser women like Wahneenah,
+who had refrained from following their tribe to the distant camp,
+watched and attended the child in admiring awe.</p>
+
+<p>By nightfall the Sun Maid had been loaded with gifts. Lahnowenah, wife
+of the avaricious Shut-Hand but herself surnamed the Giver, came
+earliest of all, with a necklace of bears&#8217; claws and curious shells
+which had come from the Pacific slope, none knew how many years
+before.</p>
+
+<p>The Sun Maid received the gift with delight and her usual exclamation
+of &#8220;Nice!&#8221; but when the donor attempted to clasp the trinket about the
+fair little throat she was met by a decided: &#8220;No, no, no!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Girl-Child! All gifts are worthy, but this woman has given her best,&#8221;
+corrected Wahneenah, with some sternness. This baby might be a spirit,
+in truth, but it was the spirit of her own child and she must still
+hold it under authority.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p><p>At sound of the altered tones, Kitty looked up swiftly and her lip
+quivered. Then she replied with equal decision:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Other Mother must not speak to me like that. Kitty is not bad. It is
+a pretty, pretty thing, but it is dirty. It must have its faces
+washed. Then I will wear it and love it all my life.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>An Indian girl would have been punished for such frankness, but
+Lahnowenah showed no resentment. Beneath her outward manner lay a
+deeper meaning. To her the necklace was a talisman. From generations
+long dead it had come down to her, and always as a life-saver. Whoever
+wore it could never be harmed &#8220;by hatchet or arrow, nor by fire or
+flood.&#8221; Yet that very morning had her own brother, the Man-Who-Kills,
+assured her that the child&#8217;s life was a doomed one, and she had more
+faith in his threats than had his neighbors in their village. She knew
+that the one thing he respected was this heirloom, and that he would
+not dare injure anybody who wore it. The Sun Maid was, undoubtedly,
+under the guardianship of higher powers than a poor squaw&#8217;s, yet it
+could harm nobody to take all precautions.</p>
+
+<p>So, with a grim smile, the donor carried her gift to the near-by brook
+and held it for a few moments beneath the sluggish water; then she
+returned to the wigwam and again proffered it to the foundling.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Yes. That is nice now. Kitty will wear it all the time. Won&#8217;t the
+childrens be pleased when they see it! Maybe they may wear it, too, if
+the dear blanket lady says they may. Can they, Other Mother?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The squaws exchanged significant glances. They knew it was not
+probable that the Fort orphan and her old playmates would ever meet
+again; but Wahneenah answered evasively:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;They can wear it when they come to the Sun Maid&#8217;s home.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Again Lahnowenah would have put the necklace in its place, and a
+second time she was prevented; for at that moment the One-Who-Knows
+came slowly down the path between the trees, and held up her crutch
+warningly, as she called, in her feeble voice:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Wait! This is a ceremony. Let all the women come.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Lahnowenah ran to summon them, and they gathered about the tepee in
+expectant silence. When old Katasha exerted herself it behooved all
+the daughters of her tribe to be in attendance.</p>
+
+<p>Wahneenah hastened to spread her best mat for the visitor&#8217;s use, and
+helped to seat her upon it.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ugh! Old feet grow clumsy and old arms weak. Take this bundle, sister
+of my chief, and do with its contents as seems right to thee.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p><p>The other squaws squatted around, eagerly curious, while Wahneenah
+untied the threads of sinew which fastened the blanket-wrapped parcel.
+This outer covering itself was different from anything she had ever
+handled, being exquisitely soft in texture and gaudily bright in hue.
+It was also of a small size, such as might fit a child&#8217;s shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>Within the blanket was a little tunic of creamy buckskin, gayly
+bedecked with a fringe of beads around the neck and arms&#8217; eyes, while
+the short skirt ended in a border of fur, also bead-trimmed in an odd
+pattern. With it were tiny leggings that matched the tunic; and a
+dainty pair of moccasins completed the costume.</p>
+
+<p>As garment after garment was spread out before the astonished gaze of
+the squaws their exclamations of surprise came loud and fast. A group
+of white mothers over a fashionable outfit for a modern child could
+not have been more enthusiastic or excited.</p>
+
+<p>Yet through all this she who had brought it remained stolid and
+silent; till at length her manner impressed the others, and they
+remembered that she had said: &#8220;It is a ceremony.&#8221; Then Wahneenah
+motioned the squaws to be silent, and demanded quietly:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What is this that the One-Who-Knows sees good to be done at the lodge
+of her chief&#8217;s daughter?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Take the papoose. Set her before me. Watch and see.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Wide-eyed and smiling, and quite unafraid, the little orphan from the
+Fort stood, as she was directed, close beside the aged squaw while she
+was silently disrobed. Her baby eyes had caught the glitter of beads
+on the new garments, and there was never a girl-child born who did not
+like new clothes. When she was quite undressed, and her white body
+shone like a marble statue in contrast to their dusky forms, the
+hushed voices of the Indians burst forth again in a torrent of
+admiration.</p>
+
+<p>But Kitty was too young to understand this, and deemed it some new
+game in which she played the principal part.</p>
+
+<p>The prophetess held up her hand and the women ceased chattering. Then
+she pointed toward the brook and, herself comprehending what was meant
+by this gesture, the Sun Maid ran lightly to the bank and leaped in.
+With a scream of fear, that was very human and mother-like, Wahneenah
+followed swiftly. For the instant she had forgotten that the merry
+little one was a &#8220;spirit,&#8221; and could not drown.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately, the stream was not deep, and was delightfully sun-warmed.
+Besides, the Fort children had all been as much at home in the water
+as on the land and a daily plunge had been a matter of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>course. So
+Kitty laughed and clapped her hands as she ducked again and again into
+the deepest of the shallow pools, splashing and gurgling in glee, till
+another signal from the aged crone bade the foster-mother bring the
+bather back.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, no! Kitty likes the water. Kitty did make the Feather-lady wash
+the necklace. Now the old Feather-lady makes Kitty wash Kitty. No, I
+do not want to go. I want to stay right here in the brook.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But&mdash;the beautiful tunic! What about that, papoose?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It was not at all a &#8220;spiritual&#8221; argument, yet it sufficed; and with a
+spring the little one was out of the water and clinging to Wahneenah&#8217;s
+breast.</p>
+
+<p>As she was set down, dewy and glistening, she pranced and tossed her
+dripping hair about till the drops it scattered touched some faces
+that had not known the feel of water in many a day. With an &#8220;Ugh!&#8221; of
+disgust the squaws withdrew to a safe distance from this unsolicited
+bath, though remaining keenly watchful of what the One-Who-Knows might
+do. This was, first, the anointing of the child&#8217;s body with some
+unctuous substance that the old woman had brought, wrapped in a pawpaw
+leaf.</p>
+
+<p>Since towels were a luxury unknown in the wilderness, as soon as this
+anointing was finished Katasha clothed the child in her new costume
+and laid her <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>hand upon the sunny head, while she muttered a charm to
+&#8220;preserve it from all evil and all enemies.&#8221; Then, apparently
+exhausted by her own efforts, the prophetess directed Lahnowenah, the
+Giver, to put on the antique White Necklace.</p>
+
+<p>This was so long that it went twice about the Sun Maid&#8217;s throat and
+would have been promptly pulled off by her own fingers, as an
+adornment quite too warm for the season had not the fastening been one
+she could not undo and the string, which held the ornaments, of strong
+sinew.</p>
+
+<p>Then Wahneenah took the prophetess into her wigwam, and prepared a
+meal of dried venison meat, hulled corn, and the juice of wild berries
+pressed out and sweetened. Katasha&#8217;s visits were of rare occurrence,
+and it had been long since the Woman-Who-Mourns had played the
+hostess, save in this late matter of her foster-child; so for a time
+she forgot all save the necessity of doing honor to her guest. When
+she did remember the Sun Maid and went in anxious haste to the
+doorway, the child had vanished.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;She is gone! The Great Spirit has recalled her!&#8221; cried Wahneenah, in
+distress.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Fear not, the White Papoose is safe. She will live long and her hands
+will be full. As they fill they will overflow. She is a river that
+enriches yet suffers no loss. Patience. Patience. You have <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>taken joy
+into your home, but you have also taken sorrow. Accept both, and wait
+what will come.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Even Wahneenah, to whom many deferred, felt that she herself must pay
+deference to this venerable prophetess, and so remained quiet in her
+wigwam as long as her guest chose to rest there. This was until the
+sun was near its setting and till the foster-mother&#8217;s heart had grown
+sick with anxiety. So, no sooner had Katasha&#8217;s figure disappeared
+among the trees than Wahneenah set out at frantic speed to find the
+little one.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Have you seen the Sun Maid?&#8221; she demanded of the few she met; and at
+last one set her on the right track.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes. She chased a gray squirrel that had been wounded. It was still
+so swift it could just outstrip her, and she followed beyond the
+village, away along the bank. Osceolo passed near, and saw the
+squirrel seek refuge in the lodge of Spotted Adder. The Sun Maid also
+entered.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The lodge of Spotted Adder!&#8221; repeated Wahneenah, slowly. &#8220;Then only
+the Great Spirit can preserve her!&#8221;</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE WHITE BOW.</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:5px;padding-bottom:1px;">W</span>ahneenah had lived so entirely within the seclusion of her own lodge
+that she had become almost a stranger in the village. It was long
+since she had travelled so far as the isolated hut into which the
+youth, Osceolo, had seen the Sun Maid disappear, and as she approached
+it her womanly heart smote her with pain and self-reproach, while she
+reflected thus:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Has it come to this? Spotted Adder, the Mighty, whose wigwam was once
+the richest of all my father&#8217;s tribe. I remember that its curtains of
+fine skins were painted by the Man-Of-Visions himself, and told the
+history of the Pottawatomies since the beginning of the world. Many a
+heap of furs and peltries went in payment for their adornment,
+but&mdash;where are they now! While I have sat in darkness with my sorrow
+new things have become old. Yet he is accursed. Else the trouble would
+not have befallen him. I have heard the women talking, through my
+dreams. He has lain down and cannot again arise. And the White Papoose
+is with him! <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>Will she be accursed, too? Fool! Why do I fear? Is she
+not a child of the sky, and forever safe, as Katasha said? But the
+touch of her arms was warm, like the clasp of the son I bore, <span style="white-space: nowrap;">and&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>The mother&#8217;s reverie ended in a very human distress. There was a rumor
+among her people that whoever came near the Spotted Adder would
+instantly be infected by whatever was the dread disease from which he
+suffered. That the Sun Maid&#8217;s wonderful loveliness should receive a
+blemish seemed a thing intolerable and, in another instant, regardless
+of her own danger, Wahneenah had crept beneath the broken flap of
+bark, into a scene of squalor indescribable. Even this squaw, who knew
+quite well how wretched the tepees of her poorer tribesmen often were,
+was appalled now; and though the torn skins and strips of bark which
+covered the hut admitted plenty of light and air, she gasped for
+breath before she could speak.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;My Girl-Child! My Sun Maid! Come away. Wrong, wrong to have entered
+here, to have made me so anxious. Come.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, no, Other Mother! Kitty cannot come. Kitty must stay. See the
+poor gray squirrel? It has broked its leg. It went so&mdash;hoppety-pat,
+hoppety-pat, as fast as fast. I thought it was playing and just
+running away. So Kitty runned too. Kitty always runs away when Kitty
+can.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Ugh! I believe you. Come.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, Kitty must stay. Poor sick man needs Kitty. I did give him a nice
+drink. Berries, too. Kitty putted them in his mouth all the time. Poor
+man!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Wahneenah&#8217;s anger rose. Was she, a chief&#8217;s daughter, to be thus
+flouted by a baby, a pale-face at that? Surely, there was nothing
+whatever spiritual now about this self-willed, spoiled creature, whom
+an unkind fate had imposed upon her. She stooped to lift the little
+one and compel obedience, but was met by a smile so fearless and happy
+that her arms fell to her sides.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s a good Other Mother. Poor sick man has wanted to turn him
+over, and he couldn&#8217;t. Kitty tried and tried, and Kitty couldn&#8217;t. Now
+my Other Mother&#8217;s come. She can. She is so beau&#8217;ful strong and kind!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>There was a grunt, which might have been a groan, from the corner of
+the hut where the Spotted Adder lay; and a convulsive movement of the
+contorted limbs as he vainly strove to change his uncomfortable
+position. Wahneenah watched him, with the contempt which the women of
+her race feel for any masculine weakness, and did not offer to assist.
+His poverty she pitied, and would have relieved, though his physical
+infirmity was repugnant to her. She would not touch him.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p><p>But the Sun Maid was on her feet at once, tenderly laying upon the
+ground the wounded squirrel which she had held upon her lap. The wild
+thing had, apparently, lost all its timidity and now fully trusted the
+child who had caressed its fur and murmured soft, pitying sounds, in
+that low voice of hers, which the Fort people had sometimes felt was
+an unknown language. Certainly, she had had a strange power, always,
+over any animal that came near her and this case was no exception. Her
+white friends would not have been surprised by the incident, but
+Wahneenah was, and it brought back her belief that this was a child of
+supernatural gifts. She even began to feel ashamed of her treatment of
+Spotted Adder, though she waited to see what his small nurse would do.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Poor sick Feather-man! Is you hurted now? Does your face ache you to
+make it screw itself all this way?&#8221; and she made a comical grimace,
+imitative of the sufferer&#8217;s expression.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ugh! Ugh!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes; Kitty hears. Other Mother, that is all the word he says. All the
+time it is just &#8216;Ugh! Ugh!&#8217; I wish he would talk Kitty&#8217;s talk. Make
+him do it, Other Mother. Please!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That I cannot do. He knows it not. But he has a speech I understand.
+What need you, Spotted Adder?&#8221; she concluded, in his own dialect.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Ugh! It is the voice of Wahneenah, the Happy. What does she here, in
+the lodge of the outcast? It is many a moon since the footfall of a
+woman sounded on my floor. Why does one come now?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;In pursuit of this child, the adopted daughter of our tribe, whom the
+Black Partridge himself has given me. It was ill of you, accursed, to
+wile her hither with your unholy spells.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I wiled her not. It was the gray squirrel. Broken in his life, as am
+I, the once Mighty. Many wounded creatures seek shelter here. It is a
+sanctuary. They alone fear not the miserable one.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Does not the tribe see to it that you have food and drink set within
+your wigwam, once during each journey of the sun? I have so heard.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ugh! Food and drink. Sometimes I cannot reach them. They are not even
+pushed beyond the door flap, or what is left of it. They are all
+afraid. All. Yet they are fools. That which has befallen me may happen
+to each when his time comes. It is the sickness of the bones. There is
+no contagion in it. But it twists the straight limbs into torturing
+curves and it rends the body with agony. One would be glad to die, but
+death&mdash;like friendship&mdash;holds itself aloof. Ugh! The drink! The
+drink!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The Sun Maid could understand the language of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>the eyes, if not the
+lips, and she followed their wistful gaze toward the clay bowl from
+which she had before given him the water. But it was empty now, and
+seizing it with all her strength, for it was heavy and awkward in
+shape, she sped out of the wigwam toward a spring she had discovered.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Four, ten, lots of times Kitty has broughted the nice water, and
+every time the poor, sick Feather-man has drinked it up. He must be
+terrible thirsty, and so is Kitty. I guess I will drink first, this
+time.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Filling the utensil, she struggled to lift it to her own lips, but it
+was rudely pushed away.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Papoose! Would you drink to your own death? The thing is accursed, I
+tell you!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why, Other Mother! It is just as clean as clean. Kitty did wash and
+wash it long ago. It was all dirty, worse than my new necklace, but it
+is clean now. Do you want a drink, Other Mother? Is you thirsty, too,
+like the sick one and Kitty?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If I were, it would be long before I touched my lips to that cup.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Would it? Now I will fill it again. Then you must take it, Other
+Mother, and quick, quick, back to that raggedy house. Kitty is tired,
+she has come here and there so many, many times.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Is it here you have spent this long day, papoose?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;I did come here when the gray squirrel runned away. I did stay ever
+since.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Wahneenah&#8217;s heart sank. But to her credit it was that, for the time
+being, she forgot the stories she had heard, and remembered only that
+there was suffering which she must relieve. It might be that already
+the soul of Spotted Adder was winged for its long flight, and could
+carry for her to that wide Unknown, where her own dead tarried, some
+message from her, the bereft. As this thought flashed through her
+brain she seized the bowl and hastened with it to the lodge.</p>
+
+<p>This time, also, she forgot everything but the possibility that had
+come to her, and kneeling beside the old Indian she held the dish to
+his mouth.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It is the fever, the fever! A little while and the awful chill will
+come again. The racking pain, the thirst! Ugh! Wahneenah, the Happy,
+is braver than her sisters. Her courage shall prove her blessing. The
+lips of the dying speak truth.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And the ears of the dying? Can they still hear and remember? Will the
+Spotted Adder take my message to the men I have lost? Sire and son,
+there was no Pottawatomie ever born so brave as they. Tell them I have
+been faithful. I have been the Woman-Who-Mourns. I have kept to my
+darkened wigwam and remembered only them, till she came, this child
+you have seen. She is a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>gift from the sky. She has come to comfort
+and sustain. She was born a pale-face, but she has a red man&#8217;s heart.
+She is all brave and true and dauntless. None fear her, and she fears
+none. I believe that they have sent her to me. I believe that in her
+they both live. Ask them if this is so.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There is no need to ask, Wahneenah, the Happy. Happy, indeed, who has
+been blessed with a gift so gracious. She is the Merciful. The
+Unafraid. She will pass in safety through many perils. All day she has
+sat beside me whom all others shun. She has moistened my lips, she has
+kept the gnats from stinging, she has sung in her unknown tongue of
+that land whither I go, and soon,&mdash;the land of the sky from whence she
+came. The light of the morning is on her hair and the dusk of evening
+in her eyes. As she has ministered to me, the deserted, the solitary,
+so she will minister unto multitudes. I can see them crowding,
+crowding; the generations yet unborn. The vision of the dying is
+true.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>On the floor beside them the Sun Maid sat, caressing the wounded
+squirrel. Through the torn curtains the waning sunlight slanted and
+lighted the bleak interior. It seemed to rest most brilliantly upon
+the child, and in the eyes of the Spotted Adder she was like a lamp
+set to illumine his path through the dark valley, an unexpected
+messenger <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>from the Great Father, showing him beforehand a glimpse of
+the beauty and tenderness of the Land Beyond. Yet even if a spirit,
+she wore a human shape, and she would have human needs. She would be
+often in danger against which she must be guarded.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Wahneenah, fetch me the bow and quiver.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Which?&#8221; she asked, in surprise, though in reality she knew.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Is there one that should be named with mine? The White Bow from the
+land of eternal snow; the arrows winged with feathers from the white
+eagle&#8217;s wing,&mdash;light as thistle down, strong as love, invincible as
+death.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The Spotted Adder had been the orator of his tribe. Men had listened
+to his words in admiration, wondering whence he obtained the eloquence
+which moved them; and at that moment it was as if all the power of his
+earlier manhood had returned.</p>
+
+<p>The White Bow was well known among all the Pottawatomie tribes. Even
+the Sacs and Foxes had heard of it and feared it. It was older than
+the Giver&#8217;s historic necklace, and tradition said that it had been
+hurled to earth on the breath of a mighty snowstorm. It had fallen
+before the wigwam of the Spotted Adder&#8217;s ancestor and had been handed
+down from father to son, as fair and sound as on the day of its first
+bestowal. None knew the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>wood of which it was fashioned, which many
+could bend and twist but none could break. The string which first
+bound it had never worn nor wasted, and not a feather had ever fallen
+from the arrows in the quiver, nor had their number ever diminished,
+no matter how often sped. It was the one possession left to the
+neglected warrior and had been protected by its own reputed origin.
+There were daring thieves in many a tribe, but never a thief so bold
+he would risk his soul in the seizure of the White Bow.</p>
+
+<p>Wahneenah felt no choice but to comply with the Indian&#8217;s command. She
+took the bow and its accoutrements from the sheltered niche in the
+tepee where it hung; the only spot, it seemed, that had not been
+subjected to the destruction of the elements. She had never held it in
+her hand before, and she wondered at its lightness as she carried it
+to its owner, and placed it in the gnarled fingers which would never
+string it again.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Good! Call the child to stand here.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>With awe, Wahneenah motioned the little one within the red man&#8217;s
+reach. The last vestige of fear or repulsion had vanished from her own
+mind before the majesty of this hour.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Does the poor, sick Feather-man want another drink? Shall Kitty fetch
+it now?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hush, papoose!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p><p>He would have opened the small white hand and clasped it about the
+bow, which reached full three times the height of the child, and along
+whose beautiful length she gazed in wonder, but he could not.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Take it, Girl-Child. It is a gift. It is more magical than the
+necklace. Take it, hold it tight&mdash;that will please him&mdash;and say what
+is in your heart.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, the beau&#8217;ful bow! Is it for Kitty? To keep, forever and ever?
+Why, it is bigger than that one of the Sauganash, and far prettier
+than Winnemeg&#8217;s. It cannot be for Kitty, just little Kitty girl.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes; it is.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Then the Sun Maid laid it reverently down, and catching hold her scant
+tunic made the old-fashioned curtsey which her Fort friends had taught
+her.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Thank you, poor Feather-man. I will take care of it very nice. I
+won&#8217;t break it, not once.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ugh!&#8221; grunted the Indian, with satisfaction. Then he closed his eyes
+as if he would sleep.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Good-night, Spotted Adder, the Mighty. I thank you, also, on the
+child&#8217;s behalf. It is the second gift this day of talismans that must
+protect. Surely, she will be clothed in safety. Hearken to me. I must
+go home. The Sun Maid must be fed and put to sleep. But I will return.
+I am no <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>longer afraid. You were my father&#8217;s friend. All that a woman&#8217;s hand
+can now do for your comfort shall be done.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><a name="illo2" id="illo2"></a></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 358px;">
+<img src="images/i057.jpg" class="jpg ispace" width="358" height="500" alt="THE GIFT OF THE WHITE BOW. Page 48." title="" />
+<span class="caption">THE GIFT OF THE WHITE BOW. <i>Page <a href="#Page_48">48</a>.</i></span>
+</div>
+
+<p>But the Spotted Adder made no sign, and whether he did or did not hear
+her, Wahneenah never knew. She walked swiftly homeward, bearing the
+White Papoose upon one strong arm and the White Bow upon the other.
+Yet she noticed, with a smile, that the child still clung tenderly to
+her own burden of the injured squirrel, and that she was infinitely
+more careful of it and its suffering than of the wonderful gift she
+had received.</p>
+
+<p>Long before her own tepee was reached the Sun Maid was fast asleep;
+and as the small head rested more and more heavily upon Wahneenah&#8217;s
+shoulder, and the soft breath of childhood fanned her throat, the
+woman again doubted the spiritual origin of the foundling, and felt
+fresh gratitude for its simple humanity.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, whoever and whatever she is, she is already thrice protected.
+By her Indian dress, by her White Bow, and by Lahnowenah&#8217;s White
+Necklace. She is quite safe from every enemy now.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Not quite,&#8221; said a voice at Wahneenah&#8217;s elbow.</p>
+
+<p>But it was only Osceolo, the Simple. Nobody minded him or his words.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+
+<h3>HORSES: WHITE AND BLACK.</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:5px;padding-bottom:1px;">O</span>n the morning of the 15th of August, 1812, the sun rose in unclouded
+splendor, and transformed the great Lake Michigan into a sheet of
+gold.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It is a good omen,&#8221; said one of the women at Fort Dearborn, as she
+looked out over the shining water.</p>
+
+<p>But only the merry children responded to her attempted cheerfulness.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We shall have a grand ride. I wish nobody need make the journey on
+foot; and I&#8217;m glad, for once, I&#8217;m just a boy, and not a grown-up man.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Even a boy may have to do a man&#8217;s work, this day, Gaspar Keith. I
+wish that you were strong enough to hold a gun; but you have been
+taught how to use an arrow. Is your quiver well supplied?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>That his captain should speak to him, a child, so seriously, impressed
+the lad profoundly. His ruddy cheek paled, and a fit of trembling
+seized him. A <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>sombre memory rose to frighten him, and he caught his
+breath as he asked:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Do you think there will be any trouble, Captain Heald? I thought I
+heard the soldiers saying that the Pottawatomies would take care of
+us.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Who trusts to an Indian&#8217;s care leans on a broken reed. You know that
+from your own experience. Surely, you must remember your earlier
+childhood, even though you have been forbidden to talk of it here.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh! I do, I do! Not often in the daytime, but in the long, long
+nights. The other children sleep. They have never seen what I did, or
+heard the dreadful yells that come in my dreams and wake me up. Then I
+seem to see the flames, the blood, the dead white faces. Oh, sir,
+don&#8217;t tell me that must come again: don&#8217;t, don&#8217;t! I cannot bear it. I
+would rather die right now and here&mdash;safe in our Fort.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Instantly the soldier regretted his own words. But the lad was one of
+the larger children at the garrison and should be incited, he thought,
+to take some share in the matter of defence, should defence be
+necessary. He had not known that under Gaspar&#8217;s quiet, almost sullen
+demeanor, had lain such hidden experiences. Else he would have talked
+them over with the boy, and have tried to make him forget instead of
+remember his early wrongs.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p><p>For Gaspar Keith was the son of an Indian trader, and had been born in
+an isolated cabin far to the northwest of his present home. The little
+cabin had been overflowing with young life and gayety, even in that
+wilderness. His mother was a Frenchwoman of the happiest possible
+temperament and, because no other society was available, had made
+comrades of her children. &#8220;What we did in Montreal&#8221; was the type of
+what she attempted to do under her more restricted conditions. So, for
+a long season of peace, the Keiths sang and made merry over every
+trifling incident. Did the father bring home an extra load of game, at
+once there was a feast prepared and all the friendly Indians, the only
+neighbors, were invited to come and partake.</p>
+
+<p>On one such occasion, when a red-skinned guest had brought with him a
+bottle of the forbidden &#8220;fire-water,&#8221; a quarrel ensued. The trader was
+of sterner sort than his light-hearted wife, and of violent temper. In
+his own house his word was law, and he remonstrated with the Indian
+for his action. To little Gaspar, in his memories, it seemed but a
+moment&#8217;s transition from a laughing group about a well-spread table to
+a scene of horror. He saw&mdash;but he could never afterward speak in any
+definite way of what he saw. Only he knew that almost before he had
+pushed back from his place he had been caught up on the shoulder of
+the chief <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>Winnemeg, also a guest; and in another moment was riding
+behind that warrior at breakneck speed toward the little garrison, in
+pursuit of shelter for himself and aid for his defenceless family.</p>
+
+<p>The shelter was speedily found, but the aid came too late; and for a
+time the women of the Fort had a difficult task in comforting the
+fright-crazed boy. However, they were used to such incidents. Their
+courage and generosity were unlimited, and they persevered in their
+care till he recovered and repaid them by his faithful devotion and
+service.</p>
+
+<p>The manner of his arrival among them was never discussed in his
+presence, and as he gradually came to act like other, happier
+children, they hoped he had outgrown his troubles. He had now been at
+the Fort for two years, during all which time he had gone but short
+distances from it. Yet even in his restricted outings he had picked up
+much knowledge of useful things from the settlers near, and of things
+apparently not so useful from his red-faced friends. So it happened
+that there was not, probably, even any Indian boy who could string a
+bow or aim an arrow better than Gaspar.</p>
+
+<p>The Sauganash himself had presented the little fellow with a bow of
+finest workmanship, and had taught him the rare trick of shooting at
+fixed paces. It had been the delight of the garrison to watch him, in
+their hours of recreation, accomplish this <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>feat. Sighting some bird
+flying high overhead, the lad would take swift aim and discharge each
+arrow from his quiver at a certain count. There never seemed any
+variation in the distances between the discharged arrows as they made
+the arc&mdash;upward with unerring aim, and downward in the body of the
+bird; hitting it, one by one, at proportionate intervals of time and
+space.</p>
+
+<p>The women thought it a cruel sport, and would have prevented it if
+they could; but the men knew that it was a wonderful achievement, and
+that many fine archers among the surrounding tribes would fail in
+accomplishing it. Therefore, it was natural that the Fort&#8217;s commandant
+should be anxious to know if his ward&#8217;s equipment were in order, on a
+morning so full of possible dangers as this.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There is no talk of dying, Gaspar. You are a man, child, if not full
+grown. You are brave and skilful. You have a clear head, too; so
+listen closely to what I say. In our garrison are not more than forty
+men able to fight. There are a dozen women and twenty children, of
+which none have been trained to use a bow as you can. Besides these
+helpless ones, there are many sick soldiers to occupy the wagons. I
+know you expected to be with your mates, but I have another plan for
+you. I want you to ride Tempest, and to sling your bow on your saddle
+horn.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Ride&mdash;Tempest! Why, Captain Heald! Nobody&mdash;that is, nobody but
+you&mdash;can ride him. I was never on his <span style="white-space: nowrap;">back&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s time you were. Lad, do you know how many Indians are in camp
+near us, or have broken camp this morning to join us?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh! quite a lot, I guess.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Just so. A whole &#8216;lot.&#8217; About five hundred, or a few less.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The two were busily at work, packing the last of the few possessions
+that the commandant must convey to Fort Wayne, and which he could
+entrust to no other hands than his own and those of this deft-fingered
+lad, and they made no pause while they talked. Indeed, Gaspar&#8217;s
+movements were even swifter now, as if he were eager to be through and
+off.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Five hundred, sir? They are friendly Indians, though. Black Partridge
+and Winnemeg&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Are but as straws against the current. Gaspar, I shall need a boy who
+can be trusted. These red neighbors of ours are not so &#8216;friendly&#8217; as
+they seem. They are dissatisfied. They mean mischief, I fear, though
+God forbid! Well, we are soldiers, and we cannot shrink. You must ride
+Tempest. You must tell nobody why. You can keep at a short distance
+from our main band, and act as scout. Captain Wells will march in
+front with his Miamis, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>upon whose assistance&mdash;the Miamis&#8217;, I mean&mdash;I
+do not greatly count. They are cowards. They fear the &#8216;canoe men.&#8217;
+Well, what do you say, my son?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Gaspar caught his breath. His own fear of an Indian had been nearly
+overcome by the friendship of those chiefs who were so constantly at
+the Fort; but the night before had brought him a recurrence of the
+terrifying visions which were as much memories as dreams. After such a
+night he was scarcely himself in courage, greatly as he desired to
+please the captain. Then he reflected how high was the honor designed
+him. He, a little boy, just past ten and going on eleven for a whole
+fortnight now, and&mdash;of course he&#8217;d do it!</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, I&#8217;ll ride him. That is, I&#8217;ll try. Like as not, he&#8217;ll shake me
+off first try.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Make the second try, then. You know the copy in your writing-book?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, sir. I wrote the whole page of it, yesterday, and the chaplain
+said it was well done. Shall I get him now? Are you almost ready?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The commandant looked at the waiting wagons, the assembled company,
+the women and little ones who were so dear and in such a perilous
+case. For a moment his heart sank, stout soldier though he was, and it
+was no detriment to his manhood that a fervent if silent prayer
+escaped him.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Yes, fetch him if you can. If not, I&#8217;ll come.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Tempest was a gelding of fine Kentucky breed. There were others of his
+line at the garrison, and upon them some of the women even were to
+ride. But Tempest was the king of the stables. He was the master&#8217;s
+half-broken pet and recreation. For sterner uses, as for that
+morning&#8217;s work, there was a better trained animal, and on this the
+commandant would make his own journey.</p>
+
+<p>A smile curled the officer&#8217;s lips despite his anxiety as, presently,
+out from the stables galloped a bareheaded lad, clinging desperately
+to Tempest&#8217;s back, who tried as desperately to shake off his unusual
+burden. But the saddle girth was well secured, and the rider clung
+like a burr. His bow was slung crosswise before him and his full
+quiver hung at his back.</p>
+
+<p>A cheer went up. The sight was as helpful to the soldiers as it was
+amusing, and they fell into line with a ready step as the band struck
+up&mdash;what was that tune? <i>The Dead March?</i> By whose ill-judgment this?</p>
+
+<p>Well, there was no time to question. Any music helps to keep a line of
+men in step, and there was the determined Gaspar cavorting and
+wheeling before and around the soldiers in a way to provoke a mirth
+that no dismal strain could dispel. So the gates were flung open, and
+in orderly procession, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>each man in his place, each heart set upon its
+duty, the little garrison marched through them for the last time.</p>
+
+<p>Of what took place within the next dread hours, of the Indians&#8217;
+treachery and the white men&#8217;s courage, there is no need to give the
+details. It is history. But of brave Gaspar Keith on the wild gelding,
+Tempest, history makes no mention. There is many a hero whose name is
+unknown, and the lad was a hero that day. He did what he could, and
+his empty quiver, his broken bow, told their own story to a
+Pottawatomie warrior who came upon the boy just as the sun crossed the
+meridian on that memorable day.</p>
+
+<p>Gaspar was lying unconscious beneath a clump of forest trees, and
+Tempest grazing quietly beside him. There was no wound upon the lad,
+and whether he had been thrown to the ground by the animal, or had
+slipped from his saddle out of sheer weariness, even he could never
+tell.</p>
+
+<p>The Indian who found him was none other than the Man-Who-Kills; and,
+from a perfectly safe distance for himself, he had watched the young
+pale-face with admiration and covetousness.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;By and by, when the fight is over, I will get him. He shall be my
+prisoner. The black gelding is finer than any horse ever galloped into
+Muck-otey-pokee. They shall both be mine. I will tell <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>a big tale at
+the council fires of my brothers, and they shall account me brave.
+Talking is easier than fighting, any time, and why should I peril my
+life, following this mad war-path of theirs to that far-away Fort
+Wayne? Enough is a plenty. I have hidden lots of plunder while the men
+of my tribe did their killing, and the Man-Who-Kills will always be
+wise, as he is always brave. I could shoot as fast and as far as
+anybody if&mdash;if I wished. But I do not wish. It is too much trouble. So
+I will tie the boy on the gelding&#8217;s back and lead them home in
+triumph. Will my squaw, Sorah, flout me now? No. No, indeed! And there
+is no need to say that I dared not mount the beast myself. But I can
+lead him all right, and when the Woman-Who-Mourns, that haughty sister
+of my chief, sees me coming she will say: &#8216;Behold! how merciful is
+this mighty warrior!&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>These reflections of the astute Indian, as he rested upon the shaded
+sward, afforded him such satisfaction that he did, indeed, handle poor
+Gaspar with more gentleness than might have been expected; because
+such a person commonly mistakes brutality for bravery.</p>
+
+<p>Oddly enough, Tempest offered no resistance to the red man&#8217;s plan, and
+allowed himself to be burdened by the helpless Gaspar and led slowly
+to the Indian village. There the party aroused less interest <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>than the
+Man-Who-Kills had anticipated, for other prisoners had already been
+brought in and, besides this, something had occurred that seemed to
+the women far more important.</p>
+
+<p>This was the fresh grief of Wahneenah as she roamed from wigwam to
+wigwam, searching for her adopted daughter and imploring help to find
+her. For again the Sun Maid had disappeared, as suddenly and more
+completely than on the previous day though after much the same manner.</p>
+
+<p>The child had been attending her injured squirrel and giving her bowls
+of orchids fresh drinks, upon the threshold mat of her new home, and
+her indulgent foster-mother had gone to fetch from the stream the
+water needed for the latter purpose. At the brook&#8217;s edge she had
+stopped, &#8220;just for a moment,&#8221; to discuss with the other squaws the
+news of the massacre that was fast coming to them by the straggling
+bands of returning braves.</p>
+
+<p>But the brief absence was long enough to have worked the mischief. The
+small runaway had left her posies and her squirrel and departed,
+nobody could guess whither.</p>
+
+<p>Till at last again came Osceolo, the mischievous, and remarked,
+indifferently:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The Woman-Who-Mourns may save her steps. The White Papoose and the
+Snowbird are far over the prairie while the women search.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Osceolo! You are the son of the evil spirit! You bring distress in
+your hand as a gift! But take care what you say now. You know, as I
+know, that nobody can mount the White Snowbird and live. Or if one
+could succeed and pass beyond the village borders, it would be a ride
+to some far land whence there is no return. What is the mare,
+Snowbird, but a creature bewitched? or the home of the soul of a dead
+maiden, who would rather live thus with her people than without them
+as a spirit in the Great Beyond? You know all this, and yet you tell
+<span style="white-space: nowrap;">me&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That the Sun Maid is flying now on the Snowbird&#8217;s back toward the
+setting sun, who is her father.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;How do you know this?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I saw it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Who took her to the Snowbird&#8217;s corral? Who? Osceolo, torment of our
+tribe, it was you! It was you! Boy, do you know what you have done? Do
+you know that out there, on the prairie where you have sent her, the
+spirit of murder is abroad? Not a pale-face shall escape. She was safe
+here, where your own chief, the Black Partridge, placed her. Hear me.
+If harm befalls her, if by moonrise she is not restored to me, you
+shall bear the punishment. <span style="white-space: nowrap;">You&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>By a gesture he stopped her. Now thoroughly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>frightened, the
+mischievous boy put up his arms as if to ward off the coming threat.
+Half credulous, and half doubtful that the Sun Maid was more than
+mortal, he had made a test for himself. He had remembered the
+Snowbird, fretting its high spirit out within the closed paddock, and
+a daring notion had seized him. It was this:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;While the Woman-Who-Mourns gossips with her neighbors, I&#8217;ll catch up
+the papoose and carry her there. She&#8217;ll come fast enough. She ran away
+yesterday, and she played with me before the Spotted Adder&#8217;s hut. She
+trusts everybody. I&#8217;ll have some fun, even if my father didn&#8217;t let me
+go with him to the camp yonder.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Among all nations boyhood is the same&mdash;plays the same wild pranks,
+with equal disregard of consequences; and Osceolo would far rather
+have had a good time than a good supper. He thought he was having a
+perfectly fascinating good time when he bound a long blanket over the
+Snowbird&#8217;s back and then fastened Kitty Briscoe in the folds of the
+blanket. He had laughed gayly as he clapped his hands and set the mare
+free, and the little one riding her had laughed and clapped also. He
+had watched them out of sight over the prairie, and had felt quite
+proud of himself.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If she is a spirit she&#8217;ll come back safe; and if she&#8217;s nothing but a
+white man&#8217;s baby&mdash;why, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>that&#8217;s all she is. Only a squaw child at that,
+though the silly women have made such ado. I wonder&mdash;will I ever see
+her again? Well, I&#8217;ll go around by Wahneenah&#8217;s tepee, after a while,
+and enjoy the worry. It&#8217;s the smartest thing I&#8217;ve done yet; and she
+did look cunning, too. She wasn&#8217;t a bit afraid&mdash;she isn&#8217;t afraid of
+anything&mdash;which makes her better than most girl papooses, and she was
+laughing as hard as I was when she went away.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>With these thoughts, Osceolo had come back to the spot where Wahneenah
+met him and demanded if he knew aught of her charge; and there was no
+hilarity in his face now as he watched her enter her wigwam and drop
+its curtains behind her. He suddenly remembered&mdash;many things; and at
+thought of the Black Partridge&#8217;s wrath he turned faint and sick.</p>
+
+<p>But the test had been made and no regret could recall it.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, there came into his mind the fact: a black horse had just
+entered the village and a white one had gone out of it. The narrow
+superstition in which he had been reared taught him that the one
+brought misfortune and the other carried away happiness; and, in a
+redoubled terror at his own act and its consequences, Osceolo turned
+and fled.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE THREE GIFTS.</h3>
+
+<p style="float: left; font-size: 100%; line-height: 80%; margin-top: 0;">&#8220;</p><p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:5px;padding-bottom:1px;">T</span>he Black Partridge has served his white friends faithfully. He
+should now remember his own people, and rest his heart among them,&#8221;
+said the White Pelican as he rode homeward beside his chief, not many
+hours after the massacre of the sandhills.</p>
+
+<p>The elder warrior lifted his bowed head, and regarded his nephew in
+sadness. His eyes had that far-away, dreamy look which was unusual
+among his race and had given him, at times, a strange power over his
+fellows. Because, unfortunately, the dreams were, after all, very
+practical, and the silent visions were of things that might have been
+averted.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The White Pelican, also, did well. He protected those whom he wished
+to kill. He did it for my sake. It shall not be forgotten, though the
+effort was useless. The end has begun.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The younger brave touched his fine horse impatiently, and the animal
+sprang forward a few paces. As he did so, the rider caught a gleam of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>something white skimming along the horizon line, and wondered what it
+might be. But he had set out to attend his chief and, curbing his
+mount by a strong pull, whirled about and rode back to the side of
+Black Partridge.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What is the end that has begun, Man-Who-Cannot-Lie?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The downfall of our nations. They have been as the trees of the
+forest and the grasses of the prairie. The trees shall be felled and
+the grasses shall be cut. The white man&#8217;s hand shall accomplish both.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;For once, the Truth-Teller is mistaken. We will wrest our lands back
+from the grasp of the pale-faces. We will learn their arts and conquer
+them with their own weapons. We will destroy their villages&mdash;few they
+are and widely scattered. Pouf! This morning&#8217;s work is but a show of
+what is yet to come. As we did then, so we will do in the future. I,
+too, would go with my tribe to that other fort far beyond the Great
+Lake. I would help again to wipe away these usurpers from our homes,
+as I wipe&mdash;this, from my horse&#8217;s flank. Only my promise to remain with
+my chief and my kinsman prevents.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The youth had stooped and brushed a bit of grass bloom from the
+animal&#8217;s shining skin; and as he raised his head again he looked
+inquiringly into the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>stern face of the other. Thus, indirectly, was
+he begging permission to join the contemplated raid upon another
+distant garrison.</p>
+
+<p>Black Partridge understood but ignored the silent petition. He had
+other, higher plans for the White Pelican. He would himself train the
+courageous youth to be as wise and diplomatic as he was brave. When
+the training was over, he should be sent to that distant land where
+the Great Father of the white men dwelt, and should there make a plea
+for the whole Indian race.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Would not a man who saved all this&#8221;&mdash;sweeping his arm around toward
+every point of the prairie&mdash;&#8220;to his people be better than one who
+killed a half-dozen pale-faces yet lost his home?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why&mdash;yes,&#8221; said the other, regretfully. &#8220;But&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But it is the last chance. The time draws near when not an Indian
+wigwam will dot this grand plain. Already, in the talk of the white
+men, there is the plan forming to send us westward. Many a day&#8217;s
+journey will lie between us and this beloved spot. Our canoes will
+soon vanish from the Great Lake, and we shall cease to glide over our
+beautiful river. Hear me. It is fate. These people who have come to
+oust us from our birthright have been sent by the Great Spirit. It is
+His will. We have had our one day of life and of possession. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>They are
+to have theirs. Who will come after them and destroy them? <span style="white-space: nowrap;">They&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>But the White Pelican could endure no more. The Black Partridge was
+not often in such a mood as this, stern and sombre though he might
+sometimes be, nor had his prophecies so far an outlook. That the
+Indians should ever be driven entirely away by their white enemies
+seemed a thing impossible to the stout-hearted young brave, and he
+spoke his mind freely.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;My father has had sorrow this day, and his eyes are too dim to see
+clearly. Or he has eaten of the white man&#8217;s food and it has turned his
+brain. Were it not for his dim eyesight, I would ask him to tell the
+White Pelican what that creature might be that darts and wheels and
+prances yonder&#8221;; and he pointed toward the western horizon.</p>
+
+<p>Now there was a hidden taunt in the warrior&#8217;s words. No man in the
+whole Pottawatomie nation was reputed to have such clearness of
+eyesight as the Black Partridge. The readiness with which he could
+distinguish objects so distant as to be invisible to other men had
+passed into a proverb among his neighbors, who believed that his
+inward &#8220;visions&#8221; in some manner furthered this extraordinary outward
+eyesight.</p>
+
+<p>The chief flashed a scornful glance upon his attendant and, quite
+naturally, toward the designated <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>object. White Pelican saw his gaze
+become intent and his indifference give way to amazement. Then, with a
+cry of alarm, that was half incredulity, the Black Partridge wheeled
+and struck out swiftly toward the west.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ugh! It looked unusual, even to me, but my father has recognized
+something beyond my guessing. He rides like the wind, yet his horse
+was well spent an hour ago.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Regardless of his own recent eagerness to be at Muck-otey-pokee, and
+relating the day&#8217;s doings to an admiring circle of stay-at-homes, the
+young brave followed his leader. In a brief time they came up with a
+wild, high-spirited white horse, which rushed frantically from point
+to point in the vain hope of shaking from its back a burden to which
+it was not used.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Souls of my ancestors! It is&mdash;the Snowbird!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It is the Sun Maid!&#8221; returned Black Partridge.</p>
+
+<p>But for all his straining vision, White Pelican could not make out
+that it was indeed that wonderful child who was wrapped and bundled in
+the long blanket and lashed to the Snowbird&#8217;s back by many thongs of
+leather. Not until, by one dexterous swoop of his horsehair rope, the
+chief collared the terrified mare and brought her to her knees.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Cut the straps. Set the child free.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The brave promptly obeyed; while the chief, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>holding the struggling mare with one hand, carefully drew the Sun Maid
+from her swathing blanket and laid her across his shoulder. Her little
+figure hung limp and relaxed where it was placed, and he saw that she
+had fainted.</p>
+
+<p><a name="illo3" id="illo3"></a></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 368px;">
+<img src="images/i078.jpg" class="ispace jpg" width="368" height="500" alt="SNOWBIRD AND THE SUN MAID. Page 68." title="" />
+<span class="caption">SNOWBIRD AND THE SUN MAID. <i>Page <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</i></span>
+</div>
+
+<p>&#8220;Take her to that row of alder bushes yonder. There should be water
+there. I&#8217;ll finish what has been begun, and prove whether this is a
+beast bewitched, or only a vicious mare that needs a master.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The White Pelican would have preferred the horse-breaking to acting as
+child&#8217;s nurse to this uncanny small maiden who had ridden a creature
+none other in his tribe would have attempted. But he did as he was
+bidden and laid the little one down in the cooling shade of the
+alders. Then he put the water on her face and forced a few drops
+between her parted lips. After that he fixed all his attention on the
+efforts of Black Partridge to bring into subjection the unbroken mare.</p>
+
+<p>However, the efforts were neither very severe nor long continued. Like
+many another, the Snowbird had received a worse name than she
+deserved, and she had already been well wearied by her wild gallop on
+the prairie. She had done her best to throw and kill the child which
+Osceolo had bound upon her back, but she had only succeeded in
+tightening the bands and exhausting both herself and her <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>unconscious
+rider. More than that, Black Partridge had a will stronger than hers
+and it conquered.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, I did ride a long, long way, didn&#8217;t I? Feather-man, did you put
+Kitty on the nice cool grass? Will you give Kitty another drink of
+water? I guess I&#8217;m pretty tired, ain&#8217;t I?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>These words recalled the White Pelican&#8217;s attention to his charge.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ugh! It&#8217;s a wonder you&#8217;re alive.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Is it? I rode till I got so sleepy I couldn&#8217;t see. The sky kept
+whirling and whirling, and the sun did come right down into my face.
+And I got so twisted up I couldn&#8217;t breathe. I guess&mdash;I guess I don&#8217;t
+much love that Osceolo. He said it would be fun, and it was&mdash;a while.
+But he didn&#8217;t come, too, and&mdash;I&#8217;m glad I&#8217;m here now. Who&#8217;s that
+walking? Oh! my own Black Partridge, the nicest Feather-man there is!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The Sun Maid sat up and lifted her arms to be taken, while she
+bestowed upon the chief one of her sweetest smiles. But he received it
+gravely, and regarded the child in her new Indian dress with critical
+scrutiny. Who had thus clothed her he could not surmise, for too short
+a time had elapsed since he had taken her to his village for his
+sister to prepare these well-fitting garments. Finally, superstition
+began to influence him also, as it had influenced the weaker-minded
+people at Muck-otey-pokee, as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>he spoke to the White Pelican, rather
+than to the child.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Place her upon the Snowbird. They belong to each other, though I know
+not how they found one another.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Osceolo,&#8221; answered the younger brave, tersely.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Humph! Then there&#8217;s more of black spirits than white in this affair.
+However, I have spoken. Place the Sun Maid on the Snowbird&#8217;s back.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Kitty would have objected and strongly; but there was something so
+unusually stern in the elder warrior&#8217;s face and so full of hatred in
+that of the younger that she was bewildered and wisely kept silence.</p>
+
+<p>Having made a comfortable saddle out of the long blanket, they seated
+her again upon the white mare&#8217;s back, and each on either side, they
+led her slowly toward Muck-otey-pokee. But the little one had again
+fallen asleep long before they reached it, and now there could have
+been no gentler mount for so helpless a rider than this suddenly tamed
+White Snowbird.</p>
+
+<p>At the entrance to the village Wahneenah met them. She had again put
+on her mourning garb, and her hair was unplaited, while the lines of
+her face had deepened perceptibly. She had lamented to Katasha:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The Great Spirit sent me back my lost ones in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>the form of the Sun
+Maid, and because of my own carelessness and sternness He has recalled
+her. Now is our separation complete, and not even in the Unknown Land
+shall I find them again.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>But the One-Who-Knows had answered, impatiently:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Leave be. Whatever is must happen. The child is safe. Nothing can
+harm her. Has she not the three gifts? The White Necklace from the
+shore of the Sea-without-end?<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> The White Bow from the eternal north?
+and the White Snowbird, into which entered the white soul of a
+blameless virgin? Have I not clothed her with the garb of our people?
+You are a fool, Wahneenah. Go hide in your wigwam, and keep silence.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>This was good advice, but Wahneenah couldn&#8217;t take it. She was too
+human, too motherly, and under all her superstition, too sure of the
+Sun Maid&#8217;s real flesh-and-blood existence to be easily comforted. So
+she went, instead, to the outskirts of the settlement to watch for
+what might be coming of good or ill. And so she came all the sooner to
+find her lost darling, and she vowed within herself that never again,
+so long as her own life should last, would she lose sight of that
+precious golden head.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;My Girl-Child! My White Papoose, Beloved! Found again! But how could
+you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;I did get runned away with myself this time, nice Other Mother. Don&#8217;t
+look at Kitty that way. Kitty is very hungry. Nice Black Partridge
+Feather-man did find me, riding and riding and riding. The pretty
+Snowbird had lots of wings, I guess, for she flew and flew and flew.
+But I didn&#8217;t see Osceolo. He couldn&#8217;t have come, could he? I thought
+he was coming, too, when he clapped his hands and shooed me off so
+fast. Where is he?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>That was what several were desirous to learn. The affair had turned
+out much better than might have been expected, but there would be a
+day of reckoning for the village torment when he and its chief should
+chance to meet.</p>
+
+<p>Knowing this, Osceolo remained in hiding for some time. Until, indeed,
+his curiosity got the better of his discretion. This happened when the
+Man-Who-Kills came stealing to his retreat and begged his assistance.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I want you to take my white boy-captive and lead him to the tepee of
+the Woman-Who-Mourns. My wife Sorah will not have him in her wigwam.
+She says that from the moment that other white child, the Sun Maid,
+came to the lodge of Wahneenah, there has been trouble without end,
+even though all the three charms against evil have been bestowed upon
+her. There are no charms for this dark boy, but there&#8217;s always trouble
+enough (where <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>Sorah is). He&#8217;s so worn and unhappy, he&#8217;ll make no
+objection, but will follow like a dog. He neither speaks nor sleeps
+nor eats. I have no use for a fool, I. You do it, Osceolo, and you&#8217;ll
+see what I will give you in reward! Also, if the Woman-Who-Mourns has
+lost the Sun Maid, maybe this Dark-Eye will be a better stayer.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But what will you give me, Man-Who-Kills? I&mdash;I think I&#8217;d rather not
+meddle any more with the family of my chief.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ugh! Are a coward, eh? Never mind. There are other lads at
+Muck-otey-pokee, and plenty of plunder in my wigwam.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;All right. Come along, Dark-Eye. Might as well be Dark-Brow, too, for
+he looks like a night without stars. What will you do with his horse,
+Man-Who-Kills?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Let you ride it for me, sometimes.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I can do it&#8221;; and without further delay, leading the utterly passive
+and disheartened Gaspar, the Indian lad set off for Wahneenah&#8217;s home.
+The captive had no expectation of anything but the most dreadful fate,
+and his tired brain reeled at the remembrance of what he might yet
+undergo. Yet, what use to resist?</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Osceolo, confident that all the braves whom he need fear
+were still absent from the village, started his charge along the trail
+at a rapid <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>pace, and reached the wigwam of the Woman-Who-Mourns at
+the very moment when Black Partridge, White Pelican, and the Sun Maid
+came riding to it from the prairie.</p>
+
+<p>She was alive, then! She was, in truth, a &#8220;spirit&#8221;! His
+mischievousness had had no power to harm her, she was exempt from any
+ill that might befall another, she had come back to&mdash;How could such an
+innocent-appearing creature punish one who had so misled her?</p>
+
+<p>He had no time to guess. For the child had caught sight of the stupid
+lad he was leading, and with a cry of ecstacy had sprung from the
+Snowbird and landed plump upon the prisoner&#8217;s shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Gaspar! My Gaspar, my Gaspar! Mine, mine, mine!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It was a transformation scene. The white boy had staggered under the
+unexpected assault of his old playmate, but he had instantly
+recognized her. With a cry as full of joy as her own, he clasped her
+close, and showered his kisses on her upturned face.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Kitty! why, Kitty! You aren&#8217;t dead, then? You are not hurt? And we
+thought&mdash;oh, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Clinging to each other, they slipped to the ground, too absorbed in
+themselves to notice anything else; while Osceolo watched them in
+almost equal absorption.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span></p><p>But he was roused sooner than they. A hand fell on his shoulder. A
+hand whose touch could be as gentle as a woman&#8217;s, but was now like a
+steel band crushing the very bones.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Osceolo!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, Black Partridge,&#8221; quavered the terrified lad.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You will come to my tepee. Alone!&#8221;</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+
+<h3>A THREEFOLD CORD IS STRONGEST.</h3>
+
+<p style="float: left; font-size: 100%; line-height: 80%; margin-top: 0;">&#8220;</p><p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:5px;padding-bottom:1px;">S</span>he is a spirit. I know that nothing can harm her. Yet many things
+can harm me. I have no desire to suffer any further anxiety.
+Therefore&mdash;this. My Girl-Child, my White Papoose, come here.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The Sun Maid reluctantly obeyed. It was the morning after her perilous
+ride on the back of an untamed horse and her joyful reunion with
+Gaspar, her old playmate of the Fort. The two were now just without
+the wigwam of Wahneenah, sitting clasped in each other&#8217;s arms, as if
+fearful that a fresh separation awaited them should they once
+relinquish this tight hold of one another; and it was in much the same
+feeling that the foster-mother regarded them.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But why, Other Mother? I do love my Gaspar boy. I did know him
+always.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ve known me two years, Kitty,&#8221; corrected the truthful lad. &#8220;But I
+suppose that is as long as you can remember. You&#8217;re such a baby.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;How old is the Sun Maid&mdash;as you white people reckon ages?&#8221; asked
+Wahneenah.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;She is five years old. Her birthday was on the Fourth of July. We had
+a celebration. Our Captain fired as many rounds of ammunition as she
+was years old. The mothers made her a cake, with sugar on the top, and
+with five little candles they made themselves on purpose, and colored
+with strawberry juice. Oh, surely, there never was such a cake in all
+the world as they made for our &#8216;baby!&#8217;&#8221; cried the lad, forgetting for
+the moment present troubles in this delightful memory.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, there are other women who can make other cakes,&#8221; said
+Wahneenah, with ready jealousy.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, but an Indian cake&mdash;&#8221; began Gaspar, then stopped abruptly,
+frightened at his own boldness.</p>
+
+<p>Wahneenah smiled. For small Kitty was swift to see the change in her
+playmate&#8217;s face, and her own caught, for an instant, a reflection of
+its fear. The foster-mother wished to banish this fear.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Wahneenah likes those who say their thoughts out straight and clear.
+She is the sister of the Man-Who-Cannot-Lie. It is the crime of the
+pale-faces that they will lie, and always. Wherefore, they are always
+in danger. Take warning. Learn to be truth-tellers, like the
+Pottawatomies, and you will have no trouble.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>A quick retort rose to Gaspar&#8217;s lips, but he subdued it. Then he
+watched what was being done to Kitty, and a faint smile brightened his
+face, that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>had been so far too gloomy for his years. Wahneenah had
+made a long rope of horsehair, gaily adorned with beads and trinkets,
+and was fastening it about the Sun Maid&#8217;s waist. The little one
+submitted merrily, at first; but when it flashed through her mind that
+she was thus being made a prisoner, being &#8220;tied up,&#8221; she burst into a
+paroxysm of tears and temper that astonished the others, and even
+herself.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I will not be &#8216;tied up!&#8217; I was not a naughty girl. When I am bad, I
+will be punished, and I will not cry nor stamp my feet. But when I am
+good, I will be free&mdash;free! There shall nobody, nobody do this to me!
+Not any single body. Gaspar, will you let her do it?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The boy&#8217;s timidity flew to the winds. His dark eyes flashed with
+indignation, and his heavy brows contracted in a fierce scowl. At that
+instant, he appeared much older than he really was, and he advanced
+upon Wahneenah with upraised hand and threatening gesture.</p>
+
+<p>She might easily have picked him up and tossed him out of the way; but
+there is nothing an Indian woman admires more greatly than courage. In
+this she does not differ from her pale-faced sisters, and, instead of
+resenting Gaspar&#8217;s rudeness, she smiled upon him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That is right, Dark-Eye. It is a warrior&#8217;s duty <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>to protect his
+women. You are not yet a warrior, nor is the Sun Maid yet a woman, but
+as you begin so you will continue. Hear me. Let us make compact. I was
+fastening the child for her own good, not in punishment. Is that a
+white mother&#8217;s custom? Well, this is better. Let us three pledge our
+word: each to watch over and protect the other so long as our lives
+last. The Great Spirit sent the Sun Maid into my arms, by the hands of
+Black Partridge, my brother and my chief. The meanest Indian in
+Muck-otey-pokee brought you to the village, and the meanest boy to my
+wigwam. But when the chief saw you, he took you by the hand, and gave
+you, also, to me. A triple bond is the strongest. Shall we clasp hand
+upon it?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It was a curious proceeding for one so much older than these children,
+but it was in profoundest earnest. Wahneenah recognized in Gaspar a
+representative of a race whose wisdom exceeded that of her own, even
+if, as she believed, its morality was of a lower standard. But her
+brother and the other braves had already told her of his great courage
+on the day before, and of his wonderful skill with the bow and arrow.
+He had done a man&#8217;s work, even though a stripling, and she would
+accord him a man&#8217;s honor. As for the Sun Maid, despite her very
+human-like temper, she was, of course, a being above mortal, and
+therefore fit to &#8220;compact&#8221; with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>anybody, even had it been the case
+with one as venerable as old Katasha. So she felt that there was
+nothing derogatory to her own dignity in her request.</p>
+
+<p>Gaspar fixed his piercing eyes upon Wahneenah&#8217;s face, and studied it
+carefully.</p>
+
+<p>The penetration of a child is keen, and not easily deceived. What he
+read in the Indian woman&#8217;s unflinching gaze satisfied him, for after
+this brief delay, he lay his thin boyish hand within the extended palm
+in entire trust. Of course, what Gaspar did Kitty was bound to do. To
+her it was a game, and her own plump little fingers closed about the
+backs of the lad&#8217;s with a mischievous pinch. Already her anger had
+disappeared, and her sunny face was dimpling with laughter.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Kitty was dreadful bad, wasn&#8217;t she? She wouldn&#8217;t be tied up first,
+because she wasn&#8217;t naughty. Now she has been bad as bad, she did stamp
+and scream so; and she may be tied, if Other Mother wishes. Do you,
+nice Other Mother? It is a very pretty string. It wouldn&#8217;t hurt, I
+guess.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>But Wahneenah&#8217;s desire to fasten her ward to the lodge-pole had
+vanished. She would far rather trust the true, loving eyes of the boy
+Gaspar than the stoutest horsehair rope ever woven.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We will tie nobody. But hear me, my children, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>for you are both mine
+now. In this village are many friends and more enemies. Braves and
+their families, from other villages and other branches of our tribe,
+have raised their tepees here. It is easier for them to do this than
+to build villages of their own, and we are hospitable people. When a
+guest comes to us, he must stay until he chooses to go away again, and
+there are none who would bid them depart. Some of other tribes than
+our own are also here. It is they who are stirring up much mischief.
+They are giving the Black Partridge anxiety; they will not be wise.
+They will not learn that their only safety lies in friendship with the
+white faces. Therefore the heart of our chief is heavy with
+foreboding. He has the inner vision. To him all things are clear that
+to us are quite invisible. This is his command to me, ere he departed
+in the dawn of this day, to seek our friends who were of the Fort, and
+help them in their need, if need again arises. Listen to the words of
+Black Partridge:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;Have these white children trained to ride as an Indian rides. The
+boy Gaspar is to be given the black gelding, Tempest, for his very
+own. I shall see the man who owns it, and I will pay his cost. The
+White Snowbird belongs to the Sun Maid. Let nobody else dare touch the
+mare, except to handle it in care. The day is coming when they will
+need to ride fast and far, and with more skill <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>than on yesterday. The
+Snake-Who-Leaps is the best horseman in our tribe. I have bidden him
+come to this tepee when the sun crosses the meridian. He is friendly
+to these prisoners, because they are mine, and he will guide them
+well.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Gaspar&#8217;s eyes had opened to their widest extent. The words he had
+heard seemed incredible; yet he was shrewd and practical by nature,
+and he promptly inquired:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why? Why will the Indian chief bestow so rich a gift upon his white
+boy-prisoner? For if he buys Tempest from the Captain he will have to
+pay big money. There isn&#8217;t another like the black gelding this side
+that far-away Kentucky where he was bred.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hear me, Gaspar Keith; prisoner, if you will. But I would rather call
+you an adopted son of the Black Partridge, and by your new name of
+Dark-Eye. This is the reason: In these troubles which are coming, you
+may not only serve yourself, the Sun Maid, and me, by having as your
+own the gelding Tempest, but you may help the helpless, also. In this
+one village of Muck-otey-pokee are many old and many very young. The
+Spotted Adder was the oldest man I ever knew, and though he has died
+just now, there are others almost of his age. They ought to die, too,
+and not burden better people. But nobody dies who should while <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>those
+who should not are snatched away like a feather on the breeze.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Here Wahneenah became absorbed in her own reflections, and was so long
+silent that Kitty stole her arms about the woman&#8217;s neck and kissed the
+dark face to remind her that they were still listening.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, beloved, Child of the Sunshine and Love! You do well to call me
+back. Let the dead rest. You are the living. I will remember only
+you,&#8221; and she laid the little one against her heart.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Gaspar, too, Other Mother,&#8221; suggested the loyal little maid.</p>
+
+<p>But Gaspar was quite able to speak for himself.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No decent white person would wish the old to die!&#8221; he exclaimed,
+hotly. &#8220;There was a grandmother at our Fort, and she was the best
+loved, the best cared for, of all the women. That is what a white boy
+thinks, even if he is an Indian&#8217;s prisoner!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ugh! So? You are an odd youth, Dark-Eye. As timid as a wild pigeon
+one minute, and the next&mdash;flouting your chief&#8217;s sister.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t mean that, Wahneenah. I&mdash;I only&mdash;I don&#8217;t just know what I do
+mean, except that it seems cowardly to wish the old should die. If you
+should grow very, very old some day, and Kitty and I should not be&mdash;be
+nice to you, then you would understand what I feel, if I cannot say it
+rightly.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Wahneenah laughed.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Your halting speech makes me happy, Dark-Eye. Kitty and you and I;
+still all together, even when age shall have dimmed my sight and
+dulled my hearing. It is well. I am satisfied. But hear me. Herein
+lies the trouble: when folks are young they forget that they will ever
+be old. That is a mistake. One should remember that youth flies away,
+fast, fast. They should teach themselves wisdom. They should learn to
+be skilled in the things which will make them lovely when they are
+old. For, despite your judgment, there are some among us whom we would
+keep till all generations are past. Katasha, the One-Who-Knows; and
+the Snake-Who-Leaps&mdash;why, he is older even than Katasha. Yet there is
+nobody can ride a horse, or shoot a flying bird, or bring in the game
+that he can. He is the friend of his chief. He is the most honored one
+in our whole village. Why? Because he makes few promises, and breaks
+none. He has never lowered his manhood by drinking the fire-water that
+addles one&#8217;s brains and sets the limbs a-tremble. He has talked little
+and done much. He is One-To-Be-Trusted. That was his name in his
+youth, when he began to practise all his virtues. The other name came
+afterward, because of the swift punishment he can also inflict upon
+his enemies. You would do well to pattern after your teacher,
+Dark-Eye.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p><p>Gaspar listened respectfully; but this sounded so very much like the
+&#8220;lectures&#8221; he had received at the Fort that it had less originality
+than most of Wahneenah&#8217;s conversations; and, besides that, he had just
+espied, approaching over the village street, a tall Indian leading the
+black gelding and Snowbird. Behind this man walked Osceolo; but
+greatly changed from the bullying youth whom Gaspar had met on the
+previous day.</p>
+
+<p>Whatever had occurred in the closed tepee of Black Partridge, when its
+door flaps fell behind himself and the lad he had ordered to accompany
+him, nobody knew; but, whatever it was, Osceolo was certainly&mdash;at
+least for the time being&mdash;a changed young person.</p>
+
+<p>He walked along behind the Snake-Who-Leaps in a meek, subdued manner
+quite new to him, but which immediately impressed Dark-Eye as being a
+vast improvement on his former bearing. He paused, when ordered to
+&#8220;Halt!&#8221; by the old man, as if he had been stricken into a wooden
+image, and only when requested to take the Snowbird&#8217;s bridle did he
+make any other motion.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why, Osceolo! What&#8217;s the matter?&#8221; asked the Sun Maid, running toward
+him in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>But he did not answer, and she was hastily snatched back by the strong
+hand of the foster-mother.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;The Girl-Child speaks to none who is in disgrace.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But I will speak to anybody who is unhappy, Other Mother! I cannot
+help that, can I? One day, Osceolo was all laughing and clapping; and
+now&mdash;now he looks like Peter Wilson did after his father had whipped
+him with a musket. Did anybody whip you with a musket, poor, poor
+Osceolo?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Not a sign from the disgraced youth.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Has you lost your tongue, too? Well as your eyes, that you can&#8217;t look
+up? Never mind, Osceolo. Kitty is sorry for you. Some day Kitty will
+let you ride her beau&#8217;ful White Snowbird; some day.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The Sun Maid will first learn to ride the Snowbird, herself,&#8221;
+corrected the Snake-Who-Leaps. &#8220;She will begin now.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>With unquestioning confidence, a confidence that Gaspar did not share,
+she ran back to the old warrior&#8217;s side, and stood on tiptoe to be
+lifted into place.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ugh!&#8221; he grunted in satisfaction. &#8220;That is well. The one who has no
+fear has already conquered the wildest animal. But the White Snowbird
+is not wild. She has been given an evil name, and it has clung to her
+as evil always clings,&#8221; and the One-To-Be-Trusted turned to give his
+silent attendant a meaning glance. But Osceolo had not <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>yet raised his
+gaze from the ground, and the reproof fell pointless.</p>
+
+<p>Nobody had observed that, from another direction, another youth had
+quietly led up a beautiful chestnut horse, whose cream-colored mane
+and tail would have made it a conspicuous object anywhere; but
+Wahneenah had expected this addition to their equestrian party and, as
+she turned to look for it, exclaimed in pleasure at its prompt
+appearance.</p>
+
+<p>The Snake-Who-Leaps heard her ejaculation, and evinced his disgust.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ugh! Is it to teach a lot of women and a worthless pale-faced lad
+that I have left the comfort of my own lodge this hot summer day?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The old forget. It was long ago, when I was no bigger than the Sun
+Maid here, that the One-To-Be-Trusted took me behind him on a wild
+ride over the prairie. It was the only lesson he ever gave&mdash;or needed
+to give&mdash;<i>me</i>. I will show him that I am still young enough to
+remember!&#8221; cried Wahneenah, with all the gayety of girlhood, and with
+so complete a change in her appearance that it was easy to see how she
+had come to be named The Happy.</p>
+
+<p>Even before the teacher had settled the Sun Maid in her tiny blanket
+saddle, Wahneenah had sprung upon the chestnut&#8217;s back. As she touched
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>it, a clear, determined, if very youthful voice, shouted behind her:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I am a white man! No Indian shall ever teach me a thing that I can
+learn for myself!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>For suddenly Gaspar remembered the wrongs he had suffered at the
+red men&#8217;s hands, and leaped to Tempest&#8217;s back unaided. Another
+instant, and the trio of riders dashed away from Muck-otey-pokee in a
+mad rush that left their disgruntled instructor in doubt which was the
+better pupil of them all.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Who begins slow finishes fast; but who begins fast may never live to
+finish slow,&#8221; he remarked, sententiously; then observing that Osceolo
+had, for the first time, raised his eyes, he promptly laid a heavy
+hand upon the youth&#8217;s shoulder and wheeled him about.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;To my wigwam&mdash;march!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>And Osceolo marched&mdash;exactly as if all his limbs were sticks and his
+joints mechanical.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ugh! So? Like the jointed dolls of the papooses, eh? Very good. Keep
+at it. From now till those three return, dead or alive, my fine young
+warrior, you shall be my pupil. You have set me the pace you like. You
+may keep at it. From the locust tree east of my lodge to the pawpaw on
+the west, as the branch swings in the wind, so shall you swing. Ugh!
+May they ride far and long. One&mdash;two&mdash;commence!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p><p>It was noonday when he began that weary, weary automatic &#8220;step, step&#8221;;
+but when the last rays of the sun had disappeared beyond the prairie,
+Osceolo was still enduring his discipline, and making his
+pendulum-like journey from locust-tree to pawpaw, from pawpaw to
+locust. His head swam, his sight dimmed, but still sat stolid
+Snake-Who-Leaps in the entrance of his tepee, &#8220;instructing&#8221; the only
+pupil fate had left him.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>AN ISLAND RETREAT.</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:5px;padding-bottom:1px;">U</span>nder the incentive of love and excitement&mdash;heightened by a tinge of
+jealousy&mdash;all Wahneenah&#8217;s former skill in horsemanship returned to
+her. When the Snake-Who-Leaps lifted the Sun Maid to the back of the
+Snowbird the woman felt an unreasoning anger against him. She could
+not patiently endure to have any other hand than her own touch the
+small body of her adopted child, upon whom had now centred all the
+pent-up affection of her starved heart.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If my darling must be taught, I will teach her myself!&#8221; she suddenly
+resolved, and promptly acted upon the resolution. Previously, and when
+she ordered the chestnut to be brought to her tepee, she had merely
+intended to ride in company with the others and in a limited circle
+about the village. Now a mad impulse seized her to be off over the
+prairie, farther than sight could reach, and on half-forgotten trails
+once familiar to her. It was the first time she had mounted any animal
+since her widowhood.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p><p>When she heard Gaspar&#8217;s daring declaration, she thrilled with delight.
+All the savage in her nature roused to enjoy this wild escapade, and,
+catching firm hold of the Sun Maid&#8217;s bridle rein, she nodded over her
+shoulder to the lad, and led the way northward.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s like that strange fairy story, in the book given Peter Wilson,
+that came from way over in England, and was the only one in the world,
+I guess. Was the only one at our Fort, anyway,&#8221; thought Gaspar, as he
+followed in equal speed, and at imminent risk of his life. For a
+night&#8217;s rest had restored the black gelding to all his spirit, and had
+the boy attempted to guide or control him there would have been
+serious trouble.</p>
+
+<p>As it was, Gaspar confined his efforts to just sticking on, and had
+all he could do at that; but after a short distance, the three horses
+broke into an even lope, keeping well together, and all under the
+command of the Indian woman.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, I love it!&#8221; she cried, the rich blood flaming under her dusky
+skin, her eyes sparkling, and her long black hair streaming on the
+wind which their own motion created.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Kitty loves it&mdash;too&mdash;Kitty guesses!&#8221; echoed the child, entering into
+the other&#8217;s mood with quick sympathy. Indeed, she was the safer of the
+three. There is a hidden understanding between horses <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>and children,
+and numberless instances prove how carefully even an untamed beast
+will treat a little child&mdash;if nobody interferes. But let an adult
+attempt to avert a seeming danger, and the animal will promptly throw
+the responsibility on human shoulders, and act out its own mood at its
+own will.</p>
+
+<p>Wahneenah understood this, and, simply leaving her hand upon the
+Snowbird&#8217;s rein, but quite without any pressure, rode where that
+frolicsome creature chose to lead. A strap, which the Snake-Who-Leaps
+had fastened around the waist of the Sun Maid, held her securely to
+her saddle, though her small hands clutched the flying mane of her
+mount so tightly that she could not well have been shaken off.</p>
+
+<p>It was a rough school in which to learn so dangerous an art, but it
+sufficed; and that one day&#8217;s ride did more to help Gaspar and Kitty to
+good horsemanship than all the instruction they afterward received.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;How far&mdash;nice Other Mother?&#8221; asked the little girl, when the three
+horses of their own accord began to slacken speed.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Not far now, papoose. See yonder, where the trees fringe the river?
+Among those trees is a wonderful spot I know. I&#8217;ve not seen it for
+years, but in its shelter my warrior and I spent many happy hours.
+There we used to take our son, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>tell him the story of his people.
+It was a hiding-place, in the ancient years, when enemies of the
+Pottawatomies were on the war-path, and the chief would save his women
+and children. But nobody remembers that trail, at this late day,
+except those of my father&#8217;s house. Besides me, not one soul lives who
+could find his way thither, save Black Partridge. It is even many
+moons since he has talked with me about it, and he may not recall it
+still. Though he is a man who never forgets, and the knowledge is
+doubtless merely sleeping in his brain.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Kitty Briscoe understood but little of this speech, but Gaspar&#8217;s
+interest was roused. Amid the discipline and routine of his old life
+at the Fort, his lighter, gayer qualities had lain dormant, but they
+were now rapidly awakening under the influence of his recent
+adventures. It was impossible, too, for anybody to be long with
+Wahneenah, in her present mood, without catching her spirit and
+gayety; and though the Sun Maid comprehended little save the
+liveliness of her companions, she could enter into that with all her
+heart.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore, it was a merry party which came at last to the river bank,
+where the horses were glad to pause for rest, and where they would
+eagerly have slaked their thirst, had they been permitted.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But that won&#8217;t do, Wahneenah, will it? At <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>our Fort we never watered
+a horse when it was warm. The Captain said they would be ruined, so.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You do well to remember all the wisdom you have been taught,
+Dark-Eye. Here, let me show you something even a white man may not
+know. How to tether a horse with a rope of prairie grass, made in a
+moment, but strong enough to last for long.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Lift me off, Other Mother,&#8221; cried Kitty, from the Snowbird&#8217;s back,
+and Wahneenah swung her down.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now, Dark-Eye, pull as much of this rush grass as your arms can hold.
+It will take a heap for three ropes.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Have the pretty ponies been naughty? Must they be tied up, too?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Not because they are bad, but because they are good, papoose! That is
+the way of life. It is full of contradictions. But, don&#8217;t wrinkle your
+pretty brows puzzling what you cannot understand. Run and help the
+Dark-Eye pull the long grasses.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It was so wonderful to see Wahneenah&#8217;s skilful fingers twist and turn
+and thread the slender blades in and out that both children were
+fascinated by her deftness; and though Gaspar could not at all catch
+the trick of this curious weaving, he resolved to practise it in
+private till he could equal, or excel, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>this example. Again his
+ambition arose to prove that a pale-face was always superior to an
+Indian, and his dark eyes gazed so fixedly upon Wahneenah&#8217;s flying
+fingers that she laughed, and demanded:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Are you jealous, my son? But there&#8217;s no need. Nothing that I know
+will be hidden from you, if you choose to be taught. But, come. Take
+this rope that is finished. Twist it about the gelding&#8217;s neck&mdash;so; now
+pass it downward between his front legs and hobble him by the right
+hind one. No, he&#8217;ll not resist. Try it. Then you&#8217;ll see that he&#8217;ll
+neither nibble at his tether nor run away from us.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Gaspar was too proud to show that he somewhat dreaded interfering with
+the restless legs of the spirited Tempest, and to his astonishment he
+found that the animal submitted very quietly to the tying. This may
+have been because Wahneenah stood by its beautiful head and murmured
+some soft sounds into its dainty ears. Though what the murmuring meant
+nobody save herself and Tempest understood. In like manner, and very
+quickly, all three horses were fastened in the shade of the trees, and
+as soon as they had cooled sufficiently, Gaspar was bidden to water
+them.</p>
+
+<p>Then the Sun Maid was called from her play among the wild flowers that
+fringed the bank, and made to walk behind Wahneenah&#8217;s skirts.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Cling close, my Girl-Child! We&#8217;re going into fairyland. Bow your
+pretty head till it is low&mdash;low&mdash;low down, like this&#8221;; and herself
+bending till her own head was very near the earth, the guide pushed
+forward into what appeared to be a solid tangle of bushes.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why, Wahneenah! You can&#8217;t go through there. It&#8217;s a regular hedge. But
+if you want to try, I have a little knife in my pocket, that my
+Captain gave me. Let me go first&mdash;I am the man&mdash;and cut the way;
+though I don&#8217;t see why. Isn&#8217;t there a better place?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There are many things a lad of ten cannot understand, Dark-Eye, even
+though he be as manly as you. Trust Wahneenah. An Indian never
+forgets, and never makes the haste that destroys. Watch me. Learn a
+lesson in woodcraft that will be useful to you more than once. Cut or
+broken twigs have tongues which betray. But thus&mdash;even a bird could
+find no trace.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>With infinite patience and accuracy of touch, the woman parted the
+slender, interwoven branches so delicately that scarcely a leaf was
+bruised, and little by little opened a clear passage into a downward
+sloping tunnel. This tunnel ran directly under the river bed, and was
+so steep in places that one might easily have coasted over it.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why, how queer! It&#8217;s like the underground <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>passage from the Fort to
+the river, where we children used to peep, but were never allowed to
+enter. What is it? Why is it?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Let your eyes ask and answer their own questions. They are safer than
+a tongue, my son. But fear nothing. Where Wahneenah leads the way for
+the children whom the Great Spirit has sent her they may safely
+follow.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Then, without further speech, she went forward for what seemed a long
+distance, through the half light of the tunnel, until it opened into a
+wide chamber, across which trickled a clear stream and which was
+fanned by a strong current of air.</p>
+
+<p>The children were silent from curiosity, not unmixed with dread; and
+their guide had also become very grave and silent. Memories were
+crowding upon her soul, and banishing the present; but she was roused
+at length by the wild clutch of the Sun Maid&#8217;s arms, as something
+winged swept by them in the twilight.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Other Mother! Other Mother! I&mdash;I don&#8217;t like it! Take Kitty, quick!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ah! I was dreaming. My dead walked here beside me, and I forgot. But
+is the Sun Maid ever afraid? I did not think that. Well, it&#8217;s over
+now. The gloomy passage, the big, dark room&mdash;See?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly, at a turn westward out of the chamber <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>and beyond it, they
+entered upon what might, indeed, have been fairyland. The exit was
+another passage, rising gently to a rock- and tree-sheltered nook in
+the heart of a tiny island. From any outward point this retreat was
+invisible, and when they had emerged upon it the Indian woman&#8217;s
+spirits rose again. She caught up the Sun Maid and tossed her lightly
+upon a bending branch, that seemed to have grown expressly for a
+child&#8217;s swing.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;My warrior trained that bough for our son&#8217;s pleasure, and from it he
+rocked and danced as a tiny papoose. Now&mdash;in you, he lives again.
+Hold, Dark-Eye! What are you seeking?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, just nothing! I was poking around to see&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If you could find anything to eat? The wild blackberries should grow
+just yonder, and, wait&mdash;I&#8217;ll look.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;For what will you look, Other Mother? Aren&#8217;t these the prettiest
+posies yet?&#8221; and Kitty held upward a cluster of cardinal flowers which
+she had pulled from a mass by the water&#8217;s edge.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ah, they are alive! They have the heart of fire. But, take care. It
+is always wet where they grow and small feet slip easily. If you were
+to soil your pretty clothes, old Katasha might be angry.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll take care. May I have all I can gather?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;All. Every one.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span></p><p>Then Wahneenah returned into the cave and to a niche in its wall
+where, years before, she had put a store of dried corn, some salt, and
+a bit of tinder. The articles had been stored in earthen jugs, and it
+was just possible they might be found in good condition. If they were,
+she would show the man-child how to catch a fish out of the little
+stream in the cavern, where the delicate trout were apt to hide. Then
+they would make a fire as they had used in the old days, and she would
+cook for these white children such a supper as her own dear ones had
+enjoyed.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;See, Gaspar, Dark-Eye. I will fetch you a line and hook. Sit quiet
+and draw out our supper&mdash;when it bites!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But I have a far better hook than that in my pocket; and a line the
+Sauganash gave me, one day. I am a good fisher, Wahneenah. How many
+fish do you want for your supper?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You are a good boaster, any way, pale-face, like all your race; and I
+want just as many fish as will satisfy our hunger. If you had your bow
+here, you might wing us a bird. Though that would not be wise, maybe.
+Keep an eye to the Sun Maid, lest she slip in the brook.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;This is a funny place. It is an island, isn&#8217;t it? Like the pictures
+in my geography; and there is a little creek through it, and another
+in a cave, and&mdash;I think it is beautiful. But you&#8217;re funny, too,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>Wahneenah. You say my Kitty is a &#8216;spirit,&#8217; and &#8216;nothing can harm
+her,&#8217; yet you watch out for her getting hurt closer than the other
+mothers did.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You see too much, Dark-Eye. But&mdash;well, she is a spirit in a girl&#8217;s
+body. If you let evil happen her it will be the worse for you. Hear
+me?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I wouldn&#8217;t let her get into trouble any sooner than you would,
+Wahneenah. I love her, too. She hasn&#8217;t any folks, and I haven&#8217;t any,
+except you, of course. She belongs to me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh! she does? Well. Enough. We all belong to each other. We have made
+the bond.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>When the woman returned from her search in the cavern her face was
+very grave. Yet it should have been delighted, for she had found not
+only the corn and the other things she remembered, but a goodly store
+of articles, quite too fresh and modern to have remained there since
+she last visited the spot. There were dried beans, salted beef, cakes
+of sugar from her old maple trees&mdash;she knew her own mark upon them;
+and, besides these, were flour and tea in packages, such as had been
+distributed from Fort Dearborn among as many Indians as were entitled
+to receive them. It was both puzzling and disappointing to find her
+retreat discovered and appropriated by somebody else.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It must be that Shut-Hand has, in some way, found this cavern out.
+All the other people would <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>have eaten and enjoyed their good things,
+and not stored them up, like this. But he is crafty and secretive, and
+his name is his character.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Had Wahneenah hunted further she would have found, in addition to the
+provisions, a considerable quantity of broadcloth, calico, and paint;
+which articles, also, had been among those recently secured from the
+garrison. But she neither examined very closely nor touched anything
+except that for which she had come to the recess; and she even forced
+herself to put the matter out of mind, for the time being.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I have brought my children here to make a holiday for them. I will
+not, therefore, darken it by my forebodings. The young live only in
+the present or the future. I, too, will again become young. I will
+forget all that is past.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>From that wonderful pocket of his, Gaspar took a decent hook and line,
+and easily proved his skill among fish that were too seldom disturbed
+to have learned any fear; while Wahneenah made a tiny fire of dried
+twigs, in the mouth of the cavern, and boiled her prepared corn, that
+she had broken and ground between two stones, into a sort of mush.
+With Gaspar&#8217;s fish, broiled upon the live coals, the pudding sweetened
+by a bit of honey from a close sealed crock, and a draught of water
+from the underground stream, the trio made a fine supper; and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>afterward, when she had carefully cleared away the <i>d&eacute;bris</i>,
+Wahneenah rekindled the fire, and, sitting beside it, took the Sun
+Maid on her knee and drew the motherless Dark-Eye within the shelter
+of her arm.</p>
+
+<p>Then she told them tales and legends of the wide prairies and distant
+mountains; and her own manner gave them thrilling interest, because
+she believed in them quite as sincerely as did her small, wide-eyed
+listeners.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Tell it once more, Other Mother. That beau&#8217;ful one &#8217;bout the little
+papoose that hadn&#8217;t any shoes, and the flowers growed her some. Just
+like mine&#8221;; holding up her own tiny moccasined feet, and rubbing them
+together in the comfortable heat.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Once upon a time a little girl papoose was lost. The enemies of her
+people had come to her father&#8217;s village, and had scattered all her
+tribe. There was not one of them left alive except the little maid.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I guess that&#8217;s just like Kitty, isn&#8217;t it?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No. No, it is not,&#8221; replied the story-teller, quickly. For she had
+felt a shiver run through Gaspar&#8217;s body, and pressed it close in warm
+protection. &#8220;No. It is not like either of you. For to you is
+Wahneenah, the Mother; the sister of a chief who lives and is
+powerful. But this was away in the long past, before even I was born.
+So the girl papoose found herself wandering on the prairie, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>it
+was the time of frost. The ground was frozen beneath the grasses,
+which were stiff and rough and cut the tender feet that a mother&#8217;s
+hand had hitherto carried in her own palm.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Show me how, Mother Wahneenah.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Just this way Sweetheart,&#8221; clasping the tiny moccasins in a loving
+caress.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Tell some more. I guess the fire is going to make Kitty sleepy, by
+and by.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Sleep, then, if you will, Girl-Child.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And then?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Then, when the little one was very cold and tired and lonely she
+remembered something: it was that she had seen her own mother lift her
+two hands to the sky and ask the Great Spirit for all she might need.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;He always hears, doesn&#8217;t He?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;He hears and answers. But sometimes the answers are what He sees is
+best, not what we want.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t sigh that way, Other Mother! S&#8217;posin&#8217; your little boy did go
+away. Haven&#8217;t you got Gaspar and Kitty?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, little one.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Go on, then. About the little maid&mdash;just like me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;So she put her own two tiny hands up toward the sky and asked the
+Great Spirit to put soft shoes on her tired little feet.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;And He did, didn&#8217;t He?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Surely. First the pain eased and that made her look down. And there
+she saw a pair of the softest moccasins that ever were made. They were
+of pale pink and yellow, and all dotted with dark little bead-spots;
+and they fitted as easily as her own dainty skin. Then the girl
+papoose was grateful, and she begged the Great Spirit that He would
+make many and many another pair of just such comfortable shoes for
+every other little barefoot maid in all the world. That not one single
+child should ever suffer what the girl papoose had suffered.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Did He?&#8221; asked Gaspar, as interested as Kitty.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes. Surely. The prayer of the unselfish and innocent is always
+granted. He sent a voice out of the sky and bade the child look all
+about her. So she did, and the whole wide prairie was a-bloom with
+more pink and yellow &#8216;shoes&#8217; than all the children in all the earth
+could ever wear. They were growing right out of the hard ground,
+reaching up to be plucked and worn. So she cried out aloud in her
+gratitude: &#8216;Oh, the moccasin flower! the moccasin flower!&#8217; and ever
+since then this shoe-like blossom has been beloved of all the children
+in the world. But, because the heat burns as well as the cold pinches,
+it blooms nowadays at all times and seasons of the year. A few flowers
+here, a few <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>there; but quite enough for any child to find&mdash;who has
+the right spirit.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Kitty must have had the spirit, mustn&#8217;t she, Other Mother? That day
+when her feets were so tired and the good Feather-man found her.
+&#8217;Cause she had lots and lots of them; only she went to sleep and they
+all solemned down. <span style="white-space: nowrap;">And&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>Gaspar started suddenly and held up a warning hand. His quick ear had
+caught the sound of approaching feet, crushing boldly through the
+cavern, like the tread of one who knows his way well and is coming to
+his own.</p>
+
+<p>Wahneenah had also heard, though she had continued her story, making
+no sign that she was inwardly disturbed. But she now paused and
+listened whether this footfall were one she knew, either of friend or
+foe. Then a bush cracked behind them, and Gaspar&#8217;s heart stood still,
+as the tall form of an Indian warrior pushed past them into the
+firelight.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+
+<h3>AT MUCK-OTEY-POKEE.</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:5px;padding-bottom:1px;">W</span>ahneenah did not lift her eyes. For the moment an unaccustomed fear
+held her spellbound, and it was the Sun Maid&#8217;s happy cry which roused
+her at length, and restored them all to composure.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Black Partridge! My own dear Feather-man!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>With a spring, the child threw herself upon the Indian&#8217;s breast and
+clasped his neck with her trustful arms. It was, perhaps, this
+confidence of hers in the good-will of all her friends that made them
+in return hold her so dear. Certain it was that the chief&#8217;s face now
+assumed that expression of gentleness which was the attribute small
+Kitty ascribed to him, but which among his older acquaintances was not
+considered a leading trait of his character. Just he always was, but
+rather severe than gentle; and Wahneenah marked, with some surprise,
+the caressing touch he laid upon the Sun Maid&#8217;s floating hair as he
+quietly set her down and himself dropped upon a ledge to rest.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You are welcome, my brother. Though, at <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>first, I feared it was some
+alien who had discovered our cave.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It is not the habit of the Happy to fear. She who forebodes danger
+where no danger is but paves the way to her own destruction.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Wahneenah glanced at her brother sharply.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It is the Truth-Teller himself who has put foreboding into my soul.
+He&mdash;and the new-born love which the Sun Maid has brought.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The face of Black Partridge fell again into that dignified gravity
+which was its habitual expression and he sat for a long time with the
+&#8220;dream-look&#8221; in his eyes, gazing straightforward into the embers of
+their little fire.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Is you hungry, Feather-man? We did have such a beau&#8217;ful supper. Nice
+Other Mother can cook fishes and cakes and&mdash;things. Shall she cook you
+some fish, Black Partridge?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Will my chief eat the food I prepare for him?&#8221; asked Wahneenah,
+seconding the child&#8217;s invitation.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;With pleasure. For one hour he will let the cares of his life slip
+from him. He will have this night of peace, and while the meal is
+getting he will sleep.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>With a sigh of relief the tall Indian moved a few steps back into the
+cave and stretched himself at length upon the ground. His eyes closed,
+and before Gaspar had made ready his line to catch the fresh trout he
+had sunk into a profound slumber.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p><p>Wahneenah put her finger to her lip to signify silence, but she need
+not have done so. Gaspar had long ago learned the red man&#8217;s noiseless
+ways, and the Sun Maid immediately placed herself beside the prostrate
+chief, and clasping his hand that lay on his breast snuggled her cheek
+against it, and followed his example.</p>
+
+<p>The Black Partridge, like most of his race, could sleep anywhere, at
+any time, and for as long as he chose. He had elected to wake at the
+end of a half-hour, and he did so on the moment. Sitting up, he gently
+placed the still slumbering Sun Maid upon the ground and moved forward
+to the fire. While he ate the food she had provided for him, Wahneenah
+continued standing near, but a little behind him; ready to anticipate
+his needs, and with a humility of demeanor which she showed toward no
+other person.</p>
+
+<p>Gaspar watched the pair, wondering if they could really be of the same
+race which had destroyed his childhood&#8217;s home, and now again that
+second home of his adoption&mdash;the Fort. He liked, and was impelled to
+trust them both, and was already learning to love his foster-mother.
+But when they began to converse in their own dialect, and with
+occasional glances toward himself and the sleeping Kitty, the native
+caution of his mind arose, and made him miserable. He remembered a
+byword of the Fort:</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;The only safe Indian is a dead one&#8221;; and with a sudden sense of
+danger leaped to his feet and ran to bend above the unconscious maid.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If you harm her, I&#8217;ll&mdash;I&#8217;ll&mdash;kill you!&#8221; he shouted fiercely.</p>
+
+<p>Wahneenah looked amazed, but the Black Partridge instantly
+comprehended the working of the boy&#8217;s thoughts, and a smile of
+satisfaction faintly illumined his sombre features.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It is well. Let every brave defend his own. The Dark-Eye is no
+coward. His years are few, but he has the heart of a warrior and a
+chief. He must begin, at once, to learn the speech of his new tribe.
+He that knows has doubled the strength of his arm. Draw near. There is
+good and not evil in the souls of the chief and his sister. We are
+Truth-Tellers. We cannot lie. We have pledged our faith to the
+Dark-Eye and the Sun Maid&mdash;though she needs it not.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The sincerity and admiration in the Indian&#8217;s eyes compelled the lad&#8217;s
+obedience; and when, as he stepped into the firelight, the chief
+indicated that he should sit beside himself, and also nodded to
+Wahneenah to take her own place opposite, his heart swelled with pride
+and ambition. So had the white Captain trusted and counselled with
+him. He had been faithful through all that dreadful day of massacre,
+and he had felt the man&#8217;s spirit within <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>his child-body. Now again, a
+commander of others, the wise leader of a different people, was
+honoring him with a share in his council. There must be good in him,
+and some sort of wisdom&mdash;even though so young&mdash;else they had paid him
+no heed. His cheek flushed, his breast heaved, and his beautiful eyes
+shone with the exultation that thrilled him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Let the chief pardon the child&mdash;which I was, but a moment ago. I am
+become a man. I will do a man&#8217;s task, now and forever. If I suspected
+evil where there was none, is it a wonder? I have told Wahneenah, the
+Happy, the story of my life. The Black Partridge knew it already.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Quite unconsciously, Gaspar dropped into the Indian manner of speech,
+and he could not have done a better thing for himself had he pondered
+the matter for long. Black Partridge nodded approvingly, and remarked:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Another Sauganash is here! Well, while the Sun Maid sleeps, let us
+consider the future. The evil days are near.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What is the evil that my brother, the chief, beholds with his inner
+vision?&#8221; questioned the woman.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;War and bloodshed. Still more of war, still more of death. In the end
+will our wigwams lie flat on the earth as fallen leaves, while the
+remnant of my people moves onward, forever onward toward the setting
+sun.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span></p><p>Wahneenah kept a respectful silence, but in her heart she resented the
+dire forebodings of her chief. At last, when her brooding thought
+forced utterance, she inquired:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Can not the wisdom of the Black Partridge hinder these days of
+calamity? If the great Gomo, and Winnemeg, and those white braves who
+have lived among us, as the Sauganash, take counsel together, and
+compel their tribes to keep the peace, and to copy of the pale-faces
+the arts which have made them so powerful&mdash;will not this avert the
+evil? Why may there not in some time and place, a mighty grave be
+digged in which may be buried all the guns that kill and the knives
+that scalp, with the arrows which fly more swiftly than a bird? Over
+all may there not be emptied the casks and bottles of the fearful
+fire-water, that, passing through the lips of a warrior, changes him
+to a beast? Then the red man and his pale brother may clasp hands
+together and abide, each upon the earth, where the Great Spirit placed
+him.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It is a dream. Dreams vanish. Even as now the night speeds, and we
+are far from home. It avails us not to think of what might&mdash;but never
+will&mdash;be. Occasional friendships bridge the feud between our alien
+races, but the feud remains. It is eternal. Endless as the years which
+will witness the gradual extinction of the weaker, because <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>smaller,
+race. Let us dream no more. Has Wahneenah, my sister, observed how the
+store she left in the old cave has grown? How the few sealed jars have
+become many, and how there are heaps of the good gifts which the Great
+Father sent to his white children at the Fort for the red children&#8217;s
+use?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes. I thought it was the miser, Shut-Hand, who had placed them here
+in our cave.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It was I, the Black Partridge.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;For what purpose, my brother?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Against the needs of the time I have foretold. It is a sanctuary.
+Here may Wahneenah, and the young son and daughter which have been
+given her, find shelter and sustenance.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Something of her old tribal exultation seized the woman, who was a
+great chief&#8217;s daughter. Rising to her fullest height, her fine head
+thrown slightly back, she demanded, indignantly:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Is the heart of my brother become like that of the papoose upon its
+mother&#8217;s shoulders? Was it not to the red men that the victory came,
+but so brief time past? What were all the pale-faces, in their gaudy
+costumes, with their music and their guns and their childish way of
+battle? The arrows of our people mowed them like the grass upon the
+prairie when a herd of wild horses feeds upon it. But yesterday they
+marched in pride and insolence, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>scorning us. To-day, they are carrion
+for the crows overhead, or they flee for safety like the cowards they
+were born. The Black Partridge has tarried too long among such as
+these. He has become their blood brother.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The taunt was the fiercest she could give, and she gave it from a full
+heart. In ordinary so gentle and peace-loving she had been roused, for
+a moment, to a pitch of emotion which astonished even herself. Yet
+when, as if she had been a fractious child, the chief motioned her to
+again become seated, she obeyed him at once. She had set her thoughts
+free, indeed; but she would never presume to fight against the
+conditions which surrounded her; and obedience to tribal authority was
+inborn.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The Snake-Who-Leaps will be at the tepee of my sister each day when
+the sun climbs to the point overhead. The three horses will be always
+ready. The children who do not know, and Wahneenah who has, maybe,
+forgotten how to ride, will practise as he instructs, until there will
+be no horse they cannot master, or no spot to which a horse may be
+guided that they do not know. But here first. That is why the store of
+food and cloths. At the first assault upon our Muck-otey-pokee, mount
+and ride. Ride as no squaw nor papoose ever rode before. Here the
+Black Partridge will seek them, and here, if the Great Spirit wills,
+they may be safe. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>Enough. Let the Dark-Eye go forward and make the
+horses ready.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The Black Partridge rose as he spoke, and striding toward the sleeping
+Sun Maid, took her in his arms and left the spot. Gaspar, already
+darting onward toward the beloved Tempest, paused, for an instant, and
+regarded his chief anxiously. But when he saw that the little girl had
+not awakened, he sped forward again, and by the time Wahneenah had
+disposed of the remnants of the chief&#8217;s supper and followed, he had
+loosed the animals and led them to the nearest point for mounting.</p>
+
+<p>Still holding the Sun Maid motionless upon his breast, the Black
+Partridge leaped to the back of his own magnificent stallion, which
+whinnied in affectionate welcome of his approach. Then he ordered
+Gaspar:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ride behind me on Tempest, and lead the Snowbird. Wahneenah will
+follow all on Chestnut.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>By the time they were out upon the prairie the wind had risen and the
+sky was heavily clouded. It was so dark that the boy could not see
+beyond the head of his own horse, but he could hear the steady,
+grass-softened footfall of the stallion as, with unerring directness,
+the Indian chieftain led the way homeward to the village.</p>
+
+<p>When they rode into it, all Muck-otey-pokee seemed asleep; but the
+perennially young, though <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>still venerable, Snake-Who-Leaps, had been
+prone before Wahneenah&#8217;s wigwam, and silently rose from the ground as
+they drew rein beside him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ah, the Sleepless! The Wise Man. Did he think his pupils had ridden
+away to their own destruction?&#8221; asked the squaw, as she stepped down
+from her saddle.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No harm can happen the household of my chief save what the Great
+Spirit wills.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And you think He will not waste time with three wild runaways?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Wahneenah, the Happy, is in good spirit herself. I remembered her
+not, save as the message may concern. That is for the ear of my friend
+and the father of his tribe, the Black Partridge.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Handing the Sun Maid into his sister&#8217;s embrace, he for whom the
+message waited slipped the bridles of two horses over his arm while
+the Snake-Who-Leaps led the others. Whatever they had to say was not
+begun then nor there, and if Wahneenah had any curiosity in the matter
+it was not to be gratified. Yet she stood, for a moment, listening to
+the receding sounds as the darkness enveloped the departing group; and
+in her heart was born a fresh anxiety because of the little one she
+carried, and for the orphan lad who followed so closely at her skirts
+as she lifted her tent curtain and entered their home.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span></p><p>But nothing occurred to suggest that the message of the
+Snake-Who-Leaps had been one of warning. He was at his post of teacher
+exactly on the hour appointed on the following day, and this time all
+his pupils conducted themselves with a grave propriety that greatly
+pleased him; and thereafter, for many days, and even weeks, while the
+dry season lasted, did he instruct and they perform the marvellous
+feats of horsemanship which have made the red man famous the world
+over.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But,&#8221; said Osceolo one day, tauntingly: &#8220;you were the pale-face who
+would learn nothing from an Indian!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Because a person is a fool once, need he remain so always?&#8221; answered
+Gaspar, hotly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You were a fool then? I thought so. Once a fool always one.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Only an Indian believes that.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;How? You taunt me? Fight, then!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Gaspar Keith was a curious mixture of courage and timidity. His
+courage came by nature, and his timidity was the result of the
+terrible scenes through which he had passed now twice, young though he
+was. The impress of this terror would remain with him forever; and if
+ever he became a hero in fact, it would be because of his will and not
+his inclination. At present neither the one nor the other inspired
+him; and though he eyed the larger boy <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>scornfully, and felt that he
+could easily whip the bully, if he chose, he now turned his back upon
+him and walked away haughtily.</p>
+
+<p>But Osceolo&#8217;s sneer followed him:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The One-Who-Is-Afraid-Of-His-Shadow! Gaspar&mdash;Coward!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>No boy could patiently endure this insult, even though it came from
+one much larger and stronger than himself. Gaspar&#8217;s jacket was off and
+his arms bared on the instant; but before he could fling himself
+against his enemy a strong hand was laid upon his own shoulder, and he
+was tossed aside as lightly as a leaf.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hold! Let there be none of this. It is a time for peace in our
+village. Wait in patience. The hour is coming, is almost here, when
+both the pale-face and the son of my tribe will have need of all their
+prowess. Go. Polish your arrows and point their heads, but let there
+be none of this.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It was the great chief himself, who had separated the combatants, and
+as he stalked majestically onward he left behind him two greatly
+astonished and ashamed young warriors. In common, no grown brave
+bothered himself over the petty squabbles of striplings; unless,
+indeed, it might be to incite them to further conflicts. For the Black
+Partridge to interfere now was significant of something far deeper
+than a boyish fight.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p><p>Gaspar put on his coat and walked thoughtfully home to Wahneenah and
+Kitty, while Osceolo slunk away to his own haunts, to lie at length
+upon the grass and plot with a cunning worthy of better ends the
+various devices by which he could torment the young white lad of whom
+he was so jealous.</p>
+
+<p>Wahneenah heard the tale with a gravity that impressed the chief&#8217;s
+action more strongly than before upon the lad&#8217;s mind; while Kitty took
+it upon herself to lecture him with all severity about the dreadful
+&#8220;naughtiness of striking that poor, dear Ossy boy.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hmm, Sunny Maid! you needn&#8217;t waste pity on him. He doesn&#8217;t deserve
+it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Maybe not, Dark-Eye. Maybe not. But heed you the warning. The
+dwellers in one village should keep that village quiet,&#8221; interrupted
+Wahneenah.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, but they don&#8217;t. There are almost as many sorts of Indians here
+as there are people. Some of them are horrible. I see them often
+watching Kitty and me as if they would like to scalp us. It&#8217;s been
+worse within a little while. It grows worse all the time.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;All the more reason why you should be wise and careful. But it is
+dark in the tepee, and that&#8217;s a sign the Dust Chief is almost ready to
+shut up your eyes. Run, Gaspar, son, and Girl-Child. See which will
+sleep the first. And to the one who <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>does, the bigger lump of my best
+sugar in the morning.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>They ran, as she suggested, but there was to be no further haste till
+Kitty had made Gaspar kneel beside her and repeat with her the &#8220;Now I
+lay me&#8221; little prayer, which her Fort mothers had taught her. The
+short, simple prayer, beloved of childhood the world over, that has
+carried many a white soul upward to its Father. Even to Wahneenah,
+though her mission training had been of another creed, the childish
+petition was full of sacredness and beauty; and as she stood near
+them, she bowed her head humbly and echoed it with all her heart.</p>
+
+<p>Each was in bed soon after, and each with a lump of the toothsome
+dainty they loved.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;For Gaspar must have it because he was first; and my Girl-Child
+because she was the last. That equals everything.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>They thought it did, delightfully: if they stayed awake long enough to
+think at all. But when they were both asleep, and the sound of their
+soft breathing echoed through the dusky tepee, Wahneenah took her seat
+at its entrance, and began to sing low and softly, with a sweetness of
+voice which rendered even their rudeness musical, the love songs of
+her girlhood.</p>
+
+<p>As she sang and gazed upward through the trees <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>into the starlit sky,
+an infinite peace stole over her. Indeed, the joy that possessed her
+seemed almost startling to herself. All that was sad in her memories
+dropped from them, and left but their happiness; while the present
+closed about her as a delight that nothing could disturb. Her love for
+the Sun Maid had become almost a passion with her, and for her
+Dark-Eye there was ever an increasing and comprehending affection.</p>
+
+<p>She remained so long, dreaming, remembering, and planning, that the
+first grayness of the dawn came before she could go within and take
+her own bit of sleep. But Muck-otey-pokee was always early astir; and
+if for no other reason, because the dogs which thronged the settlement
+would allow no quiet after daybreak. That morning they were unusually
+restless.</p>
+
+<p>Cried Wahneenah, rising suddenly, and now feeling somewhat the effects
+of her late sitting:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Can it be sun-up already? The beasts are wild this morning. I have
+never heard them so deafening.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Nor had anybody else. There was no cessation in their barking.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a regular &#8216;bedlam,&#8217; isn&#8217;t it? That&#8217;s what the Fort mothers used
+to say when there was target practice, and the children cheered the
+shooters. What makes them bark so?&#8221; answered Gaspar.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p><p>Wahneenah shivered, and suggested:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Run out and play. Eh? What&#8217;s that? The Snake-Who-Leaps? So early, and
+with the horses, too? But mind him not. Take the Sun Maid
+out-of-doors, but keep close to the green before the lodge. Where I
+can see you now and then, while I get breakfast ready.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Everybody was up; and more than one commented upon the strangeness of
+the three horses being brought to the tepee so early.</p>
+
+<p>The warning message which had come from the south, and had been
+delivered to his chief by the Snake-Who-Leaps, on that dark night some
+weeks before, was now to be verified. &#8220;What the red men have done to
+the pale-faces, the pale-faces will now do to them. Retaliation and
+revenge!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Yet not one was quite prepared for the events which followed. Followed
+even so swiftly that the women left their porridge cooking in their
+kettles and their cows half-milked; while the men of the village
+promptly seized the nearest weapon, and rushed to the hopeless
+defence.</p>
+
+<p>The rude sound that had startled every dweller in that pretty
+settlement was the report of a gun. Then came a galloping troop of
+cavalry&mdash;more firing&mdash;incessant, indiscriminate!</p>
+
+<p>There was a babel of shrieks as the women and little ones fell where
+they stood, in the midst of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>their work or play. There were the
+blood-curdling war-whoops of the savages, answering the random shots.
+Above and through all, one cry rang clear to Wahneenah&#8217;s
+consciousness.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The horses! The horses! Ride&mdash;ride&mdash;ride&mdash;as I have taught you! For
+your lives&mdash;Ride!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It was but an instant. Wahneenah and her children were amount and
+afield. But as, in an anguish of fear for his friends, and no thought
+of himself, once more the Snake-Who-Leaps shouted his warning, the
+whistle of a death-dealing bullet came to him where he watched, and
+struck him down across the threshold of Wahneenah&#8217;s happy home.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE CAVE OF REFUGE.</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:5px;padding-bottom:1px;">T</span>hree abreast, the chestnut in the middle, the fugitives from the
+doomed village of Muck-otey-pokee rode like the wind in a straight,
+unswerving line across the prairie. After they had left a considerable
+distance behind them, Wahneenah turned her stern face backward, and
+scanned the route over which they had passed; and when her keen vision
+detected something like a group of glistening bayonets&mdash;to ordinary
+sight no larger than a point against the horizon&mdash;she abruptly doubled
+on her course, then made a sharp detour westward. She had early
+dropped her own bridle, and had since guided her horse by her low
+spoken commands, while in either hand she clutched a bit-ring of the
+Snowbird and Tempest. Her change of direction must have brought her
+all the more plainly into view of the pursuing soldiers, but in a few
+moments she had gained the shelter of a group of trees.</p>
+
+<p>These sprang, apparently, out of the midst of the plain, but she knew
+that they really concealed the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>entrance to the underground pathway to
+the cave; and once within their shelter, she paused to breathe and
+gaze upon the startled faces of her children.</p>
+
+<p>That of the Sun Maid was pale, indeed, with the excitement of this mad
+ride, but showed no fear; while Gaspar&#8217;s, alas! wore an expression of
+abject terror. His eyes stared wildly, his teeth were set, his
+nostrils drawn and pinched. He was, his foster-mother saw, already on
+the verge of a collapse.</p>
+
+<p>She leaped from her horse, and caught the fainting boy in her arms
+while she directed the Sun Maid:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Jump down and tie the horses, as the Snake-Who-Leaps showed you, by
+their long bridles. In any case, there is little fear but they will
+stand. Then follow me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But what ails my Gaspar, Other Mother?&#8221; asked the child, as she
+sprang from her saddle. &#8220;Did somebody hurt him when the guns fired?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No. Tie the horses. He will be right soon. It is the fright. Make
+haste, make haste!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, yes, I will. My dear old Feather-man taught Kitty everything.
+Every single thing about my Snowbird. I can fasten her all tight so
+she will never, never get away, unless I let her. I will tie Gaspar&#8217;s,
+too; and shall your Chestnut stay here with them two?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>But for once Wahneenah did not stop to hear her darling out. She had
+seen the deftness with which <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>the little girl&#8217;s small fingers had
+copied the instructions of her riding-master, and had wondered at it
+many times. She trusted it now, knowing that the lad needed her first
+care, and meaning to carry him through the passage into the cave, then
+return for the other. She knew, also, that if the soldiers she had
+seen following them should come upon the tethered horses, the fact of
+their presence would betray her own. But from this possibility there
+was no escape; and, had she known it, no need for such.</p>
+
+<p>She had scarcely laid the unconscious boy down upon the floor of her
+retreat when Kitty came flying down the tunnel, her task completed.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;So quick, papoose?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes. Every one is fastened to a pretty tree, and every one is glad.
+Why did we ride so fast, Wahneenah? It &#8217;most took Kitty&#8217;s breath out
+of her mouth. But I did like it till my Gaspar looked so queer. Is he
+sick, Other Mother? Why doesn&#8217;t he speak to me?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;He is ill, in very fact, Girl-Child. Ill of terror. Young as he is,
+he has seen fearful sights, and they have hurt his tender heart. But
+he will soon be better; and when he is you must not talk to him of our
+old home, or of our ride, or of anything except that we are making
+another little festival here in our cave. One more cup of water,
+papoose, but take care you do not slip when you <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>dip it from the
+spring. We will bathe his face and rub his hands, and by and by he
+will awake and talk.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Then, leaving the lad to the ministrations of the child, and under
+pretence of making &#8220;all cosy for the picnic,&#8221; Wahneenah sped
+cautiously back through the passage to the edge of the little grove,
+casting a searching glance in each direction. To her infinite relief,
+the glistening speck had vanished from the landscape, and she
+concluded that the white soldiers had ridden but a short distance
+north of the village, and then returned to it. She noticed with pride
+how the little maid had fastened each of the brave animals that had
+served them so well in a spot where the grass was still green and
+plentiful, and that there was no need of her refastening the straps
+which held them.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Surely, her wisdom is more than mortal!&#8221; she exclaimed in delight;
+such as more cultured mothers feel when they discover that their
+little ones are really gifted with the common intelligence that to
+them seems extraordinary.</p>
+
+<p>Gaspar was awake, and looking about him curiously, when she got back
+into the cavern; and, in response to his silent inquiry, she drew a
+tree-branch before the opening and nodded smilingly:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That is to keep the sunshine out of the Dark-Eyes.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;But&mdash;where are we? Why&mdash;oh! I remember! I remember! Must I always,
+always see such awful things? Is there no place in this world where I
+can hide?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why, yes, Dark-Eye. There is just such a place; and we have found it.
+Don&#8217;t you remember our sanctuary? Where the Black Partridge came to
+eat the fish you caught? Where we have such a store of good things put
+aside. Rest now, after your ride, and the White Papoose shall make a
+pillow for you of the rushes I will pull. Then we&#8217;ll shut the branch
+in close, like the curtain of our wigwam, and be as safe and happy as
+a bird in its nest.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Wahneenah&#8217;s assumed cheerfulness did not deceive, though it greatly
+comforted, the terrified boy; and the quietude of the sheltered spot,
+added to its dimness and his own exhaustion, soon overcame him again,
+and his eyelids closed. But the sleep into which he drifted now was a
+natural and restful one, and he roused from it, at Kitty&#8217;s summons,
+with something of his old courage&mdash;the courage which had made him a
+hero that day when he first rode the black gelding, and had used his
+boyish strength to do a man&#8217;s work.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;When Other Mother did make a fire and cook us such a nice breakfast,
+we must eat it quick. Kitty&#8217;s ready. Kitty&#8217;s dreadful hungry, Kitty
+is. Is you hungry, too, Dark-Eye?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p><p>He had not thought that he was. But now that she mentioned it, he
+realized the fact. Fortunately, he was so young and healthy that the
+scenes through which he seemed destined to pass at such
+frequently-recurring intervals could not really affect his physical
+condition for any length of time. To see Wahneenah moving about the
+little cavern as calmly as if it were her daily habit to be there, and
+to catch the sound of the Sun Maid&#8217;s joyous laughter, was to make the
+present seem the only reality.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why, it&#8217;s another picnic, isn&#8217;t it? Did the things actually happen
+back there as I thought? Were we here all night? I used to have such
+terrible dreams, when I lived at the Fort, that, when daylight came, I
+could not forget them. I get confused between the dreams and the true
+things.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;An empty stomach makes a foolish head. Many a squaw is afraid of her
+warrior before he breaks his morning fast, and finds him a lamb after
+it is eaten,&#8221; said Wahneenah, sententiously.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Gaspar is my warrior, Other Mother; but I am never afraid of him.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You are afraid of nothing, Kitty!&#8221; reproved the boy.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But I am! I am afraid I shall get nothing to eat at all, if you don&#8217;t
+come!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>So the children ate, and Wahneenah served them. She was herself too
+anxious to partake of any food, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>and under her placid exterior she was
+straining every nerve to listen for any outward sounds which might
+prove that their refuge had been discovered.</p>
+
+<p>But no sounds came to disturb them, and as the hours passed hope
+returned to her; and when the Sun Maid had fallen asleep, weary of
+frolic, and Gaspar again questioned her concerning the morning, she
+answered, in good faith:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Probably, it was not half so bad as it seemed. There were many bad
+Indians in the village, and it is likely for them that the white
+soldiers were searching. They must have gone away long since. By and
+by, if nothing happens, we will return to our own tepee, and forget
+this morning&#8217;s fright. The Snake-Who-Leaps will be proud of his pupils
+for the way they rode at his bidding.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>A shiver ran through the lad&#8217;s frame, and he crept within the shelter
+of Wahneenah&#8217;s arm.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But did you not see what happened to him? He lies beneath the
+curtains of your lodge, and he will teach us no more. A white soldier
+shot him. I saw him fall.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The woman herself had not seen this, and she now sprang to her feet in
+a fury of indignation.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;A white man killed him! That grand old brave, who should have lived
+to be a hundred years! It cannot be.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But it was.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p><p>She was the daughter of a mighty chief. Her blood was royal, and she
+gloried in it. All the race-hatred in her nature roused, and, for the
+moment only, she glowered upon the pale-faced youth before her, as if
+he represented, in his small person, all the sins of his own people.</p>
+
+<p>Then the paroxysm passed, and her nobler self triumphed. Sitting down
+again, she sought to draw the boy back into her embrace, but he held
+himself aloof, and would not. So she began to talk with him there,
+with a simple wisdom and dignity that she had learned from nature
+itself.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why should we be angry, one with another, my son? The Great Spirit is
+our Father. No man comes into life nor leaves it by a chance. What the
+Mighty One decrees, that it is befalls. Between His red-skinned
+children and His pale-faced ones He has put an undying enmity. I have
+not always so believed. I have hoped and pleaded for the peace which
+should glorify the world, even as the sun is glorifying the wide land
+outside of this dim cavern. But it is not so to be. Even as the chief,
+the Black Partridge, said: there is a feud which can never be
+overcome, for it is of the Great Spirit&#8217;s own planting. He that made
+us all permits it. Let us, then, in our small place, cease to fight
+against the inevitable. We have made the compact. We will abide by it.
+In a tiny corner of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>beautiful world we three will live in
+harmony. Let the rest go. Put away your anger against my people, as I
+now put aside mine against yours. The Sun Maid is of both races, it
+seems to me. She is our Bond, our Peace-maker, our Delight. Behold!
+She wakes. Before her eyes, let no shadow of our mutual trouble fall.
+I go outside to watch. If all seems well, we may ride home at
+nightfall.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Save for the danger to her young charges, she would have done so even
+then. Far superior though she had always been to them, her heart
+yearned over the helpless women of her tribe whom she had left behind.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But that cannot be. They were tied fast by their motherhood to the
+homes wherein they may have perished, even as I am tied here by my
+adopted ones. The beasts, too, are tied; but they, at least, may have
+a moment&#8217;s freedom.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>So she loosed them, and guided them to the pool where they could
+drink, and watched them curiously, to see if they would avail
+themselves of the liberty she had thus offered. But they did not. They
+quaffed the clear water, then tossed their velvet nostrils about its
+depths till it was soiled and worthless; yet they turned of their own
+accord away from the wind-swept prairie into the shelter of the trees,
+and grouped themselves beneath one, as if uniting against some common,
+unseen enemy.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;They are wiser than their masters,&#8221; said Wahneenah, patting her
+Chestnut&#8217;s beautiful neck; and seeing a deeper glade, where they might
+spend the night even more safely, she led them thither and fastened
+them again. Under ordinary circumstances she would have left them
+untethered; but she knew not then at what moment she might again need
+them, as they had been needed earlier in the day.</p>
+
+<p>When the darkness fell, Wahneenah put aside the brushwood door which
+she had placed before the entrance to the cave, and sat down upon the
+withering branch to watch and wait. The children were both asleep, and
+she knew that if the Black Partridge were still alive and able he
+would seek her there, as he had promised on that day in the past when
+they had discussed the possibility of what had really now occurred.</p>
+
+<p>She was not to be disappointed. While she sat, contrasting the
+happiness that had been hers on just the night before with the
+uncertainty of this, there sounded in the sloping tunnel the tread of
+a moccasined foot. Also, she could hear the crowding of a stalwart
+figure against its sides, and there was something in both sounds which
+told her who was coming.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;My brother is late.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It is better thus, it may be, than not at all.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The voice of the Black Partridge is sorrowful.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;The heart of the chief is broken within him.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>For a space after that neither spoke. Then Wahneenah rose and set a
+candle in a niche of the wall and lighted it. By its flame she could
+see to move about and she presently had brought some food in a dish
+and placed a gourd of water by the chief&#8217;s side.</p>
+
+<p>The water he drank eagerly and held the cup for more; but the food he
+pushed aside, relapsing into another silence.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, Wahneenah spoke.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Has the father of his tribe no message for his sister?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Over what the ear does not hear, the heart cannot grieve.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That is a truth which contradicts itself.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The warrior of Wahneenah judged well when he chose this cavern for a
+possible home.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It is needed, then? As the Black Partridge foretold.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It is needed. There is no other.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The words were quietly spoken; but there was heart-break in each one.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Our village? The home of all our people? Is it not still safe and a
+refuge for all unfortunates among the nations?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Where Muck-otey-pokee laughed by the waterside, there is now a heap
+of ruins. The river that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>danced in the sunlight is red with the blood
+of the slain and of all the lodges wherein we dwelt, not one remains!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;My brother! Surely, much brooding has made you distraught. Such
+cannot be. There were warriors, hundreds of them in the settlement and
+before their arrows the pale-faces fall like trees before the
+woodman&#8217;s axe.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If the arrows are not in the quiver, can the warrior shoot? Against
+the man who steals up in the rear, can one be prepared? It was a
+short, sharp battle. The innocent fell with the guilty, and the earth
+receives them all. Where Muck-otey-pokee stood is a blackened waste.
+Those who survived have fled, to seek new homes wherever they may find
+them. In her pathways the dead faces stare into the sky as even yet,
+among the sandhills, lie and stare the unburied dead of the Fort
+Dearborn massacre. It is fate. It is nature. It is the game of life.
+To-day one wins, to-morrow another. In the end, for all&mdash;is death.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>For a while after that, Wahneenah neither moved nor spoke, and the
+Black Partridge lapsed into another profound silence. Finally, the
+woman rose, and going to the fireplace, took handsful of its ashes and
+strewed them upon her head and face. Then she drew her blanket over
+her features, and thus, hiding her sorrow even from the witness of the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span>night, she sat down again in her place and became at once as rigid
+and impassive as her brother.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the morning found them. Despite their habit of wandering from
+point to point, the village of Muck-otey-pokee was the rallying-place
+of the Pottawatomies, their home, the ancient burial-ground of their
+dead. Its destruction meant, to the far-seeing Black Partridge, also
+the destruction of his tribe. Therefore, as he had said, his spirit
+was broken within him.</p>
+
+<p>But at the last he rose to depart, and still fasting. With the
+solemnity of one who parted from her forever, he addressed the veiled
+Wahneenah and bade her:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Put aside the grief that palsies, and find joy in the children whom
+the Great Spirit has sent you. They also are homeless and orphaned.
+There are left now no white soldiers to harry and distress. This
+cavern is warmer than a wigwam, and there is store of food for many
+more than three. Remain here until the springtime and by then I may
+return. I go now to my brother Gomo, at St. Joseph&#8217;s, to counsel at
+his fireside on what may yet be done to save the remnant of our
+people. You are safer here than in any village that I know. Farewell.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>But, absorbed in his own gloomy reflections, the Black Partridge for
+once forgot his native caution; and without waiting to reconnoitre, he
+mounted <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>his horse and rode boldly away from the shelter of the brush
+into the broad light of the prairie and so due north toward the
+distant encampment of his tribesmen.</p>
+
+<p>Yet the glittering eyes of a jealous Indian were watching him as he
+rode. An Indian who had been sheltered by the hospitality of the great
+chief, and for many months, in Muck-otey-pokee; but who had neither
+gratitude nor mercy in his heart, wherein was only room for treachery
+and greed.</p>
+
+<p>As Black Partridge rode away from the cave by the river, the other
+mounted his horse and rode swiftly toward it.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+
+<h3>UNDER A WHITE MAN&#8217;S ROOF.</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:5px;padding-bottom:1px;">T</span>he log cabin of Abel and Mercy Smith stood within a bit of forest
+that bordered the rich prairie.</p>
+
+<p>As homes went in those early days, when Illinois was only a territory,
+and in that sparsely settled locality, it was a most roomy and
+comfortable abode. The childless couple which dwelt in it were
+comfortable also, although to hear their daily converse with one
+another a stranger would not so have fancied. They had early come into
+the wilderness, and had, therefore, lived much alone. Yet each was of
+a most social nature, and the result, as their few neighbors said, of
+their isolated situation was merely &#8220;a case of out-talk.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>When Mercy&#8217;s tongue was not wagging, Abel&#8217;s was, and often both were
+engaged at the same moment. Her speech was sharp and decisive; his
+indolent, and, to one of her temperament, exceedingly aggravating.
+But, between them, they managed to keep up almost a continuous
+discourse. For, if Abel went afield, Mercy was sure to follow him
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>upon various excuses; unless the weather were too stormy, when, of
+course, he was within doors.</p>
+
+<p>However, there were times when even their speech lagged a little, and
+then homesickness seized the mistress of the cabin; and after several
+days of preparation she would set out on foot or on horseback,
+according to the distance to be traversed, for some other settler&#8217;s
+cabin and a wider exchange of ideas.</p>
+
+<p>On a late November day, when the homesickness had become overpowering,
+Mercy tied on her quilted hood and pinned her heavy shawl about her.
+She had filled a carpet bag with corn to pop and nuts to crack, for
+the children of her expected hostess and had &#8220;set up&#8221; a fresh pair of
+long stockings to knit for Abel. She now called him from the stable
+into the living room to hear her last remarks.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If I should be kep&#8217; over night, Abel, you&#8217;ll find a plenty to eat.
+There&#8217;s a big pot of baked beans in the lean-to, and some apple pies,
+and a pumpkin one. The ham&#8217;s all sliced ready to fry, and I do hope to
+goodness you won&#8217;t spill grease &#8217;bout on this rag carpet. I&#8217;m the only
+woman anywhere &#8217;s round has a rag carpet all over her floor, any way,
+and the idee of your sp&#8217;ilin&#8217; it just makes me sick. I&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But I hain&#8217;t sp&#8217;iled it yet, ma. You hain&#8217;t give me no chance. If you
+do&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;If I do! Ain&#8217;t I leavin&#8217; you to get your own breakfast, in case I
+don&#8217;t come back? It might rain or snow, ary one, an&#8217; then where&#8217;d I
+be?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Right where you happened to be at, I s&#8217;pose,&#8221; returned Abel,
+facetiously.</p>
+
+<p>But it was wasted wit. The idea of being storm-stayed now filled the
+housewife&#8217;s mind. She was capable, and full of New England gumption;
+but her husband &#8220;was a born botch.&#8221; True, he could split a log, or
+clear a woodland with the best; and as for a ploughman, his richly
+fertile corn bottom and regular eastern-sort-of-garden testified to
+his ability. But she was leaving him with the possibility of woman&#8217;s
+work to do; and as she reflected upon the condition of her cupboard
+when she should return and the amount of cream he would probably
+spill, should he attempt to skim it for the churning, her mind misgave
+her and she began slowly to untie the great hood.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I believe I won&#8217;t go after all.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Won&#8217;t go, ma? Why not?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m afraid you&#8217;ll get everything upset.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I won&#8217;t touch a thing more &#8217;n I have to. I&#8217;ll set right here in the
+chimney-corner an&#8217; doze an&#8217; take it easy. The fall work&#8217;s all done,
+an&#8217; I&#8217;d ought to rest a mite.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Rest! Rest? Yes. That&#8217;s what a man always thinks of. It&#8217;s a woman who
+has to keep <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>at it, early an&#8217; late, winter an&#8217; summer, sick or well.
+If I should go an&#8217; happen to take cold, I don&#8217;t know what to the land
+would become of you, Abel Smith.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t either, ma.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>There was a long silence, during which Mercy tied and untied her
+bonnet-strings a number of times; and each time with a greater
+hesitancy. Finally, she pulled from her head the uneasy covering and
+laid it on the table. Then she unpinned her shawl, and Abel regarded
+these signs ruefully. But he knew the nature with which he had to
+deal; and the occasional absences that were so necessary to Mercy&#8217;s
+happiness were also seasons of great refreshment to himself. During
+them he felt almost, and sometimes quite, his own master. He loafed,
+and smoked, and whittled, and even brought out his old fiddle and just
+&#8220;played himself crazy&#8221;&mdash;so his wife declared. Even then he was already
+recalling a tune he had heard a passing teamster whistle and was
+longing to try it for himself. He abruptly changed his tactics.</p>
+
+<p>Looking into Mercy&#8217;s face with an appearance of great gladness, he
+exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now ain&#8217;t that grand! Here was I, thinkin&#8217; of myself all alone, and
+you off havin&#8217; such a good time, talkin&#8217; over old ways out East an&#8217;
+hearin&#8217; all the news that&#8217;s going. There. Take right off <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>your things
+an&#8217; I&#8217;ll help put &#8217;em away for you. You&#8217;ve got such a lot cooked up
+you can afford to get out your patchwork, and I&#8217;ll fiddle a bit <span style="white-space: nowrap;">and&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Abel Smith! I didn&#8217;t think you&#8217;d go and begrudge me a little
+pleasure. Me, that has slaved an&#8217; dug an&#8217; worked myself sick a
+help-meetin&#8217; an&#8217; savin&#8217; for you. I really didn&#8217;t.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, I&#8217;m not begrudging anybody. An&#8217; I don&#8217;t s&#8217;pose there is much
+news we hain&#8217;t heard. Though there was a new family of settlers moved
+out on the mill-road last week, I don&#8217;t reckon they&#8217;d be anybody that
+we&#8217;d care about. Folks have to be a mite particular, even out here in
+Illinois.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Mercy paused, with her half-folded shawl in her hands. Then, with
+considerable emphasis, she unfolded it again, and deliberately
+fastened it about her plump person.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, I&#8217;m goin&#8217;. It&#8217;s rainin&#8217; a little, but none to hurt. I&#8217;ve fixed
+a dose of cough syrup for Mis&#8217; Waldron&#8217;s baby, an&#8217; I&#8217;d ought to go an&#8217;
+give it to her. Them new folks has come right near her farm, I hear.
+If you ain&#8217;t man enough to look out for yourself for a few hours, you
+cert&#8217;nly ain&#8217;t enough account for me to worry over. But take good care
+of yourself, Abel. I&#8217;m goin&#8217;. I feel it my duty. There&#8217;s a roast
+spare-rib an&#8217; some potatoes ready to fry; an&#8217; the meal for the
+stirabout is all in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>measure an&#8217;&mdash;good-by. I&#8217;ll likely be back
+to-night. If not, by milkin&#8217; time to-morrow morning.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Abel had taken down the almanac from its nail in the wall and had
+pretended to be absorbed in its contents. He did not even lift his
+eyes as his wife went out and shut the door. He still continued to
+search the &#8220;prognostics&#8221; long after the cabin had become utterly
+silent, not daring to glance through the small window, lest she should
+discover him and be reminded of some imaginary duty toward him that
+would make her return.</p>
+
+<p>But, at the end of fifteen minutes, since nothing happened and the
+stillness remained profound, he hung the almanac back in its place,
+clapped his hands and executed a sort of joy-dance which was quite
+original with himself. Then he drew his splint-bottomed chair before
+the open fire, tucked his fiddle under his chin, and proceeded to
+enjoy himself.</p>
+
+<p>For more than an hour, he played and whistled and felt as royal and
+happy as a king. By the end of that time he had grown a little tired
+of music, and noticed that the drizzle of the early morning had
+settled into a steady, freezing downpour. The trees were already
+becoming coated with ice and their branches to creak dismally in the
+rising wind.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Never see such a country for wind as this is. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>Blows all the time,
+the year round. Hope Mercy&#8217;ll be able to keep ahead of the storm.
+She&#8217;s a powerful free traveller, Mercy is, an&#8217; don&#8217;t stan&#8217; for
+trifles. But&mdash;my soul! Ain&#8217;t she a talker? I realize <i>that</i> when her
+back&#8217;s turned. It&#8217;s so still in this cabin I could hear a pin drop, if
+there was anybody round hadn&#8217;t nothin&#8217; better to do than to drop one.
+Hmm, I s&#8217;pose I could find some sort of job out there to the barn. But
+I ain&#8217;t goin&#8217; to. I&#8217;m just goin&#8217; to play hookey by myself this whole
+endurin&#8217; day, an&#8217; see what comes of it. I believe I&#8217;ll just tackle one
+of them pumpkin pies. &#8217;Tain&#8217;t so long since breakfast, but eatin&#8217; kind
+of passes the time along. I wish I had a newspaper. I wish somethin&#8217;
+would turn up. I&mdash;I wouldn&#8217;t let Mercy know it, not for a farm; but
+<i>&#8217;tis</i> lonesome here all by myself. I hain&#8217;t never noticed it so much
+as I do this mornin&#8217;. Whew! Hear that wind! It&#8217;s a good mile an&#8217; a
+half to Waldron&#8217;s. I hope Mercy&#8217;s got there &#8217;fore this.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Abel closed the outer door, and crossed to the well-stocked cupboard.
+As he stood contemplating its contents, and undecided as to which
+would really best suit his present mood, there came a sound of
+somebody approaching the house along the slippery footpath. This was
+so unexpected that it startled the pioneer. Then he reflected: &#8220;Mercy.
+She&#8217;s come back!&#8221; and remained guiltily standing with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>his hand upon
+the edge of a pie plate, like a school-boy pilfering his mother&#8217;s
+larder.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Rat-a-tat-a-tat!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Somebody knockin&#8217;! That ain&#8217;t Mercy! Who the land, I wonder!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He made haste to see and opened the heavy door to the demand of a
+young boy, who stood shivering before it. At a little distance further
+from the house was, also, a woman wrapped in a blanket that glistened
+with sleet, and which seemed to enfold besides herself the form of a
+little child.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;My land! my land! Why, bubby! where in the world did you drop from?
+Is that your ma? No. I see she&#8217;s an Indian, an&#8217; you&#8217;re as white as the
+frost itself. Come in. Come right in.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>But the lad lingered on the threshold and asked with chattering teeth,
+which showed how chilled he was:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Can Wahneenah come too?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know who in Christendom Wahneeny is, but you folks all come
+straight in out of the storm. &#8217;Twon&#8217;t do to keep the door open so
+long, for the sleet&#8217;s beating right in on Mercy&#8217;s carpet. There&#8217;d be
+the dickens to pay if she saw that.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Gaspar, for it was he, ran quickly back toward the motionless
+Wahneenah, and, clutching the corner of her blanket, dragged her
+forward. She seemed reluctant to follow, notwithstanding her
+half-frozen <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>condition and she glanced into Abel&#8217;s honest face with
+keen inquiry. Yet seeing nothing but good-natured pity in it, she
+entered the cabin, and herself shut the door. Yet she kept her place
+close to the exit, even after Gaspar had pulled the blanket apart and
+revealed the white face of the Sun Maid lying on her breast.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why, why, why! poor child! Poor little creatur&#8217;. Where in the world
+did you hail from to be out in such weather? Didn&#8217;t you have ary home
+to stay in? But, there. I needn&#8217;t ask that, because there&#8217;s Mercy off
+trapesing just the same, an&#8217; her with the best cabin on the frontier.
+I s&#8217;pose this Wahneeny was took with a gossipin&#8217; fit, too, an&#8217; set out
+to find her own cronies. But I don&#8217;t recollect as I&#8217;ve heard of any
+Indians livin&#8217; out this way.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>By this time the water that had been frozen upon the wanderers&#8217;
+clothing had begun to melt, and was drip-dripping in little puddles
+upon Mercy&#8217;s beloved carpet. Abel eyed these with dismay, and finally
+hit upon the happy expedient of turning back the loose breadth of the
+heavy fabric which bordered the hearth. Upon the bare boards thus
+revealed he placed three chairs, and invited his guests to take them.</p>
+
+<p>Gaspar dropped into one very promptly, but the squaw did not advance
+until the boy cried:</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Do come, Other Mother. Poor Kitty will wake up then, and feel all
+right.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The atmosphere of any house was always uncomfortable to Wahneenah.
+Even then, she felt as if she had stepped from freedom into prison,
+cold though she was and half-famished with hunger. Personally, she
+would rather have taken her bit of food out under the trees; but the
+thought of her Sun Maid was always powerful to move her. She laid
+aside the wet blanket, and carried the drowsy little one to the
+fireside, where the warmth soon revived the child so that she sat up
+on her foster-mother&#8217;s lap, and gazed about her with awakening
+curiosity. Then she began to smile on Abel, who stood regarding her
+wonderful loveliness with undisguised amazement, and to prattle to him
+in her accustomed way.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why, you nice, nice man! Isn&#8217;t this a pretty place. Isn&#8217;t it beau&#8217;ful
+warm? I&#8217;m so glad we came. It was cold out of doors, wasn&#8217;t it, Other
+Mother? Did you know all the time what a good warm fire was here? Was
+that why we came?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I knew nothing,&#8221; answered Wahneenah, stolidly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But I did!&#8221; cried Gaspar. &#8220;As soon as I saw the smoke of your chimney
+I said: &#8216;That is a white man&#8217;s house. We will go and stay in it.&#8217; It&#8217;s
+a nice house, sir, and, like Kitty, I am glad we came. Do you live
+here all alone?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;No. My wife, Mercy, has gone a visitin&#8217;. That&#8217;s why I happen to be
+here doin&#8217; nothin&#8217;. I mean&mdash;I might have been to the barn an&#8217; not
+heard you. You&#8217;re lookin&#8217; into that cupboard pretty sharp. Be you
+hungry? But I needn&#8217;t ask that. A boy always is.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I am hungry. We all are. We haven&#8217;t had anything to eat in&mdash;days, I
+guess. Are those pies&mdash;regular pies, on the shelves?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes. Do you like pies?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I used to. I haven&#8217;t had any since I left the Fort.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Left what?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The Fort. Fort Dearborn. Did you know it?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Course. That is, about it. But there ain&#8217;t no Fort now. Don&#8217;t tell
+stories.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not. I&#8217;m telling the truth.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>If this was a refugee from that unhappy garrison, Abel felt that he
+could not do enough for the boy&#8217;s comfort. He could not refrain his
+suspicious glances from Wahneenah&#8217;s dark face, but as she kept her own
+gaze fixed upon the ground, he concluded she did not see them. In any
+case, she was only an Indian, and therefore to be treated with scant
+courtesy.</p>
+
+<p>Mercy would have been surprised to see with what handiness her husband
+played the host in her <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span>absence and now he whipped off the red woollen
+cover from the table and rolled it toward the fireplace. But she would
+not have approved at all of the lavishness with which he set before
+his guests the best things from her cupboard. There was a cold rabbit
+patty, the pot of beans, light loaves of sweet rye bread, and a pat of
+golden butter. To these he added a generous pitcher of milk, and
+beside Gaspar&#8217;s own plate he placed both a pumpkin and a dried-apple
+pie.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;d begin with these, if I was you, sonny. Baked beans come by
+nature, seems to me, but pies are a gift of grace. Though I must say
+my wife don&#8217;t stint &#8217;em when she takes it into her head to go
+gallivantin&#8217; an&#8217; leaves me to housekeep. &#8217;Pears to think then I must
+have somethin&#8217; sort of comfortin&#8217;. I&#8217;d start in on pie, if I was a
+little shaver, an&#8217; take the beans last.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>This might not have been the best of advice to give a lad whose fast
+had been so long continued as Gaspar&#8217;s, but it suited that young
+person exactly. Indeed, in all his life he had never seen so well
+spread a table, and he lost no time in obeying his entertainer&#8217;s
+suggestion. But he noticed with regret that his foster-mother did not
+touch the proffered food, and that she ministered even gingerly to
+Kitty&#8217;s wants.</p>
+
+<p>Yet there was nobody, however austere or unhappy, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>who could long
+resist the happy influence of the little girl, and least of all the
+woman who so loved her. As the Sun Maid&#8217;s color returned to her face,
+and her stiffened limbs began to resume their suppleness, something of
+the anxiety left Wahneenah&#8217;s eyes, and she condescended to receive a
+bowl of milk and a slice of bread from Abel&#8217;s hand.</p>
+
+<p>The fact that she would at last break her own fast made all
+comfortable; and as soon as Gaspar&#8217;s appetite was so far appeased that
+he could begin upon the beans, the settler demanded:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now, sonny, talk. Tell me the whole endurin&#8217; story from A to Izzard.
+Where&#8217;d you come from now? Where was you bound? What&#8217;s your name? an&#8217;
+her&#8217;s? an&#8217; the little tacker&#8217;s? My! but ain&#8217;t she a beauty! I never
+see ary such hair on anybody&#8217;s head, black or white. It&#8217;s gettin&#8217; dry,
+ain&#8217;t it; an&#8217; how it does fly round, just like foam.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not &#8216;sonny,&#8217; nor &#8216;bubby.&#8217; I&#8217;m Gaspar Keith. I was brought up at
+Fort Dearborn. After the massacre, I was taken to Muck-otey-pokee.
+I&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>But the lad&#8217;s thoughts already began to grow sombre, and he became so
+abruptly silent that Abel prompted him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hmm, I&#8217;ve heard of that&mdash;that&mdash;Mucky place. Indian settlement, wasn&#8217;t
+it? Took prisoner, was you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;No. I wasn&#8217;t a prisoner, exactly. I was just a&mdash;just a friend of the
+family, I guess.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh? So. A friend of an Indian family, sonny?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If you&#8217;d rather not call me Gaspar, you can please say &#8216;Dark-Eye.&#8217;
+That&#8217;s my new Indian name; but I hate those other ones. They make me
+think I am a baby. And I&#8217;m not. I am a man, almost.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;So you be. So you be,&#8221; agreed Abel, admiring the little fellow&#8217;s
+spirit. &#8220;I &#8217;low you&#8217;ve seen sights, now, hain&#8217;t you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, dreadful ones; so dreadful that I can&#8217;t talk about them to
+anybody. Not even to you, who have given us this nice food and let us
+warm ourselves. I would if I could, you see; only when I let myself
+think, I just get queer in the head and afraid. So I won&#8217;t even think.
+It doesn&#8217;t do for a boy to be afraid. Not when he has his mother and
+sister to take care of.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>There was the faintest lightening of the gloom upon the Indian woman&#8217;s
+face as Dark-Eye said this. But he was, apart from his terror of
+bloodshed and fighting, a courageous lad, and had, during their past
+days of wandering, proved the good stuff of which he was made. Many a
+day he had gone without eating that the remnant of their food might be
+saved for the Sun Maid; and though it was, of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>course, Wahneenah who
+had taken all the care of the children, if it pleased him to consider
+their cases reversed he should be left to his own opinion.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re right, boy. I&#8217;ll call you Gaspar, easy enough. Only, you see,
+I hain&#8217;t got no sons of my own an&#8217; it kind of makes things seem cosier
+if I call other folkes&#8217;s youngsters that way. Every little shaver this
+side of Illinois calls me &#8216;Uncle Abe,&#8217; I reckon. But go on with your
+yarn. My, my, my! Won&#8217;t Mercy be beat when she comes home an&#8217; hears
+all that&#8217;s happened whilst she was gone. Go on.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>So Gaspar told all that had occurred since the Black Partridge parted
+from his sister in the cavern and rode away toward St. Joseph&#8217;s. How
+that very day came one of the visiting Indians who had been staying at
+Muck-otey-pokee and whose behavior toward the neighboring white
+settlers had been a prominent cause of bringing the soldiers&#8217; raid
+upon the innocent and friendly hosts who had entertained him.</p>
+
+<p>The wicked like not solitude, and in the train of this traitor had
+followed many others. These had turned the cave into a pandemonium and
+had appropriated to their own uses the stores which Black Partridge
+had provided for Wahneenah. When to this robbery they had added
+threats against the lives of the white children, whose presence at the
+Indian <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>village they in their turn declared had brought destruction
+upon it, the chief&#8217;s sister had taken such small portion of her own
+property as she could secure and had set out to find a new home or
+shelter for her little ones.</p>
+
+<p>Since then they had been always wandering. Wahneenah now had a fixed
+dread of the pale-faces and had avoided their habitations as far as
+might be. They had lived in the woods, upon the roots and dried
+berries they could find and whose power to sustain life the squaw had
+understood. But now had come the cold of approaching winter and the
+Sun Maid had shown the effects of her long exposure. Then, at Gaspar&#8217;s
+pleading, Wahneenah had put her own distrust of strangers aside and
+had come with him to the first cabin of white people which they could
+find.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And now we&#8217;re here, what will you do with us?&#8221; concluded the lad,
+fixing his dark eyes earnestly upon his host&#8217;s face.</p>
+
+<p>Abel fidgetted a little; then, with his happy faculty of putting off
+till to-morrow the evil that belonged to to-day, he replied:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, son&mdash;bub&mdash;I mean, Gaspar; we hain&#8217;t come to that bridge yet.
+Time enough to cross it when we do. But, say, that little creatur&#8217;
+looks as if she hadn&#8217;t known what &#8217;twas to lie on a decent bed in a
+month of Sundays. She&#8217;s &#8217;bout dried off <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>now; an&#8217; my! ain&#8217;t she a
+pretty sight in them little Indian&#8217;s togs! S&#8217;pose your squaw-ma puts
+her to sleep on the bed yonder. Notice that bedstead? There ain&#8217;t
+another like it this side the East. I&#8217;ll just spread a sheet over the
+quilt, to keep it clean, an&#8217; she can snooze there all day, if she
+likes. I&#8217;ll play you an&#8217; Wahneeny a tune on my fiddle if you want me
+to.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Gaspar was, of course, delighted with this offer but the chief&#8217;s
+sister was already tired of the hot house and had cast longing glances
+through the small window toward the barn in the rear. That, at least,
+would be cool, and from its doorway she calculated she could keep a
+close watch upon the door of the cabin, and be ready at a second&#8217;s
+notice to rush to her children&#8217;s aid should harm be offered them.
+Meanwhile, for this dark day, they would have the comfort to which
+their birthright entitled them. So she went out and left them with
+Abel.</p>
+
+<p>The hours flew by and the storm continued. Abel had never been happier
+nor jollier; and as the twilight came down, and he finally gave up all
+expectation of Mercy&#8217;s immediate return, he waxed fairly hilarious,
+cutting up absurd antics for the mere delight of seeing the Sun Maid
+laugh and dance in response, and because, under these cheerful
+conditions, Gaspar&#8217;s face was losing its premature <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>thoughtfulness and
+rounding to a look more suited to his years.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now, I&#8217;ll dance you a sailor&#8217;s hornpipe, and then I must go out and
+milk. If ma&#8217;d been home, it would have been finished long ago. But
+when the cat&#8217;s away the mice will play, you know; so here goes.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately, at that very moment the &#8220;cat&#8221; to whom he referred,
+Mercy, in fact, approached the cabin from a direction which even
+Wahneenah did not observe, and opened a rear door plump upon this
+unprecedented scene.</p>
+
+<p>Abel stopped short in his jig, one foot still uplifted and his fiddle
+bow half drawn, while the Sun Maid was yet sweeping her most graceful
+curtsey; and even the serious Gaspar had left his seat to prance about
+the room to the notes of Abel&#8217;s music.</p>
+
+<p>Mercy also remained transfixed, utterly dumfounded, and doubting the
+evidence of her own senses; but after a moment becoming able to
+exclaim:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;So! This is how lonesome you be when I leave you, is it?&#8221;</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
+
+<h3>AFTER FOUR YEARS.</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:5px;padding-bottom:1px;">D</span>espite a really warm and hospitable heart, it was not pleasant for
+Mercy Smith to find that her submissive husband had taken upon himself
+to keep open house in this fashion for all who chose to call; and, as
+she often expressed it, the settler&#8217;s wife &#8220;hated an Indian on sight.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Upon her unexpected entrance, there had ensued a brief silence; then
+the two tongues which were accustomed to wag so nimbly took up their
+familiar task and a battle of words followed. Its climax came rather
+suddenly, and was not anticipated by the housewife who declared with
+great decision:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I say the children may stay for a spell, till we can find a way to
+dispose of &#8217;em. The boy&#8217;s big enough to earn his keep, if he ain&#8217;t too
+lazy. Male creatur&#8217;s mostly are. An&#8217; the girl&#8217;s no great harm as I
+see, &#8217;nless she&#8217;s too pretty to be wholesome. But that red-face goes,
+or I do. There ain&#8217;t no room in this cabin for me an&#8217; a squaw to one
+time. You can take your druther. She goes or I do&#8221;; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span>and she glanced
+with animosity toward Wahneenah, who, when hearing the fresh voice
+added to the other three, had come promptly upon Mercy&#8217;s return to
+take her stand just within the entrance. There she had remained ever
+since, silent, watchful, and quite as full of distrust concerning
+Mercy as Mercy could possibly have been toward herself.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well,&#8221; said Abel, slowly, and there was a new note in his voice which
+aroused and riveted his wife&#8217;s attention. &#8220;Well&mdash;you hear me. I don&#8217;t
+often claim to be boss, but when I do I mean it. Them children can
+stay here just as long as they will. For all their lives, an&#8217; I&#8217;ll be
+glad of it. The Lord has denied us any little shavers of our own, an&#8217;
+maybe just because in His providence He was plannin&#8217; to send them two
+orphans here for us to tend. As for the squaw, she&#8217;s proved her soul&#8217;s
+white, if her skin is red, an&#8217; she stays or goes, just as she
+elects&mdash;ary one. That&#8217;s all. Now, you&#8217;d better see about fixing &#8217;em a
+place to sleep.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Because she was too astonished to do otherwise, Mercy complied. And
+Wahneenah wisely relieved her unwilling hostess of any trouble
+concerning herself. She followed Abel to the barn, to attend him upon
+his belated &#8220;chores,&#8221; and to beg the use of some coarse blankets which
+she had found stored there. Until she could secure properly dressed
+skins or bark, these would serve her purpose well <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>enough for the
+little tepee she meant to pitch close to the house which sheltered her
+children.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;For I must leave them under her roof while the winter lasts. They are
+not of my race, and cannot endure the cold. But I will work just so
+much as will pay for their keep and my own. They shall be beholden to
+the white woman for naught but their shelter. For that, too, I will
+make restitution in the days to come.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Pshaw, Wahneeny! I wouldn&#8217;t mind a bit of a sharp tongue, if I was
+you. Ma don&#8217;t mean no hurt. She&#8217;s used to bein&#8217; boss, that&#8217;s all; an&#8217;
+she will be the first to be glad she&#8217;s got another female to consort
+with. I wouldn&#8217;t lay up no grudge. I wouldn&#8217;t.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>But the matter settled itself as the Indian suggested. It was pain and
+torment to her to hear Mercy alternately petting and correcting her
+darlings, yet for their sakes she endured that much and more. She even
+failed to resent the fact that, after a short residence at the farm,
+the Smiths both began to refer to her as &#8220;our hired girl, that&#8217;s
+workin&#8217; for her keep an&#8217; the childern&#8217;s.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It did not matter to her now. Nothing mattered so long as she was
+still within sight and sound of her Sun Maid&#8217;s beauty and laughter;
+and by the time spring came she had procured the needful skins to
+construct the wigwam she desired. Her skill in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>nursing, that had been
+well known among her own people, she now made a means of sustaining
+her independence. Such aid as she could render was indeed difficult to
+be obtained by the isolated dwellers in that wilderness; and having
+nursed Abel through a siege of inflammatory rheumatism, as he had
+never been cared for before, he sounded her praises far and near, and
+to all of the chance passers-by.</p>
+
+<p>For her service among those who could pay she charged a very moderate
+wage, but it sufficed; and, for the sake of pleasing her children, she
+adopted a dress very like that worn by all the women of the frontier.
+Kitty, also, had soon been clothed &#8220;like a Christian&#8221; by Mercy&#8217;s
+decision; but Wahneenah still carefully preserved the dainty Indian
+costume Katasha had given the child; along with the sacred White Bow
+and the priceless Necklace.</p>
+
+<p>As for the three horses on which she and the two children had stolen
+away from their enemies in the cave of refuge, Abel had long ago
+decided that they were but kittle cattle, unfitted for the sober work
+of life which his own oxen and old nag Dobbin performed so well. So
+they were left in idleness, to graze where they pleased, and were
+little used except by their owners for a rare ride afield. The
+Chestnut, however, carried Wahneenah to and fro upon her nursing
+trips; for, unless the case were too <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>urgent to be left, she always
+returned at nightfall to her own lodge and the nearness of her Sun
+Maid.</p>
+
+<p>Thus four uneventful years passed away, and it had come to the time of
+the wheat harvest.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And it&#8217;s to be the biggest, grandest frolic ever was in this part of
+the country,&#8221; declared the settler, proudly.</p>
+
+<p>Whereupon, days before, Mercy began to brew and bake, and even
+Wahneenah condescended to assist in the household labor. But she did
+this that she might if possible lighten that of her Sun Maid, who had
+now grown to a &#8220;real good-sized girl an&#8217; just as smart as chain
+lightning.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>This was Abel&#8217;s description. Mercy&#8217;s would have been:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Kitty&#8217;s well enough. But she hates to sew her seam like she hates
+poison. She&#8217;d ruther be makin&#8217; posies an&#8217; animals out my nice clean
+fresh-churned butter than learn cookin&#8217;. But she&#8217;s good-tempered.
+Never flies out at all, like Gaspar, &#8217;cept I lose patience with
+Wahneeny. Then, look sharp!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, I tell you that out in this country a harvestin&#8217; is a big
+institution!&#8221; cried Abel to Gaspar as, early on the morning of the
+eventful day, they were making all things ready for the accommodation
+of the people who would flock to the Smith farm to assist in the labor
+and participate in the fun. &#8220;If there&#8217;s some things we miss here, we
+have some that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>can&#8217;t be matched out East. Every white settler&#8217;s every
+other settler&#8217;s neighbor, even though there&#8217;s miles betwixt their
+clearin&#8217;s. All hands helpin&#8217; so makes light work of raisin&#8217; cabins or
+barns, sowin&#8217;, reapin&#8217;, or clearin&#8217;. I&mdash;I declare I feel as excited as
+a boy. But you don&#8217;t seem to. You&#8217;re gettin&#8217; a great lad now, Gaspar,
+an&#8217; one these days I&#8217;ll be thinkin&#8217; of payin&#8217; you some wages. If so be
+I can afford it, <span style="white-space: nowrap;">an&#8217;&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And Mercy will let you!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hi, diddle diddle! What&#8217;s struck you crosswise, sonny?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m tired of working so hard for other people. I want a chance to do
+something for myself. I&#8217;m not ungrateful; don&#8217;t think it. But see. I
+am already taller than you and I can do as much work in a day. Where
+is the justice, then, of my labor going for naught?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why, Gaspar. Why, why, why!&#8221; exclaimed the pioneer, too astonished to
+say more.</p>
+
+<p>Gaspar went on with his task of clearing the barn floor and arranging
+tying places for the visitors&#8217; teams; but his dark face was clouded
+and anxious, showing little of the anticipation which Abel&#8217;s did.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m going to ask you, Father Abel, to let me try for a job somewhere
+else; that is, if you can&#8217;t really pay me anything, as your wife
+declares. Then, by and by, when I can earn enough to get <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>ahead a
+little, I&#8217;d pay you back for all you&#8217;ve spent on us three.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Abel&#8217;s face had fallen, and he now looked as if he might be expecting
+some dire disaster rather than a frolic. But it brightened presently.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, Gaspar; I know you&#8217;re big, and well-growed. But you&#8217;re young
+yet&mdash;dreadful young&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m near fifteen.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, you won&#8217;t be out your time till you&#8217;re twenty-one.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What &#8216;time&#8217;?&#8221; asked the lad, angrily, though he knew the answer.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hmm. Of course, there wasn&#8217;t no regular papers drawed, but it was
+understood; it was always understood between ma and me that if we took
+you all in, and did for you while you was growin&#8217; up, your service
+belonged to us. Same&#8217;s if you&#8217;d been bound by the authorities.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Get over there, Dobbin!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Pshaw! You must be real tried in your mind to hit a four-footed
+creatur&#8217; like that. I hain&#8217;t never noticed that you was short-spoke
+with the stock&mdash;not before this morning. I wish you wouldn&#8217;t get out
+of sorts to-day, boy! I&mdash;well, there&#8217;s things afoot &#8217;at I think you&#8217;d
+like to take a share in. There. That&#8217;ll do. Now, just turn another
+edge on them reapin&#8217; knives, an&#8217; see that there&#8217;s plenty <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>o&#8217; water in
+the troughs, an&#8217; feed them fattin&#8217; pigs in the pen, an&#8217;&mdash;Shucks! He&#8217;s
+off already. I wonder what&#8217;s took him so short! I wonder if he&#8217;s got
+wind of anything out the common!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The latter part of Abel&#8217;s words were spoken to himself, for Gaspar had
+taken his knives to the grindstone in the yard and was now calling for
+Kitty to turn the stone for him, while he should hold the blades
+against its surface.</p>
+
+<p>But it was Mercy who answered his summons, appearing in the doorway
+with her sleeves rolled up, her apron floured, and her round face
+aglow with haste and excitement.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well? well, Gaspar Keith? What you want of Kit?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;To help me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Help yourself. I can&#8217;t spare her.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Then I can&#8217;t grind the knives. That&#8217;s all.&#8221; He tossed them down to
+wait her pleasure, and Mercy groaned.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If I ain&#8217;t the worst bestead woman in the world! Here&#8217;s all creation
+coming to be fed, an&#8217; no help but a little girl like Kit an&#8217; a grumpy
+old squaw &#8217;t don&#8217;t know enough to &#8217;preciate her privileges. Hey!
+Gaspar! Call Abel in to breakfast. An&#8217; after that maybe sissy can turn
+the stun. Here &#8217;tis goin&#8217; on six o&#8217;clock, if it&#8217;s a minute, an&#8217; some
+the folks&#8217;ll be pokin&#8217; over here by seven, sure!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span></p><p>Then Mercy retreated within doors and directed the Sun Maid to:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Fly &#8217;round right smart now an&#8217; set the house to one side. Whisk them
+flapjacks over quicker &#8217;an that, then they&#8217;ll not splish-splash all
+over the griddle. When I was a little girl nine years old I could fry
+cakes as round as an apple. No reason why you shouldn&#8217;t, too, if you
+put your mind to it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The Sun Maid laughed. No amount of fret or labor had ever yet had
+power to dim the brightness of her nature. Was it the Sun Maid,
+though? One had to look twice to see. For this tall, slender girl now
+wore her glorious hair in a braid, and her frock was of coarse blue
+homespun.</p>
+
+<p>Her feet were bare, and her plump shoulders bowed a little because of
+the heavy burdens which her &#8220;mother Mercy&#8221; saw fit to put upon them.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But I guess I don&#8217;t want to put my mind to it. I can&#8217;t see anything
+pretty in &#8217;jacks which are to be eaten right up. Only I like to have
+them taste right for the folks. That&#8217;s all.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Abel and Gaspar came in, and Kitty placed a plate of steaming cakes
+before them. Mercy hurried to the big churn outside the door and began
+to work the dasher up and down as if she hadn&#8217;t an ounce of butter in
+her dairy and must needs prepare this lot for the festival. As she
+churned she kept up a running fire of directions to the household
+within, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>finally suggesting, in a burst of liberality due to the
+occasion:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You can fry what flapjacks you want for yourself, Wahneeny. An&#8217; I
+don&#8217;t know as I care if you have a little syrup on &#8217;em to-day&mdash;just
+for once, so to speak.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>However, Wahneenah disdained even the cakes, and the syrup-jug was
+deposited in its place with undiminished contents.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Be you all through, then? Well, Kit, fly &#8217;round. Clear the table like
+lightning, an&#8217; fetch that butter bowl out the spring, an&#8217; see if the
+salt&#8217;s all poun&#8217; an&#8217; sifted; an&#8217; open the draw&#8217;s an&#8217; lay out my
+clothes, an&#8217;&mdash;Dear me! Does seem &#8217;s if I should lose my senses with so
+much to do an&#8217; no decent help, <span style="white-space: nowrap;">only&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hold on, Mercy! What&#8217;s the use of rushin&#8217; through life &#8217;s if you was
+tryin&#8217; to break your neck?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Rushin&#8217;! With all that&#8217;s comin&#8217; here to-day!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, let &#8217;em come. We&#8217;ll be glad to see &#8217;em. Nobody gladder &#8217;n you
+yourself. But you fair take my breath away with your everlastin&#8217;
+hurry-skurry, clitter-clatter. Don&#8217;t give a man a chance to even kiss
+his little girl good-mornin&#8217;. Do you know that, Sunny Maid? Hain&#8217;t
+said a word to your old Daddy yet!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The child ran to him and fondly flung her arms as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>far as they would
+go around the settler&#8217;s broad shoulders. It was evident that there was
+love and sympathy between these two, though they were to be allowed
+short space &#8220;for foolin&#8217;&#8221; that day, and Mercy&#8217;s call again interrupted
+them:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Come and take this butter down to the brook, Kit, an&#8217; wash it all
+clean, an&#8217; salt it just right&mdash;here &#8217;tis measured off&mdash;an&#8217; make haste.
+I do believe you&#8217;d ruther stand there lovin&#8217; your old Abel&mdash;homely
+creatur&#8217;!&mdash;than helpin&#8217; me. Yet, when I was a little girl your age, I
+could work the butter over fit to beat the queen. Upon my word, I do
+declare I see a wagon movin&#8217; &#8217;crost the prairie this very minute! Oh!
+what shall I do if I ain&#8217;t ready when they get here!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Catching at last something of the pleasurable excitement about her,
+Kitty lifted the heavy butter-tray and started for the stream. The
+butter was just fine and firm enough to tempt her fingers into a bit
+of modelling, such as she had picked up for herself; and very speedily
+she had arranged a row of miniature fruits and acorns, and was just
+attempting to copy a flower which grew by the bank when Wahneenah&#8217;s
+voice, close at hand, warned her:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Come, Girl-Child. The white mistress is in haste this morning. It is
+better to carry back the butter in a lump than to make even such
+pretty things and risk a scolding.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;But father Abel would like them for his company. He is very fond of
+my fancy &#8216;pats&#8217;.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But not to-day. Besides, if there is time for idleness, I want you to
+pass it here with me, in my own wigwam.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The Sun Maid looked up. &#8220;Shall you not be at the feasting, dear Other
+Mother? You have many friends among those who are coming.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Friendship is proved by too sharp a test sometimes. The way of the
+world is to follow the crowd. If a person falls into disfavor with
+one, all the rest begin to pick flaws. More than that: the temptation
+of money ruins even noble natures.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why, Wahneenah! You sound as if you were talking riddles. Who is
+tempted by money? and which way does the &#8216;crowd&#8217; you mean go? I don&#8217;t
+understand you at all.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;May the Great Spirit be praised that it is so. May He long preserve
+to you your innocent and loyal heart.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>With these words, the Indian woman stooped and laid her hand upon the
+child&#8217;s head; then slowly entered her lodge and let its curtains fall
+behind her. There was an unusual sternness about her demeanor which
+impressed Kitty greatly; so that it was with a very sober face that
+she herself gathered up her burdens and returned to the cabin.</p>
+
+<p>Yet on the short way thither she met Gaspar, who <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>beckoned to her from
+behind the shelter of a haystack, motioning silence.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But you mustn&#8217;t keep me, Gaspar boy. Mother Mercy is terribly hurried
+this morning, and now, for some reason, Other Mother has stopped
+helping and has gone home to the tepee. If I don&#8217;t work, it will about
+crush her down, Mercy says.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hang Mercy! There. I don&#8217;t mean that. I wish you wouldn&#8217;t always look
+so scared when I get mad. I am mad to-day, Kit. Mad clear through.
+I&#8217;ve got to be around amongst folks, too, for a while; but the first
+minute you get, you come to that pile of logs near Wahneenah&#8217;s place,
+and I&#8217;ll have something to tell you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No you won&#8217;t! No you won&#8217;t! I know it already. I heard father Abel
+talking. There is to be a horse race, after the harvesting and the
+supper are over. There is a new man, or family, moved into the
+neighborhood and he is a horse trader. I heard all about it, sir!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You heard that? Did you hear anything else? About Wahneenah and
+money?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Only what she told me herself&#8221;; repeating the Indian woman&#8217;s words.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Then she knows, poor thing!&#8221; cried Gaspar, indignantly.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE HARVESTING.</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:5px;padding-bottom:1px;">K</span>itty had no time to ask further explanation. Already there was an ox
+team driving up to the cabin and, scanning the prairies, she saw
+others on the way, so merely stopped to cry, eagerly:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;They&#8217;ve come! The folks have come!&#8221; before she hastened in with the
+butter and to see if she could in any way help Mercy dress for the
+great occasion.</p>
+
+<p>She was just in time, for the plump housewife was vainly struggling to
+fasten the buttons of a new lilac calico gown which she had made:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;A teeny tiny mite too tight. I didn&#8217;t know I was gettin&#8217; so fat, I
+really didn&#8217;t.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh! it&#8217;s all right, dear Mother Mercy. It looked just lovely that day
+you tried it on. I&#8217;ll help you. You&#8217;re all trembling and warm. That&#8217;s
+the reason it bothers.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She was so deft and earnest in her efforts that Mercy submitted
+without protest, and in this manner succeeded in &#8220;making herself fit
+to be seen by folks&#8221; about the moment that they arrived to observe.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>Then everything else was forgotten, amid the greetings and gayety
+that followed. For out of what purported to be a task the whole
+community was making a frolic.</p>
+
+<p>While the men repaired to the golden fields to reap the grain the
+women hurried to the smooth grassy place where the harvest-dinner was
+to be enjoyed out-of-doors.</p>
+
+<p>Most of the vehicles&mdash;which brought whole families, down to the babe
+in long clothes&mdash;were drawn by oxen, though some of the pioneers owned
+fine horses and had driven these, groomed with extraordinary care and
+destined, later on, to be entered in the races which should conclude
+the business and fun of the day.</p>
+
+<p>Both horses and oxen were, for the present, led out to graze upon a
+fine pasture and were supposed to be under the care, while there, of
+the young people. These were, however, more deeply engaged in playing
+games than in watching, and for once their stern parents ignored the
+carelessness.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, such bright faces!&#8221; cried the Sun Maid to Mercy. &#8220;And yours is
+the happiest of all, even though you did have such a terrible time to
+get ready. See, they are fixing the tables out of the wagon boards,
+and every woman has brought her own dishes. They&#8217;re making fires, too,
+some of the bigger boys. What for, Mother Mercy?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Oh! don&#8217;t bother me now. It&#8217;s to boil the coffee on, and to bake the
+jonny-cakes. &#8216;Journey-cakes,&#8217; they used to call them. Mis&#8217; Waldron,
+she&#8217;s mixin&#8217; some this minute. Step acrost to her table an&#8217; watch. A
+girl a&#8217;most ten years old ought to learn all kinds of housekeepin&#8217;.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Kitty was nothing loath. It was, indeed, a treat to see with what
+skill the comely settler of the wilderness mixed and tossed and patted
+her jonny-cake, famous all through that countryside for lightness and
+delicacy; and as she finished each batch of dough, and slapped it down
+upon the board where it was to cook, she would hand it over to Kitty&#8217;s
+charge, with the injunction:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Carry that to one of the fires, an&#8217; stand it up slantin&#8217;, so &#8217;s to
+give it a good chance to bake even. Watch &#8217;em all, too; an&#8217; as soon as
+they are a nice brown on one side, either call me to turn &#8217;em to the
+other, or else do it yourself. As Mercy Smith says, a girl can&#8217;t begin
+too early to housekeep.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But this is out-door keep, isn&#8217;t it?&#8221; laughed the Sun Maid, as, with
+a board upon each arm, she bounded away to place the cakes as she had
+been directed.</p>
+
+<p>In ordinary, Mercy Smith was not a lavish woman; but on such a day as
+this she threw thrift to the wind and, brought out the best she could
+procure for the refreshment of her guests; and everybody <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>knows how
+much better food tastes when eaten out-of-doors than in regular
+fashion beside a table. The dinner was a huge success; and even
+Gaspar, whom Kitty&#8217;s loving watchful eyes had noticed was more than
+usually serious that day, so far relaxed his indignation as to partake
+of the feast with the other visiting lads.</p>
+
+<p>But, when it was over and the women were gathering up the dishes,
+preparatory to cleansing them for their homeward journey, the child
+came to where Mercy stood among a group of women, and asked:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Shall I wash the dishes, Mother Mercy?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, sissy, you needn&#8217;t. We grown folks&#8217;ll fix that. If you want
+something to do, an&#8217; are tired of out-doors, you can set right down
+yonder an&#8217; rock Mis&#8217; Waldron&#8217;s baby to sleep. By and by, Abel&#8217;s got a
+job for you will suit you to a T!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Kitty was by no means tired of out-doors, but a baby to attend was
+even a greater rarity than a holiday; so she sat down beside the
+cradle, which its mother had brought in her great wagon, and gently
+swayed the little occupant into a quiet slumber. Then she began to
+listen to the voices about her, and presently caught a sentence which
+puzzled her.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Fifty dollars is a pile of money. It&#8217;s more &#8217;n ary Indian ever was
+worth. Let alone a sulky squaw.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes it is. An&#8217; I need it. I need it dreadful,&#8221; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span>assented Mercy,
+forgetful of the Sun Maid&#8217;s presence in the room.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, I, for one, should be afraid of her,&#8221; observed another visitor,
+clattering the knives she was wiping. &#8220;I wouldn&#8217;t have a squaw livin&#8217;
+so near my door, an&#8217; that&#8217;s a fact.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Kitty now understood that these people were speaking of Wahneenah, and
+listened intently.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh! I ain&#8217;t afraid of her. Not that. But I never did like her, nor
+she me. She&#8217;s sullen an&#8217; top-lofty. Why, you&#8217;d think I wasn&#8217;t no
+better than the dirt under her feet, to see her sometimes. She was
+good to the childern, I&#8217;ll &#8217;low, afore me an&#8217; Abel took &#8217;em in. But
+that&#8217;s four years ago, an&#8217; I&#8217;ve cared for &#8217;em ever since. Sometimes I
+think she&#8217;s regular bewitched &#8217;em, they dote on her so. If you believe
+me, they&#8217;ll listen to her leastest word sooner &#8217;n a whole hour of my
+talk!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I shouldn&#8217;t be surprised,&#8221; quietly commented one young matron, who
+was jogging her own baby to sleep by tipping her chair violently back
+and forth upon its four legs.</p>
+
+<p>Continued Mercy:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;She wouldn&#8217;t eat a meal of victuals with me if she was starvin&#8217;. Yet
+I&#8217;ve treated her Christian. Only this mornin&#8217; I give her leave to fry
+cakes for herself, an&#8217; even have some syrup, but she wouldn&#8217;t touch to
+do it. Yes; fifty dollars of good government <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>money would be more to
+me &#8217;n she is, an&#8217; she&#8217;d be took care of, I hear, along with all the
+rest is caught. It&#8217;s time the country was rid of the Indians an&#8217; white
+folks had a chance. There&#8217;s all the while some massacrein&#8217; an&#8217;
+fightin&#8217; goin&#8217; on somewhere.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh! I guess the government just puts &#8217;em under lock an&#8217; key, in a
+guard-house, or some such place, till it gets enough to send away off
+West somewheres. I&#8217;d get the fifty dollars, if I was you, and march
+her off. She&#8217;ll be puttin&#8217; notions into the youngsters&#8217; heads first
+you see an&#8217; makin&#8217; trouble.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know just how to manage it. Abel, he&#8217;s queer an&#8217; sot. He&#8217;s
+gettin&#8217; tired, though, of some things, himself.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Manage it easy enough. Like fallin&#8217; off a log. My man could do you
+that good turn. She could be took along in our wagon as far as the
+Agency. Then, next time he comes by with his grist on his road to
+mill, he could fetch you the money. I&#8217;d do it, sure. I only wish I had
+an Indian to catch as handy as she is.&#8221; Having given this advice,
+Mercy&#8217;s guest sat down.</p>
+
+<p>There was a rush of small feet and the Sun Maid confronted them. Her
+blue eyes blazed with indignation, her face was white, and her hair,
+which the day&#8217;s activity had loosed from its braid, streamed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>backward
+as if every fibre quivered with life. With heaving breast and clenched
+hands, she faced them all.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, how dare you! How dare you! You are talking of my Wahneenah; of
+selling her, of selling her like a pig or a horse. Even you, Mrs.
+Jordan, though she nursed your little one till it got well, and only
+told you the truth: that if you&#8217;d look after it more and visit less it
+wouldn&#8217;t have the croup so often. You didn&#8217;t like to hear her say it,
+and you do not love her. But she is good, good, good! There is nobody
+so good as she is. And no harm shall come to her. I tell you. I say
+it. I, the Sun Maid, whom the Great Spirit sent to her out of the sky.
+I will go and tell her at once. She shall run away. She shall not be
+sold&mdash;never, never, never!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The women remained dumfounded where she left them, watching her skim
+the distance between cabin and wigwam, scarcely touching the earth
+with her bare feet in her haste to warn her friend of this new danger
+which threatened her and her race. For it was quite true, this matter
+that had been discussed. The Indians had given so much trouble in the
+sparsely settled country that the authorities had offered a price for
+their capture; and it was this price which money-loving Mercy coveted.</p>
+
+<p>Like a flash of a bird&#8217;s wing, Kitty had darted into <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>the lodge and
+out again, with an agony of fear upon her features; and then she saw
+Gaspar beckoning.</p>
+
+<p>As she reached him he motioned silence and drew her away into the
+shadow of the forest, that just there fringed the clearing behind the
+tepee.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But&mdash;Wahneenah&#8217;s gone!&#8221; she whispered.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t worry. She&#8217;s safe enough for the present. Listen to me. Do you
+remember the horse-racing last year?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Course. I remember I got so excited over the horses, and so sorry for
+the boys that rode and didn&#8217;t win. But what of that? Other Mother has
+gone!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I tell you she&#8217;s safe. Safer than you or me. Listen. Abel says <i>we</i>,
+too, will have to ride a race to-day! On Tempest and Snowbird. Even if
+we win, the money will belong to him; and if we lose&mdash;he&#8217;s going to
+sell one of our horses to pay his loss. I heard him say it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But they are ours!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s kept them all these years, he says. He claims the right to do
+with them as he chooses. Bad as that is, it isn&#8217;t the worst. Though
+Wahneenah is safe, still she will not be always. You and I will have
+to ride this race&mdash;to save her life, or liberty!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What do&mdash;you&mdash;mean?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I haven&#8217;t time to explain. Only&mdash;will you do as I say? Exactly?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Of course.&#8221; Kitty looked inquiringly into her foster-brother&#8217;s face.
+Didn&#8217;t he know she loved him better than anybody and would mind him
+always?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;When we are on the horses if I say to you: &#8216;Follow me!&#8217; will you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Of course. Away to the sky, over yonder, if you want me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Even if any grown folks should try to stop you? Even if Abel or
+Mercy?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Even&#8221;&mdash;declared the little girl, sincerely.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now go back to the house, or anywhere you please till Abel calls you,
+or I do. Then come and mount. And then&mdash;then&mdash;do exactly as I tell
+you. Remember.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He went away, back to the group of men about the barn, and Kitty sat
+down in the shady place to wait. But it was not for long. Presently
+she heard Mercy calling her, and saw Abel, with Gaspar, leading the
+black gelding and pretty Snowbird out of the stable toward a ring of
+other horses. She got up and passed toward the cabin very slowly.
+Oddly enough, she began to feel timid about riding before all those
+watching, strange faces; yet did not understand why. Then she thought
+of Wahneenah, and her returning anger made her indifferent to them.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Abel wants you, Kit!&#8221; cried Mrs. Smith, quite ignoring the child&#8217;s
+recent outbreak, and the girl <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>walked quietly toward him. But it was
+Gaspar who helped to swing her into her saddle, where she settled
+herself with an ease learned long ago of the Snake-Who-Leaps. The lad,
+also, found time to whisper:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Remember your promise! We are to ride this race for Wahneenah&#8217;s
+life&mdash;though nobody knows that save you and me. So ride your best.
+Ride as you never rode before&mdash;and on the road I lead you!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The sons of the new settler and horse dealer were to ride against
+these two. There were three of these youths, all well mounted, and the
+course was to be a certain number of times around the great wheat
+field so freshly reaped. It was a rough route, indeed, but as just for
+one as another, and in plain sight of all the visitors. The five
+horses ranged in a row with their noses touching a line, held by two
+men, that fell as the word was given:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;One&mdash;two&mdash;three&mdash;<span class="smaller">GO!&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>They went. They made the circuit of the field in fair style, with the
+three strangers a trifle ahead. On the completion of the second heat,
+the easterners passed the starting-point alone.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why, Gaspar! Why, Kitty!&#8221; shouted Abel reprovingly. &#8220;How&#8217;s this?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Maybe they don&#8217;t understand what&#8217;s meant,&#8221; suggested somebody.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span></p><p>Seemingly, they did not. For neither at the third round did they
+appear in leading. On the contrary, they had started off at a right
+angle, straight across the prairie; but now so fast they rode, and so
+unerringly, that long before their deserted friends had ceased to
+stare and wonder they had passed out of sight.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
+
+<h3>ONCE MORE IN THE OLD HOME.</h3>
+
+<p style="float: left; font-size: 100%; line-height: 80%; margin-top: 0;">&#8220;</p><p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:5px;padding-bottom:1px;">W</span>e can rest a little now, Kit. We are so far away that nobody could
+catch us if they tried. They won&#8217;t try, any way, I guess. They&#8217;ll
+think we&#8217;ll go back.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Didn&#8217;t the horses do finely, Gaspar! I never rode like that, I guess.
+Where are we going? What did you mean about saving Wahneenah&#8217;s life?
+Where is she?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t ask so many questions. I&#8217;ve got to think. I&#8217;ve got to think
+very hard. I&#8217;m the man of our family, you know, Sun Maid. Wahneenah
+and you are my women.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh! indeed!&#8221; said the girl, moving a little nearer her foster-brother
+on the grassy hillock where they had slipped from their saddles, to
+rest both themselves and the beasts.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You see: we&#8217;ve all run away.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Pooh! That&#8217;s nothing. I&#8217;ve always been running away. Black Partridge
+said I began life that way.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re about ten years old, Kit. You&#8217;re big enough to be getting
+womanly.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Father Abel said I was. I can sew quite well. If I&#8217;m very, very good,
+I&#8217;m to be let stitch a dickey all alone, two threads at a time, for
+him. Mercy said so.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Do you like stitching shirts for that old man?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No. I hate it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Poor little Sun Maid. You were made to be happy, and do nothing but
+what you like all day long. Well, I&#8217;ll be a man some day, and build a
+cabin of my own for you and Wahneenah.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That will be nice. Though I&#8217;ll be of some use some way, even if I
+don&#8217;t like sewing. Where shall we go when we get rested, boy?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;To the Fort.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The&mdash;Fort! I thought it was all burned up.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There is a new one on the same old ground. It is our real home, you
+know. We will be refugees. When we meet Wahneenah, we&#8217;ll go and claim
+protection.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh! Gaspar, where is she? I want her terribly. I am afraid something
+will happen to her.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>In his heart the lad was, also, greatly alarmed; but he felt it unwise
+to show this. So he answered, airily:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh! she&#8217;s on, a piece. I pointed her the road, and told her where to
+meet us. At the top of the sandhills, this side the Fort.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The sandhills! That dreadful place. You must <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>be getting a real
+&#8216;brave,&#8217; Gaspar boy, if you don&#8217;t mind going there again. I&#8217;ve heard
+you talk&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t want to talk even now, Kit. But I had to have some spot we
+both knew, where we could meet, and we chose that. I expect she&#8217;ll be
+there waiting, and as soon as the horses get cooled a little, and we
+do, we&#8217;ll go on.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m hungry. I wish we had brought something to eat.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I did. It&#8217;s here in my blouse. I noticed at the dinner that you did
+more serving than eating. There&#8217;s water yonder, too; in that clump of
+bushes must be a spring,&#8221; and the prairie-wise lad was right.</p>
+
+<p>The supper he produced was an indiscriminate mixture of meats and
+sweets and, had Kitty not been so really in need of food she would
+have disdained what she promptly pronounced &#8220;a mess.&#8221; But she ate it
+and felt rested by it; so that she began to remember things she had
+scarcely noticed earlier in the day.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Gaspar, Wahneenah must have known about this&mdash;this money being
+offered for her and other Indians. She had taken everything out of her
+wigwam. I thought she was terribly grave this morning, and she kept
+looking at me all the time. Do you think she knew she was going to run
+away as she was?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Course. She&#8217;s known it some days.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And didn&#8217;t tell me!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;She couldn&#8217;t, because she loves you so. She wouldn&#8217;t do a thing to
+put you in danger. So I thought the matter over, and I tell you I&#8217;ve
+just taken the business right out their hands. I was tired, any way.
+I&#8217;m glad we came. I&#8217;m almost a man, Kit; and I won&#8217;t be scolded by any
+woman as Mercy has scolded me. And when I found Abel was getting
+stingy, too, and claiming our horses for their keep, when they&#8217;ve
+really just kept themselves out on the prairie, or anywhere it
+happened, I&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Boy, you talk too fast. I&mdash;I don&#8217;t feel as if I was glad. Except when
+I remember Other Mother. They were horrid, horrid about her. I hate
+them for that, though I love them for other things. I wonder what
+Mother Mercy will say when we don&#8217;t come home!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;She&#8217;ll have a chance to say a lot of things before we do, I guess.
+Well, we&#8217;ll be going. I wouldn&#8217;t like to miss Wahneenah, and I don&#8217;t
+know but they close the Fort gates at night.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Did she ride Chestnut?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Course. What a lot of questions you ask!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The Sun Maid looked into the boy&#8217;s face. It was too troubled for her
+comfort, and she exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Gaspar Keith! There&#8217;s more to be told than you&#8217;ve told me. What is it
+you are keeping back?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;I&mdash;I wonder if you can understand, if I do tell you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I think I can understand a good many things. One is: you are making
+me feel very unhappy.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, then, I&#8217;m going to take Wahneenah to the Fort, and give her up
+myself!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>They had remounted their horses, and were pacing leisurely along
+toward the rendezvous, keeping a sharp lookout for the Indian woman;
+but at this startling statement the Sun Maid reined up short, and
+demanded:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What&mdash;do&mdash;you&mdash;mean?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Just exactly what I say. I&#8217;m going to give her up and get the money.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Kitty could not speak; and with a perplexity that was not at all
+comfortable to himself, the lad returned her astonished gaze.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Then&mdash;you&mdash;are&mdash;just&mdash;as&mdash;mean&mdash;as&mdash;Mercy&mdash;Smith!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I am not mean at all! Don&#8217;t you say it. Don&#8217;t you understand? I
+do&mdash;or I thought I did. It&#8217;s this way. She can&#8217;t be given up but once,
+can she? Well, I&#8217;ll do it, instead of an enemy.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You&mdash;wicked&mdash;boy! I can&#8217;t believe it! I won&#8217;t! You shall not do it;
+never!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, don&#8217;t be silly! Of course, I&#8217;ll not keep the money. I&#8217;ll give it
+right back to her. Then she can do what she likes with it&mdash;make a nice
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span>new wigwam near the Fort, and she can get lots of skins, or even
+canvas, there. Come, let&#8217;s ride on.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>But there was a silence between them for some time, and the scheme
+that had seemed so brilliant, when it had originated in Gaspar&#8217;s mind,
+began to lose something of its glitter under the clear questioning
+gaze of the Sun Maid.</p>
+
+<p>It was fast falling twilight when they came to the sandhills; and
+though, by all reckoning, Wahneenah should have been long awaiting
+them there was no sign of the familiar Chestnut or its beloved rider.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Gaspar, will Wahneenah understand it? Will she believe it is right
+for you to do what is wrong for another to do? Will the soldier men
+pay you&mdash;just a boy, so&mdash;the money, real money, for her, anyway?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Gaspar lost his patience, with which he was not greatly blessed.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Kit, I wish you wouldn&#8217;t keep thinking of things. I didn&#8217;t tell Other
+Mother, of course. She might&mdash;she might not have been pleased. I acted
+for the best. That&#8217;s the way men always have to do.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The argument was not as convincing to the Sun Maid as she herself
+would have liked; but she trusted Gaspar, and tried to put the money
+question aside, while she strained her eyes to search the darkening
+landscape for the missing one.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span></p><p>But there was no trace of her anywhere; even though Gaspar dismounted
+and scanned the sward for fresh tracks, as his Indian friends had
+taught him; and when, at length, he felt compelled to hasten to the
+Fort and seek its shelter for the Sun Maid, his young heart was heavy
+with foreboding. However, he put the cheerful side of the subject
+before the little girl, observing:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s the very easiest thing in the world for people to make mistakes
+in meeting this way. What seems a certain point to one person may look
+very different to another. I&#8217;ve noticed that.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh! you have!&#8221; commented Kitty. &#8220;I think you&#8217;ve noticed almost too
+much, Gaspar. I&mdash;I think it&#8217;s awful lonely out here, and I don&#8217;t
+believe Abel would have let anybody hurt Wahneenah, even if Mercy
+would. And&mdash;I want her, I want her!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Sun Maid! Are you afraid?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, I am not. Not for myself. But if some of those dreadful white
+people whom Wahneenah thought were her friends should overtake her on
+their way home, and&mdash;and&mdash;take her prisoner! I can&#8217;t have it,&mdash;I must
+go back, and search again and again.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Sing, Kit! If she&#8217;s anywhere within hearing, she&#8217;ll come at the sound
+of your voice. Sing your loudest!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Obediently, the Sun Maid lifted her clear voice <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>and sang, at the
+beginning with vigor and hope in the notes, but at the end with a
+sorrowful trembling and pathos that made Gaspar&#8217;s heart ache. So, to
+still his own misgivings, he commanded her, also, to be silent.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s no use, girlie. She&#8217;s out of hearing somewhere. Maybe she has
+gone to the Fort already. Any way, it&#8217;s getting very dark, and the
+clouds are awful heavy. I believe there&#8217;s a thunder-shower coming, and
+if it does, it will be a bad one. They always are worse, Mercy says,
+when they come this time of year. We would better hurry on to shelter
+ourselves. If she isn&#8217;t there, we can look for her in the morning.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I like a thunder-storm. I believe it would be fine to go under that
+clump of trees yonder and watch it. I have to go to bed so early,
+always, that I think it is just grand to be up late and out-of-doors,
+too.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You are not afraid of anything, Kitty Briscoe! I never saw a girl
+like you!&#8221; cried the lad, reproachfully.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But you don&#8217;t know other girls, boy. Maybe they are not afraid,
+either. I can&#8217;t help it if I&#8217;m not, can I?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Gaspar laughed. &#8220;I guess I&#8217;m cross, child, that&#8217;s all. Of course I
+wouldn&#8217;t want you to be a scared thing. But, let&#8217;s hurry. The later we
+get there the more trouble we may have to get in.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Why&mdash;will there be trouble? If there is, let&#8217;s go home.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We can&#8217;t go home. We&#8217;ve run away, you know. Besides, there would be
+the same anxiety about Wahneenah. All &#8217;s left for us is to go on.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>So the Sun Maid settled herself firmly in her saddle and followed
+Tempest&#8217;s rather reckless pace forward into the darkness. Memory made
+the dim road familiar to Gaspar, and soon the garrison lights came
+into sight.</p>
+
+<p>But martial law is strict and the gates had been closed for the night,
+as the lad had feared. The sentinel on duty did not respond to his
+first summons with the promptness which the boy desired, so, springing
+to his feet upon the gelding&#8217;s back, he shouted, over the stockade:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Entrance for two citizens of the United States! In the name of its
+President!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ugh. There is no need for such a noise, pale-face.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>These words fell so suddenly upon Gaspar&#8217;s ears that he nearly tumbled
+backward from his perch. He was further amazed to see the Sun Maid
+leap from her horse, straight through the gloom into the arms of a
+tall Indian who seemed to have risen out of the ground beside them.</p>
+
+<p>In fact, he had merely stepped from a canoe at the foot of the path
+and his moccasined feet had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>made no sound upon the sward as he approached. He received the girl&#8217;s
+eager spring with grave dignity, and immediately replaced her upon the
+Snowbird&#8217;s back.</p>
+
+<p><a name="illo4" id="illo4"></a></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 362px;">
+<img src="images/i199.jpg" class="ispace jpg" width="362" height="500" alt="GASPAR AND KITTY REACH THE FORT. Page 188." title="" />
+<span class="caption">GASPAR AND KITTY REACH THE FORT. <i>Page <a href="#Page_188">188</a>.</i></span>
+</div>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why, Black Partridge! Don&#8217;t you know me? Aren&#8217;t you glad to see me?
+Four years since we said good-by, that day at poor Muck-otey-pokee.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I remember all things. Why is the Sun Maid here, at this hour?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Gaspar had recovered himself and now broke into a torrent of
+explanation, which the chief quietly interrupted as soon as he had
+gathered the facts of the case.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But don&#8217;t you think, dear Feather-man, that our Wahneenah will soon
+come?&#8221; demanded Kitty, anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The gates are open. Let us enter,&#8221; he answered evasively; and the
+novelty of her surroundings so promptly engrossed the girl&#8217;s mind that
+she forgot to question him further then. Somewhere on the dimly
+lighted campus a bugle was sounding; and it awakened sleeping memories
+of her earliest childhood. So did the regular &#8220;step-step&#8221; of soldiers
+relieving guard. A new and delightful sense of safety and familiarity
+thrilled her heart, and she exclaimed, joyfully:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, Gaspar! it is home! it is home! More than <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span>the cabin, more than
+Other Mother&#8217;s tepee, this is home!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I hope it will prove so.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Do you suppose I will find any of the dear white &#8216;mothers&#8217; who were
+so good to me? Or Bugler Jim, who used to play me to sleep under the
+trees in the corner? I wish it wasn&#8217;t so dark. I <span style="white-space: nowrap;">wish&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s all new, Kit. They are all strangers. The rest, you know&mdash;well,
+none of them are here. But these will be kind, no doubt. Yet to me,
+even in this dark, it seems&mdash;it seems horrible! It all comes back:
+that morning when I first rode Tempest. The <span style="white-space: nowrap;">massacre&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>The tone of his voice startled her, and she begged at once:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Let us go right away again. I am not afraid of the storm, nor the
+darkness, and nothing can harm us if we pray to be taken care of. The
+Great Spirit always hears. Let us go.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It is too late. It&#8217;s beginning to rain and that man is ordering us to
+dismount, that he may put the horses in the stables. Jump down.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>There were always some refugees at the Fort. Just then there were more
+than ordinary; or, if all were not such, there were many passing
+travellers, journeying in emigrant trains toward the unsettled west,
+to make their new homes there, and these used <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>&#8220;Uncle Sam&#8217;s tavern&#8221; as
+an inn of rest and refreshment.</p>
+
+<p>Amid so many, therefore, small attention was paid to the arrival of
+these two young people. They were furnished with a plain supper, in
+the main living room of the building which seemed a big and dreary
+place, and immediately afterward were dismissed to bed. Kitty was
+assigned a cot among the women guests and Gaspar slept in the men&#8217;s
+quarters.</p>
+
+<p>But neither had very comfortable thoughts, and the talk of her
+dormitory neighbors kept the Sun Maid long awake. Here, as in Mercy&#8217;s
+cabin, the dominant subject was the reward offered for the capture of
+the Indians, and a fresh fear set her trembling as one indignant
+matron exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s one of those pesky red-skins in this very Fort this night. He
+came with that girl yonder, but I hope he won&#8217;t be let to get away as
+easy. The country is overrun with the Indians, and is no place for
+decent white folks. They outnumber us ten to one. That&#8217;s why I&#8217;ve got
+my husband to sell out. We&#8217;re on our way back East, to civilization.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, if one&#8217;s come here to-night, I reckon he&#8217;ll be taken care of!
+Massacres are more plenty than money, and some man or other&#8217;ll make
+out to claim the prize. What sort of Indian was he?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Oh, like them all. All paint and feather and wickedness. I wish
+somebody&#8217;d take and hang him to the sally-port, just for an example.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>This was too much for loyal Kitty Briscoe. She could no more help
+springing up in defence of her friends than she could help breathing.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You women must not talk like that! There are good Indians, and they
+are the best people in the world. They won&#8217;t hurt anybody who lets
+them alone. That Indian you&#8217;re talking against is the Black Partridge.
+He is splendid. He is my very oldest friend, except Gaspar. He
+wouldn&#8217;t hurt a fly, and he&#8217;d help everybody needed help. It&#8217;s this
+horrible offer of money for every Indian caught that has set my
+precious Other Mother wandering over the country this dark night, and
+made Gaspar and me homeless runaways.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>There was instant hubbub in the room, and no more desire for sleep on
+anybody&#8217;s part until Kitty had been made to tell her story, the story
+of her life as she remembered it, over and over again; and when
+finally slumber overtook her, even in the midst of her narrative, her
+dreams were filled with visions of Wahneenah fleeing and forever
+pursued by uniformed soldiers with glistening bayonets, who fired
+after her to the merry sound of a bugle and drum.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning she found Gaspar and related her <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>night&#8217;s experience.
+He received it gravely, without the sympathy she expected.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Kit, I don&#8217;t understand. What you said was true, and right enough for
+me to say. But it&#8217;s not like you to be so bold. Yesterday, you were
+saucy to the harvest-women and now again to these. Is it because you
+are growing up so fast, I wonder? All women are not like Other Mother.
+They might get angry with you, and punish you. If I should go<span style="white-space: nowrap;">&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If what, Gaspar Keith?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Kitty, <i>I can&#8217;t stay here</i>. It would kill me. I must get out into the
+open. I am going away. Right away. Now. This very hour even. You must
+be brave, and understand.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Go away? I, too? All right. Only don&#8217;t look so sober. I don&#8217;t care. I
+promised to go anywhere you wished and I will. I&#8217;m ready.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But&mdash;but&mdash;It&#8217;s only I, my Kit. Not you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You would go away, and&mdash;leave me here? Just because you don&#8217;t like
+it?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>All the color went out of her fair, round face, and she caught his
+head between her hands, and turned it so that she could look into his
+dark eyes, which could not bear to look into her own startled and
+reproachful ones.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2>
+
+<h3>PARTINGS AND MEETINGS.</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:5px;padding-bottom:1px;">G</span>aspar&#8217;s courage returned, and he led her to a sheltered place under
+the stockade, where he made her sit beside him for the brief time that
+was his.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Not all because I do not like it; but because I am almost a man and I
+have found the chance of my life. There is one here, a <i>voyageur</i>,
+with his boat. The finest vessel I ever saw, though they&#8217;ve not been
+so many. He is going north into the great woods; will sail this
+morning. He is a great trader and hunter and he has asked me to
+apprentice myself to him. He promises he will make my fortune. He has
+taken as great a liking to me, I reckon, as I have to him. We shall
+get on famously together. In that broad, free life I shall grow a full
+man, and soon. I can earn money, and make a home for you and
+Wahneenah, and many another lonely, helpless soul. Yes, I must go. I
+can&#8217;t let the chance pass. And you must be brave, and the Sun Maid
+still, and forever. I shall want to think of you as always bright and
+full of laughter. Like yourself. But <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span>you are not like yourself now,
+Girl-Child. Why don&#8217;t you speak? Why don&#8217;t you say something?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I guess there isn&#8217;t any &#8216;say&#8217; left in me, Gaspar,&#8221; answered the girl,
+in a tone so hopelessly sad that it almost made the lad waver in his
+determination. Only that wavering had no portion in the character of
+the ambitious youth, and he looked far forward toward a great good
+beyond the present pain.</p>
+
+<p>When the day was well advanced, the schooner sailed away, from the
+dock at the foot of the path from fort to lake, with Gaspar upon her
+deck, trying to look more brave and manly than he really felt. But a
+forlorn little maid watched with eyes that shed no tears, and a
+pitiful attempt at a smile upon her quivering lips till the vessel
+became a mere speck, then disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>After a long while, she was aroused by something again moving over the
+water.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s coming back! My Gaspar&#8217;s coming back!&#8221; she cried, and tossed
+back the hair which the wind blew about her face that she might see
+the clearer. A moment later her disappointment found words: &#8220;It&#8217;s
+nothing but a common Indian canoe!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>However, she remembered her foster-brother had set her a task to do.
+She must begin it right away. She was to be as helpful to everybody
+she ever <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>should meet as it was possible. Here might be one coming who
+hadn&#8217;t heard about that dreadful fifty-dollar prize money. She must
+call out and warn him. So she did, and never had human voice sounded
+pleasanter to any wayfarer. But her own intentness discovered
+something familiar in the appearance of the young brave, paddling so
+cautiously toward her and keeping so well to the shore. She began to
+question herself where she had seen him, and in a flash she
+remembered. Then, indeed, did she shout, and joyfully:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Osceolo! Osceolo! Don&#8217;t you know me? Kitty? The Sun Maid? The
+daughter of your own tribe? Osceolo!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;By the moccasins of my grandfather! You here? How? When? No matter.
+The brother of the Sun Maid rejoices. Never a friend so convenient.
+Run around to the edge of the wharf. There must be talk between us,
+and at once.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He pushed his little boat close under the shadow of the pier that had
+long since been deserted of those who had come down to watch, as Kitty
+had done, the sailing of the northern-bound schooner. There was none
+to hear them, yet Osceolo chose to muffle his tones and to make
+himself mysterious. In truth, he was fleeing from justice, having been
+mixed up in a raid upon a settler&#8217;s homestead a few miles back; in
+which, fortunately, there had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span>been no bloodshed, though a deal of
+thieving and other dirty work which would make it uncomfortable for
+the young warrior should he be caught just then. The story he was
+prepared to tell was true as far as it went; and the Sun Maid was too
+innocent to suspect guile in others. She thought he was referring to
+the prize money when he spoke of quite other matters; and after the
+briefest inquiry and answer as to what had befallen either since their
+parting at doomed Muck-otey-pokee, he concluded:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now, Sister-Of-My-Heart, Blood-Daughter-Of-My-Chief, you must help
+me. You must give me, or lend me, a horse; and you must bring me food.
+Then I will ride to fetch you back Wahneenah.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh! You know where she is? Can you do it and not be taken?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Is not the Brother of the Sun Maid now become a mighty warrior?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You&mdash;you don&#8217;t look so very mighty,&#8221; returned the girl, truthfully.</p>
+
+<p>Osceolo frowned. &#8220;That is as one sees. Fetch me the horse and the
+meat, if you would have your Other Mother restored.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I will. I will!&#8221; she cried, and ran back to the Fort. She went first
+to the kitchen, and begged a meal &#8220;for a stranger that&#8217;s just come,&#8221;
+and the food was given her without question. Strangers <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span>were always
+coming to be fed; herself, also, no longer ago than the last evening.</p>
+
+<p>From the kitchen to the stables, where a bright thought came to her.
+She would lead the Tempest to Osceolo, and herself ride the Snowbird.
+Together they would go to find Wahneenah.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The black gelding?&#8221; asked the soldier of whom she sought assistance.
+&#8220;The hostler can maybe tell you. But I think the Black Partridge rode
+away on him before daybreak.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The Black Partridge! Oh! I had forgotten him in my trouble about
+Gaspar. Did any harm come to him, sir?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No. What harm should? If every red-skin in Illinois was like him
+there&#8217;d be little need of us fellows out here in this mud-hole. But
+you look disappointed. If you want to take a ride, there&#8217;s the white
+mare you came on. But you&#8217;d better not go far away. It isn&#8217;t safe for
+a child like you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not afraid, but&mdash;Well, if Tempest&#8217;s gone, I can&#8217;t. That&#8217;s all.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>So the Snowbird was brought out, and she led the pretty creature away
+behind the shelter of the few trees which hid the spot where Osceolo
+had bade her meet him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I tried to get Tempest for you, but the Chief has ridden him away. I
+meant to go with you. But you&#8217;ll have to go alone. Tell my darling
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>Other Mother that I am here, and waiting. Tell her about Gaspar, and
+that he said he had found out she would be quite safe here. Why, so, I
+suppose, would you. I didn&#8217;t think.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, I shouldn&#8217;t,&#8221; returned the young Indian hastily. Then, noting her
+surprise, explained:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m a warrior, you see. That makes a difference.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It will be all right, though, I think. And if you cannot come back
+with Wahneenah, do hurry and send her by herself. Will you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, I&#8217;ll hurry!&#8221; answered the youth, evasively, and leaped to the
+Snowbird&#8217;s back. The food he had stuffed within his shirt till a more
+convenient season, and with a cry that even to Kitty&#8217;s trusting ears
+sounded in some way derisive, he was off out of sight along the
+lakeside.</p>
+
+<p>As the Snowbird disappeared, Kitty felt that the last link between
+herself and her friends had been severed, and for a moment the tears
+had sway. Then, ashamed of her own weakness and remembering her
+promise to Gaspar that she would be &#8220;just the sunniest kind of a girl,
+and true to her name,&#8221; she brushed them away and entered the busy
+Fort, to proffer her services to the women in charge.</p>
+
+<p>These had already learned her story and had reprimanded her for
+running away from her protectors, the Smiths; but it was nobody&#8217;s
+business <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>to return her and, meanwhile, she was safe at the Fort until
+they should choose to call for her.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, there is always plenty of work in the world for the hands that
+will do it,&#8221; said an officer&#8217;s wife, with a kindly smile. &#8220;You seem
+too small to be of much practical use; but, however, if you want a
+task, there are some little fellows yonder who need amusing and
+comforting. Their mother has died of a fever, and their father is more
+of a student and preacher than a nurse. I guess his wife was the
+ruling spirit in the household, and now that she has left him, he is
+sadly unsettled. He doesn&#8217;t know whether to go on and take up the
+claim he expected or not. He and you, and the oddly-named little sons,
+may all yet have to become wards of the Government.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m very sorry for him.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You well may be. Yet he&#8217;s a gentle, blessed old man. No more fit to
+marry and bring that flock of youngsters out here into the wilderness
+than I am to command an army. She was much younger than he, and felt
+the necessity of doing something toward providing for their children
+and educating them. But the more I talk, the more I puzzle you. Run
+along and lend them a hand. The very smallest Littlejohn of the lot
+has filled his mouth with dirt, and is trying to squall it out. See if
+a drink of water won&#8217;t mend matters.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span></p><p>Kitty hastened to the child, and begged;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;My dear, don&#8217;t cry like that. You are disturbing the people.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t care. I ain&#8217;t my dear; I&#8217;m Four.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re what?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Just Four. Four Littlejohns. What pretty hair you&#8217;ve got. May I pull
+it?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;d rather not. Unless it will make you forget the dirt you ate.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>But the permission given, the child became indifferent to it. He
+pointed to three other lads crouching against the door-step, and
+explained:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;They&#8217;re One, Two, and Three. My father, he says it saves trouble.
+Some folks laugh at us. They say it&#8217;s funny to be named that way. I
+was eating the dirt because I was&mdash;I was mad.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Indeed! At whom?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;At everybody. I&#8217;m just mis&#8217;able. I don&#8217;t care to live no longer.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The round, dimpled face was so exceedingly wholesome and happy,
+despite its transient dolefulness, that Kitty laughed and her
+merriment brought an answering smile to the four dusty countenances
+before her.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Wull&mdash;wull&mdash;I is. My father, he&#8217;s mis&#8217;able, too. So, course, we have
+to be. He&#8217;s a minister man. He can&#8217;t tell stories. He just tells true
+ones out the Bible. Can you tell Bible stories?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;No. I&mdash;I&#8217;m afraid I don&#8217;t know much about that book. Mercy had one,
+but she kept it in the drawer. She took it out on Sundays, though. She
+didn&#8217;t let Gaspar nor me touch it. She said we might spoil the cover.
+That was red. It was a reward of merit when she was a girl. It had
+clasps, and was very beautiful. It had pictures in it, too, about
+saints and dead folks; but I never read it. I couldn&#8217;t read it if I
+tried, you know, because I&#8217;ve never been taught.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>This was amazing to the four book-crammed small Littlejohns. One
+exclaimed, with superior disgust:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Such a great big girl, and can&#8217;t read your Bible! You must be a
+heathen, and bow down to wood and stone.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Maybe I am. I don&#8217;t remember bowing down to anything, except when I
+say my prayers.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Your prayers! Then you can&#8217;t be a real heathen. Heathens don&#8217;t say
+prayers, not our kind. Hmm. What lovely eyes you&#8217;ve got and how pretty
+you are! All the women never saw such wonderful hair as yours, nor the
+men either. I heard them say so. If I had a sister, I&#8217;d like her to
+look just like you. But it&#8217;s wicked to be vain.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What do you mean, you funny boy?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not funny. I&#8217;m serious. My mother&mdash;my mother said&mdash;my mother&mdash;Oh!
+I want her! I want her!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span></p><p>Religion, superiority, priggishness, all flew to the winds as his real
+and fresh grief overcame him; and it was a heart-broken lad that
+hurled himself against the shoulder of this sympathetic-looking girl
+who, though so much taller, was not so very much older than he.</p>
+
+<p>The Sun Maid&#8217;s own heart echoed the cry with a keen pain, and she
+received the orphan&#8217;s outburst with exceeding tenderness. Now,
+whatever One, the eldest, did the other young numerals all imitated,
+so that each was soon weeping copiously. Yet, from very excess of
+energy, their grief soon exhausted itself and they regarded each other
+with some curiosity. Then Three began to smile, in a shamefaced sort
+of way, not knowing how far his recovery of composure would be
+approved by sterner One.</p>
+
+<p>After a habit familiar to him the latter opened his lips to reprove
+but, fortunately, refrained, as he discovered a tall, stoop-shouldered
+man crossing the parade-ground.</p>
+
+<p>This gentleman seemed oddly out of place amid that company of
+immigrants and soldiers. Student and bookworm was written all over his
+fine, intellectual countenance, and his eyes had that absent
+expression that had made the commandant&#8217;s wife call him a &#8220;dreamer.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>His bearing impressed the Sun Maid with reverent <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>awe; a feeling
+apparently not shared by his sons. For Three ran to him and shook him
+violently, to secure attention, as he eagerly exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, father! We&#8217;ve found one of &#8217;em already! A heathen. Or, any way, a
+heatheny sort of a girl, but not Indian. She doesn&#8217;t know how to read,
+and she hasn&#8217;t any Bible. Come and give her one and teach her quick!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Eh? What? A heathen? My child, where?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Right there with my brothers. That yellow-headed girl. She&#8217;s nice.
+Are all the heathen as pretty as she is?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;My son, that young person? Surely, you are mistaken. She must be the
+daughter of some resident at the Fort, or of some traveller like
+ourselves.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t believe she is. She&#8217;s been taking care of herself all day. I
+haven&#8217;t heard anybody tell her &#8216;Don&#8217;t&#8217; once. If she belonged to folk
+they&#8217;d do it wouldn&#8217;t they?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Very likely. Parents have to discipline their young. Don&#8217;t drag me
+so. I&#8217;m walking fast enough.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s what I say, father. &#8216;Don&#8217;t&#8217; shows I belong to you. But I do
+wish you&#8217;d come. She might get away before you could catch her.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Catch her, Three? I don&#8217;t understand.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I know it. My mother used to say you never did understand plain
+every-day things. That&#8217;s <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>why she had to take care of you the same as
+us. Oh! I wish we&#8217;d never come to this horrid place.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The reference to his wife and the child&#8217;s grief roused the clergyman
+more completely than even an appeal for the heathen. Laying his thin
+hand tenderly upon the small rumpled head, he stroked it as he
+answered:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;In my flesh I echo that wish, laddie; but in my spirit I am resigned
+to whatever the Lord sends. If there is a heathen here, there is His
+work to do, and in that I can forget my own distress. I will walk
+faster if you wish.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The other small Littlejohns, with Kitty, now joined their father and
+Three, the girl regarding him with some curiosity, for he was of a
+stamp quite different from any person she had ever seen. But he won
+her instant love as, holding out his hands in welcome, he exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why, my daughter! Surely the lads were jesting. You look neither
+ignorant nor heathen, and in personal gifts the Lord has been most
+kind to you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Has He? But I am rather lonely now.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And so am I. Therefore, we will be the better friends. Why, sons,
+this is just what we need to make our group complete. Maybe, lassie,
+your parents will spare you to us, now and then.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I have no parents. I am a ward of Government, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span>though I don&#8217;t
+understand it. I wish&mdash;are you too busy to hear my story, and will you
+advise me? Gaspar told me some things, but he&#8217;s not old and wise like
+you, dear sir.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Old I am, indeed, but far from wise. Though, so well as I know I will
+most gladly counsel you. Let us go yonder, to that shady place beside
+the great wall, where there are benches to rest on and quiet to listen
+in.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Now small Four Littlejohns had heard a deal about heathen. They had
+been the dearest theme of all the stories told him, and he caught his
+father&#8217;s hand with a detaining grasp:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;She might eat you all up, father!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Boy, what are you saying?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;She isn&#8217;t like the picture in my story-book of the heathen that lived
+in India, and all the people worshipped, that was named a god, One
+told me when I asked him; but I guess heathens can change like
+fairies; and, please don&#8217;t go, father, don&#8217;t!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Nonsense, Four. What trash are you talking? It is you who are the
+heathen now.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I, father? <i>I!</i>&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>In horror of a possible change in his person, the child began to feel
+of his plump face and pinch his fat body. He even imagined he was
+stiffening all over. Suddenly, he drew his wide mouth into a grotesque
+imitation of the engraving as he remembered <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span>it, planting his feet
+firmly and setting up a tragic wail.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not like him. I won&#8217;t be. I won&#8217;t, I won&#8217;t, I won&#8217;t!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Kitty understood nothing but the evident distress, which she attempted
+to soothe and merely aggravated.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Get away! Don&#8217;t you touch me! You go away home and sit on a table
+with your legs all crooked up&mdash;so; and stop playing you&#8217;re a regular
+girl. Leave go my father&#8217;s hand, I say!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Then One came to the rescue. As soon as he could stop laughing, he
+explained the situation to the others, and though the incident seemed
+a trivial one to the younger people to the good Doctor it was weighty
+with reproach for the ignorance he had permitted in his own household.
+It also had its far-reaching results; for it led him to observe the
+Sun Maid critically, and, when he had heard her simple story, to ask
+out of the fulness of his own big heart:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Will you come and share our home with us, my daughter? Surely, you
+have much good sense and many wonderful gifts. The Lord has thrown us
+into one another&#8217;s company, and I believe you can, in large measure,
+take their mother&#8217;s place to these sons of mine. Will you come and
+live in our home, dear Sun Maid?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Indeed, I will! And love you for letting me!&#8221; cried the grateful
+girl, catching the Doctor&#8217;s hand and kissing it reverently.</p>
+
+<p>But it did not occur to either of these innocents that there was, at
+that time, no home existing for them.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SHUT AND THE OPEN DOOR.</h3>
+
+<p style="float: left; font-size: 100%; line-height: 80%; margin-top: 0;">&#8220;</p><p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:5px;padding-bottom:1px;">T</span>hey are all unfitted to take care of themselves, though the girl has
+the best sense of the lot. The Fort is always overfull. They would be
+happier by themselves, and it will be a blessing to have such a good
+man among us. Let us build them a log cabin and instal them in it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Such was the Fort commandant&#8217;s decision and, as he suggested, it was
+quickly done. The old maxim of many hands and light work was verified,
+for in a magically short time the little parsonage was reared and the
+few belongings of the household moved into it.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s what it seems to me,&#8221;&mdash;cried the Sun Maid, as the last stroke
+was given, and a soldier climbed to the roof-peak to thrust a fresh
+green branch into the crevice,&mdash;&#8220;as if yesterday we dreamed we wanted
+a home, and now it&#8217;s ours. If only Wahneenah and Gaspar were here, I
+should be almost too happy to live. Yes, and poor Mercy Smith, who
+says she never did have a good time in her life; and Abel, and Black
+Partridge; <span style="white-space: nowrap;">and&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Everybody! I guess you&#8217;re wanting,&#8221; reproved the elder son of the
+minister. For, during the time of building, short though it was, the
+orphan girl had become wholly identified with the Littlejohns&#8217;
+household and felt as full a right to the cabin as if it had been her
+own especial property.</p>
+
+<p>Now, suddenly, as she stood in the doorway there came into her mind
+the prophecy of old Katasha; and she looked afar, as if she saw
+visions and heard voices denied to the others. So rapt did her gaze
+become that little Four stole his pudgy hand into hers and inquired,
+beneath his breath:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What is it, Kitty? What do you see?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I see crowds and crowds of people. Of all sorts, all forms, all
+colors, all races. Crowding, crowding, and yet not crushing. Only
+coming, more&mdash;and more&mdash;and more. I see strange buildings. Bigger than
+any pictures in that book you showed me yesterday. They keep rising
+and spreading out on every side. I see ships on the lake; curious
+ones, with tall masts, a hundred times taller than that in which my
+Gaspar sailed away. They are so laden with people and stuff that
+I&mdash;I&mdash;it seems to choke me!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She did not notice that the Doctor had drawn near and was listening
+intently; and even when his hand touched her shoulder she found it
+difficult to comprehend what he was saying.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Wake up, lassie! Why, what is this? My practical new daughter growing
+a star-gazer, like the foolish old man? That won&#8217;t do for our little
+housekeeper.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Won&#8217;t it, sir? I guess I&#8217;ve been dreaming. But I know I shall see all
+that some day, right here in this spot. This is the lake where the big
+ships sail, and this the ground where the houses stand.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>One was at hand with his ever-ready reproof.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s all nonsense, Kitty Briscoe. A person can&#8217;t see more than a
+person can. There are neither houses nor ships, such as you talk
+about, and you are sillier than any fairy story I ever read.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Yet long afterward he was to remember that first hour in the new home,
+and the rapt face of the girl gazing skyward.</p>
+
+<p>Then they all went in to supper, which had been provided by the
+thoughtful friends at the Fort across the river; but which, the Sun
+Maid assured the busy women there, must be the only meal supplied that
+was ready prepared.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;For, if I&#8217;m to be housekeeper I mean to learn all about that, even
+before I do the books, which the Doctor will teach me and that I am so
+eager to study. But I&#8217;ll be his home-maker first, and I&#8217;ll give them
+jonny-cake for breakfast. Mercy said it was cheap and wholesome, and
+we have to be very careful of the Doctor&#8217;s little money.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span></p><p>How wholesome, rather how most unwholesome, that first jonny-cake
+proved, Kitty never after liked to recall; but she was not the only
+young house mistress who has made mistakes; and, fortunately, the
+master of the house was not critical. And how far the study-craving
+girl would have carried out her own plan of housewifery before reading
+is not known; for, having done the best she could, and having, at
+least, swept and dusted the rooms carefully she took little Four by
+the hand and set out to ask instruction of her Fort friends against
+the dinner-getting.</p>
+
+<p>Now the fascinating dread and interest of this little fellow was an
+Indian; and, trudging along through the dirt, he scanned the horizon
+critically, then suddenly gripped her hand hard and tight.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Kitty! I do believe&mdash;there are&mdash;some coming! Run! Run!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why should I run? The Indians are my best and oldest friends. It
+might even be&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She paused so long, shading her eyes from the sunlight and gazing
+fixedly across the landscape with a gathering surprise and delight
+upon her face, that the child clutched her frock, demanding:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What is it, Kitty? What do you see? What do you see?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The horses! White, black, and&mdash;Chestnut! It&#8217;s Wahneenah! Wahneenah!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span></p><p>Four watched her disappear behind a clump of bushes that hid the
+sandhills from his lower sight, then hurried back to the new cabin,
+crying out:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Father, father! She&#8217;s run away again! We&#8217;ve lost her!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Before the minister could be made to comprehend his son&#8217;s excited
+story, voices without drew him to the entrance. Even to him the name
+of Indian had, in those days, a sinister significance. Yet, as he
+reached the threshold, there were the Sun Maid&#8217;s arms about his neck
+and her ecstatic declaration:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s my darling Other Mother! She&#8217;s come! She&#8217;ll live with us! And
+the Black Partridge; and Osceolo, and Tempest, and Snowbird, and the
+Chestnut! Oh, all together again; how happy we shall be!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Eh? What? Yes, yes, of course,&#8221; assented the Doctor, though he cast a
+rather perplexed glance about his limited apartments. &#8220;Well, if it&#8217;s
+to be part of my work, I am ready,&#8221; he added resignedly, and not
+without thought of the quiet study which would be out of the question
+in a tenement so crowded.</p>
+
+<p>The chief and the clergyman had met before, during the former&#8217;s last
+visit to the Fort, and they greeted each other suavely, as would two
+white gentlemen of culture and unquestioned standing. Then, while the
+Sun Maid drew Wahneenah aside <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span>and exhibited the cabin, the two men
+talked together and rapidly became friends.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The Lord never shuts one door but He opens another. I came here to
+instruct, hoping to pass far onward into the wilderness. Behold! the
+heathen are at my very threshold. He took away my wife and sent me a
+daughter. Now, at her heels, follows a woman of the race I came to
+help, who looks more noble than most of her white sisters. As the Sun
+Maid said, shall we not do? Only&mdash;where to house them?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That is soon settled. Neither the chief&#8217;s daughter nor the youth,
+Osceolo, could sleep beneath the tight roof of the pale-face. Their
+wigwams shall be pitched behind this cabin, and there will they abide.
+So will I arrange with the people at the Fort, who are my friends.
+Yet, let the great medicine-man keep a sharp eye to the young brave,
+Osceolo. He is my kinsman. There is good in the youth, and there is,
+also, evil&mdash;much evil. He lies upon the ground to dream wild schemes,
+then rises up to practise them. He is like the pale-faces&mdash;by birth a
+liar. He is not to be trusted. Only by fear does he become as clay in
+the hands of the potter. If my brother, the great medicine-man, will
+accept this charge I ask of him there shall be always venison in
+plenty, and bear&#8217;s meat, and the flesh of cattle, at his door. He
+shall have corn <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span>from the fields of the scattered Pottawatomies, and
+the fuel for his hearth-fire shall never waste. How says my brother,
+the wise medicine-man?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What can I say but that the Black Partridge is as generous as he is
+brave, and that his readiness to support a minister of the gospel
+amazes me? In that more settled East, from which I came, the rich men
+gave grudgingly to their pastor of such things as themselves did not
+need, and I was always in poverty. Therefore, for the sake of my sons,
+I came hither. Truly, in this wilderness, I have received evil at the
+hand of the Lord; but I have, also, received much good. If He wills,
+from this humble tenement shall go forth a blessing that cannot be
+measured. Leave the woman and the undisciplined youth with me. I will
+deal with them as I am given wisdom.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>This was the beginning of a new, rich life for the Sun Maid. It opened
+to Wahneenah, also, a period of unbroken happiness. The minister, over
+whose household affairs she promptly assumed a wise control, honored
+her with his confidence and abided by her clear-sighted counsel. She
+was constantly associated with her beloved Girl-Child, and could watch
+the rapid development of her intellect and all-loving heart.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, Love was the keynote to Kitty Briscoe&#8217;s character; and out of
+love for everybody about her, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span>and especially in hope to be of use to
+her Indian friends, sprang the greatest incentive to study.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The more I know, the better I can help them to understand,&#8221; she said
+to Wahneenah, who agreed and approved.</p>
+
+<p>The years sped quietly and rapidly by, as busy years always do. Some
+changes came to the little settlement of Chicago, but they were only
+few; until, one sunny day in spring, there reached the ears of the Sun
+Maid a sudden cry that seemed to turn all the months backward, as a
+scroll is rolled.</p>
+
+<p>Bending above her table, strewn with the Doctor&#8217;s notes which she was
+copying, in the pleasant room of a big frame house that was one of the
+few new things of the town, she heard the call; dimly at first, as an
+out-of-door incident which did not concern herself. When it was
+repeated, she started visibly, and cried out:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I know that voice! That&#8217;s Mercy Smith! There was never another just
+like it!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She sprang up and ran to answer, shouting in return:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Halloo! What is it?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Help!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>A few rods&#8217; run beyond the clump of trees that bordered the garden
+revealed the difficulty. A heavy wagon, loaded with bags of grain, was
+mired in the mud of the prairie road. A woman stood <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span>upright in the
+vehicle, lashing and scolding the oxen, which tried, but failed, to
+extricate the wheels from the clay that held them fast.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m coming! I&#8217;m Kitty! And, Mercy&mdash;is it really you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, if I ain&#8217;t beat! You&#8217;re Kitty, sure enough! But what a size!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes. I&#8217;m a woman now, almost. How glad I am to see you! How&#8217;s Abel?
+Where is he?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Must be glad, if you&#8217;d let so many years go by without once comin&#8217; to
+visit me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I didn&#8217;t know that you&#8217;d be pleased to have me. I didn&#8217;t treat you
+well, to leave you as I did. But where&#8217;s Abel?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Home. Trying to sell out. My land! How pretty you&#8217;ve growed! Only
+that white dress and hair a-streamin&#8217;; be you dressed for a party,
+child?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, no, indeed! I&#8217;ll run and get something to help you out with, if
+you&#8217;ll be patient.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Have to be, I reckon, since I&#8217;m stuck tight. No hurry. The oxen&#8217;ll
+rest. I&#8217;ve heard about you, out home&mdash;how &#8217;t you&#8217;d found a rich
+minister to take you in an&#8217; eddicate you, an&#8217; your keepin&#8217; half-Indian
+still. Might have taught you to brush your hair, I &#8217;low; an&#8217; from
+appearances you&#8217;d have done better to have stayed with me. You hain&#8217;t
+growed up very sensible, have you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span></p><p>The Sun Maid laughed, just as merrily and infectiously as when she had
+first crept for shelter into Mercy Smith&#8217;s cabin.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Maybe not. I&#8217;m not the judge. I&#8217;ll test my wisdom, though, by trying
+to help you out of that mud. I&#8217;ll be back in a moment.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She turned to run toward the house, but Mercy remonstrated:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You can&#8217;t help in them fine clothes. Ain&#8217;t there no men around?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;A few. Most of them are out of the village on a big hunting frolic.
+We&#8217;ll manage without.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Humph! They&#8217;d better be huntin&#8217; Indians.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The girl looked up anxiously. &#8220;Is there any trouble?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Always trouble where the red-skins are.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Kitty departed, and the settler&#8217;s wife watched her with feelings of
+mingled admiration, anger, and astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;She&#8217;s grown, powerful. Tall an&#8217; straight as an Indian, an&#8217; fair as a
+snowflake. Such hair! I don&#8217;t wonder she wears it that way, though I
+wouldn&#8217;t humor her by lettin&#8217; on. I&#8217;ve heard she did it to please her
+&#8216;tribe&#8217; an&#8217; the old minister. Well, there&#8217;s always plenty of fools.
+They&#8217;re a crop &#8217;at never fails.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The Sun Maid reappeared. She had not stopped to change her white gown,
+but she brought a pair <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span>of snow-shoes, and carried three or four short
+planks across her strong, firm shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;My sake! Ain&#8217;t you tough! I couldn&#8217;t lift one them planks, rugged as
+I call myself, let alone four. But&mdash;snow-shoes in the springtime?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes. I&#8217;ve learned a way for myself of helping the many who get mired
+out here. See how quickly I can set you free.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Putting on the shoes, the girl walked straight over the mud, and
+throwing down the planks before the animals, encouraged them to help
+themselves.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What are their names? Jim and Pete? Come on, my poor beasts; and,
+once clear, you shall have a fine rest and feed.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Shucks! There! Go on! Giddap! Gee! Haw!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>There followed a time of suspense, but at last the oxen gained a
+little advance, when Kitty promptly moved the planks forward, and in
+due time the wagon rolled out upon a firmer spot.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, Kitty girl, you may not have sense, but you&#8217;ve got what&#8217;s
+better&mdash;that&#8217;s gumption. And that&#8217;s Chicago, is it?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes. I hope you like it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve got to, whether or no. I&#8217;m in awful trouble, Kitty Briscoe, an&#8217;
+it&#8217;s all your fault.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What can you mean?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Abel&mdash;Abel&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Yes&mdash;yes! What is it?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ever sence you run away he&#8217;s been pinin&#8217; to run after you. Said the
+house wasn&#8217;t home no more. &#8217;Twasn&#8217;t; though I wouldn&#8217;t let on to him.
+We&#8217;ve kept gettin&#8217; comfortabler off, an&#8217; I jawed him from mornin&#8217; to
+night to make him contented. But he wouldn&#8217;t listen. Got so he
+wouldn&#8217;t work home if he could help it, but lounged round the
+neighbors&#8217;. Got hankerin&#8217; to go somewheres, an&#8217; keep tavern, like his
+father afore him. Now, we&#8217;ve got burnt <span style="white-space: nowrap;">out&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Burned out! Oh, Mercy, that <i>is</i> trouble, indeed! Tell me&mdash;No, wait.
+Let us go and get something to eat first; and what were you intending
+to do with that load of stuff?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ship it East, if I can. I&#8217;ve heard there was consid&#8217;able that
+business bein&#8217; done. Or sell it to the Fort folks.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I think they&#8217;ll be glad of it; they are always needing everything.
+I&#8217;ll go with you there, and your team can be left there, too, till
+Abel comes.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Abel! You don&#8217;t think I&#8217;d leave him to manage <i>business</i>, do you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I thought you said he was now staying behind to sell out&mdash;to
+&#8216;manage.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s stayin&#8217; to try. There&#8217;s a big difference &#8217;twixt tryin&#8217; an&#8217;
+doin&#8217;. He can&#8217;t sell, not easy. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span>And some day, when this whim of his
+is over, we&#8217;ll go back an&#8217; settle again, or move farther on. It&#8217;s
+gettin&#8217; ruther crowded where we be for comfort, these days.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Crowded? Are there many new neighbors?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Lots. Some of &#8217;em ain&#8217;t more &#8217;n a mile away, an&#8217; I call that too
+close for convenience. Don&#8217;t like to have folks pokin&#8217; their noses
+into my very door-yard, so to speak.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;How will you endure it here, where, according to your ideas, the
+houses are so very close?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t expect to like it. But, pshaw! They be thick, ain&#8217;t they? I
+declare it makes me think of out East, an&#8217; our village; only that
+wasn&#8217;t built on the bottomless pit, like this.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;This is the Fort. After you&#8217;ve finished your business with the
+officer in charge, we&#8217;ll go home and get our dinner.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The stranger observed with surprise and some pride the great respect
+with which this girl, who had once been under her own care, was
+treated by all she met. The few soldiers on duty that morning saluted
+her with a smile and military precision, while the women hailed her
+coming with exclamations of:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, Kitty! You here? I&#8217;m so glad; for I wanted to ask you about my
+work&#8221;; or: &#8220;Say, Kit! There are a lot of new newspapers, only a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span>week
+old, that I&#8217;ve hidden for you to read first before the others get hold
+of them.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>One called after her, as they started homeward:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;How are the sick ones to-day?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What did she mean?&#8221; demanded Mercy.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, that house on the edge of the village is a sort of hospital and
+school combined. I am there most of the time, though my real home is
+with the Littlejohns, just as it has always been; though the Doctor is
+not rich, as you fancied, in anything save wisdom and goodness.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re a great scholar now, Kitty, I s&#8217;pose&mdash;could even do figurin&#8217;
+an&#8217; writin&#8217; letters.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I can do that much without being a &#8216;scholar.&#8217; I&#8217;ve learned all sorts
+of things that came my way, from civil engineering&mdash;enough to survey
+lots for people&mdash;to a little Greek. The surveying was taught me by a
+man who was in our sick-room, and in gratitude for the care we gave
+him. It&#8217;s very useful here.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Can you sing, or play music?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I always sang, you know; and I can play the violin to guide the hymns
+&#8216;in meeting.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s that? A fiddle&mdash;to hymns!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes. Why not, since it&#8217;s the only instrument we have?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;My land! You&#8217;ll be dancin&#8217; at worship next!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Maybe. There <i>are</i> religious people who dance <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span>at their services. But
+here we are. This is the Doctor&#8217;s house, and you&#8217;ll meet Wahneenah.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Wahneeny! You don&#8217;t tell me that good, pious parson is consortin&#8217;
+with that bad-tempered Indian squaw!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Wait, Mercy. You must not speak like that of her, nor think so. She
+is as my very own mother. She is nobility itself. Everybody
+acknowledges that. I want there should be peace, even if there can&#8217;t
+be love, between you two. It&#8217;s better, isn&#8217;t it, to understand things
+in the beginning?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hmm! You can speak your mind out yet, I see. But that&#8217;s all right. I
+don&#8217;t care, child. I don&#8217;t care. It does my old eyes good just to look
+at you; an&#8217;, for once, I&#8217;ll &#8217;low Abel was right in wantin&#8217; to move out
+here. I&#8217;m lookin&#8217; for him &#8217;fore night, by the way. But hold on! Who&#8217;s
+that out in the back yard, with feathers in his hair, an&#8217; a blue check
+shirt, grinnin&#8217; like a hyena, an&#8217; a knife stickin&#8217; out his pocket?
+Wait till I get hold of him, my sake!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Mercy&#8217;s words poured out without breathing-space or stop, and the Sun
+Maid laughed as she replied:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why, that&#8217;s only Osceolo. Do you know him?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Kitty Briscoe! All the wild horses in Illinois <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span>can&#8217;t make me believe
+no different but &#8217;twas him set our barn afire!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;When? He&#8217;s not been away&mdash;for some days.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Wait till he catches sight of me!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>But when the young Indian did turn around, and saw the pair watching
+him, he coolly walked toward them, regarding Mercy as if she were an
+utter stranger, and one whom he was rather pleased to meet.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Friend of yours, Sun Maid? Glad to see her.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Glad to see me, be you? Wait till Abel Smith comes an&#8217; identifies
+you. Then see which side the laugh&#8217;s on, you&mdash;<span style="white-space: nowrap;">you&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Osceolo is my name, ma&#8217;am.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Foreseeing difficulties, the girl guided her guest into the kitchen,
+where Wahneenah was preparing dinner, and where the Indian woman
+greeted her old acquaintance with no surprise and, certainly, without
+any of the effusiveness that, for once, rather marked Mercy&#8217;s manner
+toward her former &#8220;hired girl.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, it&#8217;s a real likely house, now, ain&#8217;t it? I&#8217;d admire to see the
+minister. It&#8217;s years since I saw one. Is he about?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Kitty answered:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes. He is studying. I rather hate to disturb him; but at dinner you
+will meet him.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Studying! Studying what? Why, I thought he was an old man.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;He is. So old, I sometimes fear we will not have him with us long.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s the use learnin&#8217; anything more, then?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;One can never know too much, I fancy. Just at present he is writing a
+dictionary of the Indian dialects, so far as he has been able to
+obtain them.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The&mdash;Indian&mdash;language! He wouldn&#8217;t be so silly, now come!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;He is just so wise. It is a splendid work. I am proud to be his
+helper, even by just merely copying his papers.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well! You could knock me down with a feather! One thing&mdash;I sha&#8217;n&#8217;t
+never set under his preachin&#8217;. I wouldn&#8217;t demean myself. The idee!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Mercy, do you remember the red-covered Bible? Have you it still?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Course. I wouldn&#8217;t let anything happen to that. It was a reward of
+merit. It&#8217;s wrote in the front: &#8216;To Mercy Balch, for being a Good
+Girl.&#8217; That was me afore I was married. It&#8217;s in my carpet-bag. I mean
+to have it buried with me. I wouldn&#8217;t never sp&#8217;ile it by handlin&#8217;.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I hope you&#8217;ll use it now, for it&#8217;s so easy to get another. The Doctor
+will give you one at any time. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span>The Bible Society in the East
+furnishes all he needs.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Dinner was promptly ready, and, after it was over, the Sun Maid
+carried her old friend away with her to the government building, which
+was not only hospital, but schoolhouse and land-office all in one.
+Everything here was so new and interesting to Mercy that surprise kept
+her silent; until, happening to glance through the window, she beheld
+a rough-looking man approaching on horseback.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Pshaw! there&#8217;s Abel! Wait an&#8217; see him stick where I stuck!&#8221; she
+chuckled. &#8220;Well, he sold out sudden, didn&#8217;t he? He&#8217;d better come in
+the wagon, but he &#8217;lowed he&#8217;d enjoy a ride all by himself. I reckon
+he&#8217;s had it. See him stare and splash! There he goes! See that old nag
+flounder!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Kitty sprang up and ran to welcome him, the heartiest of love in her
+clear tones.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why, bless my soul! If I thought it could be, I should say it was my
+own lost little Kit!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>As he gazed his rugged face grew beautiful in its wondering joy.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, Abel! That&#8217;s the way Chicago receives her new citizens! She
+plants them so deep in the mud that they can&#8217;t get away! But wait.
+I&#8217;ll help you out the same way I did Mercy, and then I&#8217;ll get my arms
+about your neck, you dear old Abel!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Help me out? Not much! Not when there&#8217;s such a pretty girl a few feet
+away waitin&#8217; to kiss my homely face!&#8221; and, with a spring that was
+marvellous to see, the woodsman leaped from his horse and landed on
+the higher sod beside his &#8220;Kit.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, well! To think it! Just to think it once! Well, well, well! How
+big you are, Kit! My, my, my; and as sweet to look at as a locust tree
+in bloom, with your white frock, an&#8217; all. I&#8217;ve got here at last! I
+can&#8217;t scarce believe it. And, lassie, are you as close-mouthed as you
+used to be when you made a promise? Then&mdash;don&#8217;t tell Mercy; but&mdash;<i>I
+done it a-purpose</i>!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Did what? Let us get the poor horse out of the mud before we talk.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Shucks! He ain&#8217;t worth pullin&#8217; out. If he ain&#8217;t horse enough to help
+himself, let him stay there a spell, an&#8217; think it over. He&#8217;ll flounder
+<span style="white-space: nowrap;">round&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You don&#8217;t know our mud, Abel.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s all right. He&#8217;s helpin&#8217; himself. He&#8217;s makin&#8217; a genu<i>ine</i> effort.
+A man&mdash;or horse&mdash;that does that is sure to win. That&#8217;s how I put it to
+myself. After I&#8217;d wrastled with the subject up hill an&#8217; down dale,
+till I couldn&#8217;t see nothin&#8217; else in the face of natur&#8217;, I done it. Out
+in the East, where I come from, they&#8217;d &#8217;a&#8217; had me up for it; an&#8217; I
+don&#8217;t know but they will here. But I had to, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span>Kit, I had to. I was
+dead sick an&#8217; starvin&#8217; for a sight of you an&#8217; the boy, an&#8217; mis&#8217;able
+with blamin&#8217; myself that I hadn&#8217;t treated you different when I had
+you, so you wouldn&#8217;t have run away. You was a master hand at that
+business, wasn&#8217;t you, girl? I hope you&#8217;ve quit now, though.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I think so. Here I was born, and here I hope to stay. All my runnings
+have begun and ended here. But what did you do, Father Abel?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, Sis! that name does me good. Promise you&#8217;ll never tell,&mdash;not till
+your dyin&#8217; day.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I can&#8217;t promise that; but I&#8217;ll not tell if I can help it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, you always had a tender conscience. Yet I can trust your love
+better &#8217;n ary promise. Well&mdash;<i>I&mdash;burnt&mdash;it!</i>&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Burned it? Your house? Your home? Yours and Mercy&#8217;s? Why&mdash;Abel!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The pioneer squared his mighty shoulders, and faced her as a defiant
+child might an offended mother.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, I did. The house, the bed-quilts, the antiquated bedstead, the
+whole endurin&#8217; business. It was the only way. Year after year she&#8217;d
+keep naggin&#8217; for me to move on further into the wilderness. <i>Me</i>, that
+was starvin&#8217; for folks, an&#8217; knew she was! It was just plumb
+lonesomeness made her what she is: a nagger. So, at last&mdash;you&#8217;ve heard
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>about worms turnin&#8217;, hain&#8217;t you? I watched, an&#8217; when she&#8217;d gone
+trudgin&#8217; off on a four-mile tramp, pretendin&#8217; somebody&#8217;s baby was
+sick, but really meanin&#8217; she was that druv to hear the sound of
+another woman&#8217;s voice, I took pity on her&mdash;an&#8217; myself&mdash;an&#8217; set
+fire to that hateful old heirloom of a bedstead; an&#8217; whilst it was
+burnin&#8217; I just whipped out the old fiddle, an&#8217; I played&mdash;my! how
+I played! Every time a post fell into the middle, I just danced.
+&#8216;So much nearer folks!&#8217; I thought. And the rag-carpet an&#8217; the
+nineteen-hunderd-million-patch-bedspread&mdash;Kit, I&#8217;ve set there, day
+after day, an&#8217; seen Mercy cuttin&#8217; up whole an&#8217; decent rags, an&#8217; sewin&#8217;
+&#8217;em together again, till I&#8217;ve near gone stark mad. Fact. I used to
+wonder if it wasn&#8217;t a sort of craziness possessed her to do that
+foolishness. Now, it&#8217;s all over. She lays the fire to an Indian feller
+that I&#8217;ve spoke fair to, now an&#8217; again, an&#8217; that had been round our
+way huntin&#8217; not long before. I don&#8217;t know where he come from, an&#8217; I
+never asked him. He never told. Pretended he couldn&#8217;t talk Yankee.
+Don&#8217;t know as he could, but he could talk chicken or little pig fast
+enough. Leastways, I missed such after he&#8217;d been there. Well, it
+wasn&#8217;t him. <i>It was&mdash;me!</i> I burnt the bedstead, an&#8217; now we&#8217;re
+free folks!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But, Abel, why not have brought the bedstead with you, if she loved
+it so? Why destroy&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Sissy, you don&#8217;t know Mercy&mdash;not as I do. It was that furniture kept
+her. So long as she had it, so long as she could kind of boast it over
+her neighbors, there she&#8217;d set. We couldn&#8217;t have moved it. She near
+worried herself into her grave gettin&#8217; it into the wilderness, first
+off, an&#8217; she ain&#8217;t so young now as she was then. She&#8217;d ruther lost a
+leg than had it scratched. I saved that load of feed, an&#8217; the ox team,
+an&#8217; the old horse. Yes, an&#8217; my fiddle. Mercy&#8217;s got money. She had it
+hid. I&#8217;m goin&#8217; to settle here an&#8217; keep tavern, if I can. If not here,
+then somewheres else. Anywhere where there&#8217;s folks. Trees are nice;
+prairies are nice; a clearin&#8217; of your own is nice; but human natur&#8217; is
+nicer. Don&#8217;t tell Mercy, though, or there&#8217;ll be trouble! Now, Kit,
+where&#8217;s Gaspar?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<i>Oh, Abel! Only the dear Lord knows!</i>&#8221;</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2>
+
+<h3>A DAY OF HAPPENINGS.</h3>
+
+<p style="float: left; font-size: 100%; line-height: 80%; margin-top: 0;">&#8220;</p><p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:5px;padding-bottom:1px;">A</span>bel! Abel Smith! Here I am. Right here, in our little Kitty&#8217;s own
+house. How&#8217;d you get along? Did the man buy?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Shucks!&#8221; groaned the pioneer, as these words reached him where he
+stood beside the Sun Maid, eager to hear what she could tell him of
+the lad Gaspar. &#8220;Shucks! I&#8217;ve had a right peaceful sort of day, me and
+old Dobbin, and I&#8217;d most forgot it couldn&#8217;t last. Say, Kit, you look
+like a girl could do a&#8217;most ary thing she tried to. Just put your
+shoulder to the wheel, won&#8217;t you, and shut the power off Mercy&#8217;s
+tongue. Tell her &#8217;tain&#8217;t the fashion for women to talk much or loud,
+not in big settlements like this. She&#8217;s death on the fashion, Mercy
+is. Why, that last gown of hers, cut out a piece of calico a neighbor
+brought from the East&mdash;you&#8217;d ought to see it. She got hold a
+picture-book, land knows when or where, and copied one the pictures.
+Waist clean up to her neck, it&#8217;s so short, and sleeves big enough to
+make me a suit of clothes. Fact! Wait till you see it. She&#8217;s a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span>sight,
+I tell you. But so long &#8217;s she thinks it&#8217;s a touch beyond, why she&#8217;s
+happy. But don&#8217;t let her talk so much. &#8217;Tain&#8217;t proper; not in
+settlements.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The Sun Maid set her head on one side and regarded her old friend
+critically; then frankly, if laughingly, remarked:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Abel, you dear, you can beat Mercy talking, by a great length. It&#8217;s
+funny to hear you blaming her for the very thing you do. But I like
+it. You can&#8217;t guess how I like it, and how it brings back my childish
+days in the forest. Now come in and get something to eat. Then we can
+have another talk.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I ain&#8217;t hungry. I had some doughnuts in my saddle-bags, and I munched
+them along the road. Say, Kit. Don&#8217;t tell Mercy; but I didn&#8217;t try to
+sell. Just put the question once, so to satisfy her when she asked. We
+hain&#8217;t no need. She&#8217;s got a lot of money in a buckskin bag tied round
+her waist. The land&#8217;s all right. It&#8217;s a good investment. I&#8217;ll let it
+stand. This country is bound to grow. Some day it will be worth a
+power, and then I&#8217;ll sell out, if I&#8217;m livin&#8217;; and if I ain&#8217;t, you can.
+One of the reasons I came was to fix things up for you. I always meant
+to make you my legatee. We&#8217;ve no kith nor kin nigh enough to worry
+about, Mercy an&#8217; me; an&#8217; I &#8217;low she&#8217;d be agreeable. So we&#8217;ll let the
+land lie. Oh, bosh! There she is, calling again. May as well go in for
+she won&#8217;t stop till we do.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span></p><p>After all, there was real pleasure in the faces of both husband and
+wife at their reunion, short though their separation had been, and
+bitter though their words sounded to a stranger; and, already, there
+was a personal pride in Mercy&#8217;s tones as she exhibited the house over
+which the Sun Maid presided, and explained the details&mdash;supplied by
+her own imagination&mdash;of its purposes.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But about Gaspar, Mercy. Has she told you anything about him yet? I&#8217;m
+&#8217;lowing to have him help me keep tavern if he&#8217;s grown up as capable as
+he promised when he was a little shaver.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No. She hain&#8217;t said a word. Fact is, I hain&#8217;t asked. We&#8217;ve been too
+busy with other things. Likely he&#8217;s round somewheres. Maybe off
+hunting with them lazy soldiers. Shame, I think. The Government
+keepin&#8217; &#8217;em just to loaf away their time.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hmm! What on earth else could they do with it? I met a man, coming
+along, said there&#8217;d been a right sharp lot of wolves prowlin&#8217; this
+winter an&#8217; spring. They&#8217;re gettin&#8217; most too neighborly for comfort for
+the settlers across the prairies, so the military are trying to clear
+them out. That&#8217;s not a bad idee. But don&#8217;t it beat all! That little
+sissy, that used to have to stand on a three-legged stool to turn the
+stirabout, grown like she has? I never saw a finer woman, never; and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>her hair&#8217;s the same dazzlin&#8217; kind it always was. I &#8217;low I&#8217;m proud of
+her, and no mistake. Hello! What&#8217;s yonder? An Indian, on horseback,
+a-stoppin&#8217; to this place! What&#8217;s he after? His face is painted black,
+too. There&#8217;s Sunny Maid going out to talk with him, and Wahneeny, too.
+Must be somethin&#8217; up.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s always somethin&#8217; up, where there&#8217;s an Indian. I hate &#8217;em, an&#8217;
+they know it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I guess they do, ma. Wahneeny, for instance, and&mdash;Shucks! That long,
+lanky, copper-face out back there, settin&#8217; flat on the ground, trying
+to pitch jack-knives with a lot of other boys, white ones; he&#8217;s the
+chap that hung around our place so much&mdash;the chicken-stealer. I&#8217;m
+going to speak to him.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And I&#8217;m going to get him took up, just as soon as the Captain gets
+back, for setting our house afire. It wouldn&#8217;t have happened if I&#8217;d
+been home; but you never could be trusted to look after things.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Abel thought it time to change the subject, and retreated, while
+Mercy&#8217;s attention became riveted upon the group before the house. The
+faces of all three were very grave, and Wahneenah, who had come across
+to nurse a sick child, paid no heed to its fretful calls for her. The
+Indian horseman tarried but a brief time, then wheeled about and rode
+westward over the prairie, avoiding the regular <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span>road and the mud
+where the Smiths had suffered such annoyance.</p>
+
+<p>Wahneenah returned to her charge, and the Sun Maid disappeared in the
+direction of the Fort. Before Mercy could decide whether to follow or
+not, the girl reappeared, and her old friend viewed her with
+amazement. She had mounted the Snowbird, which looked no older than
+when Mercy had watched her gallop away across the prairie, and had
+slung the famous White Bow upon her saddle horn. About her floating
+hair she had wound a fillet of white beads and feathers, and fastened
+the White Necklace of Lahnowenah, the Giver, around her fair throat.
+She sat her horse as only one trained to the saddle from infancy could
+have done, and her commanding figure seemed perfect in every outline.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;To the land&#8217;s sake! Ain&#8217;t she splendid! I never saw such a sight.
+Never. Never. Abel! Abel! A-b-e-l!!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, yes; what? Mercy, Mercy Smith, hold your tongue! Don&#8217;t you know
+folks can&#8217;t bawl in a settlement as they do in the backwoods? What
+ails you? I&#8217;m coming as fast as a man in reason can. Hey? Kitty? Well,
+why didn&#8217;t you say so? Where? Out front? My&mdash;land! Well, well, well!
+It ain&#8217;t&mdash;it can&#8217;t be&mdash;it is! Well, Kitty girl, you beat the Dutch!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The young horsewoman rode up to the front door <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span>of her house, and
+paused to let her old friends admire her to their satisfaction. But
+their admiration aroused neither surprise nor vanity in her simple,
+straightforward mind. Years before, the old clergyman had said to her,
+upon their first meeting, that the Lord had been very good to her in
+giving her a beauty so remarkable and impressive; and under his wise
+instruction she had accepted the fact as she did all the others of her
+life. Only she had striven to keep her soul always worthy of the
+glorious form in which it was housed and to use all her gifts and
+graces for good. So she stood a while, letting the honest couple
+inspect and comment, and finally answering Abel&#8217;s curiosity, in honest
+modesty.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why am I so dressed up? Because I have a mission to perform, and I
+need to make myself as beautiful as possible.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Kit&mdash;ty Bris&mdash;coe! I&#8217;ve read in my red Bible that &#8216;favor is deceitful
+and beauty is vain.&#8217; I&#8217;m amazed at you. Livin&#8217; with a minister, too.
+Well, <i>he</i> can&#8217;t preach to <i>me</i>. I&#8217;d despise to set under him.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Abel&#8217;s eyes twinkled, but the gravity of the Sun Maid&#8217;s face did not
+lessen. She explained gently, yet with unshaken decision, that her
+self-adornment was right, and gave her reasons.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You will remember, dears, that I am a &#8216;Daughter of the
+Pottawatomies.&#8217; They believe that I have <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span>supernatural gifts, and that
+I am a spirit living in a human form.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And you let &#8217;em, Kit, you let &#8217;em?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I couldn&#8217;t prevent it if I tried. And I do not try. That idea of
+theirs is far too powerful a factor for good. Even Wahneenah, who
+knows better and is to me as a real mother, even she treats me a
+little more deferentially when I attire myself like this.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Put on your war paint, eh?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, indeed: my peace paint,&#8221; laughed the girl. &#8220;The messenger you saw
+talking with Wahneenah and me is from an encampment a dozen miles or
+so to the westward. There are about five hundred Indians in the camp,
+and they are getting restless. They are always restless, it seems to
+me,&#8221; and she sighed profoundly. &#8220;It is such a problem, isn&#8217;t it? They
+think they have right on their side, and the whites think <i>they</i> have;
+and there is so much that is good, so much that is evil, on both.
+Well, the red people are planning treachery. The brave you saw is a
+real friend to the pale-faces, and one of my closest confidants. He
+came to warn me. His tribe, or the mixed tribes in the camp, are
+getting ready for an attack upon us, or some other near-by settlement.
+I must go out and stop it,&mdash;find out their grievance and right it if I
+can. If not&mdash;Well, I must make peace. I may be gone for several <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span>days,
+and I may be back before morning. You must make yourselves comfortable
+somewhere. Ask Doctor Littlejohn. If he is too absorbed in his
+studies, then talk with One, his eldest son. He is a fine fellow, and
+knows everything about this village. Good-by.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But, child alive! You ain&#8217;t going alone, single-handed, to face five
+hundred bloody Indians! You must be crazy!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, no, I&#8217;m not. It is all right. I am not afraid. There isn&#8217;t an
+Indian living who would harm a hair of my head, if he knew me; and
+almost all in Illinois do know me, either by sight or reputation. I am
+very happy with them and shall have a pleasant visit; that is, after I
+have dissuaded them from this proposed attack.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Kit, you couldn&#8217;t do it. &#8217;Tain&#8217;t in nature. A young girl, alone,
+pretty as you are&mdash;You <i>sha&#8217;n&#8217;t</i> do it,&mdash;not with my consent; not
+while I&#8217;m alive and can set a horse or handle a gun. No, sirree. If
+you go, I go, and that&#8217;s the long and short of it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, dear Father Abel; you must not go; indeed you must not. It would
+ruin everything. It makes me very sad to have these constant broils
+and ill-feelings coming up between my white-faced and red-faced
+friends; yet the Lord permits it, and I try to be patient. But I tell
+you again, and you must <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span>believe it, that I am as safe out yonder in
+that camp of savages as I am here, this minute, with you. I am the Sun
+Maid, the Unafraid, the Daughter of Peace, the Snowflake. They have as
+many names for me as I am years old, I fancy. Each name means some
+noble thing they think they see in my character, and so I try to live
+up to it. It&#8217;s hard work, though, because I&#8217;m&mdash;well, I&#8217;m so
+quick-tempered and full of faults. But I suppose if God didn&#8217;t mean me
+to do this work, be a sort of peacemaker, He wouldn&#8217;t have made me
+just as I am or put me in just this place. That&#8217;s what the Doctor
+says, and so I do the best I can. After all, it&#8217;s a great honor, I
+think, to be let to serve people in this way, and so&mdash;Good-by,
+good-by!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The Snowbird sprang forward at a word and, by experience trained to
+shun the sloughs and mud-holes, skimmed lightly across the prairie and
+out of sight. The Smiths stood and watched its disappearance, and the
+erect white figure upon its back, till both became a speck in the
+distance. Then, completely dumfounded by the incident, Abel sat down
+near the door-step to reflect upon it, while the more energetic Mercy
+departed for the Fort, declaring:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll see what that all means, or I&#8217;ll never say another word&#8217;s long
+as I live! The idee! <i>Men</i>&mdash;folks calling themselves <i>men</i>&mdash;and
+wearing government breeches, as I suppose they do, letting a girl
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span>like that go to destruction without a soul to stop her! But, my land!
+she was a sight to see, and no mistake!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile that was happening down at the little wharf which set all
+tongues a-chatter and fascinated all eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;A fleet is coming in! A regular fleet of schooners, from the north
+and the upper lakes!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Those who had not gone hunting crowded to the shore, and even the
+women caught their babies up and followed the men, Abel among the
+others, roused from his anxious brooding over the Sun Maid&#8217;s daring
+and catching the excitement.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Shucks! Something must be up down that direction. Beats all. Here
+I&#8217;ve been only part of a day, and more things have gone on than would
+at our clearing in a month of Sundays. I&mdash;I&#8217;m all of a fluster to kind
+of keep my head level an&#8217; my judgment cool. &#8217;Twouldn&#8217;t never do to let
+on to ma how stirred up I be. Dear me! Seems as if I wouldn&#8217;t never
+get there. I do hope they&#8217;ll wait till I do.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>After all, it was the quietest and drowsiest of little hamlets,
+dropped down in the mud beside a great waterway; and the &#8220;fleet,&#8221;
+which had roused so much interest, was but a modest one of a
+half-dozen small schooners, laden with furs and peltries and manned by
+the smallest of crews.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span></p><p>However, to Abel, and to many another, it was a memorable event; and
+he made a pause at the Fort, which in itself was an object of great
+interest to him, to inform Mercy of the spectacle she was losing.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Come on, ma! It&#8217;s a regular show down there. Real sailors and
+ships&mdash;we hain&#8217;t seen the like since we left the East and the coast of
+old Massachusetts.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ships? My heart! I never expected to look upon another. Just to think
+it!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The foremost vessel came to shore and was made fast; and there upon
+its deck stood a tall, dark-bearded man, who appeared what he was&mdash;the
+commander of the fleet; and he gave his orders in a clear, ringing
+voice that was instantly obeyed. His manner was grave, even
+melancholy; and his interest in the safe landing seemed greater than
+in any person among the expectant groups. He had tossed his hat aside
+and waited bareheaded in the sunshine till all was ready, when he
+stepped quietly ashore.</p>
+
+<p>Then, indeed, he cast an inquiring glance around, in the possibility,
+though not probability, of meeting a familiar face. All at once, his
+dark eyes brightened and his bearing lost its indifference. Pushing
+his way rapidly through the crowd, he approached Abel and Mercy and
+extended his hands in greeting.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Hail, old friends! Well met!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hey? What? Ruther think you&#8217;ve got the better of me, stranger,&#8221; said
+the pioneer, awkwardly extending his own hardened palm.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Probably the years since we met have made a greater change in me than
+in you. You both look exactly as you did that last day I saw you at
+the harvesting.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hey? Which? When? I can&#8217;t place you, no how. I ain&#8217;t acquainted with
+ary sailor, so far forth as I remember.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But Gaspar, Father Abel? Surely, you and Mercy remember Gaspar Keith,
+whom you sheltered for so many years, and who treated you so badly at
+the end?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Glory! It ain&#8217;t! My soul, my soul! Why, Gaspar&mdash;<i>Gaspar!</i> If it&#8217;s
+you, I&#8217;m an old man. Why, you was only a stripling, and <span style="white-space: nowrap;">now&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now, I&#8217;m a man, too. That&#8217;s all. We all have to grow up and mature. I
+feel older than you look. And Mercy, the years have certainly used you
+well. It is good, indeed, to see your faces here, where I looked for
+strangers only.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Them&#8217;s us, lad. Them&#8217;s us. <i>We&#8217;re</i> the strangers in these parts. Just
+struck Chicago this very day. Got stuck in the mud, and had to be
+fished out like a couple of clams. And who do you <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span>think done the
+fishing? Though, if you hadn&#8217;t spoke that odd way just now, I&#8217;d have
+thought you would have known first off. Who do you suppose?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, he&#8217;ll never guess. A man is always so slow,&#8221; interrupted Mercy,
+eagerly. &#8220;Well, &#8217;twas nobody but our own little Kit! The Sun Maid, and
+looking more like a child of the sunshine even than when you run off
+with her so long ago.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The&mdash;Sun&mdash;Maid! <i>Kit-ty, my Kitty?</i>&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Gaspar&#8217;s face had paled at the mention of the Sun Maid to such a
+grayness beneath its brown that Mercy reached her hand to stay him
+from falling; but at his second question her womanly intuition told
+her something of the truth.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, Gaspar, boy. Your Kitty, and ours. We hadn&#8217;t seen her till
+to-day, neither; not since that harvestin&#8217;. But the longing got too
+strong and, when we was burnt out, we came straight for her. Didn&#8217;t
+you know she was here yet? Or didn&#8217;t you know she was still alive?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No. No, I didn&#8217;t. That very next winter after I went away&mdash;and that
+was the next day after we came here together&mdash;an Indian passed where I
+was hunting with my master and told me she had died. He was one we had
+known at Muck-otey-pokee&mdash;the White Pelican. He said a scourge of
+smallpox had swept the Fort and this settlement <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span>and that my little
+maid had passed out of the world forever. But you tell me&mdash;<i>she is
+alive</i>? After all these years of sorrow for her, she is still alive?
+I&mdash;it is hard to believe it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Mercy laid her hand upon the strong shoulder that now trembled in
+excitement.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There, there, son; take it quiet. Yes, she&#8217;s alive, and the most
+beautiful woman the good Lord ever made. Never, even in the East,
+where girls had time to grow good-looking, was there ever anybody like
+her. I ain&#8217;t used to it myself, yet. I can&#8217;t realize it. She&#8217;s that
+well growed, and eddicated, and masterful. Why, child, the whole
+community looks up to her as if she were a sort of queen. I&#8217;ve found
+that out in just the few hours I&#8217;ve been here, and from just the few
+I&#8217;ve met. Even Wahneeny&mdash;she&#8217;s here, too; has been most all the time.
+The Black Partridge, Indian chief, he that was her brother, that took
+care of you two children when the massacre was, he didn&#8217;t expect she&#8217;d
+ever come again; but still, it appears, just on the chance of it, he
+rode off up country somewhere, and he happened to strike her trail,
+and that Osceolo&#8217;s&mdash;the scamp&mdash;that had run off with Kitty&#8217;s white
+horse, and fetched &#8217;em all back. The women in the Fort was tellin&#8217; me
+the whole story just now. I hain&#8217;t got a word out of Wahneeny, yet.
+She&#8217;s as close-mouthed as she ever was; but there&#8217;s more <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span>to hear than
+you could hark to in a day&#8217;s ride, and&mdash;Where you going, Gaspar?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;To find my Kitty.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, you needn&#8217;t. And I don&#8217;t know as she&#8217;s any more yours than she
+is ours, seein&#8217; we really had the credit of raisin&#8217; her. For she&#8217;s
+took her life in her hand, and has gone alone, without ary man to
+protect her, out across the prairie to face five hunderd Indians on
+the war-path, and&mdash;Hold on! What you up to?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The sailor, or hunter, whichever he might be, had started along the
+footpath to the Fort, and halted, half angrily, at this interruption.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well? What? I&#8217;ll see you by and by. I must find Kitty!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Right you are, lad. Find her, and fetch her back. And, say! Mercy
+says your own old Tempest horse is in the stable at the Fort; that it
+now belongs to the Sun Maid, and she&#8217;s the only one who ever rides it.
+The Captain gave it to her because she grieved so about you. I
+wouldn&#8217;t wonder if he&#8217;d travel nigh as fast as he used&mdash;when he run
+away before. I never saw the beat of you two young ones! As fast as a
+body catches up to you, off you run!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Even amid the anxiety now renewed in Abel&#8217;s mind regarding Kitty, the
+humorous side of the situation appealed to him; but there was no
+answering <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span>smile on Gaspar&#8217;s face; only an anxiety and yearning beyond
+the comprehension of either of these honest, simple souls.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, go on, then. Run your beatingest, in a bee line, due west.
+That&#8217;s the way she took, and that&#8217;s the trail you&#8217;ll find her on, if
+so be you find her at all.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Those at the Fort looked, wondered, but did not object, as this dark
+<i>voyageur</i> strode straight into the stables and to a box stall where
+Tempest enjoyed a life of pampered indolence. They realized that this
+was no stranger, but one to whom all things were familiar&mdash;even the
+animal which answered so promptly to the cry:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Tempest, old fellow!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It was a voice he had never forgotten. The black gelding&#8217;s handsome
+head tossed in a thrill of delight, and the answering neigh to that
+love call was good to hear. In a moment Gaspar had found a saddle,
+slipped it into place, and, scarcely waiting to tighten its girth, had
+leaped upon the animal&#8217;s back.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Forward, Tempest! Be true to your name!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Those who saw the rush of the gallant creature through the open gates
+of the stockade acknowledged that he would be.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>WESTWARD AND EASTWARD OVER THE PRAIRIE.</h3>
+
+<p style="float: left; font-size: 100%; line-height: 80%; margin-top: 0;">&#8220;</p><p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:5px;padding-bottom:1px;">F</span>ast, Tempest, fast!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The sunshine was in his eyes, and a warmer sunshine in his heart, as
+Gaspar urged the gelding forward.</p>
+
+<p>Fast it was. The faithful creature recognized the burden he carried,
+and his clean, small feet reeled off the distance like magic, till the
+village by the lake was left far behind, and only the limitless
+prairie stretched beyond. Yet still there was no sign of the Snowbird
+along the horizon, nor any point discernible where an Indian
+encampment might be.</p>
+
+<p>At length the rider paused to consider the matter.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s strange I don&#8217;t see her. If she were crossing the level,
+anywhere, I should, for my eyes are trained to long distances. It must
+be that Abel gave me the wrong direction. I&#8217;ll turn north, and try.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>But, keen-sighted though he was, for once the woodsman blundered.
+Between him and the lowering sun the prairie dipped and rose again,
+the two borders of the hidden valley seeming to meet in one <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span>unbroken
+plain. It was in this little depression that the wigwams were pitched,
+and among them the Sun Maid was already moving and pleading with her
+friends for patience and peace.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Gaspar continued on his chosen route, at a direct right
+angle from that he should have followed, till the twilight came down
+and the whole landscape was swathed in mist. For there had been heavy
+rains of late, and the vapor rose from the soaked and sun-warmed earth
+like a great white pall, filling the hunter&#8217;s nostrils and blinding
+his sight.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, this is hopeless. I might ride over her and not find her in
+this fog. But I can&#8217;t stay here. It&#8217;s choking. Heaven grant my Kitty&#8217;s
+safe under shelter somewhere. My own safety is to keep moving. Good
+boy, Tempest! Take it easy, but don&#8217;t stop.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>After that, there was nothing to do but trust the horse&#8217;s instinct to
+find a path through the mist and to be grateful that the ground was so
+level.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a long lane that has no turning. It must be that we&#8217;ll strike
+something different after a while; if not a settler&#8217;s house, at least
+a clump of trees. Any shelter would be better than none, in this
+creeping moisture. It would be easy to get lost; and what a situation!
+Oh! if I knew that she was out of it. A messenger to the Indians, eh?
+My little Kit, my dainty foster-sister!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span></p><p>The gelding&#8217;s nose was to the ground and, as a dog would have done, he
+picked his way, cautiously, yet surely, straight north where lay,
+though Gaspar did not know it, a settler&#8217;s clearing and comfortable
+cabin. The rider&#8217;s thoughts passed from his present surroundings back
+to the past and forward to the future; and when there sounded, almost
+at his feet, a cry of distress he did not hear it in his absorption.</p>
+
+<p>But Tempest did. At the second wail he stopped short, and it was this
+that roused Gaspar from his reverie.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Tired, old Tempest, boy? It won&#8217;t do to rest here. Take a breath, if
+you like, and get on again. Keeping at it is salvation.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Mamma! I want&mdash;my&mdash;mamma!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Whew! What&#8217;s that? Hello!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The sound was not repeated, and yet Tempest would not advance.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hello!&#8221; shouted Gaspar; and after a moment of strained listening,
+again he caught the echo of a child&#8217;s sob.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;My God! A baby&mdash;here! Lost in this fog!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He was off his horse and down upon his knees, reaching, feeling,
+creeping&mdash;calling gently, and finally touching the cold, drenched
+garment of the child he could not see.</p>
+
+<p>In its terror at this fresh danger the little one shrieked and rolled
+away; but the man lifted it <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span>tenderly, and soothed it with kind words
+till its shrieks ceased and it clung close to its rescuer.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There, there, poor baby! How came you here? Don&#8217;t be afraid. I&#8217;ll
+take you home. Tempest will find the way. Feel&mdash;the good horse knows.
+It was he that found you; we&#8217;ll get on his back and ride straight to
+mamma, for whom you called.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Climbing slowly back into his saddle, because of the little one he
+held so carefully, Gaspar laid its cold hand upon the gelding&#8217;s neck,
+but it slid listlessly aside and he realized that he had come not a
+moment too soon.</p>
+
+<p>All night they wandered, the child lying on Gaspar&#8217;s breast wrapped in
+his coat, while the mist penetrated his own clothing and seemed to
+creep into his very thoughts, numbing them to a sort of despair that
+no effort could cast off. The wail of the child lost in that
+dreariness had brought back, like a lightning&#8217;s flash, the earliest
+memories of his life and revived his never-dying hatred of his
+parent&#8217;s slayers.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;An Indian&#8217;s hand was in this work!&#8221; he mused. &#8220;Doubtless, the mother
+for whom it grieved has met the fate which befell my own. And Abel
+said that it was among such as these my Sun Maid had gone!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Then justice called to mind his knowledge of Wahneenah, of the Black
+Partridge, old Winnemeg, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span>and others, and his mood softened somewhat;
+but still memory tormented him and the white fog seemed a background
+for ghastly scenes too awful for words. Above all and through all, one
+consciousness was keener and fiercer than the others:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;My Kitty is among them at this moment! O, God, keep her!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It was the strongest cry of his yearning heart; yet underneath lay an
+impotent rage at his own powerlessness to help in this preservation.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;For what is my manhood or my courage worth to her now? And even the
+Deity seems veiled by this deadening, suffocating mist!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>But Tempest moved steadily on once more, and the little child warmed
+to life on his breast; and by degrees the man&#8217;s self-torment ceased.
+Then he lifted his eyes afresh and struggled to pierce the gloom.</p>
+
+<p>What was that? A light! A little yellow spot in the gray whiteness,
+which the horse was first to see and toward which he now hastened with
+a firmer speed.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a fire. No, a lamp in a house window. There, it&#8217;s gone. A
+will-o&#8217;-the-wisp by some hidden pool. It shines again. Well, Tempest
+sees it and believes in it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The man lacked the animal&#8217;s faith, and even when they had come to
+within a short distance of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span>glow, the clouds of vapor swept
+between it and them and Gaspar checked Tempest&#8217;s advance. But at last
+a slight wind rose, and the mist which rolled toward them was tinged
+with the odor of smoke, so the rider knew that his first surmise had
+been correct.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It is a fire. A settler&#8217;s cabin, probably once this lost child&#8217;s
+home. The red man&#8217;s work!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>When he reached the very spot there were, indeed, the remnants of a
+great burning, yet in the circle of the light Gaspar saw a house still
+standing. He was at its threshold promptly, and entered through its
+open door upon a scene of desolation. A woman crouched by the hearth
+that was strewn with ashes, and her moans echoed through the gloom
+with so much of agony in them that the stranger&#8217;s worst fears were
+confirmed. Then he caught her murmured words, and they were all of one
+tenor:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;My baby! my baby! my baby! My one lost little child! The wolves&mdash;my
+little one&mdash;my all!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Gaspar strode into the room, lighted only by the fitful glare from the
+ruins without, and gently spoke:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t grieve like that! The child is safe. It is here in my arms.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What? Safe! safe!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The mother was up, and had caught the little one from him before the
+words had left her lips, and the passion of her rejoicing brought the
+tears to the man&#8217;s eyes as her sorrow had not done.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span></p><p>After a moment, she was able to speak clearly and to demand his story.
+Then she gave hers.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I was here alone. My husband had gone hunting, and I went into the
+barn to seek for eggs. The loft was <span style="white-space: nowrap;">dark&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Spare yourself. I can guess. The Indians.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The Indians? No, indeed. Myself. My own carelessness. I carried a
+candle, and dropped it. The hay caught. I barely escaped from having
+my clothing burned on me; but I did. Then I forgot everything except
+my terrible loss and my husband&#8217;s anger when he returns. I began to
+fight the fire. I remember my little one crying with fright, but I
+paid no attention, and when at length I realized that it was too late
+for me to save our stock I stopped to look for him. Fortunately, the
+cabin was too far from the barn to catch easily, and there was a wind
+blowing the other way. That&#8217;s all that saved the home; yet, when I
+missed my baby, I wished that it would burn, too, and me with it. Life
+without him would be a living death. And he would have died, any way.
+The wolves are awful troublesome this spring. We&#8217;ve lost more than
+twenty of our hogs and the only pair of sheep we had. So husband
+joined a party and went out to hunt them. What will he say, what will
+he say, when he comes back!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>In Gaspar&#8217;s heart there sprang up a great happiness. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span>The ill which
+had happened here was so much less than he had anticipated that he
+took courage for himself. After all, the Sun Maid might be safe, as
+Abel had declared she said she should be. He remembered, at last, that
+not all men are evil, even red ones; and in the reaction of his own
+feelings, he exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What can he say, but give thanks that no worse befell him!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>However, now that her child was safe within her arms, the woman began
+to suffer in advance the torment she would have to undergo when she
+faced her indignant husband; and she retorted sharply:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Worse! Well, I suppose so. But I don&#8217;t see why in the name of common
+sense I was let to be such a fool in the first place. He won&#8217;t,
+neither. It&#8217;s all very well when you&#8217;ve lost half your property to
+give thanks for not losing your life, too; but I don&#8217;t see any cause
+for losing ary one.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>This sounded so like Mercy and her philosophy that Gaspar threw back
+his head and laughed; which angered his new friend first, and then
+affected her, also, with something of his mirth.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I can&#8217;t see a thing to laugh at, I, for one,&#8221; she remarked, trying to
+be stern.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh! but I can. And I&#8217;m not a laughing man, in ordinary. But there&#8217;s
+one thing I know&mdash;I&#8217;m powerful hungry. Can&#8217;t we make another fire, one
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span>that we can control, and get a bit of supper? If there&#8217;s anything in
+the house to cook, I can cook it while you tend baby. Then we&#8217;ll talk
+over your affairs.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s plenty to cook, but you&#8217;ll not cook it, sir. I owe you my
+child&#8217;s life, and now things are getting straighter in my muddled
+mind. I lost the barn for Jacob, and I must help replace it. I&#8217;ve been
+a hard worker always, but I can stretch another point, I guess. Pshaw!
+I believe it&#8217;s getting daylight. It&#8217;ll be breakfast instead of supper,
+this time.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It was daylight, indeed; and in a half-hour the simple meal was
+smoking on the table, and Gaspar sitting to eat it with the hearty
+appetite of a man who has lived always out-of-doors. But he could talk
+as fast as eat, when he was anxious as on that morning; and before he
+had drained his last cup of the &#8220;rye coffee&#8221; he had learned from his
+hostess that the Indian encampment he sought lay well to the
+southwestward of her cabin, and that by a way she could direct him he
+could reach it easily in a two-hours&#8217; ride. This to Tempest, who had
+rested and fed, would be nothing, if he was anything the horse he used
+to be, and Gaspar believed, from the past night&#8217;s experience, that
+sometimes even a horse can improve with age.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, I&#8217;ll be off, then. I&#8217;m anxious to get <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span>there. If all goes well
+I&#8217;ll get around this way again before long. Thank you for my
+entertainment, and here&#8217;s a trifle for the baby.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He tossed a gold piece on the table and was leaving the cabin. But she
+restrained him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, sir, I can&#8217;t take that, nor let the little one. And as for
+thanking me, I shall never cease to thank you, and the Lord for you,
+that you lost your way last night. But let me beg you, sir, to take a
+second thought. Jacob says the Indians are getting ready for an
+outbreak. It is like running your neck into a halter to go among them
+just now. I&mdash;I wish you wouldn&#8217;t. I couldn&#8217;t bear to have harm come to
+you after what you&#8217;ve done for me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Thank you, but I must go. I am not much afraid for myself at any
+time, for I&#8217;ve known the red-skins always and&mdash;trusted them never! But
+a girl&mdash;did you ever hear of the Sun Maid?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hear of her? Her? Well, I guess so! Who hasn&#8217;t, in these parts? Why?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It was to find her and protect her that I started last night from the
+Fort.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;To <i>protect</i> her? Well, you could have saved your trouble. I wish
+that I was as safe in this wild country as she is. There is an old
+saying that her life is charmed; that nothing evil can ever happen to
+her; and so far it has proved true. As for the Indians, even the
+wickedest in the whole race would <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span>die to save her life. I hope you&#8217;ll
+find her, sir, all right; but if there&#8217;s any protecting to be done,
+she&#8217;ll protect you, not you her. Well, good-by, and good luck!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Gaspar bared his head and rode away, on a straight trail this time,
+and with the exhilaration of the morning tingling through his
+healthful veins. On every side the great clouds of white mist rose and
+rolled apart. Blue violets and white windflowers began to peep upward
+at him from his path, and he remembered Kitty&#8217;s love for them. Then
+the sun broke through, and only those who have thus ridden across a
+dew-drenched prairie, at such an hour in such a season, can picture
+what that ride was like.</p>
+
+<p>The spirit of life and love and that glorious morning thrilled both
+horse and master as they leaped forward and still forward till, on the
+top of a grassy rise, a sudden halt was made.</p>
+
+<p>For what was this coming out of the west?&mdash;this fair white creature on
+her snowy mount, with the golden sunlight on her yellow hair, her
+glowing face, her modest maiden breast. Flowers wreathed her all about
+and a White Bow gleamed at her saddle horn. Behind her, and one on
+either side, rode dusky warriors, brave in their finest trappings and
+turning a reverent, attentive ear to the Maid&#8217;s words. Their horses&#8217;
+footfalls deadened by the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span>sodden grass, slowly they came into fuller
+view, as a picture grows under the painter&#8217;s brush.</p>
+
+<p>Still the man on the black horse facing them sat still, spellbound.
+Could this be Kitty, his Kitty; to whom his thoughts had turned as to
+a half-grown, playful child, and over whom he had domineered with the
+masterful pride of boyhood? He was a man now, boyhood was past; but he
+had quite forgotten that girlhood also passes and the child becomes a
+woman.</p>
+
+<p>He had grown rich and strong. After her supposed death he had devoted
+himself wholly to money-getting with the singleness of purpose that
+never fails of its object. He had come back to his old home to spend
+the fortune he had gained, feeling himself a master among men and his
+strength that of wisdom as well as wealth.</p>
+
+<p>Now all his pride and arrogance passed from him before the nobility of
+this woman approaching. For on her youthful face sat the dignity which
+is higher than pride and from her beautiful eyes gleamed the
+beneficent love more far-reaching than wealth.</p>
+
+<p>After a moment Gaspar rode slowly forward again, and soon espying, but
+not recognizing, him, the Sun Maid advanced. Then all at once the
+black horse and the white galloped to a meet.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Kitty! My Kitty!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><a name="illo5" id="illo5"></a></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 353px;">
+<img src="images/i270.jpg" class="ispace jpg" width="353" height="500" alt="&#8220;KITTY! MY KITTY!&#8221; Page 258." title="" />
+<span class="caption">&#8220;KITTY! MY KITTY!&#8221; <i>Page <a href="#Page_258">258</a>.</i></span>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Gaspar!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Their hands closed in a clasp that banished years of separation, and
+the black eyes searched the blue, questioning for the one sweet answer
+that rules all the world. There was a swift self-revelation in both
+hearts; a consciousness that this was what the God who made them had
+meant from the beginning. With a grave exaltation too deep and too
+high for words, the pure man and the pure woman came to their destiny
+and accepted it. Then their hands fell apart, the black Tempest
+wheeled into place beside the white Snowbird, and, as on a day long in
+the past, the pair passed swiftly and lightly eastward toward the
+lakeside village and their home.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ugh! The Sun Maid has found her mate!&#8221; muttered the foremost warrior
+grimly, and followed with his company at a soberer pace.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2>
+
+<h3>THE CROOKED LOG.</h3>
+
+<p style="float: left; font-size: 100%; line-height: 80%; margin-top: 0;">&#8220;</p><p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:5px;padding-bottom:1px;">I</span>&#160; tell you what, Chicago&#8217;s a-growing. First <i>we</i> come; then Gaspar;
+then Kitty and him get married; and I go to keeping tavern in the
+parson&#8217;s house; and his son, One, goes up north to take a place in
+Gaspar&#8217;s business; and Gaspar sends Two and Three east to study law
+and medicine; and Four and his pa come to board in our tavern; and
+<span style="white-space: nowrap;">Osceolo&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;For the land&#8217;s sake, Abel Smith, do hold your tongue. Here you&#8217;ve got
+to be as big a talker as old Deacon Slim, that I used to hear about,
+who begun the minute he woke up and never stopped till his wife tied
+his mouth shut at night. Even <span style="white-space: nowrap;">then&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Mercy, Mercy! Take care. Set me a good example, if you can; but don&#8217;t
+go to denying that this is a growin&#8217; village.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve no call to deny it. Why should I? But, say, Abel, just step
+round to the store, won&#8217;t you, an&#8217; buy me some of that turkey red
+calico was brought in on the last team from the East. I&#8217;d <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span>admire to
+make Kitty a rising sun quilt for her bedroom. &#8217;Twould be so
+&#8217;propriate, too.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Fiddlesticks! Not a yard of stuff will I ever buy for you to set an&#8217;
+snip, snip, like you used to in the woods. We&#8217;ve got something else to
+do now. As for Kit, between the Fort folks and the Indians, she&#8217;s had
+so many things give her a&#8217;ready, she won&#8217;t have room to put &#8217;em. The
+idee! Them two children gettin&#8217; married. Seems just like play make
+believe.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, there ain&#8217;t no make believe. It&#8217;s the best thing &#8217;t ever
+happened to Chicago. Wonderful how they both &#8217;pear to love the old
+hole in the mud,&#8221; answered Mercy.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, ain&#8217;t it? To hear Gaspar talk, you&#8217;d think he&#8217;d been to
+Congress, let alone bein&#8217; President. All about the &#8216;possibilities of
+the location,&#8217; the &#8216;fertility of the soil,&#8217; the &#8216;big canawl,&#8217; and the
+whole endurin&#8217; business; why, I tell you, it badgers my wits to foller
+him.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Wouldn&#8217;t try, then, if I was you. Poor old wits &#8217;most wore out, any
+how, and better save what&#8217;s left for this tavern business. Between you
+and your fiddle, thinkin&#8217; you&#8217;ve got to amuse your guests, I&#8217;m about
+beat out. All the drudgery comes on <i>me</i>, same&#8217;s it always did.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Drudgery, Mercy? Now, come. Take it easy. Hain&#8217;t Kitty fetched you a
+couple of squaws to do <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span>your steps and dish washin&#8217;? All you have to
+do is to cook <span style="white-space: nowrap">and&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh! go along, Abel, and get me that calico. Don&#8217;t set there till you
+take root. I ain&#8217;t a-complainin&#8217;, an&#8217; I &#8217;low I&#8217;m as much looked up to
+here in Chicago without my bedstead as I was in the woods with it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Looked up to? I should say so. There ain&#8217;t a woman in the settlement
+holds her head as top-lofty as you do. And with good reason, I &#8217;low. I
+don&#8217;t praise you often, ma, but when I do, I mean it. If you hadn&#8217;t
+been smarter &#8217;n the average, and had more gumption to boot, you&#8217;d
+never been asked in to help them army women cook Kitty&#8217;s weddin&#8217;
+supper. By the way, where are the youngsters now? I hain&#8217;t seen &#8217;em
+to-day.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Off over the prairie on their horses, just as they used to be when
+they were little tackers. I never saw bridal folks like them; from the
+very first not hangin&#8217; round by themselves, but mixing with everybody,
+same&#8217;s usual, and beginning right away to do all the good they can
+with Gaspar&#8217;s money. Off now to see some folks burned their own barn
+<span style="white-space: nowrap;">up&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">W-h-a-t?</span>&#8221; demanded Abel, with paling face.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What ails you? A fool of a woman took a lighted candle into her hay
+loft and ruined herself. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span>That happened the night Gaspar found Kitty;
+and they call it part of their weddin&#8217; tower to go there and lend the
+farmer the money to replace it. Gaspar was for giving it outright,
+though he&#8217;s a shrewd feller too, but Kit wouldn&#8217;t. &#8216;They aren&#8217;t
+paupers, and it would hurt their pride,&#8217; she said. &#8216;Lend it to them on
+very easy terms, and they&#8217;ll respect themselves and you.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, of course he done it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Sure. When a man gets a wife as wise as Kitty he&#8217;d ought to hark to
+her.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll go and get the calico now, Mercy,&#8221; said Abel, and left rather
+suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>At nightfall the young couple rode homeward once more, facing the
+moonlight that whitened the great lake and touched the homely hamlet
+beside it with an idealizing beauty; and looking upon it, the Sun Maid
+recalled her vision concerning it and repeated it to her husband.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ever since then, my Gaspar, the dream comes back to me in some form
+or shape. But it is always here, right here, that the crowds gather
+and the great roar of life sounds in my ears. In some strange way we
+are to be part of it; part of it all. In the dream I see the tall
+spires of churches, thick and shouldering one another like the trees
+in the forest behind us.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But, my darling, you have never seen a church <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span>of any sort. How,
+then, can you dream of them?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That I don&#8217;t know, unless it is from the pictures in the good
+Doctor&#8217;s books. I have learned so much from the pictures always. But,
+oh! I wish I could make you know some of the delight I felt when first
+I could read!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I do know it, sweetheart. I, too, craved knowledge and dug it out for
+myself, up there in the northern forests, from the few books that came
+my way and the rare visit of a man who could teach. The first dollar I
+had that was all my own I put aside for you. That was the beginning of
+our fortune. The second I invested in a spelling-book. The study,
+dear, was all that helped me bear the pain of your death. But you are
+not dead! Rather the most alive of any human being whom I ever saw.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That is true, Gaspar. I <i>am</i> alive. I just quiver with the force that
+drives me on from one task to another, from one point reached to one
+beyond. And now, with you beside me, there is no limit, it seems, to
+the help we can be to every single person who will come within our
+reach. Wasn&#8217;t the woman glad and grateful; and don&#8217;t you see, laddie,
+that it is better as I planned? You say you have been penurious,
+saving every cent not expended for your books and necessaries: and
+yet, now that you are happy again, you are ready to rush to the other
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span>extreme and throw your money away in thoughtless charity.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She looked so young, so childlike, in the glimmering moonlight that
+the tall woodsman laughed.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;To hear my little Kit teaching her elders!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The elders must listen. It is for our home. You must spend every
+dollar you have, but you must do it in such a way that somebody will
+be helped. We don&#8217;t want money, just money, for itself. To hold it
+that way would make us ignoble. It&#8217;s the wealth we spend that will
+make us rich.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Kit, there&#8217;s some dark scheme afloat in that fair head of yours. Out
+with it!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Just for a beginning of things&mdash;this: There was a family came to the
+Fort to-day. The father is a skilled wood-carver. He is not over
+strong and his wife is frailer than he. They have a lot of little
+children and he must earn money. It has cost them more than they
+expected to get as far as this, even, and they should not go farther.
+Yet he is a man, a master workman. It would be an insult to offer him
+money. But give him work and you feed his soul as well as his body.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;How, my love? Who that dwells in a log cabin needs fine carvings or
+would appreciate them if they had them?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Educate them to want and appreciate them. Open a school for just that
+branch. I myself will <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span>be his pupil. I remember with what delight I
+used to mould Mercy&#8217;s butter. Well, I&#8217;ve been moulding something ever
+since.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Your husband, for instance.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s a little difficult material; but time will improve him! Then
+there are the Doctor&#8217;s botanical treatises and specimens. Open a
+school. If you have to begin with a few only, still <i>begin</i>. Lay the
+seed. From our little workroom and classroom may grow one of those
+mighty colleges that have made Englishmen great and are making
+Americans their equals.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hello there, child! Hold on a bit. Their equals? And you a soldier&#8217;s
+daughter!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Since I am a soldier&#8217;s daughter, I can afford to be just, and even
+generous. It is all nonsense, because we have gained our independence,
+to say we are better than our fathers were. For they were our fathers,
+surely; and they had had time in their rich country, with their ages
+of instruction, to grow learned and great. But we Americans are their
+children, and, just as is already proving, each generation is wiser
+than the one which went before. So presently we shall be able to do
+even better than <span style="white-space: nowrap;">they&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Give them another dose of Yankee Doodle?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If they require it, yes. But come back to just right here in this
+little town. Besides the schools <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span>for white children, can&#8217;t we have
+those for the Indians?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, dear; not here. Not anywhere, I fear, that will ever result in
+permanent good. At least, the time is not yet ripe for that part of
+your dreaming to come true.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But think of Wahneenah. She is teachable and there is none more
+noble. Yet she is an Indian.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;She is one, herself. In all her race I have seen none other like her.
+There is Black Partridge, too, and Gomo, and old Winnemeg. They are
+exceptions. But, my love, there are, also, the Black Hawk and the
+Prophet.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He did not add his opinion, which agreed with that of the wisest men
+he knew, that Illinois would know no real prosperity till the savages,
+which disturbed its peace, were removed from its borders. For she
+loved them, hoped for them, believed in them; even though her own
+common sense forced her to agree with him that the time was not ripe
+then, if it ever would be, for their civilization. So he held his
+peace and soon they were at home.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Heigho! There are lights in our cabin. Hear me prophesy: Mother Mercy
+has come over with a roast for our supper and Mother Wahneenah has
+quietly set it aside to wait until her own is eaten. Ho there within!&#8221;
+he called merrily. &#8220;Who breaches our castle when its lord is absent?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span></p><p>Mercy promptly appeared in the doorway. She was greatly excited and
+hastily led them to the rear of the house, pointing with both hands to
+an animal fastened behind it.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s your fine Indian for you! See that?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Indeed I do!&#8221; laughed Kitty. &#8220;An ox, Jim, isn&#8217;t it? with the Doctor&#8217;s
+saddle on his back and his botanizing box, and&mdash;What does it mean? I
+knew he was absent-minded, but not like this.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Absent-minded. Absent shucks! That&#8217;s Osceolo&mdash;<i>that</i> is!&#8221; in a tone
+of fiercest indignation. &#8220;He&#8217;s such a crooked log he can&#8217;t lie still.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Is that his work? He dared not play his tricks on the dear Doctor!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, it&#8217;s his&#8217;n. The idee! There was Abel went and gave old Dobbin to
+the parson, to save his long legs some of their trampin&#8217; after weeds
+and stuff and &#8217;cause he was afraid to ride ary other horse in the
+settlement. And there was Osceolo, that for a feller&#8217;s hired out to a
+regular tavern-keeper like us, to be a hostler and such, he don&#8217;t earn
+his salt. All the time prankin&#8217; round on some tomfoolery. And Abel&#8217;s
+just as bad. A man with only two or three little weeny tufts o&#8217; hair
+left on his head and mighty little sense on the inside, at his time of
+life, a-fiddlin&#8217; and cuttin&#8217; up jokes, I declare&mdash;I declare, I&#8217;m beat,
+and I wish&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;But what is it?&#8221; demanded Kitty, bringing her old friend back to
+facts.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why, nothing. Only when the dominie came home and stopped here, as he
+always does after he&#8217;s been a-prairieing, to show you his truck and
+dicker, Osceolo happens along and is took smart! The simpleton! Just
+set old Dobbin scamperin&#8217; off back into the grass again and clapped
+the saddle and tin box and what not on to the ox&#8217;s back. Spected he&#8217;d
+see the parson come out and mount and never notice. &#8217;Stead of that,
+along comes Abel&mdash;strange how constant he has to visit to your
+house!&mdash;and sees the whole business. Well, he&#8217;d caught some sort of a
+wild animal, and&mdash;say, Kitty Briscoe, I mean Keith!&mdash;<i>that Indian&#8217;d
+drink whiskey, if he got a chance</i>, just as quick as one raised in the
+woods, instead of one privileged to set under such a saint as the
+Doctor all his days. I tell you&mdash;Well, what you laughing at, Gaspar
+Keith? Ain&#8217;t I tellin&#8217; the truth?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, Mother Mercy, doubtless you are. But it isn&#8217;t so long back, as
+Abel says, that you objected to &#8216;setting under&#8217; the Doctor yourself.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Suppose it wasn&#8217;t? I didn&#8217;t know him then, not as I do now. He&#8217;s
+orthodox, I found out, and that&#8217;s all I wanted. But I know what I&#8217;m
+talkin&#8217; about. Osceolo, he&#8217;s always beggin&#8217; for Abel to keep liquor:
+an&#8217; we teetotallers! An&#8217; he&#8217;s teased so <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span>much that the other day Abel
+thought he&#8217;d satisfy him. So he got an old bottle, looked as if some
+tipsy Indian had thrown it away, and filled it with a dose of boneset
+tea. He made a terrible mystery of the whole matter, pretendin&#8217; to be
+sly of me, and took it out from under his coat and gave it to Ossy out
+behind in the stable, like it was a wonderful secret. Do you know,
+that Indian hain&#8217;t never let on a single word about that business yet?
+Oh! he&#8217;s a master hand for bein&#8217; close-mouthed. They all be. They just
+<i>do</i>&mdash;but don&#8217;t talk.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Mercy, if <i>you</i> were only a little more talkative, you&#8217;d be better
+company!&#8221; teased Gaspar, who was eager for the finish of the story and
+his supper.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now&mdash;you! Well, laugh away. I don&#8217;t mind. All is, when Abel saw the
+trick Ossy had played on the Doctor, he plays one on Ossy. He&#8217;d caught
+a queer sort of animal, as I said, and he was fetchin&#8217; it to Kit.
+Everybody brings her everything, from rattlesnakes up. But when he saw
+that ox, he just opens the tin box and claps the creature inside and
+then hunts up Ossy. He says: &#8216;There&#8217;s something in that box pretty
+suspicious, boy. You might look an&#8217; see what &#8217;tis but don&#8217;t let on.&#8217;
+He&#8217;s that curiosity, Osceolo has, that he forgot everything else and
+stuck his hand in sly. I expect he thought it was something to eat, or
+likely to drink, and he got bit. Hand&#8217;s all tore and sore, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span>and now
+Abel&#8217;s scared and gone off with him to the surgeon at the Fort, and
+there&#8217;ll be trouble. Ossy was muttering something about the &#8216;Black
+Hawk coming and that he&#8217;d had enough of the white folks. He was born
+an Indian, and an Indian he&#8217;d die&#8217;; and to the land! I hope he will!
+He makes more mischief in this settlement than you can shake a stick
+at!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;It&#8217;s hard for a bird to get away from its tail,&#8217;&#8221; quoted Gaspar,
+lightly. &#8220;Osceolo began life wrong and his reputation clings to him.
+I&#8217;ll take the saddle off Jim, and let&#8217;s go in to supper. None of my
+Sun Maid&#8217;s tribe is to be feared, I think, no matter how direly they
+may threaten.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Yet the young husband glanced toward his wife with an anxiety that he
+would not have liked her to see. During the weeks since his return to
+the village he had learned much more than he had told her of a
+movement far beyond the Indian encampments she was accustomed to
+visit, which would bring serious trouble, if not complete disaster,
+upon their beloved home. Osceolo was the Sun Maid&#8217;s devoted follower;
+yet the prank he had played upon the old Doctor, whom she so
+reverenced, showed that he was already throwing aside the restraints
+of his enforced civilization; and the sign was ominous.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h2>
+
+<h3>ENEMIES, SEEN AND UNSEEN.</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:5px;padding-bottom:1px;">B</span>ut the time passed on and the rumors died away, or ended in nothing
+more serious than had always disturbed the dwellers in that lonely
+land. Now and again a friendly, peace-loving chief would ride up to
+the door of the Sun Maid&#8217;s home, and, after a brief consultation she
+would put on her Indian attire and ride back with him across the
+prairies. As of old, she went with a heart full of love for her Indian
+friends, but it was not the undivided love that she had once been able
+to give them.</p>
+
+<p>Over her beautiful features had settled the brooding look which
+wifehood and motherhood gives; and though she listened as attentively
+as of old and counselled as wisely, she could not for one moment
+forget the little children waiting for her by her own hearthside or
+the brave husband who was so often away on his long journeys to the
+north; and the keen intelligence of the red men perceived this.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;She is ours no longer,&#8221; said a venerable warrior, after one such
+visit. &#8220;She has taken to herself a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span>pale-face, he who met her on the
+prairie in the morning light, and her heart has gone from her. It is
+the way of life. The old passes, the new comes to reign. We are her
+past. Her Dark-Eye is her present. Her papooses are her future. The
+parting draws near. She is still the Sun Maid, the White Spirit, the
+Unafraid. As far as the Great Spirit wills, she will be faithful to
+us; but now when she rides homeward from a visit to our lodge it is no
+longer at the easy pace of one whose life is all her own, but wildly,
+swiftly, following her heart which has leaped before.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Each morning, nearly, as the Sun Maid ministered to her little ones or
+busied herself among the domestic duties of her simple home she would
+joyfully exclaim to Wahneenah:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t believe there was ever a woman in the world so happy as I
+am!&#8221; And the Indian foster-mother would gravely reply:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ask the Great Spirit that the peace may long continue.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Till, on one especial day, the younger woman demanded:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, why should it not, my Mother? It is now many weeks since I have
+been called to settle any little quarrel among our people. Surely they
+are learning wisdom fast. Do you know something? I intend that some of
+the squaws who are idle shall <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span>make my baby, Gaspar the Second, a
+little costume of our own tribe. It shall be all complete; as if he
+were a tiny chief himself, with his leggings and head-dress, and&mdash;yes,
+even a little bow and quiver. I&#8217;ll have it finished, maybe, before his
+father comes down from this last trip into the far-away woods. Oh! I
+shall be glad when my &#8216;brave&#8217; can trust all his business of mining and
+fur-buying and lumbering to somebody else. I miss him so. But won&#8217;t he
+be pleased with our little lad in feathers and buckskin?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Wahneenah&#8217;s dark eyes looked keenly at her daughter&#8217;s face.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, beloved; he will not be pleased. In his heart of hearts, the
+white chief was ever the red man&#8217;s enemy. Me he loves and a few more.
+But let the White Papoose&#8221; (Wahneenah still called her foster-child by
+the old love names of her childhood) &#8220;let the White Papoose hear and
+remember: the day is near when the Dark-Eye will choose between his
+friends and the friends of his wife. It is time to prepare. There is a
+distress coming which shall make of this Chicago a burying-ground. Our
+Dark-Eye has bought much land. He is always, always buying. Some day
+he will sell and the gold in his purse will be too heavy for one man&#8217;s
+carrying. But first the darkness, the blood, the death. Let him choose
+now a house of refuge for you and the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span>little children; choose it
+where there are trees to shelter and water to refresh. Let him build
+there a tepee large enough for all your needs,&mdash;a wigwam, remember,
+not a house. Let him stock it well with food and clothing and the guns
+which protect.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why, Other Mother! What has come over you? Such a dismal prophecy as
+that is worse than any which old Katasha ever breathed. Are you ill,
+Wahneenah, dearest?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There is no sickness in my flesh; yet in my heart is a misery that
+bows it to the earth. But I warn you. If you would find favor in the
+eyes of your brave, clothe not his son in the costume of the red man.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Kitty was unaccountably depressed. Hitherto she had been able to laugh
+aside the sometimes sombre auguries of the chief&#8217;s sister; but now
+something in the woman&#8217;s manner made her believe that she knew more
+than she disclosed of some impending disaster. However, it was not in
+her nature, nor did she believe it right, that she should worry over
+vague suggestions. So she answered once more before quite dismissing
+the subject:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, we were already discussing the comfort of having another home
+out in the forest, and Abel has suggested that we build it on the land
+which was his farm and which Gaspar has bought. We both liked that; to
+have our own children play <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span>where we played as children. I want my
+little ones to learn about the wild things of the woods, and the dear
+old Doctor is still alive to teach them. You will like it, too, Other
+Mother. When the days grow hot and long we will ride to the &#8216;Refuge&#8217;;
+and I think the wigwam idea is better, after all, than the house;
+though I do not know what my husband will decide.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Before the days grow long, the &#8216;Refuge&#8217; must be finished, and the
+earlier the better. It is rightly named, my daughter, and the time is
+ripe.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Ere many hours had passed, and most unexpectedly to his wife, Gaspar
+returned. In the first happiness of welcoming him she did not observe
+that his face was stern and troubled; but she did notice, when bedtime
+came, that he did what had never before been done in their home: he
+locked or bolted the doors and stoutly barred the heavy wooden
+shutters. He had also brought Osceolo with him, from Abel&#8217;s tavern,
+and had peremptorily bidden the Indian to &#8220;Lie there!&#8221; pointing to a
+heap of skins on the floor beside the fire.</p>
+
+<p>Toward morning Kitty woke. To her utter amazement, she saw in her
+living room her Gaspar and Osceolo engaged in what seemed a battle to
+the death. Then she sprang up and ran toward them, but her husband
+motioned her back.</p>
+
+<p><a name="illo6" id="illo6"></a></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 353px;">
+<img src="images/i289.jpg" class="ispace jpg" width="353" height="500" alt="OSCEOLO AND GASPAR. Page 276." title="" />
+<span class="caption">OSCEOLO AND GASPAR. <i>Page <a href="#Page_276">276</a>.</i></span>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Leave him to me. I&#8217;ll fix him so that he&#8217;ll do no more mischief for
+the present.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But, Gaspar! What is it?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Treachery, as usual. Get into your clothes, my girl, and call
+Wahneenah. Let the children be dressed,&mdash;warmly, for the air is cool
+and we may have to leave suddenly.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<i>What</i> is it?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;An outbreak! The settlers are flocking into the Fort in droves. Black
+Hawk and his followers have come too close for comfort. This miserable
+fellow has been tampering with the stores. He couldn&#8217;t get at the
+ammunition, but he&#8217;s done all the evil he could. I caught him
+hobnobbing with a low Sac; a spy, I think. There. He&#8217;s bound, and now
+I&#8217;ll fasten him in the wood-shed. He knows too much about this town to
+be left in freedom.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Yet, after all, they did not have to flee from home, as Gaspar had
+feared, though the Sun Maid put on her peace dress and unbound her
+glorious hair, ready at any moment to ride forth and meet the Indians
+and to try her powers of promoting good-feeling. The Snowbird stood
+saddled for many days: yet it was only upon errands of hospitality and
+charity that he was needed.</p>
+
+<p>Gaspar, however, was always in the saddle. When he was not riding far
+afield, scouting the movements <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span>of the Black Hawk forces, he was
+searching the countryside for provisions and himself guiding the
+wagons that brought in the scant supplies. One evening he returned
+more cheerful than he had seemed for many days and exclaimed as he
+tossed aside his cap:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;This has been a good trip, for two reasons.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What are they, dear?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Starvation is staved off for a while and the Indians are evidently in
+grave doubts of their own success in this horrid war.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Starvation, Gaspar? Has it been as bad as that?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Pretty close to it. But I&#8217;ve found a couple of men who had about a
+hundred and fifty head of cattle, and they&#8217;ve driven them here into
+the stockade. As long as they last, we shall manage. The other good
+thing is&mdash;that the Black Hawks are sacrificing to the Evil Spirit.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;They are! That shows they are hopeless of their own success.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Certainly very doubtful of it. It is the dog immolation. I saw one
+instance myself and met a man who had come from the southwest. He has
+passed them at intervals of a day&#8217;s journey; always the same sort. The
+wretched little dog, fastened just above the ground, the nose pointing
+straight this way and the fire beneath.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Oh, Gaspar, it&#8217;s dreadful!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That they are discouraged? Kit, you don&#8217;t mean that?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No. No, no! You know better. But that they are such&mdash;such heathen!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Another voice broke in upon them:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Heathen! Heathen, you say? Well, if ever you was right in your life,
+you&#8217;re right now. I never saw such folks. Here I&#8217;ve been cookin&#8217; and
+cooking till I&#8217;m done clean through myself; and in there&#8217;s come
+another lot, just as hungry as t&#8217;others. Dear me, dear me! Why in the
+name of common sense couldn&#8217;t I have stayed back there in the woods,
+and not come trapesing to Chicago to turn head slave for a lot of
+folks that act as if I&#8217;d ought to be grateful for the chance to kill
+myself a-waitin&#8217; on them. And say, Gaspar Keith, have you heard the
+news? When did you get home?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It was Mercy, of course, who had rushed excitedly into the house, yet
+had been able to rattle off a string of sentences that fairly took her
+hearers&#8217; breath away, if not her own.</p>
+
+<p>But Kitty was at her side at once, tenderly removing the great
+sun-bonnet from the hot gray head and offering a fan of turkey wings,
+gayly decorated with Indian embroideries of beads and weavings.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, Kit. No, you needn&#8217;t. Not while I know <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span>myself; there ain&#8217;t never
+no more red man&#8217;s tomfoolery going to be around me! Take that there
+Indian contraption away. I&#8217;d rather have a decent, honest cabbage-leaf
+any day. I&#8217;m beat out. My, ain&#8217;t it hot!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, dear, it is awfully hot. Sit here in the doorway, in this big
+chair, and get what little breeze there is. Here&#8217;s another fan, which
+I made myself; plain, good Yankee manufacture. Try that. Then, when
+you get cooled off, tell us your &#8216;news.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Cooled off? That I sha&#8217;n&#8217;t never be no more; not while I&#8217;ve got to
+cook for all creation.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Mother Mercy, Mother Mercy! You are a puzzler. You won&#8217;t let the
+people go anywhere else than to your house as long as there&#8217;s room to
+squeeze another body in; <span style="white-space: nowrap;">and&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ain&#8217;t it the tavern?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Of course. But people who keep taverns usually take pay for
+entertaining their guests.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Gaspar Keith! You say that to me, after the raisin&#8217; I gave you? The
+idee! When not a blessed soul of the lot has got a cent to bless
+himself with.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But I have cents, plenty of them; and I want you to let me bear this
+expense for you. I insist upon it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, lad, I always did think you was a little too sharp after the
+money. But I didn&#8217;t &#8217;low you&#8217;d begrudge folks their <i>blessings</i>, too.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Blessings? Aren&#8217;t you complaining about so much hard work, and
+haven&#8217;t you the right? I know that no private family has cared for so
+many as you have, <span style="white-space: nowrap;">and&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, do drop that! I tell you <i>I</i> ain&#8217;t a private family; I&#8217;m a
+tavern. Oh! I don&#8217;t know what I am nor what I&#8217;m sayin&#8217;. I&mdash;I reckon
+I&#8217;m clean beat and tuckered out.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;So you are, dear. But rest and I&#8217;ll make you a cup of tea. If you
+leave those people to themselves and they get hungry again they&#8217;ll
+cook <i>for</i> themselves. They&#8217;ll have to. But to a good many of these
+refugees this is a sort of picnic business. They have left their
+homes, it&#8217;s true; but they haven&#8217;t seen so many human faces in years
+<span style="white-space: nowrap;">and&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;They haven&#8217;t had such a good time! I noticed that. They seemed as
+bright as children at a frolic. Well, we ought to help them get what
+fun they can out of so serious a matter,&#8221; commented Gaspar.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Serious! I should say so. That&#8217;s what sent me here. Abel, he was on
+the wharf, and he says the ships are coming down the lake full of
+soldiers; and what with them and the folks already here and only a
+hundred and fifty head to feed &#8217;em with, and some of these refugees
+eat as much as ary parson I ever saw, and the old Doctor trying to
+preach to &#8217;em, sayin&#8217; it&#8217;s the best opportunity&mdash;my land! <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span>The way
+some folks can get sweet out of bitter is a disgrace, I declare. And
+as for that Ossy, the dirty scamp, he&#8217;s broke more dishes, washing
+them, than I&#8217;ve got left. And I run over to see if you&#8217;d let me have
+ary dish you&#8217;ve got, or shall I give &#8217;em their stuff right in their
+hands? And how long have I got to go on watchin&#8217; that wild Osceolo? I
+wish you&#8217;d take him back and shut him up in your wood-shed again.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But, Mother Mercy, it was you who begged his release. And I&#8217;m sure
+it&#8217;s better for him in your kitchen, working, than lying idle in an
+empty building, plotting mischief. Hello, here&#8217;s Abel. And he seems as
+excited as&mdash;as you were,&#8221; said Gaspar.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Glory to government, youngsters! The military is coming! The
+General&#8217;s in sight! Now hooray! We&#8217;ll show them pesky red-skins a
+thing or two. If they ain&#8217;t wiped clean out of existence this time my
+name&#8217;s Jack Robinson. Say, Kit, don&#8217;t look so solemn. Likely they&#8217;ll
+know enough to give up licked without getting shot; and they&#8217;re
+nothin&#8217; but Indians, any how.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The Sun Maid came softly across and held up her little son to be
+admired. Her face was grave and her lips silent. All this talk of war
+and bloodshed was awful to her gentle heart, that was torn and
+distracted with grief for both her white and her red-faced friends.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span></p><p>But there was only grim satisfaction on the countenance of her young
+husband; and he turned to Abel, demanding:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Are you sure that this good news is true? Are the soldiers coming?
+Who saw them?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I myself, through the commandant&#8217;s spy-glass. They&#8217;re aboard the
+ships, and I could almost hear the tune of <i>Yankee Doodle</i>. They&#8217;re
+bound to rout the enemy like chain lightning. Hooray!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The soldiers were coming indeed; but alas! an enemy was coming with
+them far more deadly than the Indians they meant to conquer.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h2>
+
+<h3>FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH.</h3>
+
+<p style="float: left; font-size: 100%; line-height: 80%; margin-top: 0;">&#8220;</p><p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:5px;padding-bottom:1px;">O</span>h, Kit; I can&#8217;t bear to leave you behind! It breaks my old heart all
+to flinders!&#8221; lamented Abel, laboriously climbing into the great wagon
+which Jim and Pete were now to draw back to their old home and wherein
+were already seated Mercy, with Kitty&#8217;s children. &#8220;If it wasn&#8217;t for
+these babies of yourn, I&#8217;d never stir stick nor stump out this
+afflicted town.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, dear Abel, the babies <i>are</i>, and must be cared for. I know that
+you and Mother Mercy will spoil them with kindness; but I hope we&#8217;ll
+soon be all together again. Good-by, good-by.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The Sun Maid&#8217;s voice did not tremble nor the light in her brave face
+grow dim, though her heart was nearer breaking than Abel&#8217;s; in that
+she realized far more keenly than he the peril in which she was
+voluntarily placing herself.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, Kitty, lamb, do take care. Take the herb tea constant and keep
+your feet dry.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That will be easy to do, if this heat remains,&#8221; answered the other
+quietly, looking about her as she <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span>spoke upon the sun-parched ground
+and the hot, brazen sky. &#8220;And you must not worry, any of you. Gaspar
+says the tepees are as comfortable as the best log cabins, though so
+hastily put up. You will have plenty of air and the delicious shade of
+the trees; the blessed spring water, too; and if you don&#8217;t keep well
+and be as happy as kittens, I&mdash;I&#8217;ll be ashamed of you. I declare,
+Mercy dear, your face is all a-beam with the thought of the old
+clearing, and the bleaching ground, and all. So you needn&#8217;t try to
+look grave, for, as soon as we can, Wahneenah and I will follow.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Then she turned to speak to Gaspar, who sat on Tempest close at hand,
+his handsome face pale with anxiety and divided interests, but stern
+and resolute to do his duty as his young wife had shown it to him. And
+what these two had to say to one another is not for others to hear;
+for it was a parting unto death, it might be, and the hearts of the
+twain were as one flesh.</p>
+
+<p>Also, if Mercy&#8217;s face was alight with the glow of her home returning,
+it was moved by the sight of the two women&mdash;Wahneenah and her
+daughter&mdash;who were taking their lives in their hands for the service
+of their fellow-men.</p>
+
+<p>Never had the Indian woman&#8217;s comeliness shown to such advantage; and
+her bearing was of one who neither belittled nor overrated the dignity
+of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span>self-sacrifice she was making. She wore a white cotton gown,
+which draped rather than fitted her tall figure, and about her dark
+head was bound a white kerchief that seemed a crown. With an impulse
+foreign to her, Mercy held out her hand; because in ordinary she
+&#8220;hated an Indian on sight.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, Wahneeny, I&#8217;d like to shake hands for good-by. There hain&#8217;t
+never been no love lost &#8217;twixt you an&#8217; me, but I &#8217;low I might have
+been more juster than I was. I think you&#8217;re&mdash;you&#8217;re as good as ary
+white women I ever see, savin&#8217; our Kit, of course; an&#8217;&mdash;an&#8217;&mdash;I&mdash;I wish
+you well.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>There was a moment&#8217;s hesitation on Wahneenah&#8217;s part; then her slim
+brown hand was extended and closed upon Mercy&#8217;s fat palm with a
+friendly pressure.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;In the light of the Unknown Beyond, the little hates and loves of
+earth must disappear. You have judged according to the wisdom that was
+in you, and if I bore you a grudge, it is forgotten. Farewell.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Then the foster-mother slipped her arm about the waist of her beloved
+Sun Maid and supported her firmly as the oxen moved slowly forward,
+the heavy wheels creaking and the three children shouting and clapping
+their hands in innocent glee, quite unconscious of the tragedy of the
+parting they had witnessed.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span></p><p>Abel gee-ed and haw-ed indiscriminately and confusingly, then
+belabored his patient beasts because they did not understand
+conflicting orders. Mercy sat twisted around upon the buffalo-covered
+seat, her arms holding each a child as in a vise and her neck in
+danger of dislocation, as long as her swimming eyes could catch one
+glimpse of the two white-robed women left on the dusty road.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;They look as pure as some them Sisters of Charity I&#8217;ve seen in Boston
+city. And they won&#8217;t spare themselves no more, neither. Poor Gaspar
+boy! How&#8217;ll he ever stand it without his Kit, and if&mdash;ah, if&mdash;she
+should catch&mdash;Oh, my soul! oh&mdash;my&mdash;soul! I wonder if he&#8217;s takin&#8217; it
+terrible hard!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>But though she brought her body back to a normal poise, her morbid
+curiosity was doomed to disappointment, for Tempest had already borne
+his master out of sight at a mad pace across the prairie.</p>
+
+<p>The enemy which had come with the infantry over the great water was
+the most terrible known,&mdash;a disease so dread and devastating that men
+turned pale at the mere mention of its name&mdash;the Asiatic cholera.</p>
+
+<p>When it appeared, the garrison was crowded with the settlers who had
+fled before the anticipated attacks of the Indians and, as has been
+said, every <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span>roof in the community sheltered all it could cover. But
+when the soldiers began to die by dozens and scores the refugees were
+terrified. Death by the hand of the red man was possible, even
+probable; but death of the pestilence was certain.</p>
+
+<p>The town was now emptied far more rapidly than it had filled; and
+early in this new disaster Gaspar had hastened to the old clearing of
+the Smiths and had made Osceolo, aided by a few more frightened,
+willing men, toil with himself to erect wigwams enough to accommodate
+many persons. He had then returned for his household and had been met
+by his wife&#8217;s first resistance to his will.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, Gaspar, I cannot go. I have no fear. I am perfectly &#8216;sound.&#8217;
+Probably no healthier woman ever lived than I am. I have learned much
+of nursing from Wahneenah, and my place, my duty, is here. I cannot
+go.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Kit! my Kitty! Are you beside yourself? Where is your duty, if not to
+me and to our children?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Here, my husband, right here; in our beloved town, among the lonely
+strangers who have come to save it from destruction and have laid
+their lives at our feet.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That is sheer nonsense. Your life is at stake.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Is my life more precious than theirs?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes. Infinitely so. It is mine.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;It is God&#8217;s&mdash;and humanity&#8217;s&mdash;first, Gaspar.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Your children, then; if you scorn my wishes.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t make it hard for me, beloved; harder than God Himself has made
+it. Do you take Mother Mercy and Abel and go to the place you have
+prepared. The children will be as safe with her as with me; safer, for
+she will watch them constantly, while I believe in leaving them to
+grow by themselves. Between them and us you may come and go&mdash;up to a
+certain point; but not to the peril of your taking the disease. The
+Indians are no less on the war-path because the cholera has come.
+<i>Your</i> duty is afield, guarding, watching, preventing all the evil
+that a wise man can. Mine is here, using the skill I have learned from
+Wahneenah and faithfully at her side.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Wahneenah? Does she wish to stay too; to nurse the pale-faces, the
+men who have come here to fight her own race?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, Gaspar, she is just so noble. Can I do less? I, with my
+education, which the dear Doctor has given me, and my youth, my
+perfect health, my entire fearlessness. You forget, sweetheart; I am
+the Unafraid. Never more unafraid than now, never more sure that we
+will come out of this trouble as we have come out of every other. Why,
+dear, don&#8217;t you remember old Katasha and her prophecy? I am to be
+great and rich and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span>beneficent. I am to be the helper of many people.
+Well, then, since I am not great, and rich only through you, let me
+begin at the last end of the prophecy, and be beneficent. Wait; even
+now there is somebody coming toward us asking me for help.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Kit, I can&#8217;t have it. I won&#8217;t. You are my wife. You shall obey me.
+You shall stop talking nonsense. You may as well understand. Pick
+together what duds you need and let&#8217;s get off as soon as possible.
+Every hour here is fresh danger. Come. Please hurry.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>But she did not hurry, not in the least. Indeed, had she followed her
+heart wholly, she would never have hastened one degree toward the end
+she had elected. But she followed it only in part; so she stole
+quietly up to where the man fumed and flustered and clasped her arms
+about his neck and laid her beautiful face against his own.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Love: this is not our first separation, nor our longest. Many a month
+have you been away from me, up there in the north, getting money and
+more money, till I hated its very name,&mdash;only that I knew we could use
+it for others. In that, and in most things, I will obey you as I have.
+In this I must obey the voice of God. Life is better than money, and
+to save life or to comfort death is the price of this, our last
+separation.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span></p><p>After that he said no more; but recognizing the nobility of her
+effort, even though he still felt it mistaken, and with a credulous
+remembrance of Katasha&#8217;s saying, he made her preparations and his own
+without delay and parted from her as has been told.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, my dear Other Mother, there is one thing to comfort! Hard as it
+was to see them all go, we shall have no time to brood. And we shall
+be together. Let us get on now to our work. There were five new cases
+this morning; and time flies! Oh, if I were wiser and knew better what
+to do for such a sickness! The best we can&mdash;that&#8217;s all.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What the Great Spirit puts into our hands, that we can always lift,&#8221;
+replied Wahneenah, and, with her arm still about her darling&#8217;s waist,
+they walked together Fortward. It may be that in the Indian&#8217;s jealous,
+if devoted, heart there was just a tinge of thankfulness for even an
+evil so dire, since it gave her back her &#8220;White Papoose&#8221; quite to
+herself again.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, I can watch her all I choose, and no burden shall fall to her
+share that I can spare her. The easy part&mdash;the watching and the
+soothing and the Bible reading&mdash;that shall be hers. Mine will be the
+coarsest tasks,&#8221; she thought, and&mdash;as Gaspar had done&mdash;reckoned
+without her host.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It is turn and turn about, Other Mother, or I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span>will drive you out of
+the place,&#8221; Kitty declared; and after a few useless struggles, which
+merely wasted the time that should have been given their patients, it
+was so settled; and so continued during the dreadful weeks that
+followed.</p>
+
+<p>Until just before midsummer the nurses were almost wholly at the Fort,
+where it seemed to Kitty that a &#8220;fresh case&#8221; and a &#8220;burial&#8221; alternated
+with the regularity of a pendulum; and then a little relief was gained
+by taking their sick across to Agency House and its ampler
+accommodations. But even these were meagre compared to the needs; and
+more and more as the days went by did the Sun Maid long for greater
+wisdom.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That is one of the things Gaspar and I must do. We must have a
+regular hospital, such as are in Eastern cities; and there must be men
+and women taught to understand all sorts of diseases and how to care
+for them. I know so little&mdash;so little.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>But experience taught more than schools could have done; and many a
+poor fellow who had come from a far-away home sank to his last rest
+with greater confidence because of the ministrations of these two
+devoted women. And at last, very suddenly, there appeared one among
+them whom both Wahneenah and her daughter recognized with a sinking
+heart.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Doctor! Oh, Doctor Littlejohn! I thought you were safe at the
+&#8216;Refuge&#8217; with Mercy and Abel. How came you here? and why? You must go
+away at once. You must, indeed. Where is the horse you rode?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I rode no horse, my dear. If I had asked for one, I should have been
+prevented,&mdash;even forcibly, I fear. So I walked.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Walked? In this heat, all that distance? Will you tell me why?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>But already, before it was spoken, the Sun Maid guessed the answer.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Because, at length, through all the shifting talk about me, it
+penetrated to my study-dulled brain that there was a need more urgent
+than that the Indian dialects should be preserved; that I, a minister
+of the gospel, was letting a woman take the duty, the privilege, that
+was mine. I have come, daughter of my old age, to encourage the
+sufferers you relieve and bury the dead you cannot save.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But&mdash;for <i>you</i>, in your feebleness&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He held up his thin white hand that trembled as an aspen leaf.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It is enough, my dear. Consider all is said. I heard a fresh groan
+just then. Somebody needs you&mdash;or me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Wahneenah now had two to watch, and she did it jealously, at the cost
+of the slight rest she had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span>heretofore allowed herself. The result of
+overstrain, in the midst of such infection, was inevitable. One
+evening she crept languidly toward the empty house which had been her
+darling&#8217;s home and behind which still stood her own deserted lodge.
+She was a little wearier than usual, she thought, but that was all. To
+lie down on her bed of boughs and draw her own old blanket over her
+would make her sleep. She longed to sleep&mdash;just for a minute; to shut
+out from her eyes and her thoughts the scenes through which she had
+gone. How long ago was it since the wagon and the fair-haired babies
+went away?</p>
+
+<p>She was a little confused. She was falling asleep, though, despite the
+agony that tortured her. <i>Her?</i> She had always hated pain and despised
+it. It couldn&#8217;t be Wahneenah, the Happy, crouching thus, in a cramped
+and becrippled attitude. It was some other woman,&mdash;some woman she had
+used to know.</p>
+
+<p>Why, there was her warrior: her own! And the son she had lost! And
+now&mdash;what was this in the parting of the tent curtains? The moonlight
+made mortal?</p>
+
+<p>No. Not a moon-born but a sun-born maiden she, who stooped till her
+white garments swept the earth and her beautiful, loving face was
+close, close. Even the glazing eyes could see how wondrously <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span>fair it
+was in the sight of men and spirits. Even the dulled ears could catch
+that agonized cry:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Wahneenah! Wahneenah! My Mother! Bravest and noblest! and yet&mdash;a
+savage!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Who called her so knew not of what he spake. From one God we all came
+and unto Him we must return. Blessed be His Name!&#8221; answered the
+clergyman who had followed.</p>
+
+<p>Then the frail man, who had so little strength for himself, was given
+power to lift the broken-hearted Maid and carry her away into a place
+of safety.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h2>
+
+<h3>GROWING UP.</h3>
+
+<p style="float: left; font-size: 100%; line-height: 80%; margin-top: 0;">&#8220;</p><p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:5px;padding-bottom:1px;">W</span>ell, I&#8217;m beat! I don&#8217;t know what to do with myself. Out there to the
+clearing I was just crazy wild to get back to town; and now I&#8217;m here
+I&#8217;m nigh dead with plumb lonesomeness. My, my, my! Indians licked out
+of their skins, about, and cleared out the whole endurin&#8217; State. Old
+Black Hawk marched off to the East to be shown what kind of a nation
+he&#8217;d bucked up against, the simpleton! And Osceolo takin&#8217; himself and
+his pranks, with his tribe, clear beyond the Mississippi; an&#8217; me an&#8217;
+ma lived through watchin&#8217; them little tackers of Kit&#8217;s&mdash;oh, hum! I&#8217;d
+ought to take some rest; but somehow I &#8217;low I can&#8217;t seem to.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Mercy looked up from the unbleached sheet she was hemming and smiled
+grimly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Give it up, pa. Give it up. I&#8217;ve been a-studyin&#8217; this question, top
+and bottom crust and through the inside stuffin&#8217;, and I sum it this
+way: <i>It&#8217;s in the soil!</i>&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s in the soil? The shakes? or the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span>homesickness when a feller&#8217;s
+right to home? or what in the land do you mean?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The restlessness. The something that gets inside your mind and keeps
+you movin&#8217;. I&#8217;ve noticed it in everybody ever come here. Must be
+doin&#8217;; can&#8217;t keep still; up an&#8217; at it, till a body&#8217;s clean wore an&#8217;
+beat out. Me, for one. Here I&#8217;ve no more need to hem sheets than I
+have to make myself a pink satin gown, which I never had nor hope to
+have <span style="white-space: nowrap;">even&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The idee! I should hope not, indeed. You in a pink satin gown, ma;
+&#8217;twould be scandalous!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Didn&#8217;t I say I wasn&#8217;t thinkin&#8217; of gettin&#8217; one, even so be I could, in
+this hole in the mud? I was talkin&#8217; about Chicago. It ain&#8217;t a town to
+brag of, seein&#8217; there ain&#8217;t two hundred left in it after the ravagin&#8217;
+of the cholera; an&#8217; yet I don&#8217;t know ary creature, man, woman, or
+child, ain&#8217;t goin&#8217; to plannin&#8217; right away for something to be done.
+I&#8217;ve heard more talk of improvements and hospitals and schools an&#8217;
+colleges and land knows what more truck an&#8217; dicker&mdash;Pshaw! It takes my
+breath away.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It does mine, ma.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well,&mdash;<i>that&#8217;s</i> Chicago! You can always tell by a child when it&#8217;s a
+baby what it&#8217;s goin&#8217; to be when it&#8217;s a man. Chicago&#8217;s a baby now, an&#8217;
+a mighty puny one, too; but it&#8217;s kickin&#8217; like a good <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span>feller, an&#8217; it&#8217;s
+gettin&#8217; strong; an&#8217;, first you know, folks will be pourin&#8217; in here
+faster &#8217;n the Indians or cholera carried &#8217;em off, ary one.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Them ain&#8217;t your own idees; they&#8217;re Gaspar&#8217;s and Kit&#8217;s. He&#8217;s gone
+right to work, an&#8217; so has she; layin&#8217; out buildin&#8217; sites an&#8217; sendin&#8217;
+East for any poor man that&#8217;s had hard luck and wants to begin all over
+again. Say&mdash;do you know&mdash;I&mdash;believe&mdash;that our Gaspar writes for the
+newspapers. <i>Our Gaspar, ma! Newspapers! Out East!</i>&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, I don&#8217;t know why he shouldn&#8217;t. Didn&#8217;t I raise him?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Where do I come in, Mercy?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Wherever you can catch on, Abel. The best place I can see for you to
+take hold is to start in an&#8217; build a new tavern,&mdash;a tavern big enough
+to swing a cat in. Then I&#8217;ll have a place to keep my sheets an&#8217; it&#8217;ll
+pay me to go and make &#8217;em.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;How&#8217;d you know what was in my mind, Mercy?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Easy enough. Ain&#8217;t I been makin&#8217; stirabout for you these forty years?
+Don&#8217;t I know the size of your appetite? Can&#8217;t I cal&#8217;late the size of
+your mind the same way? Why, Abel, I can tell by the way you brush
+your <span style="white-space: nowrap;">wisps&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ma, I&#8217;ll send East an&#8217; buy me a wig. I &#8217;low when a man&#8217;s few hairs
+can tattle his inside thoughts to the neighbors, it&#8217;s time I took a
+stand.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Well, I think you might &#8217;s well. I think you&#8217;d look real becomin&#8217; in a
+wig. I&#8217;d get it red and curly if I was you; and you&#8217;d ought to wear a
+bosomed shirt every day. You really had.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Mercy Smith! Are you out your head?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No. But when a man&#8217;s the first tavern-keeper in this risin&#8217; town he
+ought to dress to fit his station. I always did like you best in your
+dickeys.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Shucks! I&#8217;ll wear one every day.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m goin&#8217; to give up homespun. Calico&#8217;s a sight prettier an&#8217; we can
+afford it. We&#8217;re real forehanded now, Abel.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hello! Here comes Kit. Let&#8217;s ask her about the tavern. She&#8217;s got more
+sense in her little finger than most folks have in their whole bodies.
+She&#8217;s a different woman than she was before Wahneeny died. I shall
+always be glad you an&#8217; her was reconciled when you parted. Hum, hum.
+Poor Wahneeny! Poor old Doctor! Well, it can&#8217;t be very hard to die
+when folks are as good as they was. Right in the line of duty, too.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, Abel; but all the same I&#8217;m satisfied to think <i>our</i> duty laid
+out in the woods, takin&#8217; care Kit&#8217;s children, &#8217;stead of here amongst
+the sickness. Wonderful, ain&#8217;t it, how our girl came through?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;She&#8217;ll come through anything, Sunny Maid will; right straight through
+this open door into her old Father Abel&#8217;s arms, eh? Well, my dear,
+what&#8217;s <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span>the good word? How&#8217;s Gaspar and the youngsters?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, of course. We are never ill; but, Mother Mercy, I heard you
+were feeling as if you hadn&#8217;t enough to do. I came in to see about
+that. It&#8217;s a state of things will never answer for our Chicago, where
+there is more to be done than people to do it. Didn&#8217;t you say you had
+a brother out East who was a miller?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, of course. Made money hand over fist. He&#8217;s smarter &#8217;n chain
+lightning, Ebenezer is, if I do say it as hadn&#8217;t ought to, bein&#8217; I&#8217;m
+his sister.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, I&#8217;d like his address. Gaspar wants him here. We must have
+mills. The idea of our using hand-mills and such expedients to get our
+flour and meal is absurd for these days.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Pshaw, Kit! &#8217;Tain&#8217;t long since I had to ride as far as fifty miles to
+get my grist ground, and when I got there there&#8217;d be so many before
+me, I&#8217;d have to wait all night sometimes. &#8216;First come first served&#8217; is
+a miller&#8217;s saying, and they did feel proud of the row of wagons would
+be hitched alongside their places. <span style="white-space: nowrap;">I&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Come, Abel, don&#8217;t reminisce. If there&#8217;s one thing more tryin&#8217; to a
+body&#8217;s patience than another, it&#8217;s hearin&#8217; about these everlastin&#8217;
+has-beens.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span></p><p>Abel threw back his head and laughed till the room rang.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hear her, my girl! Just hear her! That&#8217;s ma! That&#8217;s Mercy! She&#8217;s
+caught the fever, or whatever &#8217;tis, that ails this town. She&#8217;s got no
+more time to hark back. It&#8217;s always get up and go ahead. What you
+think? She&#8217;s advising me to build a new tavern. <i>Me! Mercy</i> advising
+it! What do you think of that?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That it&#8217;s a capital idea. We shall need it. We shall need more than
+one tavern if all goes well. And it will. Now that the Indians are
+gone forever,&#8221;&mdash;here Kitty breathed a gentle sigh,&mdash;&#8220;the white people
+are no longer afraid. They have heard of our wonderful country and our
+wonderful location,&mdash;right in the heart of the continent, with room on
+every side to spread and grow eternally, indefinitely.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Kitty, I sometimes think you an&#8217; Gaspar are a little <i>off</i> on the
+subject of your native town; for &#8217;twasn&#8217;t his&#8217;n; seein&#8217; what a
+collection of disreputable old houses an&#8217; mud holes an&#8217; sloughs of
+despond there&#8217;s right in plain sight. But you seem to think
+something&#8217;s bound to happen and you two&#8217;ll be in the midst of it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The Sun Maid laughed, as merrily as in the old days, and answered
+promptly:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<i>I&#8217;ve</i> never found any sloughs of despond and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span>something <i>is</i> bound
+to happen. Katasha&#8217;s dreams, or prophecies, whichever they were, are
+to come true. There is something in the very air of our lake-bordered,
+wind-swept prairie that attracts and exhilarates, and binds. That&#8217;s
+it,&mdash;<i>binds</i>. Once a dweller here by this great water, a man is bound
+to return to it if he lives. Those soldiers who have gone away from
+us, a mere handful, so to speak, will spread the story of our
+beautiful land and will come again&mdash;a legion. It is our dream that
+this little pestilence-visited hamlet will one day be one of the
+marvels of the world; that to it will assemble people from all the
+nations, to whom it will be an asylum, a home, and a treasure-house
+for every sort of wealth and wisdom. In my fancies I can see them
+coming, crowding, hastening; as in reality I shall some day see them,
+and not far off. And in the name of all that is young and strong and
+glorious&mdash;I bid them welcome!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She stood in the open doorway and the sunlight streamed through it,
+irradiating her wonderful beauty. The two old people, types of the
+past, regarded her transfigured countenance with feelings not unmixed
+with awe, and after a moment Abel spoke:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, well, well! Kitty, my girl. Hum, hum! You yourself seem all
+them things you say. Trouble you&#8217;ve had, an&#8217; sorrow; the sickness an&#8217;
+Wahneeny; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span>an&#8217; growin&#8217; up, an&#8217; love affairs; an&#8217; motherhood, an&#8217; all;
+yet there you be, the youngest, the prettiest, the hopefullest, the
+courageousest creature the Lord ever made. What is it, child; what is
+it makes you so different from other folks?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Am I different, dear? Well, Mother Mercy, yonder, is looking
+mystified and troubled. She doesn&#8217;t half like my prophetic moods, I
+know. I merely came, for Gaspar, to inquire about the miller. But I
+like your own idea of the new tavern, and you should begin it right
+away. Gaspar will lend you the money if you need it; and if you have
+time for more sheets than these, Mercy dear, I&#8217;ll send you over some
+pieces of finer muslin and you might begin on a lot for our hospital.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Your hospital? &#8217;Tain&#8217;t even begun nor planned.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, yes, it is planned. From my own experience and from books I can
+guess what we will need. But there are doctors and nurses coming after
+a time&mdash;There, there, dear. I will stop. I won&#8217;t look ahead another
+step while I&#8217;m here. But&mdash;it&#8217;s coming&mdash;all of it!&#8221; she finished gayly,
+as she turned from the doorway and passed down the forlorn little
+street.</p>
+
+<p>Was it &#8220;in the air,&#8221; as the Sun Maid protested, that indomitable
+courage and faith to do and dare, to plan, to begin, and to achieve?
+Certain it is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span>that in five years from that morning when Kitty Keith
+had lingered in Mercy&#8217;s doorway foretelling the future some, at least,
+of her prophecies had materialized. Where then had been but two
+hundred citizens were now more than twenty times that number. The
+&#8220;crowding&#8221; had begun; and there followed years upon years of wonderful
+growth; wherein Gaspar&#8217;s cool head and shrewd business tact and
+ever-deepening purse were always to the fore, at the demand of all who
+needed either. In an unswerving singleness of purpose, he devoted his
+energy and his ambition toward making his beloved home, as far as in
+him lay, the leading home and mart of all the civilized world.</p>
+
+<p>And the Sun Maid walked steadfastly by his side, adding to his efforts
+and ambitions the sympathy of her great heart and cultured,
+ever-broadening womanhood.</p>
+
+<p>Thus passed almost a quarter-century of years so full and peaceful
+that nothing can be written of them save the one word&mdash;happy. Yet at
+the end of this long time, wherein Abel and Mercy had quietly fallen
+on sleep and &#8220;Kit&#8217;s little tackers&#8221; had grown up to be themselves
+fathers and mothers, the Sun Maid&#8217;s joy was rudely broken.</p>
+
+<p>Not only hers, but many another&#8217;s; for a drumbeat echoed through the
+land, and the sound was as a death-knell.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span></p><p>Kitty looked into her husband&#8217;s face and shivered. For the first time
+in all his memory of her the Unafraid grew timid.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, Gaspar! War? Civil War! A family quarrel, of all quarrels the
+most bitter and deadly. God help us!&#8221;</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>HEROES.</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:5px;padding-bottom:1px;">T</span>he Sun Maid&#8217;s gaze into her husband&#8217;s face was a prolonged and
+questioning one. Before it was withdrawn she had found her answer.</p>
+
+<p>There was still a silence between them, which she broke at last, and
+it touched him to see how pale she had become and yet how calm.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You are going, Gaspar?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, my love; I am going. Already I have pledged my word, as my arm
+and my purse.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But, my dear, do you consider? We are growing old, even we, who have
+never yet had time to realize it&mdash;till now. There are younger men,
+plenty of them. Your counsels at <span style="white-space: nowrap;">home&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Would be empty words as compared to my example in the field. The
+young of heart are never old. Besides, do you remember that once,
+against my stubborn will, you resisted for duty&#8217;s sake? We have never
+regretted it, not for a day. More than that, when our first-born came
+to us, do you remember how we clasped his tiny hand and resolved
+always to lead it onward to the right? <i>Lead</i> <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span>it, sweetheart. We
+vowed never to say to him: &#8216;Go!&#8217; to this or that high duty; but
+rather, still holding fast to him, say: &#8216;Come.&#8217; There is such a wide,
+wide difference between the two.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Then, indeed, again she trembled. The mother love shook her visibly
+and a secret rejoicing died a sudden death.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;Come,&#8217; you say. But they are not here, in our own unhappy land.
+Gaspar in Europe, Winthrop in South America, and Hugh in Japan. They
+are better so.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Are they better there? You will be the first to say &#8216;no&#8217; when this
+shock passes. A telegram will summon each as easily as we could call
+them from that other room&mdash;supposing that they, your sons, wait for
+the call. But they&#8217;ll not. I know them and trust them. They are
+already on the railways and steamships that will bring them fastest;
+and it will truly be the &#8216;Come with me!&#8217; that we elected, for we shall
+all march together.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>So they did; and it was the Sun Maid herself, standing proudly among
+her daughters and daughters-in-law, yet more beautiful than any, who
+fastened the last glittering button over each manly breast and flicked
+away an imaginary mote from the spotless uniforms. Then she stood
+aside and let them go; two by two, &#8220;step,&#8221; &#8220;step&#8221;&mdash;as if in echo to
+the first sound which had greeted her own baby ear.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span></p><p>But as they passed out of sight, transgressing military discipline
+Gaspar turned; and once more the black eyes and the blue read in each
+other&#8217;s depths the unfathomable love that filled them. Then he was
+gone and the younger Gaspar&#8217;s wife lifted to her own aching bosom the
+form that had sunk unconscious at her feet. For the too prescient
+heart of the Sun Maid had pierced the future and she knew what would
+befall her.</p>
+
+<p>Yet before the gray shadow had quite left her face she rallied and
+again smiled into the anxious countenances bending over her.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now, my dears, how foolish I was and how wasteful of precious time!
+There is so much to be done for them and for ourselves. Gaspar&#8217;s
+business must not suffer, nor Son&#8217;s (as she always called her eldest),
+nor his brothers&#8217;. There are new hospitals to equip and nurses to
+secure. Alas! there should be a Home made ready, even so soon, for the
+widows and orphans of our soldiers. Let us organize into a regular
+band of workers; just ourselves, as systematically as your father has
+trained us to believe is best. There are six of us, a little army of
+supplies and reinforcements. Though, Honoria, my daughter, shall I
+count upon you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Surely, Mother darling, though not here. Thanks to the hospital
+course you let me enjoy, I can follow my father and brothers to the
+front. I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span>am a trained nurse, you know, and some will need me there.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The Sun Maid caught her breath with a little gasp. Then again she
+smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Of course, Honoria; if you wish it. It is only one more to give; yet
+you will be in little danger and your father in so much the less
+because of your presence. Now let us apportion the other duties and
+set about them.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>This was quickly done; and to the mother herself remained the
+assumption of all monetary affairs in her husband&#8217;s private office in
+their last new home; where, when they had removed to it, she had
+inquired:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why such a palace, Gaspar, for two plain, simple folk like you and
+me? It is big enough for a barrack, and those great empty &#8216;blocks&#8217; on
+every side remind me of our old days in Mercy&#8217;s log cabin among the
+woods.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I like it, dear. There will be room in this big house to entertain
+guests of every rank and station as they should be entertained in our
+dear city. These empty squares about us shall keep their old trees
+intact, but the grounds shall be beautified by the highest landscape
+art, to which the full view of our grand lake will give a crowning
+charm. When we have done with it all we will give it to the little
+children for a perpetual playground. Even the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span>proposed new
+enlargement of the city limits will hardly encroach upon us here.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But it will, Gaspar, it surely will! When I hark back, as Abel used
+to say, I find Katasha&#8217;s prophecies and my old dreams more than
+fulfilled. But the end is not yet, nor soon.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Now that her daughters were scattered to their various points of
+usefulness and the Sun Maid was left alone with Hugh&#8217;s one motherless
+child&mdash;another Kitty&mdash;the great house seemed more empty than ever; and
+its brave mistress resolved to people it with something more
+substantial and needy than memories. So she gathered about her a host
+to whom the cruel war had brought distress of one form or another;
+while out among the trees of the park she erected a great barrack,
+fitted with every aid to comfort and convalescence. This, like the
+mansion, was speedily filled, and the &#8220;Keith Rest&#8221; became a household
+word throughout the land.</p>
+
+<p>The war which wise folk augured at its beginning, would be over in a
+few days dragged its weary length into the months, and though for a
+time there were many and cheerful letters, these ceased suddenly at
+the last, giving place to one brief telegram from Honoria: &#8220;Mother, my
+work here is ended. I am bringing home your heroes&mdash;four.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span></p><p>Upon the hearth-rug, Kitty the younger, lay stretched at her ease,
+toying with the sharp nose of her favorite collie. She had the Sun
+Maid&#8217;s own fairness of tint and the same wonderful hair; but her eyes
+were dark as her grandsire Gaspar&#8217;s and saw many things which they
+appeared not to see; for instance, that one of the numerous telegrams
+her busy grandmother was always receiving had been read and dropped
+upon the floor. Yet this was a common circumstance, and though she
+felt it her duty to rise and return the yellow paper to the hand which
+had held it, she delayed a moment, enjoying the warmth and ease. Then
+Bruce, the collie, sat up and whined,&mdash;dolefully, and so humanly, it
+seemed, that the girl also sprang up, demanding:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why, Bruce, old doggie, what do you hear? What makes you look so
+queer?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Then her own gaze followed the collie&#8217;s to her grandmother&#8217;s face and
+her scream echoed through all the house.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Grandmother! My darling Grandmother! Are you&mdash;are you
+dead&mdash;dying&mdash;what&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She picked up the telegram and read it, and her own happy young heart
+faltered in its rhythm.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh! awful! &#8216;Bringing&#8217;&mdash;those precious ones who cannot come of
+themselves. This will kill her. I believe it will kill even me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span></p><p>But it did neither. After a space the rigidity left the Sun Maid&#8217;s
+figure and her staring eyes that had been gazing upon vacancy resumed
+intelligence. Rising stiffly from her seat, she put the younger Kit
+aside, yet very gently and tenderly, because of all her race this was
+the dearest. Had not the child Gaspar&#8217;s eyes?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;My girl, you will know what to do. I am going to my chamber, and must
+be undisturbed.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Then she passed out of the cheerful library into that &#8220;mother&#8217;s room,&#8221;
+where her husband and her sons had gathered about her so often and so
+fondly and in which she had bestowed upon each her farewell and
+especial blessing. As the portiere fell behind her it seemed to her
+that already they came hurrying to greet her, and softly closing the
+door she shut herself in from all the world with them and her own
+grief.</p>
+
+<p>For the first time in all her life the Sun Maid considered her own
+self before another; and for hours she remained deaf to young Kitty&#8217;s
+pleading:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Let me come in, Grandmother. Let me come in. I am as alone as you&mdash;it
+was my father, too, as well as your son!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It was the dawn of another day before the door did open and the
+mourner came out. Mourner? One could hardly call her that; for, though
+the beautiful face was colorless and the eyes heavy <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span>with unshed
+tears, there was a rapt, exalted look upon it which awed the
+grandchild into silence. Yet for the first time she was startled by
+the thought:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We have lived together as if we were only elder and younger sister,
+for she has had the heart of a child. But now I see&mdash;she is, indeed,
+my grandmother&mdash;and she is growing old.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Let all things be done decently and in order when Gaspar and the boys
+come home,&#8221; was all the direction the Sun Maid gave, and it was well
+fulfilled. Yet, because she could not bear to be far apart from them,
+she sat out the hours of watching in the little ante-room adjoining
+the great parlor where her heroes lay in state, while all Chicago
+gathered to do them reverence.</p>
+
+<p>There was none could touch her grief, not one. It was too deep. It
+benumbed even herself. Perhaps in all the land, during all that
+dreadful time, there was no person so afflicted as she, who had lost
+four at a blow. But she rose from her sorrow with that buoyant faith
+and hopefulness which nothing could for long depress.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There is unfinished work to do. Gaspar left it when he went away,
+knowing I would take it up for him if he could never do it for
+himself. There is no time in life for unavailing sorrow. Come, Kitty,
+child. Others have their dead to bury, let us go forth and comfort
+them.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span></p><p>Obedient Kitty went, her thoughts full of wonder and admiration:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;By massacre, famine, pestilence, and the sword! How has my dear &#8216;Sun
+Maid&#8217; been chastened, and how beautifully she has come through it all!
+She could not have been half so lovely as a girl, when Grandfather met
+and wooed her that morning on the prairie. I wonder have her trials
+ended? or are there more in store before she is made perfect? I cannot
+think of anything still which could befall her, unless I die or her
+beloved city come to ruin. Well, I&#8217;ll walk with her, hand in hand, and
+if I live, I&#8217;ll be as like her as I can.&#8221;</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2>
+
+<h3>CONCLUSION.</h3>
+
+<p style="float: left; font-size: 100%; line-height: 80%; margin-top: 0;">&#8220;</p><p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:5px;padding-bottom:1px;">W</span>hat shall we do to celebrate your birthday, my child?&#8221; asked
+Grandmother Kitty, early in that first week of October on whose
+Saturday the young girl would reach to the dignity of sixteen years.
+&#8220;All the conditions of your life are so different from mine at your
+age: seeming to make you both older and younger&mdash;if you understand
+what I mean&mdash;that I would like to hear your own wishes.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;They shall be yours, Grandma dearest. You always have such happy
+ideas. I&#8217;d like yours best.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, indeed! Not this time. I want everything to be exactly as you
+like this year; especially since you are now to assume the main charge
+of some of our charities.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I feel so unfitted for the responsibility you are giving me, Sun
+Maid. I&#8217;m afraid I shall make many blunders.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Doesn&#8217;t everybody? And isn&#8217;t it by seeing wherein we blunder and
+avoiding the pitfall a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span>second time that we learn to walk surely and
+swiftly? You have been well trained to know the value of the money
+which God has given you so plentifully and of that loving sympathy
+which is better and richer than the wealth. I am not afraid for you,
+though it is an excellent sign that you are afraid for yourself. Now a
+truce to sermons. Let&#8217;s hear the birthday wish. I am getting an old
+lady and don&#8217;t like to be kept waiting.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Sunny Maid! you are not old, nor ever will be!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Not in my heart, darling. How can I feel so when there is so much in
+life to do and enjoy? I have to bring myself up short quite often and
+remind myself how many birthdays of my own have gone by; though it
+seems but yesterday that Gaspar and I were standing by the
+Snake-Who-Leaps and learning how to hold our bows that we might shoot
+skilfully, even though riding bareback and at full speed, <span style="white-space: nowrap;">yet&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I believe that you could do the very same still; and that there isn&#8217;t
+another old lady&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Let me interrupt this time. Aren&#8217;t you contradicting yourself? Were
+you speaking of &#8216;old&#8217; ladies?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You funny Grandma! Well, then, I don&#8217;t believe there&#8217;s another
+young-old person in this great city can sit a horse as you do. If you
+would only ride somewhere besides in our own park and just <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span>for once
+let people see you! How many Snowbirds have you owned in your
+lifetime, Grandmother?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;One real Snowbird, with several imitations. Still, they have been
+pretty fair, for Gaspar selected them and he was a fine judge of
+horseflesh. You must remember that as long as he was with me we rode
+together anywhere and everywhere he wished. He was a splendid
+horseman.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;He was &#8216;splendid&#8217; in all things, wasn&#8217;t he, Sun Maid?&#8221; asked the
+girl, with a lingering tenderness upon the other&#8217;s Indian name and
+knowing that it still was very pleasant in the ears of her who owned
+it.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;He was a man. He had grown to the full stature of a man. That covers
+all. But let&#8217;s get back to birthday wishes. What are they?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;They&#8217;re pretty big; all about the new &#8216;Girls&#8217; Home&#8217; where I am to
+work for you. I think if the girls knew me, not as just somebody who
+is richer than they and wants to do them good, but as an equal,
+another giddy-head like themselves, it would make things ever so much
+easier for all of us. I would like to go through all the big stores
+and factories and places and find out every single girl who is sixteen
+and have them out to Keith House for a real delightful holiday. And
+because I like boys, and presume other girls do, too&mdash;Don&#8217;t stiffen
+your neck, please, Grandmother; remember there were you and
+<span style="white-space: nowrap;">Gaspar&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;But we were different.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Maybe; yet these girls have brothers, and I wish I had. Never mind,
+though. I&#8217;d like to invite them all out here for Saturday and Sunday.
+On Saturday evening we&#8217;d have an old-fashioned young folks&#8217; party,
+with games and frolics such as were common years and years ago. Then,
+for Sunday, there&#8217;d be the ministers who are to stop here during that
+convention that&#8217;s coming, and they&#8217;d be glad, I know, to speak to us
+young folks. It&#8217;s perfect weather, and all day these young things who
+are shut up all the week could roam about the park, or read, or rest
+in the picture-gallery or library, and&mdash;eat.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The Sun Maid laughed.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Do you really stop to think about the eating? How many do you imagine
+would have to be fed? And I assure you, my young dreamer, that, though
+it doesn&#8217;t sound especially well, the feeding of her guests is one of
+the most important duties of every hostess. But I&#8217;ll take that part
+off your hands. You attend to the spiritual and moral entertainment
+and I&#8217;ll order the table part. Yet your plan calls for many sleeping
+accommodations. How about that?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I thought, Grandmother, maybe you&#8217;d let me open the &#8216;Barrack&#8217; again.
+That would do for the boys, and there&#8217;s surely room enough in this
+great house for all the girls who&#8217;d care to stay.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span></p><p>A shadow passed over the Sun Maid&#8217;s face, but it&mdash;<i>passed</i>. In a
+moment she looked up brightly and answered as, a few hours later, she
+was to be most thankful she had done:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Very well. After the war was over and I closed it I felt as if I
+could never reopen the place. Though Gaspar and my boys never saw it,
+somehow it seemed always theirs. I suppose because it had been built
+for the benefit of those who had fought and suffered with them. Now I
+see that this was morbid; and I am glad I have never torn the building
+down, as I have sometimes thought I would. You may have it for your
+friends and should set about airing and preparing it at once. Also, if
+you are to give so many invitations, you would better start upon
+them.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Couldn&#8217;t I just put an advertisement in the papers? That&#8217;s so easy
+and short.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And&mdash;rude!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Rude?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes. There would be no compliment in a newspaper invitation. Would
+you fancy one for yourself?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, indeed, I should not. That rule of yours, to &#8216;put yourself in his
+place,&#8217; is a pretty good one, after all, isn&#8217;t it?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes. Now order the carriage and I&#8217;ll go with you on your rounds and
+make a list as we do so of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span>how many will need to be provided for. We
+shall have a busy week before us.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But a happy one, Grandmother. Your face is shining already, even more
+than usual. I believe in your heart of hearts you love girls better
+than anything else in this world.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Maybe. Except&mdash;boys.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And flowers, and animals. How they will enjoy the conservatories! And
+it wouldn&#8217;t be wrong, would it, to have out the horses between times
+on Sunday and let these young things, who&#8217;d never had a chance, see
+how glorious a feeling it is to ride a fine horse? Just around the
+park, you know.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Which would be quite as far as most of them would care to ride, I
+fancy, for there are very few people who call their first experience
+on horseback a &#8216;glorious&#8217; one.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It was a busy week indeed, but a joyful one, full of anticipation
+concerning the coming festivities. Never had the Sun Maid appeared
+younger or gayer or entered more heartily into the preparations for
+entertainment. A dozen times, maybe, during those mornings of shopping
+and ordering and superintending, did she exclaim with fervor:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Thank God for Gaspar&#8217;s money, that makes us able to give others
+pleasure!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Grandmother, even for a foreign nobleman you wouldn&#8217;t do half so
+much!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Foreign? No, indeed. To all their due; and to our own young
+Americans, these toilers who are the glory of our nation, let every
+deference be paid. Did you write about the orchestra? That was to play
+during Saturday&#8217;s supper?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, indeed. I believe nothing is forgotten.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>To the guests, who came at the appointed time, it certainly did not
+seem so; and almost every one was there who had been asked.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I did not believe that there could be found so many working girls in
+Chicago who are just sixteen,&#8221; cried the gay young hostess, standing
+upon the great stair and looking down across the wide parlor, crowded
+with bright, graceful figures.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I did. My Chicago is a wonderful city, child. But I do not believe
+that in any other city in the world could be gathered another such
+assemblage. Typical American girls, every one. May God bless them!
+Their beauty, their bearing, even their attire, would compare most
+favorably with any company of young women who are far more richly
+dowered by dollars. And the boys; even with their greater shyness, how
+did they ever learn to be so courteous, <span style="white-space: nowrap;">so&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, my Sun Maid! Answer yourself, in your own words. &#8216;It&#8217;s in the
+air. It&#8217;s just&mdash;Chicago!&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span></p><p>When the fun was at the highest, there came a belated guest who
+brought news that greatly disquieted the elder hostess, though none of
+the merrymakers about her seemed to think it a matter half as
+important as the next game on the list.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;A fire, broken out in the city? That is serious. The season is so dry
+and there are many buildings in Chicago that would burn like
+kindlings. However, let us hope it will soon be subdued; and there is
+somebody calling you, I think.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Although anything which menaced the prosperity of the town she loved
+so well always disturbed the Sun Maid, she put this present matter
+from her almost as easily as she dismissed the youth who had brought
+the bad tidings. The housing and entertaining of Kitty&#8217;s guests was an
+engrossing affair; and all Sunday was occupied in these duties; but on
+Sunday night came a time of leisure.</p>
+
+<p>It was then, while resting among her girls and discussing their early
+departure in the morning&mdash;which their lives of labor rendered
+necessary&mdash;that a second messenger arrived with a second message of
+disaster.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s another fire downtown, and it&#8217;s burning like a whirlwind!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We have an excellent fire department,&#8221; answered the hostess, with
+confident pride.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It can&#8217;t make much show against this blaze. I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span>think those of us who
+can should get home at once.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The Sun Maid&#8217;s heart sank. The coming event had cast its shadow upon
+her and, foreseeing evil, she replied instantly:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Those who must go shall be conveyed at once; but I urge all who will
+to remain. Keith House is as safe as any place can be if this fire
+continues to spread. It is not probable, even at the best, that any of
+you will be wanted at your employers&#8217; in the morning. The excitement
+will not be over, even if the conflagration is.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The company divided. There were many who were anxious about home
+friends and hastened away in the vehicles so hastily summoned; but
+there were also many whose only home was a boarding-house and who were
+thankful for the shelter and hospitality offered. Among these last
+were some of the young men, and the Sun Maid summoned them to her own
+office and discussed with them some plans of usefulness to others.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We shall none of us be able to sleep to-night. I have a feeling that
+we ought not. I wish, therefore, you would go out and engage all the
+teams you possibly can from this neighborhood; and go with them and
+their drivers to the threatened districts, as well as those already
+destroyed. Our great house and grounds are open to all. Bring <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span>any who
+wish, and assure them that they will be cared for.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But there may be thieves among them,&#8221; objected one lad, who had a
+keener judgment of what might occur.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There is always evil amid the good; but not for that reason should
+any poor creature suffer. Remember I am able to help liberally in
+money, and never so thankful as now that this is so. Go and do your
+best.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>They scattered, proud to serve her, and thrilled with the excitement
+of that awful hour; but many were amazed to find that after a brief
+time she had followed them herself.</p>
+
+<p>The younger Kitty pleaded, though vainly, to prevent her grandmother&#8217;s
+departure, for the Sun Maid answered firmly:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You are to take my place as mistress here. I will have the old
+coachman drive me in the phaeton to the nearest point advisable. I
+must be on the spot, but I will not recklessly risk myself. Only, my
+dear, it is <i>our city</i>, Gaspar&#8217;s and mine; almost a personal
+belonging, since we two watched its growth from a tiny village to the
+great town it has become. Gaspar would be there with his aid and
+counsel. I must take his place.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>There were many who saw her, and will forever remember the noble
+woman, standing upright in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span>the low vehicle at a point where two ways
+met; with the light of the burning city falling over her wonderful
+hair, that had long since turned snowy white, and bringing out the
+beauty of a face whose loveliness neither age nor sorrow could dim.</p>
+
+<p>The sadness in her tender eyes deepened as she could see the cruel
+blaze sweeping on and on, wiping out home after home and hurling to
+destruction the mighty structures of which she had been so personally
+proud.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, I have loved it, I have loved it! Its very paving-stones have
+been dear to me, and it is as if all these fleeing, homeless ones were
+my own children. Well, it is&mdash;Chicago,&mdash;a city with a mission. It
+cannot die. Let the fire do its worst; not all shall perish. There are
+things which cannot burn. Again and again and again I have thanked God
+for the wealth he led my Gaspar, the penniless and homeless, to
+gain&mdash;for His own glory. Let the flames destroy unto the limit He has
+set. Out of their ruins shall rise another city, fairer and lovelier
+than this has been; richer because of this purification and far more
+tender in its broad welcome to humanity.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Hour after hour she waited there, directing, comforting, assisting;
+giving shelter and sustenance, and, best of all, the influence of her
+high faith and indomitable courage. As it had done before, her <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span>clear
+sight gazed into the future and beheld the glory that should be; and,
+like every prophecy her tongue had ever uttered, this, spoken there in
+the very light of her desolation, as it were, has already been more
+than verified.</p>
+
+<p>This all who knew the Beautiful City as it was and now know it as it
+is will cheerfully attest; and some there are among these who deem it
+their highest privilege to go sometimes to a stately mansion, set
+among old trees, where in a sunshiny chamber sits an old, old lady,
+who yet seems perennially young. Her noble head still keeps its heavy
+crown of silver, her eye is yet bright, her intellect keen, and her
+interest in her fellow-men but deepens with the years.</p>
+
+<p>Very like her is the younger Kitty, who is never far away; who has
+grown to be a person of influence in all her city&#8217;s beneficence; and
+who believes that there was never another woman in all the world like
+her grandmother.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes,&#8221; she assures you earnestly, &#8220;she is the Sun Maid indeed,&mdash;a
+fountain of delight to all who know her. She has still the heart of a
+child and a child&#8217;s perfect health. I confidently expect to see her
+round her century.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<hr class="large" />
+<h3><span class="smcap">Footnote:</span></h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Pacific Ocean.</p></div>
+
+<hr class="large" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><span class="smcap">Transcriber&#8217;s Note:</span></h3>
+
+<p>Minor changes have been made to correct typesetters&#8217; errors; otherwise
+every effort has been made to remain true to the author&#8217;s words and
+intent.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SUN MAID***</p>
+<p>******* This file should be named 32843-h.txt or 32843-h.zip *******</p>
+<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br />
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/2/8/4/32843">http://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/8/4/32843</a></p>
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@@ -0,0 +1,8829 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Sun Maid, by Evelyn Raymond
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Sun Maid
+       A Story of Fort Dearborn
+
+
+Author: Evelyn Raymond
+
+
+
+Release Date: June 16, 2010  [eBook #32843]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SUN MAID***
+
+
+E-text prepared by D Alexander and the Project Gutenberg Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images
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+      See 32843-h.htm or 32843-h.zip:
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32843/32843-h/32843-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32843/32843-h.zip)
+
+
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive/American Libraries. See
+      http://www.archive.org/details/sunmaidstoryoffo00raym
+
+
+
+
+
+THE SUN MAID
+
+A Story of Fort Dearborn
+
+by
+
+EVELYN RAYMOND
+
+Author of "The Little Lady of the Horse," Etc.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+New York
+E. P. Dutton & Company
+31 West Twenty-Third St.
+
+Copyright, 1900
+By
+E. P. Dutton & Co.
+
+The Knickerbocker Press, New York
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: _Page 22._ KITTY AND THE SNAKE. _Frontispiece._]
+
+
+
+
+TO ALL YOUNG HEARTS IN THAT FAIR CITY BY THE INLAND SEA CHICAGO
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+In some measure, the story of the Sun Maid is an allegory.
+
+Both the heroine and the city of her love grew from insignificant
+beginnings; the one into a type of broadest womanhood, the other into
+a grandeur which has made it unique among the cities of the world.
+
+Discouragements, sorrows, and seeming ruin but developed in each
+the same high attributes of courage, indomitable will power, and
+far-reaching sympathy. The story of the youth of either would be a
+tale unfinished; and those who have followed, with any degree of
+interest, the fortunes of either during any period will keep that
+interest to the end.
+
+There are things which never age. Such was the heart of the Maid who
+remained glad as a girl to the end of her century, and such the
+marvellous Chicago with a century rounded glory which is still the
+glory of a youth whose future magnificence no man can estimate.
+
+E. R., BALTIMORE, January, 1900.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+ CHAPTER                                          PAGE
+
+     I. AS THE SUN WENT DOWN                        1
+
+    II. TWO FOR BREAKFAST                          13
+
+   III. IN INDIAN ATTIRE                           27
+
+    IV. THE WHITE BOW                              38
+
+     V. HORSES: WHITE AND BLACK                    50
+
+    VI. THE THREE GIFTS                            64
+
+   VII. A THREEFOLD CORD IS STRONGEST              77
+
+  VIII. AN ISLAND RETREAT                          91
+
+    IX. AT MUCK-OTEY-POKEE                        107
+
+     X. THE CAVE OF REFUGE                        124
+
+    XI. UNDER A WHITE MAN'S ROOF                  138
+
+   XII. AFTER FOUR YEARS                          156
+
+  XIII. THE HARVESTING                            169
+
+   XIV. ONCE MORE IN THE OLD HOME                 180
+
+    XV. PARTINGS AND MEETINGS                     194
+
+   XVI. THE SHUT AND THE OPEN DOOR                209
+
+  XVII. A DAY OF HAPPENINGS                       231
+
+ XVIII. WESTWARD AND EASTWARD OVER THE PRAIRIE    247
+
+   XIX. THE CROOKED LOG                           260
+
+    XX. ENEMIES, SEEN AND UNSEEN                  272
+
+   XXI. FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH                       284
+
+  XXII. GROWING UP                                296
+
+ XXIII. HEROES                                    306
+
+  XXIV. CONCLUSION                                315
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+                                                  PAGE
+
+ FORT DEARBORN                           _Title-page_
+
+ BLACK PARTRIDGE AND THE SUN MAID                   6
+
+ KITTY AND THE SNAKE                _Frontispiece_ 22
+
+ THE GIFT OF THE WHITE BOW                         48
+
+ SNOWBIRD AND THE SUN MAID                         68
+
+ GASPAR AND KITTY REACH THE FORT                  188
+
+ "KITTY! MY KITTY!"                               258
+
+ OSCEOLO AND GASPAR                               276
+
+
+
+
+THE SUN MAID.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+AS THE SUN WENT DOWN.
+
+
+With gloom in his heart, Black Partridge strode homeward along the
+beach path.
+
+The glory of a brilliant August sunset crimsoned the tops of the
+sandhills on the west and the waters of the broad lake on the east;
+but if the preoccupied Indian observed this at all, it was to see in
+it an omen of impending tragedy. Red was the color of blood, and he
+foresaw that blood must flow, and freely.
+
+"They are all fools. All. They know that Black Partridge cannot lie,
+yet they believe not his words. The white man lies, and works his own
+destruction. His doom be on his head!"
+
+As his thought took this line the chief's brow grew still more
+stern, and an expression of contempt curled the corners of his wide,
+thin lips. A savage though he was, at that moment he felt himself
+immeasurably superior to the pale-faces whom he had known; and in the
+consciousness of his integrity he held his tall form even more erect,
+while he turned his face toward the sky in gratitude to that Great
+Spirit who had made him what he was.
+
+Then again he remembered the past, and again his feather-adorned head
+drooped beneath its burden of regret, while his brown fingers clasped
+and unclasped themselves about a glittering medal which decorated his
+necklace, and was the most cherished of his few possessions.
+
+"I have worn it for long, and it has rested lightly upon my heart; but
+now it becomes a knife that pierces. Therefore I must return it whence
+it came."
+
+Yet something like a sigh escaped him, and his hands fell down
+straight at his sides. Also, his narrow eyes gazed forward upon
+the horizon, absently, as if their inward visions were much clearer
+than anything external. In this manner he went onward for a little
+distance, till his moccasined foot struck sharply against something
+lying in his path, and so roused him from his reverie.
+
+"Ugh! Ugh! So. When the squaw dies the papoose must suffer."
+
+The soft obstruction was a little child, curled into a rounded heap,
+and fast asleep upon this primitive public highway. The touch of the
+red man's foot had partially wakened the sleeper, and when he bent and
+laid his hand upon her shoulder, she sprang up lightly, at once
+beginning to laugh and chatter with a gayety that infected even the
+stolid Indian.
+
+"Ugh! The Little-One-Who-Laughs. Why are you here alone, so far from
+the Fort, Kitty Briscoe?"
+
+"I runned away. Bunny rabbit runned away. I did catch him two times. I
+did find some posies, all yellow and round and--posies runned away,
+too. Ain't that funny? Kitty go seek them."
+
+Her laughter trilled out, bird clear, and a mischievous twinkle
+lighted her big blue eyes.
+
+"I runned away. Bunny rabbit runned to catch me. I runned to catch
+bunny. I caught the posies. Yellow posies gone--I go find them, too."
+
+As if it were the best joke in the world, the little creature still
+laughed over her own conceit of so many runnings till, in whirling
+about, she discovered the remnants of the flowers she had lost upon
+the heat-hardened path behind her. Indeed, when she had dropped down
+to sleep, overcome by sudden weariness, it had been with the cool
+leaves and blossoms for a couch. Now the love of all green and growing
+things was an inborn passion with this child, and her face sobered to
+a keen distress as she gazed upon her ruined treasures. But almost at
+once the cloud passed, and she laughed again.
+
+"Poor posies, tired posies, sleepy, too. Kitty sorry. Put them in the
+water trough and wake them up. Then they hold their eyes open, just
+like Kitty's."
+
+"Ugh! Where the papoose sleeps the blossoms wither," remarked Black
+Partridge, regarding the bruised and faded plants with more attention.
+They were wild orchids, and he knew that the child must have wandered
+far afield to obtain them. At that time of year such blooms were
+extremely rare, and only to be found in the moist shadows of some
+tree-bordered stream quite remote from this sandy beach.
+
+"Oh, dear! Something aches my feet. I will go home to my little bed.
+Pick up the posies, Feather-man, and take poor Kitty."
+
+With entire confidence that the Indian would do as she wished, the
+small maid clasped his buckskin-covered knee and leaned her dimpled
+cheek against it. It proved a comfortable support, and with a babyish
+yawn she promptly fell asleep again.
+
+Had she been a child of his own village, even of his own wigwam, Black
+Partridge would have shaken her roughly aside, feeling his dignity
+affronted by her familiarity; but in her case he could not do this and
+on this night least of all.
+
+The little estray was the orphan of Fort Dearborn; whose soldier
+father had met a soldier's common fate, and whose mother had quickly
+followed him with her broken heart. Then the babe of a few weeks
+became the charge of the kind women at the Fort, and the pet of the
+garrison in general.
+
+But now far graver matters than the pranks of a mischievous child
+filled the minds of all her friends. The peaceful, monotonous life of
+the past few years was over, and the order had gone forth that the
+post should be evacuated. Preparations had already begun for the long
+and hazardous journey which confronted that isolated band of white
+people, and the mothers of a score of other restless young folk had
+been too busy and anxious to notice when this child slipped away to
+wander on the prairie.
+
+For a brief time the weary baby slumbered against the red man's knee,
+while he considered the course he would best pursue; whether to return
+her at once to the family of the commandant, or to carry her southward
+to the Pottawatomie lodge whither he was bound. Then, his decision
+made, he lifted the child to his breast and resumed his homeward way.
+
+But the bright head pillowed so near his eyes seemed to dazzle him,
+and its floating golden locks to catch and hold, in a peculiar
+fashion, the rays of the sunset. From this, with his race instinct of
+poetic imagery, which finds in nature a type for everything, he caught
+a quaint suggestion.
+
+"She is like the sun himself. She is all warmth and brightness. She
+is his child, now that her pale-faced parents sleep the long sleep,
+and none other claims her. None? Yes, one. I, Black Partridge, the
+Man-Who-Lies-Not. In my village, Muck-otey-pokee, lives my sister, the
+daughter of a chief, her whose one son died of the fever on that same
+dark night when the arrow of a Sioux warrior killed a brave, his sire.
+In her closed tepee there will again be light. The Sun Maid shall make
+it. So shall she escape the fate of the doomed pale-faces, and so
+shall the daughter of my house again be glad."
+
+Thus, bearing her new name, and all unconsciously, the little Sun Maid
+was carried southward and still southward till the twilight fell and
+her new guardian reached the Pottawatomie village, on the Illinois
+prairie, where he dwelt.
+
+Sultry as the night was, there was yet a great council fire blazing in
+the midst of the settlement, and around this were grouped many young
+braves of the tribe. Before the arrival of their chief there had been
+a babel of tongues in the council, but all discussion ceased as he
+joined the circle in the firelight.
+
+The sudden silence was ominous, and the wise leader understood it;
+but it was not his purpose then to quarrel with any man. Ignoring
+the scowling glances bestowed upon him, he gave the customary
+evening salutation and, advancing directly to the fire, plucked a
+blazing fagot from it. This he lifted high and purposely held so
+that its brightness illuminated the face and figure of the child
+upon his breast.
+
+[Illustration: BLACK PARTRIDGE AND THE SUN MAID. _Page 6._]
+
+A guttural exclamation of astonishment ran from brave to brave. The
+action of their chief was significant, but its meaning not clearly
+comprehended. Had he brought the white baby as a hostage from the
+distant garrison, in pledge that the compact of its commandant would
+surely be kept? Or had some other tribe anticipated their own in
+obtaining the gifts to be distributed?
+
+Shut-Hand, one of the older warriors, whose name suggested his
+character, rose swiftly to his feet, and demanded menacingly:
+
+"What means our father, thus bringing hither the white papoose?"
+
+"That which the Black Partridge does--he does."
+
+Rebuked, but unsatisfied, the miserly inquirer sat down. Then, with a
+gesture of protection, the chief raised the sleeping little one, that
+all within the circle might better see her wonderful, glowing beauty,
+intensified as it was by the flare of the flames as well as by
+contrast to the dusky faces round about.
+
+"Who suffers harm to her shall himself suffer. She is the Sun Maid,
+the new daughter of our tribe."
+
+Having said this, and still carrying the burning fagot, he walked to
+the closed tepee of his widowed sister and lifted its door flap.
+Stooping his tall head till its feathered crest swept the floor he
+entered the spacious lodge. But he sniffed with contempt at the
+stifling atmosphere within, and laying down his torch raised the other
+half of the entrance curtain.
+
+At the back of the wigwam, crouching in the attitude she had sustained
+almost constantly since her bereavement, sat the Woman-Who-Mourns. She
+did not lift her head, or give any sign of welcome till the chief had
+crossed to her side, and in a tone of command bade her:
+
+"Arise and listen, my sister, for I bring you joy."
+
+"There is no joy," answered the woman, obediently lifting her tall
+figure to a rigidly erect posture; by long habit compelled to outward
+respect, though her heart remained indifferent.
+
+"Put back the hair from your eyes. Behold. For the dead son I give you
+the living daughter. In that land to which both have gone will her
+lost mother care for your lost child as you now care for her."
+
+Slowly, a pair of lean, brown hands came out from the swathing blanket
+and parted the long locks that served as a veil to hide a haggard,
+sorrowful face. After the deep gloom the sudden firelight dazzled the
+woman's sight, and she blinked curiously toward the burden upon her
+brother's breast. Then the small eyes began to see more clearly and to
+evince the amazement that filled her.
+
+"Dreams have been with me. They were many and strange. Is this
+another?"
+
+"This a glad reality. It is the Sun Maid. She has no parents. You have
+no child. She is yours. Take her and learn to laugh once more as in
+the days that are gone."
+
+Then he held the little creature toward her; and still amazed, but
+still obedient, the heart-broken squaw extended her arms and received
+the unconscious foundling. As the warm, soft flesh touched her own a
+thrill passed through her desolate heart, and all the tenderness of
+motherhood returned.
+
+"Who is she? Whence did she come? Where will she go?"
+
+"She is the Sun Maid. From the Fort by the great lake, where are still
+white men enough to die--as die they must. For there is treachery
+afoot, and they who were first treacherous must bear their own
+punishment. Only she shall be saved; and where she will go is in the
+power of the Woman-Who-Mourns, and of her alone."
+
+Without another word, and leaving the still blazing fagot lying on the
+earthen floor, the chief went swiftly away.
+
+But he had brought fresh air and light and comfort with him, as he had
+prophesied. The small Sun Maid was already brightening the dusky lodge
+as might an actual ray from her glorious namesake.
+
+It was proof of her utter exhaustion that she still slept soundly
+while her new foster-mother prepared a bed of softest furs spread over
+fresh green branches and went hurriedly out to beg from a neighbor
+squaw a draught of evening's milk. This action in itself was
+sufficiently surprising to set all tongues a-chatter.
+
+The lodge of Muck-otey-pokee had many of the comforts common to the
+white men's settlements. Its herd of cattle even surpassed that at
+Fort Dearborn itself, and was a matter of no small pride to the
+Pottawatomie villagers. From the old mission fathers they had learned,
+also, some useful arts, and wherever their prairie lands were tilled a
+rich result was always obtainable.
+
+So it was to a home of plenty, as well as safety, that Black Partridge
+had brought the little Sun Maid; and when she at length awoke to see a
+dusky face, full of wonderment and love, bending above her, she put
+out her arms and gurgled in a glee which brought an answering smile to
+lips that had not smiled for long.
+
+With an instinct of yearning tenderness, the Woman-Who-Mourns had
+lightened her sombre attire by all the devices possible, so that
+while the child slept she had transformed herself. She had neatly
+plaited her heavy hair, and wound about her head some strings of gay
+beads. She had fastened a scarlet tanager's wing to her breast, now
+covered by a bright-hued cotton gown once sent her from the Fort, and
+for which she had discarded her dingy blanket. But the greatest
+alteration of all was in the face itself, where a dawning happiness
+brought out afresh all the good points of a former comeliness.
+
+"Oh! Pretty! I have so many, many nice mammas. Are you another?"
+
+"Yes. All your mother now. My Sun Maid. My Girl-Child. My papoose!"
+
+"That is nice. But I'm hungry. Give me my breakfast, Other Mother.
+Then I will go seek my bunny rabbit, that runned away, and my yellow
+posies that went to sleep when I did. Did you put them to bed, too,
+Other Mother?"
+
+"There are many which shall wake for you, papoose," answered the
+woman, promptly; for though she did not understand about the missing
+blossoms, it was fortunate that she did both understand and speak the
+language of her adopted daughter. Her dead husband had been the
+tribe's interpreter, and both from him and from the Fort's chaplain
+she had acquired considerable knowledge.
+
+Until her widowhood and voluntary seclusion the Woman-Who-Mourns had
+been a person of note at Muck-otey-pokee; and now by her guardianship
+of this stranger white child she bade fair to again become such.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+TWO FOR BREAKFAST.
+
+
+The dead son of the Woman-Who-Mourns had never been disobedient, and
+small Kitty Briscoe had never obeyed anybody. She had laughed and
+frolicked her way through all rules and over all obstacles with a
+merry indifference that would have been insolent had it been less
+innocent and charming. During her short life the orphan had heard no
+voice but was full of tenderness, toward her at least; and every
+babyish misdemeanor had been pardoned almost before it was committed,
+by reason of her exceeding loveliness and overflowing affection. She
+had so loved all that she feared none, and not one of the kind mothers
+at the Fort had felt it her especial duty to discipline so sweet and
+fearless a nature. By and by, when she grew older, why, of course, the
+child must come under the yoke, like other children of that stern
+generation; but for the present, what was she but an ignorant baby, a
+motherless babe at that?
+
+So that, on that first morning of their life together, it gave the
+latest foster-mother a very decided shock when she directed:
+
+"Take your bowl of suppawn and milk, and eat it here by the fire,
+Girl-Child," to have the other reply, with equal decision:
+
+"Kitty will take it to the out-doors."
+
+"How? The papoose must eat her breakfast here, as I command."
+
+"But Kitty must take it out the doors. What will the pigeons say? Come
+with me, Other Mother."
+
+Quite to her own astonishment, the proud daughter of a chief complied.
+Superstition had suggested to her that this white-robed little
+creature, with her trustful eyes and her wonderful hair, who seemed
+rather to float over the space to the threshold than to tread upon the
+earthen floor, was the re-embodied spirit of her own lost child come
+back to comfort her sorrow and to be a power for good in her tribe.
+
+But if the Sun Maid were a spirit, she had many earthly qualities; and
+with a truly human carelessness she had no sooner stepped beyond the
+tent flap than she let fall her heavy bowl and spilled her breakfast.
+For there stood her last night's rescuer, his arms full of flowers.
+
+"Oh, the posies! the posies! Nice Feather-man did bring them."
+
+"Ugh! Black Partridge, the Truth-Teller. I have come to take my
+leave. Also to ask you, my sister, shall I carry away the Sun Maid to
+her own people? Or shall she abide with you?"
+
+"Take her away, my brother? Do you not guess, then, who she is?"
+
+"Why should I guess when I know. I saw her father die, and I stood
+beside her mother's grave. The white papoose has neither tribe nor
+kinsman."
+
+"There for once the Truth-Teller speaks unwisely. The Sun Maid, whom
+you found asleep on the path, is my own flesh and blood."
+
+In surprise Black Partridge stared at the woman, whose face glowed
+with delight. Then he reflected that it would be as well to leave her
+undisturbed in her strange notion. The helpless little one would be
+the better cared for, under such circumstances, and the time might
+speedily come when she would need all the protection possible for
+anybody to give.
+
+"It is well--as you believe; yet then you are no longer the
+Woman-Who-Mourns, but again Wahneenah, the Happy."
+
+For a moment they silently regarded the child who had thrown herself
+face downward upon the great heap of orchids that Black Partridge had
+brought, and which he had risen very early to gather. They were of the
+same sort that the little one had grieved over on the night before,
+only much larger and fairer, and of far greater number. Talking to
+the blossoms and caressing them as if they were human playmates, the
+Sun Maid forgot that she was hungry, until Wahneenah had brought a
+second bowl of porridge and, gently lifting her charge to a place upon
+the mat, had bidden her eat.
+
+"Oh, yes! My breakfast. I did forget it, didn't I? Oh, the darling
+posies! Oh! the pretty Feather-man, that couldn't tell a naughty
+story. I know 'bout him. We all know 'bout him to our Fort. My Captain
+says he is the bestest Feather-man in all the--everywhere."
+
+"Ugh! Ugh!"
+
+The low grunt of assent seemed to come from every side the big wigwam.
+At all times there were many idle Indians at Muck-otey-pokee, but of
+late their number had been largely increased by bands of visiting
+Pottawatomies. These had come to tarry with their tribesmen in the
+village till the distribution of goods should be made from Fort
+Dearborn, as had been ordered by General Hull; or until the hour was
+ripe for their treacherous assault upon the little garrison.
+
+The Man-Who-Kills was in the very centre of the group which had
+squatted in a semi-circle as near as it dared before the tepee of
+their chief's sister, and the low grunts came from this band of
+spectators.
+
+"We will sit and watch. So will we learn what the Black Partridge
+means," and when Spotted Rabbit so advised his brothers, they had
+come in the darkness and arranged themselves as has been described.
+
+The chief had found them there when, before dawn, he came with his
+offering of flowers, and Wahneenah had seen them when she raised the
+curtain of her tent and looked out to learn what manner of day was
+coming. But neither had noticed them any more than they did the birds
+rustling in the cottonwood beside the wigwam, or the wild creatures
+skurrying across the path for their early drink at the stream below.
+
+Neither had the Sun Maid paid them any attention, for she had always
+been accustomed to meeting the savages both at the Fort and on her
+rides abroad with any of her garrison friends; so she deliberately
+sipped her breakfast, pausing now and then to arrange the pouch-like
+petals of some favored blossoms and to converse with them in her
+fantastic fashion, quite believing that they heard and understood.
+
+"Did the nice Feather-man bring you all softly, little posies? Aren't
+you glad you've come to live with Kitty? Other Mother will give you
+all some breakfast, too, of coldest water in the brook. Then you will
+sit up straight and hold your heads high. That's the way the children
+do when my Captain takes the book with the green cover and makes them
+spell things out of it. Oscar doesn't like the green book. It makes
+him wriggle his nose--so; but Margaret is as fond of it as I am of
+you. Oh, dear! Some day, all my mothers say, I, too, will have to sit
+and look on the printing and spell words. I can, though, even now.
+Listen, posies. D-o-g--that's--that's--I guess it's 'cat.' Isn't it,
+posies? But you don't have to spell things, do you? I needn't either.
+Not to-day, and maybe not to-morrow day. Because, you see, I runned
+away. Oh, how I did run! So fast, so far, before I found your little
+sisters, posies, dear. Then I guess I went to sleep, without ever
+saying my 'Now I lay me,' and the black Feather-man came, and--that's
+all."
+
+Wahneenah had gone back to her household duties, for she had many
+things on hand that day. Not the least, to make her neglected tepee a
+brighter, fitter home for this stray sunbeam which the Great Spirit
+had sent to her out of the sky, and into which He had breathed the
+soul of her lost one. Indistinctly, she heard the murmuring of the
+babyish voice at the threshold and occasionally caught some of the
+words it uttered. These served but to establish her in her belief that
+the child had more than mortal senses; else how should she fancy that
+the blossoms would hear and understand her prattle?
+
+"Listen. She talks to the weeds as the white men talk to us. She is a
+witch," said the Man-Who-Kills to his neighbor in the circle, the
+White Pelican.
+
+"She is only a child of the pale-faces. The Black Partridge has set
+her among us to move our hearts to pity."
+
+"The White Pelican was ever a coward," snorted the Man-Who-Kills.
+
+But the younger warrior merely turned his head and smiled
+contemptuously. Then he critically scrutinized the ill-proportioned
+figure of the ugly-tempered brave. The fellow's crooked back,
+abnormally long arms and short legs were an anomaly in that race of
+stalwart Indians, and the soul of the savage corresponded to his
+outward development. For his very name had been given him in derision;
+because, though he always threatened and always sneaked after his
+prey, he had never been known to slay an enemy in open combat.
+
+"That is as the tomahawks prove. The scalps hang close on the pole of
+my wigwam," finally remarked the Pelican.
+
+"Ugh! But there was never such a scalp as that of the papoose yonder.
+It shall hang above all others in _my_ tepee. I have said it."
+
+"Having said it, you may unsay it. That is no human fleece upon that
+small head. She is sacred."
+
+"How? Is the White Pelican a man of dreams?"
+
+The elder brave also used a tone of contempt, though not with marked
+success. His thought reverted to the night before, when the chief had
+stood beside the council fire holding the sleeping child in his arms.
+Her wonderful yellow hair, fine as spun cobwebs and almost as light,
+had blown over the breast of Black Partridge like a cloud, and it had
+glistened and shimmered in the firelight as if possessed of restless
+life. The little figure was clothed in white, as the Fort mothers had
+fancied best suited their charge's fairness, even though the fabric
+must of necessity be coarse; and this garment likewise caught the glow
+of the dancing flames till it seemed luminous in itself.
+
+As an idle rumor spreads and grows among better cultured people so
+superstition held in power these watchful Indians. Said one:
+
+"The father of his tribe has met a spirit on the prairie and brought
+it to our village. Is the deed for good or evil?"
+
+This was what the men in the semi-circle had come to find out. So
+they relapsed again into silence, but kept a fixed gaze upon the
+indifferent child before them. She continued her playing and feeding
+as unconsciously as if she, the flowers, and the sunshine, were
+quite alone. Some even fancied that they could hear the orchids
+whispering in return; and it was due to that morning's incident that,
+thereafter, few among the Pottawatomies would lightly bruise or break
+a blossom which they then learned to believe was gifted with a sensate
+life.
+
+But presently a sibilant "Hst!" ran the length of the squatting line,
+and warriors who feared not death for themselves felt their muscles
+stiffen under a tension of dread as they saw the slow, sinuous
+approach of a poisonous reptile to the child on the mat; and the
+thought of each watcher was the same:
+
+"Now, indeed, the test--spirit or mortal?"
+
+The snake glided onward, its graceful body showing through the grass,
+its head slightly upraised, and its intention unmistakable.
+
+An Indian can be the most silent thing on earth, if he so wills, and
+at once it was as if all that row of red men had become stone. Even
+Wahneenah, in the wigwam behind, was startled by the stillness, and
+cautiously tiptoed forward to learn its cause. Then her heart, like
+theirs, hushed its beating and she rigidly awaited the outcome.
+
+Only the child herself was undisturbed. She did not cease the slow
+lifting of the clay spoon to her lips, and between sips she still
+prattled and gurgled in sheer content.
+
+"Kitty is most fulled up, 'cause she did have so big a breakfast, she
+did. Nice Other Mother did give it me. I wish my bunny rabbit had not
+runned away. Then he could have some. Never mind. Here comes a
+beau'ful cunning snake. I did see one two times to my Fort. Bad Jacky
+soldier did kill him dead, and that made Kitty cry. Come, pretty
+thing, do you want Kitty's breakfast? Then you may have it every bit."
+
+So she tossed her hair from her eyes and sat with uplifted spoon while
+the moccasin glided up to the mat and over it, till its mouth could
+reach the shallow bowl in the child's lap.
+
+"Oh! the funny way it eats. Poor thing! It hasn't any spoon. It might
+have Kitty's, only----"
+
+The bright eyes regarded the rudely shaped implement and the mouth it
+was to feed; then the little one's ready laughter bubbled forth.
+
+"Funny Kitty! How could it hold a spoon was bigger 'n itself--when its
+hands have never grown? Other pretty one, that Jacky killed, that
+didn't have its hands, either. Hush, snaky. Did I make you afraid, I
+laugh so much? Now I will keep very, very still till you are through.
+Then you may go back home to your childrens, and tell them all about
+your nice breakfast. Where do you live? Is it in a Fort, as Kitty
+does? Oh, I forgot! I did promise to keep still. Quite, quite still,
+till you go way away."
+
+So she did; while not only the red-skins, but all nature seemed to
+pause and watch the strange spectacle; for the light breeze that had
+come with the sunrise now died away, and every leaf stood still in the
+great heat which descended upon the earth.
+
+It seemed to Wahneenah, watching in a very motherly fear, and to the
+squatting braves, in their increasing awe, as if hours passed while
+the child and the reptile remained messmates. But at length the
+dangerous serpent was satisfied and, turning slowly about, retreated
+whence it came.
+
+Then Mistress Kitty lifted her voice and called merrily:
+
+"Come, Other Mother! Come and see. I did have a lovely, lovely creepy
+one to eat with me. He did eat so funny Kitty had to laugh. Then I
+remembered that my other peoples to my Fort tell all the children to
+be good and I was good, wasn't I? Say, Other Mother, my posies want
+some water."
+
+"They shall have it, White Papoose, my Girl-Child-Who-Is-Safe. She
+whom the Great Spirit has restored nothing can harm."
+
+Then she led the Sun Maid away, after she had gathered up every
+flower, not daring that anything beloved of her strange foster-child
+should be neglected.
+
+The watching Indians also rose and returned into the village from
+that point on its outskirts where Wahneenah's wigwam stood. They spoke
+little, for in each mind the conviction had become firm that the Sun
+Maid was, in deed and truth, a being from the Great Beyond, safe from
+every mortal hurt.
+
+Yet still, the Man-Who-Kills fingered the edge of his tomahawk with
+regret and remarked in a manner intended to show his great prowess:
+
+"Even a mighty warrior cannot fight against the powers of the sky."
+
+After a little, one, less credulous than his fellows, replied
+boastfully:
+
+"Before the sun shall rise and set a second time the white scalp will
+hang at my belt."
+
+Nobody answered the boast till at length a voice seemed to come out of
+the ground before them, and at its first sound every brave stood still
+to listen for that which was to follow. All recognized the voice, even
+the strangers from the most distant settlements. It was heard in
+prophecy only, and it belonged to old Katasha, the One-Who-Knows.
+
+"No. It is not so. Long after every one of this great Pottawatomie
+nation shall have passed out of sight, toward the place where the day
+dies, the hair of the Sun Maid's head shall be still shining. Its gold
+will have turned to snow, but generation after generation shall bow
+down to it in honor. Go. The road is plain. There is blood upon it,
+and some of this is yours. But the scalp of the Sun Maid is in the
+keeping of the Great Spirit. It is sacred. It cannot be harmed. Go."
+
+Then the venerable woman, who had risen from her bed upon the ground
+to utter her message, returned to her repose, and the warriors filed
+past her with bowed heads and great dejection of spirit. In this mood
+they joined another company about the dead council fire, and in angry
+resentment listened to the speech of the Black Partridge as he pleaded
+with them for the last time.
+
+"For it is the last. This day I make one more journey to the Fort, and
+there I will remain until you join me. We have promised safe escort
+for our white neighbors through the lands of the hostile tribes who
+dare not wage war against us. The white man trusts us. He counts us
+his friends. Shall we keep our promise and our honor, or shall we
+become traitors to the truth?"
+
+It was Shut-Hand who answered for his tribesmen:
+
+"It is the pale-face who is a traitor to honesty. The goods which our
+Great Father gave him in trust for his red children have been
+destroyed. The white soldiers have forgotten their duty and have
+taught us to forget ours. When the sun rises on the morrow we will
+join the Black Partridge at the Fort by the great water, and we will
+do what seems right in our eyes. The Black Partridge is our father
+and our chief. He must not then place the good of our enemies before
+the good of his own people. We have spoken."
+
+So the great Indian, who was more noble than his clansmen, went out
+from among them upon a hopeless errand. This time he did not make his
+journey on foot, but upon the back of his fleetest horse; and the
+medal he meant to relinquish was wrapped in a bit of deerskin and
+fastened to his belt.
+
+"Well, at least the Sun Maid will be safe. When the braves, with the
+squaws and children, join their brothers at the camp, Wahneenah will
+remain at Muck-otey-pokee; as should every other woman of the
+Pottawatomie nation, were I as powerful in reality as I appear. It is
+the squaws who urge the men to the darkest deeds. Ugh! What will be
+must be. Tchtk! Go on!"
+
+But the bay horse was already travelling at its best, slow as its pace
+seemed to the Black Partridge.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+IN INDIAN ATTIRE.
+
+
+Not many hours after Black Partridge turned his back upon
+Muck-otey-pokee, all its fighting men, with their squaws and children,
+also left it, as their chief had foreseen they would. They followed
+the direction he had taken, though they did not proceed to the
+garrison itself.
+
+The camp to which they repaired was a little distance from the Fort,
+and had been pitched beside the river, where was then a fringe of
+cottonwoods and locusts affording a grateful shade. Here the squaws
+cooked and gossiped, while their sons played the ancient games of
+throwing the spear through the ring, casting the hatchet, and shooting
+birds on the wing.
+
+The braves tested their weapons and boasted of many valorous deeds; or
+were else entirely silent, brooding upon mischief yet to come. Over
+all was the thrill of excitement and anticipation, which the great
+heat of the season seemed to deepen rather than dispel.
+
+At the Fort, Black Partridge pleaded finally and in vain.
+
+"We have been ordered to evacuate, and we will obey. All things are in
+readiness. The stores are already in the wagons, and other wagons wait
+for the sick, the women, and the children. Your people have promised
+us a safe conveyance through their country, and as far as we shall
+need it. They will be well paid. Part they have received, and the rest
+of their reward will be promptly delivered at the end of the journey.
+There is no more to be said"; and with this conclusion the weary
+commandant sat down in his denuded home to take a bit of food and a
+few moments' rest. He nodded hospitably toward an empty chair on the
+farther side of the deal table, by way of invitation that the Indian
+should join him, but this the honest chief declined to do.
+
+"No, good father, that can no longer be. I have come to return you
+this medal. I have worn it long and in peace. It was the gift of your
+people, a pledge between us of friendship. My friendship remains
+unbroken, but there also remains a tie which is stronger. I am the
+chief of my tribe. My young men are brave, and they have been
+deceived. They will punish the deceivers, and I have no power to
+prevent this. Nor do I blame them, though I would hold them to their
+compact if I could."
+
+"Cannot the Truth-Teller compel his sons to his own habit?"
+
+"Not when his white father sets them a bad example."
+
+"Black Partridge, your words are bold."
+
+"Your deed was bolder, father. It was the deed of a fool."
+
+"Take care!"
+
+As if he had not heard, the chief spoke steadily on:
+
+"My tribesman, Winnemeg--the white man's friend--brought the order
+that all goods stored here should be justly distributed among my
+people, to every man his portion. Was it thus done?"
+
+"Come, Black Partridge, you are not wanting in good sense nor in
+honesty. You must admit that such a course would have been hazardous
+in the extreme. The idea of putting liquor and ammunition into the
+hands of the red men was one of utter madness. It was worse than
+foolhardy. The broken firearms are safe in the well, and the more
+dangerous whiskey has mingled itself harmlessly with the waters of the
+river and the lake."
+
+"There is something more foolish than folly," said the Indian,
+gravely, "and that is a lie! The powder drowned in the well will kill
+more pale-faces than it could have done in the hands of your red
+children. The river-diluted whiskey will inflame more hot heads than
+if it had been dispensed honorably and in its full strength. But now
+the end. Though I will do what I can do, even the Truth-Teller cannot
+fight treachery. Prepare for the worst. And so--farewell!"
+
+Then the tall chief bowed his head in sadness and went away; but the
+terrible truth of what he then uttered all the world now knows.
+
+Meanwhile, in the almost empty village among the cottonwoods, the Sun
+Maid played and laughed and chattered as she had always done in her
+old home at the Fort. And all day, those wiser women like Wahneenah,
+who had refrained from following their tribe to the distant camp,
+watched and attended the child in admiring awe.
+
+By nightfall the Sun Maid had been loaded with gifts. Lahnowenah, wife
+of the avaricious Shut-Hand but herself surnamed the Giver, came
+earliest of all, with a necklace of bears' claws and curious shells
+which had come from the Pacific slope, none knew how many years
+before.
+
+The Sun Maid received the gift with delight and her usual exclamation
+of "Nice!" but when the donor attempted to clasp the trinket about the
+fair little throat she was met by a decided: "No, no, no!"
+
+"Girl-Child! All gifts are worthy, but this woman has given her best,"
+corrected Wahneenah, with some sternness. This baby might be a spirit,
+in truth, but it was the spirit of her own child and she must still
+hold it under authority.
+
+At sound of the altered tones, Kitty looked up swiftly and her lip
+quivered. Then she replied with equal decision:
+
+"Other Mother must not speak to me like that. Kitty is not bad. It is
+a pretty, pretty thing, but it is dirty. It must have its faces
+washed. Then I will wear it and love it all my life."
+
+An Indian girl would have been punished for such frankness, but
+Lahnowenah showed no resentment. Beneath her outward manner lay a
+deeper meaning. To her the necklace was a talisman. From generations
+long dead it had come down to her, and always as a life-saver. Whoever
+wore it could never be harmed "by hatchet or arrow, nor by fire or
+flood." Yet that very morning had her own brother, the Man-Who-Kills,
+assured her that the child's life was a doomed one, and she had more
+faith in his threats than had his neighbors in their village. She knew
+that the one thing he respected was this heirloom, and that he would
+not dare injure anybody who wore it. The Sun Maid was, undoubtedly,
+under the guardianship of higher powers than a poor squaw's, yet it
+could harm nobody to take all precautions.
+
+So, with a grim smile, the donor carried her gift to the near-by brook
+and held it for a few moments beneath the sluggish water; then she
+returned to the wigwam and again proffered it to the foundling.
+
+"Yes. That is nice now. Kitty will wear it all the time. Won't the
+childrens be pleased when they see it! Maybe they may wear it, too, if
+the dear blanket lady says they may. Can they, Other Mother?"
+
+The squaws exchanged significant glances. They knew it was not
+probable that the Fort orphan and her old playmates would ever meet
+again; but Wahneenah answered evasively:
+
+"They can wear it when they come to the Sun Maid's home."
+
+Again Lahnowenah would have put the necklace in its place, and a
+second time she was prevented; for at that moment the One-Who-Knows
+came slowly down the path between the trees, and held up her crutch
+warningly, as she called, in her feeble voice:
+
+"Wait! This is a ceremony. Let all the women come."
+
+Lahnowenah ran to summon them, and they gathered about the tepee in
+expectant silence. When old Katasha exerted herself it behooved all
+the daughters of her tribe to be in attendance.
+
+Wahneenah hastened to spread her best mat for the visitor's use, and
+helped to seat her upon it.
+
+"Ugh! Old feet grow clumsy and old arms weak. Take this bundle, sister
+of my chief, and do with its contents as seems right to thee."
+
+The other squaws squatted around, eagerly curious, while Wahneenah
+untied the threads of sinew which fastened the blanket-wrapped parcel.
+This outer covering itself was different from anything she had ever
+handled, being exquisitely soft in texture and gaudily bright in hue.
+It was also of a small size, such as might fit a child's shoulders.
+
+Within the blanket was a little tunic of creamy buckskin, gayly
+bedecked with a fringe of beads around the neck and arms' eyes, while
+the short skirt ended in a border of fur, also bead-trimmed in an odd
+pattern. With it were tiny leggings that matched the tunic; and a
+dainty pair of moccasins completed the costume.
+
+As garment after garment was spread out before the astonished gaze of
+the squaws their exclamations of surprise came loud and fast. A group
+of white mothers over a fashionable outfit for a modern child could
+not have been more enthusiastic or excited.
+
+Yet through all this she who had brought it remained stolid and
+silent; till at length her manner impressed the others, and they
+remembered that she had said: "It is a ceremony." Then Wahneenah
+motioned the squaws to be silent, and demanded quietly:
+
+"What is this that the One-Who-Knows sees good to be done at the lodge
+of her chief's daughter?"
+
+"Take the papoose. Set her before me. Watch and see."
+
+Wide-eyed and smiling, and quite unafraid, the little orphan from the
+Fort stood, as she was directed, close beside the aged squaw while she
+was silently disrobed. Her baby eyes had caught the glitter of beads
+on the new garments, and there was never a girl-child born who did not
+like new clothes. When she was quite undressed, and her white body
+shone like a marble statue in contrast to their dusky forms, the
+hushed voices of the Indians burst forth again in a torrent of
+admiration.
+
+But Kitty was too young to understand this, and deemed it some new
+game in which she played the principal part.
+
+The prophetess held up her hand and the women ceased chattering. Then
+she pointed toward the brook and, herself comprehending what was meant
+by this gesture, the Sun Maid ran lightly to the bank and leaped in.
+With a scream of fear, that was very human and mother-like, Wahneenah
+followed swiftly. For the instant she had forgotten that the merry
+little one was a "spirit," and could not drown.
+
+Fortunately, the stream was not deep, and was delightfully sun-warmed.
+Besides, the Fort children had all been as much at home in the water
+as on the land and a daily plunge had been a matter of course. So
+Kitty laughed and clapped her hands as she ducked again and again into
+the deepest of the shallow pools, splashing and gurgling in glee, till
+another signal from the aged crone bade the foster-mother bring the
+bather back.
+
+"No, no! Kitty likes the water. Kitty did make the Feather-lady wash
+the necklace. Now the old Feather-lady makes Kitty wash Kitty. No, I
+do not want to go. I want to stay right here in the brook."
+
+"But--the beautiful tunic! What about that, papoose?"
+
+It was not at all a "spiritual" argument, yet it sufficed; and with a
+spring the little one was out of the water and clinging to Wahneenah's
+breast.
+
+As she was set down, dewy and glistening, she pranced and tossed her
+dripping hair about till the drops it scattered touched some faces
+that had not known the feel of water in many a day. With an "Ugh!" of
+disgust the squaws withdrew to a safe distance from this unsolicited
+bath, though remaining keenly watchful of what the One-Who-Knows might
+do. This was, first, the anointing of the child's body with some
+unctuous substance that the old woman had brought, wrapped in a pawpaw
+leaf.
+
+Since towels were a luxury unknown in the wilderness, as soon as this
+anointing was finished Katasha clothed the child in her new costume
+and laid her hand upon the sunny head, while she muttered a charm to
+"preserve it from all evil and all enemies." Then, apparently
+exhausted by her own efforts, the prophetess directed Lahnowenah, the
+Giver, to put on the antique White Necklace.
+
+This was so long that it went twice about the Sun Maid's throat and
+would have been promptly pulled off by her own fingers, as an
+adornment quite too warm for the season had not the fastening been one
+she could not undo and the string, which held the ornaments, of strong
+sinew.
+
+Then Wahneenah took the prophetess into her wigwam, and prepared a
+meal of dried venison meat, hulled corn, and the juice of wild berries
+pressed out and sweetened. Katasha's visits were of rare occurrence,
+and it had been long since the Woman-Who-Mourns had played the
+hostess, save in this late matter of her foster-child; so for a time
+she forgot all save the necessity of doing honor to her guest. When
+she did remember the Sun Maid and went in anxious haste to the
+doorway, the child had vanished.
+
+"She is gone! The Great Spirit has recalled her!" cried Wahneenah, in
+distress.
+
+"Fear not, the White Papoose is safe. She will live long and her hands
+will be full. As they fill they will overflow. She is a river that
+enriches yet suffers no loss. Patience. Patience. You have taken joy
+into your home, but you have also taken sorrow. Accept both, and wait
+what will come."
+
+Even Wahneenah, to whom many deferred, felt that she herself must pay
+deference to this venerable prophetess, and so remained quiet in her
+wigwam as long as her guest chose to rest there. This was until the
+sun was near its setting and till the foster-mother's heart had grown
+sick with anxiety. So, no sooner had Katasha's figure disappeared
+among the trees than Wahneenah set out at frantic speed to find the
+little one.
+
+"Have you seen the Sun Maid?" she demanded of the few she met; and at
+last one set her on the right track.
+
+"Yes. She chased a gray squirrel that had been wounded. It was still
+so swift it could just outstrip her, and she followed beyond the
+village, away along the bank. Osceolo passed near, and saw the
+squirrel seek refuge in the lodge of Spotted Adder. The Sun Maid also
+entered."
+
+"The lodge of Spotted Adder!" repeated Wahneenah, slowly. "Then only
+the Great Spirit can preserve her!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE WHITE BOW.
+
+
+Wahneenah had lived so entirely within the seclusion of her own lodge
+that she had become almost a stranger in the village. It was long
+since she had travelled so far as the isolated hut into which the
+youth, Osceolo, had seen the Sun Maid disappear, and as she approached
+it her womanly heart smote her with pain and self-reproach, while she
+reflected thus:
+
+"Has it come to this? Spotted Adder, the Mighty, whose wigwam was once
+the richest of all my father's tribe. I remember that its curtains of
+fine skins were painted by the Man-Of-Visions himself, and told the
+history of the Pottawatomies since the beginning of the world. Many a
+heap of furs and peltries went in payment for their adornment,
+but--where are they now! While I have sat in darkness with my sorrow
+new things have become old. Yet he is accursed. Else the trouble would
+not have befallen him. I have heard the women talking, through my
+dreams. He has lain down and cannot again arise. And the White Papoose
+is with him! Will she be accursed, too? Fool! Why do I fear? Is she
+not a child of the sky, and forever safe, as Katasha said? But the
+touch of her arms was warm, like the clasp of the son I bore, and----"
+
+The mother's reverie ended in a very human distress. There was a rumor
+among her people that whoever came near the Spotted Adder would
+instantly be infected by whatever was the dread disease from which he
+suffered. That the Sun Maid's wonderful loveliness should receive a
+blemish seemed a thing intolerable and, in another instant, regardless
+of her own danger, Wahneenah had crept beneath the broken flap of
+bark, into a scene of squalor indescribable. Even this squaw, who knew
+quite well how wretched the tepees of her poorer tribesmen often were,
+was appalled now; and though the torn skins and strips of bark which
+covered the hut admitted plenty of light and air, she gasped for
+breath before she could speak.
+
+"My Girl-Child! My Sun Maid! Come away. Wrong, wrong to have entered
+here, to have made me so anxious. Come."
+
+"No, no, Other Mother! Kitty cannot come. Kitty must stay. See the
+poor gray squirrel? It has broked its leg. It went so--hoppety-pat,
+hoppety-pat, as fast as fast. I thought it was playing and just
+running away. So Kitty runned too. Kitty always runs away when Kitty
+can."
+
+"Ugh! I believe you. Come."
+
+"No, Kitty must stay. Poor sick man needs Kitty. I did give him a nice
+drink. Berries, too. Kitty putted them in his mouth all the time. Poor
+man!"
+
+Wahneenah's anger rose. Was she, a chief's daughter, to be thus
+flouted by a baby, a pale-face at that? Surely, there was nothing
+whatever spiritual now about this self-willed, spoiled creature, whom
+an unkind fate had imposed upon her. She stooped to lift the little
+one and compel obedience, but was met by a smile so fearless and happy
+that her arms fell to her sides.
+
+"That's a good Other Mother. Poor sick man has wanted to turn him
+over, and he couldn't. Kitty tried and tried, and Kitty couldn't. Now
+my Other Mother's come. She can. She is so beau'ful strong and kind!"
+
+There was a grunt, which might have been a groan, from the corner of
+the hut where the Spotted Adder lay; and a convulsive movement of the
+contorted limbs as he vainly strove to change his uncomfortable
+position. Wahneenah watched him, with the contempt which the women of
+her race feel for any masculine weakness, and did not offer to assist.
+His poverty she pitied, and would have relieved, though his physical
+infirmity was repugnant to her. She would not touch him.
+
+But the Sun Maid was on her feet at once, tenderly laying upon the
+ground the wounded squirrel which she had held upon her lap. The wild
+thing had, apparently, lost all its timidity and now fully trusted the
+child who had caressed its fur and murmured soft, pitying sounds, in
+that low voice of hers, which the Fort people had sometimes felt was
+an unknown language. Certainly, she had had a strange power, always,
+over any animal that came near her and this case was no exception. Her
+white friends would not have been surprised by the incident, but
+Wahneenah was, and it brought back her belief that this was a child of
+supernatural gifts. She even began to feel ashamed of her treatment of
+Spotted Adder, though she waited to see what his small nurse would do.
+
+"Poor sick Feather-man! Is you hurted now? Does your face ache you to
+make it screw itself all this way?" and she made a comical grimace,
+imitative of the sufferer's expression.
+
+"Ugh! Ugh!"
+
+"Yes; Kitty hears. Other Mother, that is all the word he says. All the
+time it is just 'Ugh! Ugh!' I wish he would talk Kitty's talk. Make
+him do it, Other Mother. Please!"
+
+"That I cannot do. He knows it not. But he has a speech I understand.
+What need you, Spotted Adder?" she concluded, in his own dialect.
+
+"Ugh! It is the voice of Wahneenah, the Happy. What does she here, in
+the lodge of the outcast? It is many a moon since the footfall of a
+woman sounded on my floor. Why does one come now?"
+
+"In pursuit of this child, the adopted daughter of our tribe, whom the
+Black Partridge himself has given me. It was ill of you, accursed, to
+wile her hither with your unholy spells."
+
+"I wiled her not. It was the gray squirrel. Broken in his life, as am
+I, the once Mighty. Many wounded creatures seek shelter here. It is a
+sanctuary. They alone fear not the miserable one."
+
+"Does not the tribe see to it that you have food and drink set within
+your wigwam, once during each journey of the sun? I have so heard."
+
+"Ugh! Food and drink. Sometimes I cannot reach them. They are not even
+pushed beyond the door flap, or what is left of it. They are all
+afraid. All. Yet they are fools. That which has befallen me may happen
+to each when his time comes. It is the sickness of the bones. There is
+no contagion in it. But it twists the straight limbs into torturing
+curves and it rends the body with agony. One would be glad to die, but
+death--like friendship--holds itself aloof. Ugh! The drink! The
+drink!"
+
+The Sun Maid could understand the language of the eyes, if not the
+lips, and she followed their wistful gaze toward the clay bowl from
+which she had before given him the water. But it was empty now, and
+seizing it with all her strength, for it was heavy and awkward in
+shape, she sped out of the wigwam toward a spring she had discovered.
+
+"Four, ten, lots of times Kitty has broughted the nice water, and
+every time the poor, sick Feather-man has drinked it up. He must be
+terrible thirsty, and so is Kitty. I guess I will drink first, this
+time."
+
+Filling the utensil, she struggled to lift it to her own lips, but it
+was rudely pushed away.
+
+"Papoose! Would you drink to your own death? The thing is accursed, I
+tell you!"
+
+"Why, Other Mother! It is just as clean as clean. Kitty did wash and
+wash it long ago. It was all dirty, worse than my new necklace, but it
+is clean now. Do you want a drink, Other Mother? Is you thirsty, too,
+like the sick one and Kitty?"
+
+"If I were, it would be long before I touched my lips to that cup."
+
+"Would it? Now I will fill it again. Then you must take it, Other
+Mother, and quick, quick, back to that raggedy house. Kitty is tired,
+she has come here and there so many, many times."
+
+"Is it here you have spent this long day, papoose?"
+
+"I did come here when the gray squirrel runned away. I did stay ever
+since."
+
+Wahneenah's heart sank. But to her credit it was that, for the time
+being, she forgot the stories she had heard, and remembered only that
+there was suffering which she must relieve. It might be that already
+the soul of Spotted Adder was winged for its long flight, and could
+carry for her to that wide Unknown, where her own dead tarried, some
+message from her, the bereft. As this thought flashed through her
+brain she seized the bowl and hastened with it to the lodge.
+
+This time, also, she forgot everything but the possibility that had
+come to her, and kneeling beside the old Indian she held the dish to
+his mouth.
+
+"It is the fever, the fever! A little while and the awful chill will
+come again. The racking pain, the thirst! Ugh! Wahneenah, the Happy,
+is braver than her sisters. Her courage shall prove her blessing. The
+lips of the dying speak truth."
+
+"And the ears of the dying? Can they still hear and remember? Will the
+Spotted Adder take my message to the men I have lost? Sire and son,
+there was no Pottawatomie ever born so brave as they. Tell them I have
+been faithful. I have been the Woman-Who-Mourns. I have kept to my
+darkened wigwam and remembered only them, till she came, this child
+you have seen. She is a gift from the sky. She has come to comfort
+and sustain. She was born a pale-face, but she has a red man's heart.
+She is all brave and true and dauntless. None fear her, and she fears
+none. I believe that they have sent her to me. I believe that in her
+they both live. Ask them if this is so."
+
+"There is no need to ask, Wahneenah, the Happy. Happy, indeed, who has
+been blessed with a gift so gracious. She is the Merciful. The
+Unafraid. She will pass in safety through many perils. All day she has
+sat beside me whom all others shun. She has moistened my lips, she has
+kept the gnats from stinging, she has sung in her unknown tongue of
+that land whither I go, and soon,--the land of the sky from whence she
+came. The light of the morning is on her hair and the dusk of evening
+in her eyes. As she has ministered to me, the deserted, the solitary,
+so she will minister unto multitudes. I can see them crowding,
+crowding; the generations yet unborn. The vision of the dying is
+true."
+
+On the floor beside them the Sun Maid sat, caressing the wounded
+squirrel. Through the torn curtains the waning sunlight slanted and
+lighted the bleak interior. It seemed to rest most brilliantly upon
+the child, and in the eyes of the Spotted Adder she was like a lamp
+set to illumine his path through the dark valley, an unexpected
+messenger from the Great Father, showing him beforehand a glimpse of
+the beauty and tenderness of the Land Beyond. Yet even if a spirit,
+she wore a human shape, and she would have human needs. She would be
+often in danger against which she must be guarded.
+
+"Wahneenah, fetch me the bow and quiver."
+
+"Which?" she asked, in surprise, though in reality she knew.
+
+"Is there one that should be named with mine? The White Bow from the
+land of eternal snow; the arrows winged with feathers from the white
+eagle's wing,--light as thistle down, strong as love, invincible as
+death."
+
+The Spotted Adder had been the orator of his tribe. Men had listened
+to his words in admiration, wondering whence he obtained the eloquence
+which moved them; and at that moment it was as if all the power of his
+earlier manhood had returned.
+
+The White Bow was well known among all the Pottawatomie tribes. Even
+the Sacs and Foxes had heard of it and feared it. It was older than
+the Giver's historic necklace, and tradition said that it had been
+hurled to earth on the breath of a mighty snowstorm. It had fallen
+before the wigwam of the Spotted Adder's ancestor and had been handed
+down from father to son, as fair and sound as on the day of its first
+bestowal. None knew the wood of which it was fashioned, which many
+could bend and twist but none could break. The string which first
+bound it had never worn nor wasted, and not a feather had ever fallen
+from the arrows in the quiver, nor had their number ever diminished,
+no matter how often sped. It was the one possession left to the
+neglected warrior and had been protected by its own reputed origin.
+There were daring thieves in many a tribe, but never a thief so bold
+he would risk his soul in the seizure of the White Bow.
+
+Wahneenah felt no choice but to comply with the Indian's command. She
+took the bow and its accoutrements from the sheltered niche in the
+tepee where it hung; the only spot, it seemed, that had not been
+subjected to the destruction of the elements. She had never held it in
+her hand before, and she wondered at its lightness as she carried it
+to its owner, and placed it in the gnarled fingers which would never
+string it again.
+
+"Good! Call the child to stand here."
+
+With awe, Wahneenah motioned the little one within the red man's
+reach. The last vestige of fear or repulsion had vanished from her own
+mind before the majesty of this hour.
+
+"Does the poor, sick Feather-man want another drink? Shall Kitty fetch
+it now?"
+
+"Hush, papoose!"
+
+He would have opened the small white hand and clasped it about the
+bow, which reached full three times the height of the child, and along
+whose beautiful length she gazed in wonder, but he could not.
+
+"Take it, Girl-Child. It is a gift. It is more magical than the
+necklace. Take it, hold it tight--that will please him--and say what
+is in your heart."
+
+"Oh, the beau'ful bow! Is it for Kitty? To keep, forever and ever?
+Why, it is bigger than that one of the Sauganash, and far prettier
+than Winnemeg's. It cannot be for Kitty, just little Kitty girl."
+
+"Yes; it is."
+
+Then the Sun Maid laid it reverently down, and catching hold her scant
+tunic made the old-fashioned curtsey which her Fort friends had taught
+her.
+
+"Thank you, poor Feather-man. I will take care of it very nice. I
+won't break it, not once."
+
+"Ugh!" grunted the Indian, with satisfaction. Then he closed his eyes
+as if he would sleep.
+
+"Good-night, Spotted Adder, the Mighty. I thank you, also, on the
+child's behalf. It is the second gift this day of talismans that must
+protect. Surely, she will be clothed in safety. Hearken to me. I must
+go home. The Sun Maid must be fed and put to sleep. But I will return.
+I am no longer afraid. You were my father's friend. All that a woman's
+hand can now do for your comfort shall be done."
+
+[Illustration: THE GIFT OF THE WHITE BOW. _Page 48._]
+
+But the Spotted Adder made no sign, and whether he did or did not hear
+her, Wahneenah never knew. She walked swiftly homeward, bearing the
+White Papoose upon one strong arm and the White Bow upon the other.
+Yet she noticed, with a smile, that the child still clung tenderly to
+her own burden of the injured squirrel, and that she was infinitely
+more careful of it and its suffering than of the wonderful gift she
+had received.
+
+Long before her own tepee was reached the Sun Maid was fast asleep;
+and as the small head rested more and more heavily upon Wahneenah's
+shoulder, and the soft breath of childhood fanned her throat, the
+woman again doubted the spiritual origin of the foundling, and felt
+fresh gratitude for its simple humanity.
+
+"Well, whoever and whatever she is, she is already thrice protected.
+By her Indian dress, by her White Bow, and by Lahnowenah's White
+Necklace. She is quite safe from every enemy now."
+
+"Not quite," said a voice at Wahneenah's elbow.
+
+But it was only Osceolo, the Simple. Nobody minded him or his words.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+HORSES: WHITE AND BLACK.
+
+
+On the morning of the 15th of August, 1812, the sun rose in unclouded
+splendor, and transformed the great Lake Michigan into a sheet of
+gold.
+
+"It is a good omen," said one of the women at Fort Dearborn, as she
+looked out over the shining water.
+
+But only the merry children responded to her attempted cheerfulness.
+
+"We shall have a grand ride. I wish nobody need make the journey on
+foot; and I'm glad, for once, I'm just a boy, and not a grown-up man."
+
+"Even a boy may have to do a man's work, this day, Gaspar Keith. I
+wish that you were strong enough to hold a gun; but you have been
+taught how to use an arrow. Is your quiver well supplied?"
+
+That his captain should speak to him, a child, so seriously, impressed
+the lad profoundly. His ruddy cheek paled, and a fit of trembling
+seized him. A sombre memory rose to frighten him, and he caught his
+breath as he asked:
+
+"Do you think there will be any trouble, Captain Heald? I thought I
+heard the soldiers saying that the Pottawatomies would take care of
+us."
+
+"Who trusts to an Indian's care leans on a broken reed. You know that
+from your own experience. Surely, you must remember your earlier
+childhood, even though you have been forbidden to talk of it here."
+
+"Oh! I do, I do! Not often in the daytime, but in the long, long
+nights. The other children sleep. They have never seen what I did, or
+heard the dreadful yells that come in my dreams and wake me up. Then I
+seem to see the flames, the blood, the dead white faces. Oh, sir,
+don't tell me that must come again: don't, don't! I cannot bear it. I
+would rather die right now and here--safe in our Fort."
+
+Instantly the soldier regretted his own words. But the lad was one of
+the larger children at the garrison and should be incited, he thought,
+to take some share in the matter of defence, should defence be
+necessary. He had not known that under Gaspar's quiet, almost sullen
+demeanor, had lain such hidden experiences. Else he would have talked
+them over with the boy, and have tried to make him forget instead of
+remember his early wrongs.
+
+For Gaspar Keith was the son of an Indian trader, and had been born in
+an isolated cabin far to the northwest of his present home. The little
+cabin had been overflowing with young life and gayety, even in that
+wilderness. His mother was a Frenchwoman of the happiest possible
+temperament and, because no other society was available, had made
+comrades of her children. "What we did in Montreal" was the type of
+what she attempted to do under her more restricted conditions. So, for
+a long season of peace, the Keiths sang and made merry over every
+trifling incident. Did the father bring home an extra load of game, at
+once there was a feast prepared and all the friendly Indians, the only
+neighbors, were invited to come and partake.
+
+On one such occasion, when a red-skinned guest had brought with him a
+bottle of the forbidden "fire-water," a quarrel ensued. The trader was
+of sterner sort than his light-hearted wife, and of violent temper. In
+his own house his word was law, and he remonstrated with the Indian
+for his action. To little Gaspar, in his memories, it seemed but a
+moment's transition from a laughing group about a well-spread table to
+a scene of horror. He saw--but he could never afterward speak in any
+definite way of what he saw. Only he knew that almost before he had
+pushed back from his place he had been caught up on the shoulder of
+the chief Winnemeg, also a guest; and in another moment was riding
+behind that warrior at breakneck speed toward the little garrison, in
+pursuit of shelter for himself and aid for his defenceless family.
+
+The shelter was speedily found, but the aid came too late; and for a
+time the women of the Fort had a difficult task in comforting the
+fright-crazed boy. However, they were used to such incidents. Their
+courage and generosity were unlimited, and they persevered in their
+care till he recovered and repaid them by his faithful devotion and
+service.
+
+The manner of his arrival among them was never discussed in his
+presence, and as he gradually came to act like other, happier
+children, they hoped he had outgrown his troubles. He had now been at
+the Fort for two years, during all which time he had gone but short
+distances from it. Yet even in his restricted outings he had picked up
+much knowledge of useful things from the settlers near, and of things
+apparently not so useful from his red-faced friends. So it happened
+that there was not, probably, even any Indian boy who could string a
+bow or aim an arrow better than Gaspar.
+
+The Sauganash himself had presented the little fellow with a bow of
+finest workmanship, and had taught him the rare trick of shooting at
+fixed paces. It had been the delight of the garrison to watch him, in
+their hours of recreation, accomplish this feat. Sighting some bird
+flying high overhead, the lad would take swift aim and discharge each
+arrow from his quiver at a certain count. There never seemed any
+variation in the distances between the discharged arrows as they made
+the arc--upward with unerring aim, and downward in the body of the
+bird; hitting it, one by one, at proportionate intervals of time and
+space.
+
+The women thought it a cruel sport, and would have prevented it if
+they could; but the men knew that it was a wonderful achievement, and
+that many fine archers among the surrounding tribes would fail in
+accomplishing it. Therefore, it was natural that the Fort's commandant
+should be anxious to know if his ward's equipment were in order, on a
+morning so full of possible dangers as this.
+
+"There is no talk of dying, Gaspar. You are a man, child, if not full
+grown. You are brave and skilful. You have a clear head, too; so
+listen closely to what I say. In our garrison are not more than forty
+men able to fight. There are a dozen women and twenty children, of
+which none have been trained to use a bow as you can. Besides these
+helpless ones, there are many sick soldiers to occupy the wagons. I
+know you expected to be with your mates, but I have another plan for
+you. I want you to ride Tempest, and to sling your bow on your saddle
+horn."
+
+"Ride--Tempest! Why, Captain Heald! Nobody--that is, nobody but
+you--can ride him. I was never on his back----"
+
+"It's time you were. Lad, do you know how many Indians are in camp
+near us, or have broken camp this morning to join us?"
+
+"Oh! quite a lot, I guess."
+
+"Just so. A whole 'lot.' About five hundred, or a few less."
+
+The two were busily at work, packing the last of the few possessions
+that the commandant must convey to Fort Wayne, and which he could
+entrust to no other hands than his own and those of this deft-fingered
+lad, and they made no pause while they talked. Indeed, Gaspar's
+movements were even swifter now, as if he were eager to be through and
+off.
+
+"Five hundred, sir? They are friendly Indians, though. Black Partridge
+and Winnemeg----"
+
+"Are but as straws against the current. Gaspar, I shall need a boy who
+can be trusted. These red neighbors of ours are not so 'friendly' as
+they seem. They are dissatisfied. They mean mischief, I fear, though
+God forbid! Well, we are soldiers, and we cannot shrink. You must ride
+Tempest. You must tell nobody why. You can keep at a short distance
+from our main band, and act as scout. Captain Wells will march in
+front with his Miamis, upon whose assistance--the Miamis', I mean--I
+do not greatly count. They are cowards. They fear the 'canoe men.'
+Well, what do you say, my son?"
+
+Gaspar caught his breath. His own fear of an Indian had been nearly
+overcome by the friendship of those chiefs who were so constantly at
+the Fort; but the night before had brought him a recurrence of the
+terrifying visions which were as much memories as dreams. After such a
+night he was scarcely himself in courage, greatly as he desired to
+please the captain. Then he reflected how high was the honor designed
+him. He, a little boy, just past ten and going on eleven for a whole
+fortnight now, and--of course he'd do it!
+
+"Well, I'll ride him. That is, I'll try. Like as not, he'll shake me
+off first try."
+
+"Make the second try, then. You know the copy in your writing-book?"
+
+"Yes, sir. I wrote the whole page of it, yesterday, and the chaplain
+said it was well done. Shall I get him now? Are you almost ready?"
+
+The commandant looked at the waiting wagons, the assembled company,
+the women and little ones who were so dear and in such a perilous
+case. For a moment his heart sank, stout soldier though he was, and it
+was no detriment to his manhood that a fervent if silent prayer
+escaped him.
+
+"Yes, fetch him if you can. If not, I'll come."
+
+Tempest was a gelding of fine Kentucky breed. There were others of his
+line at the garrison, and upon them some of the women even were to
+ride. But Tempest was the king of the stables. He was the master's
+half-broken pet and recreation. For sterner uses, as for that
+morning's work, there was a better trained animal, and on this the
+commandant would make his own journey.
+
+A smile curled the officer's lips despite his anxiety as, presently,
+out from the stables galloped a bareheaded lad, clinging desperately
+to Tempest's back, who tried as desperately to shake off his unusual
+burden. But the saddle girth was well secured, and the rider clung
+like a burr. His bow was slung crosswise before him and his full
+quiver hung at his back.
+
+A cheer went up. The sight was as helpful to the soldiers as it was
+amusing, and they fell into line with a ready step as the band struck
+up--what was that tune? _The Dead March?_ By whose ill-judgment this?
+
+Well, there was no time to question. Any music helps to keep a line of
+men in step, and there was the determined Gaspar cavorting and
+wheeling before and around the soldiers in a way to provoke a mirth
+that no dismal strain could dispel. So the gates were flung open, and
+in orderly procession, each man in his place, each heart set upon its
+duty, the little garrison marched through them for the last time.
+
+Of what took place within the next dread hours, of the Indians'
+treachery and the white men's courage, there is no need to give the
+details. It is history. But of brave Gaspar Keith on the wild gelding,
+Tempest, history makes no mention. There is many a hero whose name
+is unknown, and the lad was a hero that day. He did what he could,
+and his empty quiver, his broken bow, told their own story to a
+Pottawatomie warrior who came upon the boy just as the sun crossed
+the meridian on that memorable day.
+
+Gaspar was lying unconscious beneath a clump of forest trees, and
+Tempest grazing quietly beside him. There was no wound upon the lad,
+and whether he had been thrown to the ground by the animal, or had
+slipped from his saddle out of sheer weariness, even he could never
+tell.
+
+The Indian who found him was none other than the Man-Who-Kills; and,
+from a perfectly safe distance for himself, he had watched the young
+pale-face with admiration and covetousness.
+
+"By and by, when the fight is over, I will get him. He shall be my
+prisoner. The black gelding is finer than any horse ever galloped into
+Muck-otey-pokee. They shall both be mine. I will tell a big tale at
+the council fires of my brothers, and they shall account me brave.
+Talking is easier than fighting, any time, and why should I peril my
+life, following this mad war-path of theirs to that far-away Fort
+Wayne? Enough is a plenty. I have hidden lots of plunder while the men
+of my tribe did their killing, and the Man-Who-Kills will always be
+wise, as he is always brave. I could shoot as fast and as far as
+anybody if--if I wished. But I do not wish. It is too much trouble. So
+I will tie the boy on the gelding's back and lead them home in
+triumph. Will my squaw, Sorah, flout me now? No. No, indeed! And there
+is no need to say that I dared not mount the beast myself. But I can
+lead him all right, and when the Woman-Who-Mourns, that haughty sister
+of my chief, sees me coming she will say: 'Behold! how merciful is
+this mighty warrior!'"
+
+These reflections of the astute Indian, as he rested upon the shaded
+sward, afforded him such satisfaction that he did, indeed, handle poor
+Gaspar with more gentleness than might have been expected; because
+such a person commonly mistakes brutality for bravery.
+
+Oddly enough, Tempest offered no resistance to the red man's plan, and
+allowed himself to be burdened by the helpless Gaspar and led slowly
+to the Indian village. There the party aroused less interest than the
+Man-Who-Kills had anticipated, for other prisoners had already been
+brought in and, besides this, something had occurred that seemed to
+the women far more important.
+
+This was the fresh grief of Wahneenah as she roamed from wigwam to
+wigwam, searching for her adopted daughter and imploring help to find
+her. For again the Sun Maid had disappeared, as suddenly and more
+completely than on the previous day though after much the same manner.
+
+The child had been attending her injured squirrel and giving her bowls
+of orchids fresh drinks, upon the threshold mat of her new home, and
+her indulgent foster-mother had gone to fetch from the stream the
+water needed for the latter purpose. At the brook's edge she had
+stopped, "just for a moment," to discuss with the other squaws the
+news of the massacre that was fast coming to them by the straggling
+bands of returning braves.
+
+But the brief absence was long enough to have worked the mischief. The
+small runaway had left her posies and her squirrel and departed,
+nobody could guess whither.
+
+Till at last again came Osceolo, the mischievous, and remarked,
+indifferently:
+
+"The Woman-Who-Mourns may save her steps. The White Papoose and the
+Snowbird are far over the prairie while the women search."
+
+"Osceolo! You are the son of the evil spirit! You bring distress in
+your hand as a gift! But take care what you say now. You know, as I
+know, that nobody can mount the White Snowbird and live. Or if one
+could succeed and pass beyond the village borders, it would be a ride
+to some far land whence there is no return. What is the mare,
+Snowbird, but a creature bewitched? or the home of the soul of a dead
+maiden, who would rather live thus with her people than without them
+as a spirit in the Great Beyond? You know all this, and yet you tell
+me----"
+
+"That the Sun Maid is flying now on the Snowbird's back toward the
+setting sun, who is her father."
+
+"How do you know this?"
+
+"I saw it."
+
+"Who took her to the Snowbird's corral? Who? Osceolo, torment of our
+tribe, it was you! It was you! Boy, do you know what you have done? Do
+you know that out there, on the prairie where you have sent her, the
+spirit of murder is abroad? Not a pale-face shall escape. She was safe
+here, where your own chief, the Black Partridge, placed her. Hear me.
+If harm befalls her, if by moonrise she is not restored to me, you
+shall bear the punishment. You----"
+
+By a gesture he stopped her. Now thoroughly frightened, the
+mischievous boy put up his arms as if to ward off the coming threat.
+Half credulous, and half doubtful that the Sun Maid was more than
+mortal, he had made a test for himself. He had remembered the
+Snowbird, fretting its high spirit out within the closed paddock, and
+a daring notion had seized him. It was this:
+
+"While the Woman-Who-Mourns gossips with her neighbors, I'll catch up
+the papoose and carry her there. She'll come fast enough. She ran away
+yesterday, and she played with me before the Spotted Adder's hut. She
+trusts everybody. I'll have some fun, even if my father didn't let me
+go with him to the camp yonder."
+
+Among all nations boyhood is the same--plays the same wild pranks,
+with equal disregard of consequences; and Osceolo would far rather
+have had a good time than a good supper. He thought he was having a
+perfectly fascinating good time when he bound a long blanket over the
+Snowbird's back and then fastened Kitty Briscoe in the folds of the
+blanket. He had laughed gayly as he clapped his hands and set the mare
+free, and the little one riding her had laughed and clapped also. He
+had watched them out of sight over the prairie, and had felt quite
+proud of himself.
+
+"If she is a spirit she'll come back safe; and if she's nothing but a
+white man's baby--why, that's all she is. Only a squaw child at that,
+though the silly women have made such ado. I wonder--will I ever see
+her again? Well, I'll go around by Wahneenah's tepee, after a while,
+and enjoy the worry. It's the smartest thing I've done yet; and she
+did look cunning, too. She wasn't a bit afraid--she isn't afraid of
+anything--which makes her better than most girl papooses, and she was
+laughing as hard as I was when she went away."
+
+With these thoughts, Osceolo had come back to the spot where Wahneenah
+met him and demanded if he knew aught of her charge; and there was no
+hilarity in his face now as he watched her enter her wigwam and drop
+its curtains behind her. He suddenly remembered--many things; and at
+thought of the Black Partridge's wrath he turned faint and sick.
+
+But the test had been made and no regret could recall it.
+
+Meanwhile, there came into his mind the fact: a black horse had just
+entered the village and a white one had gone out of it. The narrow
+superstition in which he had been reared taught him that the one
+brought misfortune and the other carried away happiness; and, in a
+redoubled terror at his own act and its consequences, Osceolo turned
+and fled.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE THREE GIFTS.
+
+
+"The Black Partridge has served his white friends faithfully. He
+should now remember his own people, and rest his heart among them,"
+said the White Pelican as he rode homeward beside his chief, not many
+hours after the massacre of the sandhills.
+
+The elder warrior lifted his bowed head, and regarded his nephew in
+sadness. His eyes had that far-away, dreamy look which was unusual
+among his race and had given him, at times, a strange power over his
+fellows. Because, unfortunately, the dreams were, after all, very
+practical, and the silent visions were of things that might have been
+averted.
+
+"The White Pelican, also, did well. He protected those whom he wished
+to kill. He did it for my sake. It shall not be forgotten, though the
+effort was useless. The end has begun."
+
+The younger brave touched his fine horse impatiently, and the animal
+sprang forward a few paces. As he did so, the rider caught a gleam of
+something white skimming along the horizon line, and wondered what it
+might be. But he had set out to attend his chief and, curbing his
+mount by a strong pull, whirled about and rode back to the side of
+Black Partridge.
+
+"What is the end that has begun, Man-Who-Cannot-Lie?"
+
+"The downfall of our nations. They have been as the trees of the
+forest and the grasses of the prairie. The trees shall be felled and
+the grasses shall be cut. The white man's hand shall accomplish both."
+
+"For once, the Truth-Teller is mistaken. We will wrest our lands back
+from the grasp of the pale-faces. We will learn their arts and conquer
+them with their own weapons. We will destroy their villages--few they
+are and widely scattered. Pouf! This morning's work is but a show of
+what is yet to come. As we did then, so we will do in the future. I,
+too, would go with my tribe to that other fort far beyond the Great
+Lake. I would help again to wipe away these usurpers from our homes,
+as I wipe--this, from my horse's flank. Only my promise to remain with
+my chief and my kinsman prevents."
+
+The youth had stooped and brushed a bit of grass bloom from the
+animal's shining skin; and as he raised his head again he looked
+inquiringly into the stern face of the other. Thus, indirectly, was
+he begging permission to join the contemplated raid upon another
+distant garrison.
+
+Black Partridge understood but ignored the silent petition. He had
+other, higher plans for the White Pelican. He would himself train the
+courageous youth to be as wise and diplomatic as he was brave. When
+the training was over, he should be sent to that distant land where
+the Great Father of the white men dwelt, and should there make a plea
+for the whole Indian race.
+
+"Would not a man who saved all this"--sweeping his arm around toward
+every point of the prairie--"to his people be better than one who
+killed a half-dozen pale-faces yet lost his home?"
+
+"Why--yes," said the other, regretfully. "But----"
+
+"But it is the last chance. The time draws near when not an Indian
+wigwam will dot this grand plain. Already, in the talk of the white
+men, there is the plan forming to send us westward. Many a day's
+journey will lie between us and this beloved spot. Our canoes will
+soon vanish from the Great Lake, and we shall cease to glide over our
+beautiful river. Hear me. It is fate. These people who have come to
+oust us from our birthright have been sent by the Great Spirit. It is
+His will. We have had our one day of life and of possession. They are
+to have theirs. Who will come after them and destroy them? They----"
+
+But the White Pelican could endure no more. The Black Partridge was
+not often in such a mood as this, stern and sombre though he might
+sometimes be, nor had his prophecies so far an outlook. That the
+Indians should ever be driven entirely away by their white enemies
+seemed a thing impossible to the stout-hearted young brave, and he
+spoke his mind freely.
+
+"My father has had sorrow this day, and his eyes are too dim to see
+clearly. Or he has eaten of the white man's food and it has turned his
+brain. Were it not for his dim eyesight, I would ask him to tell the
+White Pelican what that creature might be that darts and wheels and
+prances yonder"; and he pointed toward the western horizon.
+
+Now there was a hidden taunt in the warrior's words. No man in the
+whole Pottawatomie nation was reputed to have such clearness of
+eyesight as the Black Partridge. The readiness with which he could
+distinguish objects so distant as to be invisible to other men had
+passed into a proverb among his neighbors, who believed that his
+inward "visions" in some manner furthered this extraordinary outward
+eyesight.
+
+The chief flashed a scornful glance upon his attendant and, quite
+naturally, toward the designated object. White Pelican saw his gaze
+become intent and his indifference give way to amazement. Then, with a
+cry of alarm, that was half incredulity, the Black Partridge wheeled
+and struck out swiftly toward the west.
+
+"Ugh! It looked unusual, even to me, but my father has recognized
+something beyond my guessing. He rides like the wind, yet his horse
+was well spent an hour ago."
+
+Regardless of his own recent eagerness to be at Muck-otey-pokee, and
+relating the day's doings to an admiring circle of stay-at-homes, the
+young brave followed his leader. In a brief time they came up with a
+wild, high-spirited white horse, which rushed frantically from point
+to point in the vain hope of shaking from its back a burden to which
+it was not used.
+
+"Souls of my ancestors! It is--the Snowbird!"
+
+"It is the Sun Maid!" returned Black Partridge.
+
+But for all his straining vision, White Pelican could not make out
+that it was indeed that wonderful child who was wrapped and bundled in
+the long blanket and lashed to the Snowbird's back by many thongs of
+leather. Not until, by one dexterous swoop of his horsehair rope, the
+chief collared the terrified mare and brought her to her knees.
+
+"Cut the straps. Set the child free."
+
+The brave promptly obeyed; while the chief, holding the struggling
+mare with one hand, carefully drew the Sun Maid from her swathing
+blanket and laid her across his shoulder. Her little figure hung limp
+and relaxed where it was placed, and he saw that she had fainted.
+
+[Illustration: SNOWBIRD AND THE SUN MAID. _Page 68._]
+
+"Take her to that row of alder bushes yonder. There should be water
+there. I'll finish what has been begun, and prove whether this is a
+beast bewitched, or only a vicious mare that needs a master."
+
+The White Pelican would have preferred the horse-breaking to acting as
+child's nurse to this uncanny small maiden who had ridden a creature
+none other in his tribe would have attempted. But he did as he was
+bidden and laid the little one down in the cooling shade of the
+alders. Then he put the water on her face and forced a few drops
+between her parted lips. After that he fixed all his attention on the
+efforts of Black Partridge to bring into subjection the unbroken mare.
+
+However, the efforts were neither very severe nor long continued. Like
+many another, the Snowbird had received a worse name than she
+deserved, and she had already been well wearied by her wild gallop on
+the prairie. She had done her best to throw and kill the child which
+Osceolo had bound upon her back, but she had only succeeded in
+tightening the bands and exhausting both herself and her unconscious
+rider. More than that, Black Partridge had a will stronger than hers
+and it conquered.
+
+"Well, I did ride a long, long way, didn't I? Feather-man, did you put
+Kitty on the nice cool grass? Will you give Kitty another drink of
+water? I guess I'm pretty tired, ain't I?"
+
+These words recalled the White Pelican's attention to his charge.
+
+"Ugh! It's a wonder you're alive."
+
+"Is it? I rode till I got so sleepy I couldn't see. The sky kept
+whirling and whirling, and the sun did come right down into my face.
+And I got so twisted up I couldn't breathe. I guess--I guess I don't
+much love that Osceolo. He said it would be fun, and it was--a while.
+But he didn't come, too, and--I'm glad I'm here now. Who's that
+walking? Oh! my own Black Partridge, the nicest Feather-man there is!"
+
+The Sun Maid sat up and lifted her arms to be taken, while she
+bestowed upon the chief one of her sweetest smiles. But he received it
+gravely, and regarded the child in her new Indian dress with critical
+scrutiny. Who had thus clothed her he could not surmise, for too short
+a time had elapsed since he had taken her to his village for his
+sister to prepare these well-fitting garments. Finally, superstition
+began to influence him also, as it had influenced the weaker-minded
+people at Muck-otey-pokee, as he spoke to the White Pelican, rather
+than to the child.
+
+"Place her upon the Snowbird. They belong to each other, though I know
+not how they found one another."
+
+"Osceolo," answered the younger brave, tersely.
+
+"Humph! Then there's more of black spirits than white in this affair.
+However, I have spoken. Place the Sun Maid on the Snowbird's back."
+
+Kitty would have objected and strongly; but there was something so
+unusually stern in the elder warrior's face and so full of hatred in
+that of the younger that she was bewildered and wisely kept silence.
+
+Having made a comfortable saddle out of the long blanket, they seated
+her again upon the white mare's back, and each on either side, they
+led her slowly toward Muck-otey-pokee. But the little one had again
+fallen asleep long before they reached it, and now there could have
+been no gentler mount for so helpless a rider than this suddenly tamed
+White Snowbird.
+
+At the entrance to the village Wahneenah met them. She had again put
+on her mourning garb, and her hair was unplaited, while the lines of
+her face had deepened perceptibly. She had lamented to Katasha:
+
+"The Great Spirit sent me back my lost ones in the form of the Sun
+Maid, and because of my own carelessness and sternness He has recalled
+her. Now is our separation complete, and not even in the Unknown Land
+shall I find them again."
+
+But the One-Who-Knows had answered, impatiently:
+
+"Leave be. Whatever is must happen. The child is safe. Nothing can
+harm her. Has she not the three gifts? The White Necklace from the
+shore of the Sea-without-end?[1] The White Bow from the eternal north?
+and the White Snowbird, into which entered the white soul of a
+blameless virgin? Have I not clothed her with the garb of our people?
+You are a fool, Wahneenah. Go hide in your wigwam, and keep silence."
+
+[Footnote 1: Pacific Ocean.]
+
+This was good advice, but Wahneenah couldn't take it. She was too
+human, too motherly, and under all her superstition, too sure of the
+Sun Maid's real flesh-and-blood existence to be easily comforted. So
+she went, instead, to the outskirts of the settlement to watch for
+what might be coming of good or ill. And so she came all the sooner to
+find her lost darling, and she vowed within herself that never again,
+so long as her own life should last, would she lose sight of that
+precious golden head.
+
+"My Girl-Child! My White Papoose, Beloved! Found again! But how could
+you?"
+
+"I did get runned away with myself this time, nice Other Mother. Don't
+look at Kitty that way. Kitty is very hungry. Nice Black Partridge
+Feather-man did find me, riding and riding and riding. The pretty
+Snowbird had lots of wings, I guess, for she flew and flew and flew.
+But I didn't see Osceolo. He couldn't have come, could he? I thought
+he was coming, too, when he clapped his hands and shooed me off so
+fast. Where is he?"
+
+That was what several were desirous to learn. The affair had turned
+out much better than might have been expected, but there would be a
+day of reckoning for the village torment when he and its chief should
+chance to meet.
+
+Knowing this, Osceolo remained in hiding for some time. Until, indeed,
+his curiosity got the better of his discretion. This happened when the
+Man-Who-Kills came stealing to his retreat and begged his assistance.
+
+"I want you to take my white boy-captive and lead him to the tepee of
+the Woman-Who-Mourns. My wife Sorah will not have him in her wigwam.
+She says that from the moment that other white child, the Sun Maid,
+came to the lodge of Wahneenah, there has been trouble without end,
+even though all the three charms against evil have been bestowed upon
+her. There are no charms for this dark boy, but there's always trouble
+enough (where Sorah is). He's so worn and unhappy, he'll make no
+objection, but will follow like a dog. He neither speaks nor sleeps
+nor eats. I have no use for a fool, I. You do it, Osceolo, and you'll
+see what I will give you in reward! Also, if the Woman-Who-Mourns has
+lost the Sun Maid, maybe this Dark-Eye will be a better stayer."
+
+"But what will you give me, Man-Who-Kills? I--I think I'd rather not
+meddle any more with the family of my chief."
+
+"Ugh! Are a coward, eh? Never mind. There are other lads at
+Muck-otey-pokee, and plenty of plunder in my wigwam."
+
+"All right. Come along, Dark-Eye. Might as well be Dark-Brow, too, for
+he looks like a night without stars. What will you do with his horse,
+Man-Who-Kills?"
+
+"Let you ride it for me, sometimes."
+
+"I can do it"; and without further delay, leading the utterly passive
+and disheartened Gaspar, the Indian lad set off for Wahneenah's home.
+The captive had no expectation of anything but the most dreadful fate,
+and his tired brain reeled at the remembrance of what he might yet
+undergo. Yet, what use to resist?
+
+Meanwhile, Osceolo, confident that all the braves whom he need fear
+were still absent from the village, started his charge along the trail
+at a rapid pace, and reached the wigwam of the Woman-Who-Mourns at
+the very moment when Black Partridge, White Pelican, and the Sun Maid
+came riding to it from the prairie.
+
+She was alive, then! She was, in truth, a "spirit"! His
+mischievousness had had no power to harm her, she was exempt from any
+ill that might befall another, she had come back to--How could such an
+innocent-appearing creature punish one who had so misled her?
+
+He had no time to guess. For the child had caught sight of the stupid
+lad he was leading, and with a cry of ecstacy had sprung from the
+Snowbird and landed plump upon the prisoner's shoulders.
+
+"Gaspar! My Gaspar, my Gaspar! Mine, mine, mine!"
+
+It was a transformation scene. The white boy had staggered under
+the unexpected assault of his old playmate, but he had instantly
+recognized her. With a cry as full of joy as her own, he clasped
+her close, and showered his kisses on her upturned face.
+
+"Kitty! why, Kitty! You aren't dead, then? You are not hurt? And we
+thought--oh, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty!"
+
+Clinging to each other, they slipped to the ground, too absorbed in
+themselves to notice anything else; while Osceolo watched them in
+almost equal absorption.
+
+But he was roused sooner than they. A hand fell on his shoulder. A
+hand whose touch could be as gentle as a woman's, but was now like a
+steel band crushing the very bones.
+
+"Osceolo!"
+
+"Yes, Black Partridge," quavered the terrified lad.
+
+"You will come to my tepee. Alone!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+A THREEFOLD CORD IS STRONGEST.
+
+
+"She is a spirit. I know that nothing can harm her. Yet many
+things can harm me. I have no desire to suffer any further anxiety.
+Therefore--this. My Girl-Child, my White Papoose, come here."
+
+The Sun Maid reluctantly obeyed. It was the morning after her perilous
+ride on the back of an untamed horse and her joyful reunion with
+Gaspar, her old playmate of the Fort. The two were now just without
+the wigwam of Wahneenah, sitting clasped in each other's arms, as if
+fearful that a fresh separation awaited them should they once
+relinquish this tight hold of one another; and it was in much the same
+feeling that the foster-mother regarded them.
+
+"But why, Other Mother? I do love my Gaspar boy. I did know him
+always."
+
+"You've known me two years, Kitty," corrected the truthful lad. "But I
+suppose that is as long as you can remember. You're such a baby."
+
+"How old is the Sun Maid--as you white people reckon ages?" asked
+Wahneenah.
+
+"She is five years old. Her birthday was on the Fourth of July. We had
+a celebration. Our Captain fired as many rounds of ammunition as she
+was years old. The mothers made her a cake, with sugar on the top, and
+with five little candles they made themselves on purpose, and colored
+with strawberry juice. Oh, surely, there never was such a cake in all
+the world as they made for our 'baby!'" cried the lad, forgetting for
+the moment present troubles in this delightful memory.
+
+"Well, there are other women who can make other cakes," said
+Wahneenah, with ready jealousy.
+
+"Oh, but an Indian cake--" began Gaspar, then stopped abruptly,
+frightened at his own boldness.
+
+Wahneenah smiled. For small Kitty was swift to see the change in her
+playmate's face, and her own caught, for an instant, a reflection of
+its fear. The foster-mother wished to banish this fear.
+
+"Wahneenah likes those who say their thoughts out straight and clear.
+She is the sister of the Man-Who-Cannot-Lie. It is the crime of the
+pale-faces that they will lie, and always. Wherefore, they are always
+in danger. Take warning. Learn to be truth-tellers, like the
+Pottawatomies, and you will have no trouble."
+
+A quick retort rose to Gaspar's lips, but he subdued it. Then he
+watched what was being done to Kitty, and a faint smile brightened his
+face, that had been so far too gloomy for his years. Wahneenah had
+made a long rope of horsehair, gaily adorned with beads and trinkets,
+and was fastening it about the Sun Maid's waist. The little one
+submitted merrily, at first; but when it flashed through her mind that
+she was thus being made a prisoner, being "tied up," she burst into a
+paroxysm of tears and temper that astonished the others, and even
+herself.
+
+"I will not be 'tied up!' I was not a naughty girl. When I am bad, I
+will be punished, and I will not cry nor stamp my feet. But when I am
+good, I will be free--free! There shall nobody, nobody do this to me!
+Not any single body. Gaspar, will you let her do it?"
+
+The boy's timidity flew to the winds. His dark eyes flashed with
+indignation, and his heavy brows contracted in a fierce scowl. At that
+instant, he appeared much older than he really was, and he advanced
+upon Wahneenah with upraised hand and threatening gesture.
+
+She might easily have picked him up and tossed him out of the way; but
+there is nothing an Indian woman admires more greatly than courage. In
+this she does not differ from her pale-faced sisters, and, instead of
+resenting Gaspar's rudeness, she smiled upon him.
+
+"That is right, Dark-Eye. It is a warrior's duty to protect his
+women. You are not yet a warrior, nor is the Sun Maid yet a woman, but
+as you begin so you will continue. Hear me. Let us make compact. I was
+fastening the child for her own good, not in punishment. Is that a
+white mother's custom? Well, this is better. Let us three pledge our
+word: each to watch over and protect the other so long as our lives
+last. The Great Spirit sent the Sun Maid into my arms, by the hands of
+Black Partridge, my brother and my chief. The meanest Indian in
+Muck-otey-pokee brought you to the village, and the meanest boy to my
+wigwam. But when the chief saw you, he took you by the hand, and gave
+you, also, to me. A triple bond is the strongest. Shall we clasp hand
+upon it?"
+
+It was a curious proceeding for one so much older than these children,
+but it was in profoundest earnest. Wahneenah recognized in Gaspar a
+representative of a race whose wisdom exceeded that of her own, even
+if, as she believed, its morality was of a lower standard. But her
+brother and the other braves had already told her of his great courage
+on the day before, and of his wonderful skill with the bow and arrow.
+He had done a man's work, even though a stripling, and she would
+accord him a man's honor. As for the Sun Maid, despite her very
+human-like temper, she was, of course, a being above mortal, and
+therefore fit to "compact" with anybody, even had it been the case
+with one as venerable as old Katasha. So she felt that there was
+nothing derogatory to her own dignity in her request.
+
+Gaspar fixed his piercing eyes upon Wahneenah's face, and studied it
+carefully.
+
+The penetration of a child is keen, and not easily deceived. What he
+read in the Indian woman's unflinching gaze satisfied him, for after
+this brief delay, he lay his thin boyish hand within the extended palm
+in entire trust. Of course, what Gaspar did Kitty was bound to do. To
+her it was a game, and her own plump little fingers closed about the
+backs of the lad's with a mischievous pinch. Already her anger had
+disappeared, and her sunny face was dimpling with laughter.
+
+"Kitty was dreadful bad, wasn't she? She wouldn't be tied up first,
+because she wasn't naughty. Now she has been bad as bad, she did stamp
+and scream so; and she may be tied, if Other Mother wishes. Do you,
+nice Other Mother? It is a very pretty string. It wouldn't hurt, I
+guess."
+
+But Wahneenah's desire to fasten her ward to the lodge-pole had
+vanished. She would far rather trust the true, loving eyes of the boy
+Gaspar than the stoutest horsehair rope ever woven.
+
+"We will tie nobody. But hear me, my children, for you are both mine
+now. In this village are many friends and more enemies. Braves and
+their families, from other villages and other branches of our tribe,
+have raised their tepees here. It is easier for them to do this than
+to build villages of their own, and we are hospitable people. When a
+guest comes to us, he must stay until he chooses to go away again, and
+there are none who would bid them depart. Some of other tribes than
+our own are also here. It is they who are stirring up much mischief.
+They are giving the Black Partridge anxiety; they will not be wise.
+They will not learn that their only safety lies in friendship with
+the white faces. Therefore the heart of our chief is heavy with
+foreboding. He has the inner vision. To him all things are clear that
+to us are quite invisible. This is his command to me, ere he departed
+in the dawn of this day, to seek our friends who were of the Fort, and
+help them in their need, if need again arises. Listen to the words of
+Black Partridge:
+
+"'Have these white children trained to ride as an Indian rides. The
+boy Gaspar is to be given the black gelding, Tempest, for his very
+own. I shall see the man who owns it, and I will pay his cost. The
+White Snowbird belongs to the Sun Maid. Let nobody else dare touch the
+mare, except to handle it in care. The day is coming when they will
+need to ride fast and far, and with more skill than on yesterday. The
+Snake-Who-Leaps is the best horseman in our tribe. I have bidden him
+come to this tepee when the sun crosses the meridian. He is friendly
+to these prisoners, because they are mine, and he will guide them
+well.'"
+
+Gaspar's eyes had opened to their widest extent. The words he had
+heard seemed incredible; yet he was shrewd and practical by nature,
+and he promptly inquired:
+
+"Why? Why will the Indian chief bestow so rich a gift upon his white
+boy-prisoner? For if he buys Tempest from the Captain he will have to
+pay big money. There isn't another like the black gelding this side
+that far-away Kentucky where he was bred."
+
+"Hear me, Gaspar Keith; prisoner, if you will. But I would rather call
+you an adopted son of the Black Partridge, and by your new name of
+Dark-Eye. This is the reason: In these troubles which are coming, you
+may not only serve yourself, the Sun Maid, and me, by having as your
+own the gelding Tempest, but you may help the helpless, also. In this
+one village of Muck-otey-pokee are many old and many very young. The
+Spotted Adder was the oldest man I ever knew, and though he has died
+just now, there are others almost of his age. They ought to die, too,
+and not burden better people. But nobody dies who should while those
+who should not are snatched away like a feather on the breeze."
+
+Here Wahneenah became absorbed in her own reflections, and was so long
+silent that Kitty stole her arms about the woman's neck and kissed the
+dark face to remind her that they were still listening.
+
+"Yes, beloved, Child of the Sunshine and Love! You do well to call me
+back. Let the dead rest. You are the living. I will remember only
+you," and she laid the little one against her heart.
+
+"Gaspar, too, Other Mother," suggested the loyal little maid.
+
+But Gaspar was quite able to speak for himself.
+
+"No decent white person would wish the old to die!" he exclaimed,
+hotly. "There was a grandmother at our Fort, and she was the best
+loved, the best cared for, of all the women. That is what a white boy
+thinks, even if he is an Indian's prisoner!"
+
+"Ugh! So? You are an odd youth, Dark-Eye. As timid as a wild pigeon
+one minute, and the next--flouting your chief's sister."
+
+"I don't mean that, Wahneenah. I--I only--I don't just know what I do
+mean, except that it seems cowardly to wish the old should die. If you
+should grow very, very old some day, and Kitty and I should not be--be
+nice to you, then you would understand what I feel, if I cannot say it
+rightly."
+
+Wahneenah laughed.
+
+"Your halting speech makes me happy, Dark-Eye. Kitty and you and I;
+still all together, even when age shall have dimmed my sight and
+dulled my hearing. It is well. I am satisfied. But hear me. Herein
+lies the trouble: when folks are young they forget that they will ever
+be old. That is a mistake. One should remember that youth flies away,
+fast, fast. They should teach themselves wisdom. They should learn to
+be skilled in the things which will make them lovely when they are
+old. For, despite your judgment, there are some among us whom we would
+keep till all generations are past. Katasha, the One-Who-Knows; and
+the Snake-Who-Leaps--why, he is older even than Katasha. Yet there is
+nobody can ride a horse, or shoot a flying bird, or bring in the game
+that he can. He is the friend of his chief. He is the most honored one
+in our whole village. Why? Because he makes few promises, and breaks
+none. He has never lowered his manhood by drinking the fire-water that
+addles one's brains and sets the limbs a-tremble. He has talked little
+and done much. He is One-To-Be-Trusted. That was his name in his
+youth, when he began to practise all his virtues. The other name came
+afterward, because of the swift punishment he can also inflict upon
+his enemies. You would do well to pattern after your teacher,
+Dark-Eye."
+
+Gaspar listened respectfully; but this sounded so very much like the
+"lectures" he had received at the Fort that it had less originality
+than most of Wahneenah's conversations; and, besides that, he had just
+espied, approaching over the village street, a tall Indian leading the
+black gelding and Snowbird. Behind this man walked Osceolo; but
+greatly changed from the bullying youth whom Gaspar had met on the
+previous day.
+
+Whatever had occurred in the closed tepee of Black Partridge, when its
+door flaps fell behind himself and the lad he had ordered to accompany
+him, nobody knew; but, whatever it was, Osceolo was certainly--at
+least for the time being--a changed young person.
+
+He walked along behind the Snake-Who-Leaps in a meek, subdued manner
+quite new to him, but which immediately impressed Dark-Eye as being a
+vast improvement on his former bearing. He paused, when ordered to
+"Halt!" by the old man, as if he had been stricken into a wooden
+image, and only when requested to take the Snowbird's bridle did he
+make any other motion.
+
+"Why, Osceolo! What's the matter?" asked the Sun Maid, running toward
+him in surprise.
+
+But he did not answer, and she was hastily snatched back by the strong
+hand of the foster-mother.
+
+"The Girl-Child speaks to none who is in disgrace."
+
+"But I will speak to anybody who is unhappy, Other Mother! I cannot
+help that, can I? One day, Osceolo was all laughing and clapping; and
+now--now he looks like Peter Wilson did after his father had whipped
+him with a musket. Did anybody whip you with a musket, poor, poor
+Osceolo?"
+
+Not a sign from the disgraced youth.
+
+"Has you lost your tongue, too? Well as your eyes, that you can't look
+up? Never mind, Osceolo. Kitty is sorry for you. Some day Kitty will
+let you ride her beau'ful White Snowbird; some day."
+
+"The Sun Maid will first learn to ride the Snowbird, herself,"
+corrected the Snake-Who-Leaps. "She will begin now."
+
+With unquestioning confidence, a confidence that Gaspar did not share,
+she ran back to the old warrior's side, and stood on tiptoe to be
+lifted into place.
+
+"Ugh!" he grunted in satisfaction. "That is well. The one who has no
+fear has already conquered the wildest animal. But the White Snowbird
+is not wild. She has been given an evil name, and it has clung to her
+as evil always clings," and the One-To-Be-Trusted turned to give his
+silent attendant a meaning glance. But Osceolo had not yet raised his
+gaze from the ground, and the reproof fell pointless.
+
+Nobody had observed that, from another direction, another youth had
+quietly led up a beautiful chestnut horse, whose cream-colored mane
+and tail would have made it a conspicuous object anywhere; but
+Wahneenah had expected this addition to their equestrian party and, as
+she turned to look for it, exclaimed in pleasure at its prompt
+appearance.
+
+The Snake-Who-Leaps heard her ejaculation, and evinced his disgust.
+
+"Ugh! Is it to teach a lot of women and a worthless pale-faced lad
+that I have left the comfort of my own lodge this hot summer day?"
+
+"The old forget. It was long ago, when I was no bigger than the Sun
+Maid here, that the One-To-Be-Trusted took me behind him on a wild
+ride over the prairie. It was the only lesson he ever gave--or needed
+to give--_me_. I will show him that I am still young enough to
+remember!" cried Wahneenah, with all the gayety of girlhood, and with
+so complete a change in her appearance that it was easy to see how she
+had come to be named The Happy.
+
+Even before the teacher had settled the Sun Maid in her tiny blanket
+saddle, Wahneenah had sprung upon the chestnut's back. As she touched
+it, a clear, determined, if very youthful voice, shouted behind her:
+
+"I am a white man! No Indian shall ever teach me a thing that I can
+learn for myself!"
+
+For suddenly Gaspar remembered the wrongs he had suffered at the
+red men's hands, and leaped to Tempest's back unaided. Another
+instant, and the trio of riders dashed away from Muck-otey-pokee in a
+mad rush that left their disgruntled instructor in doubt which was the
+better pupil of them all.
+
+"Who begins slow finishes fast; but who begins fast may never live to
+finish slow," he remarked, sententiously; then observing that Osceolo
+had, for the first time, raised his eyes, he promptly laid a heavy
+hand upon the youth's shoulder and wheeled him about.
+
+"To my wigwam--march!"
+
+And Osceolo marched--exactly as if all his limbs were sticks and his
+joints mechanical.
+
+"Ugh! So? Like the jointed dolls of the papooses, eh? Very good. Keep
+at it. From now till those three return, dead or alive, my fine young
+warrior, you shall be my pupil. You have set me the pace you like. You
+may keep at it. From the locust tree east of my lodge to the pawpaw on
+the west, as the branch swings in the wind, so shall you swing. Ugh!
+May they ride far and long. One--two--commence!"
+
+It was noonday when he began that weary, weary automatic "step,
+step"; but when the last rays of the sun had disappeared beyond the
+prairie, Osceolo was still enduring his discipline, and making his
+pendulum-like journey from locust-tree to pawpaw, from pawpaw to
+locust. His head swam, his sight dimmed, but still sat stolid
+Snake-Who-Leaps in the entrance of his tepee, "instructing" the
+only pupil fate had left him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+AN ISLAND RETREAT.
+
+
+Under the incentive of love and excitement--heightened by a tinge of
+jealousy--all Wahneenah's former skill in horsemanship returned to
+her. When the Snake-Who-Leaps lifted the Sun Maid to the back of the
+Snowbird the woman felt an unreasoning anger against him. She could
+not patiently endure to have any other hand than her own touch the
+small body of her adopted child, upon whom had now centred all the
+pent-up affection of her starved heart.
+
+"If my darling must be taught, I will teach her myself!" she suddenly
+resolved, and promptly acted upon the resolution. Previously, and when
+she ordered the chestnut to be brought to her tepee, she had merely
+intended to ride in company with the others and in a limited circle
+about the village. Now a mad impulse seized her to be off over the
+prairie, farther than sight could reach, and on half-forgotten trails
+once familiar to her. It was the first time she had mounted any animal
+since her widowhood.
+
+When she heard Gaspar's daring declaration, she thrilled with delight.
+All the savage in her nature roused to enjoy this wild escapade, and,
+catching firm hold of the Sun Maid's bridle rein, she nodded over her
+shoulder to the lad, and led the way northward.
+
+"It's like that strange fairy story, in the book given Peter Wilson,
+that came from way over in England, and was the only one in the world,
+I guess. Was the only one at our Fort, anyway," thought Gaspar, as he
+followed in equal speed, and at imminent risk of his life. For a
+night's rest had restored the black gelding to all his spirit, and had
+the boy attempted to guide or control him there would have been
+serious trouble.
+
+As it was, Gaspar confined his efforts to just sticking on, and had
+all he could do at that; but after a short distance, the three horses
+broke into an even lope, keeping well together, and all under the
+command of the Indian woman.
+
+"Oh, I love it!" she cried, the rich blood flaming under her dusky
+skin, her eyes sparkling, and her long black hair streaming on the
+wind which their own motion created.
+
+"Kitty loves it--too--Kitty guesses!" echoed the child, entering into
+the other's mood with quick sympathy. Indeed, she was the safer of the
+three. There is a hidden understanding between horses and children,
+and numberless instances prove how carefully even an untamed beast
+will treat a little child--if nobody interferes. But let an adult
+attempt to avert a seeming danger, and the animal will promptly throw
+the responsibility on human shoulders, and act out its own mood at its
+own will.
+
+Wahneenah understood this, and, simply leaving her hand upon the
+Snowbird's rein, but quite without any pressure, rode where that
+frolicsome creature chose to lead. A strap, which the Snake-Who-Leaps
+had fastened around the waist of the Sun Maid, held her securely to
+her saddle, though her small hands clutched the flying mane of her
+mount so tightly that she could not well have been shaken off.
+
+It was a rough school in which to learn so dangerous an art, but it
+sufficed; and that one day's ride did more to help Gaspar and Kitty to
+good horsemanship than all the instruction they afterward received.
+
+"How far--nice Other Mother?" asked the little girl, when the three
+horses of their own accord began to slacken speed.
+
+"Not far now, papoose. See yonder, where the trees fringe the river?
+Among those trees is a wonderful spot I know. I've not seen it for
+years, but in its shelter my warrior and I spent many happy hours.
+There we used to take our son, and tell him the story of his people.
+It was a hiding-place, in the ancient years, when enemies of the
+Pottawatomies were on the war-path, and the chief would save his women
+and children. But nobody remembers that trail, at this late day,
+except those of my father's house. Besides me, not one soul lives who
+could find his way thither, save Black Partridge. It is even many
+moons since he has talked with me about it, and he may not recall it
+still. Though he is a man who never forgets, and the knowledge is
+doubtless merely sleeping in his brain."
+
+Kitty Briscoe understood but little of this speech, but Gaspar's
+interest was roused. Amid the discipline and routine of his old
+life at the Fort, his lighter, gayer qualities had lain dormant,
+but they were now rapidly awakening under the influence of his
+recent adventures. It was impossible, too, for anybody to be long
+with Wahneenah, in her present mood, without catching her spirit
+and gayety; and though the Sun Maid comprehended little save the
+liveliness of her companions, she could enter into that with all her
+heart.
+
+Therefore, it was a merry party which came at last to the river bank,
+where the horses were glad to pause for rest, and where they would
+eagerly have slaked their thirst, had they been permitted.
+
+"But that won't do, Wahneenah, will it? At our Fort we never watered
+a horse when it was warm. The Captain said they would be ruined, so."
+
+"You do well to remember all the wisdom you have been taught,
+Dark-Eye. Here, let me show you something even a white man may not
+know. How to tether a horse with a rope of prairie grass, made in a
+moment, but strong enough to last for long."
+
+"Lift me off, Other Mother," cried Kitty, from the Snowbird's back,
+and Wahneenah swung her down.
+
+"Now, Dark-Eye, pull as much of this rush grass as your arms can hold.
+It will take a heap for three ropes."
+
+"Have the pretty ponies been naughty? Must they be tied up, too?"
+
+"Not because they are bad, but because they are good, papoose! That is
+the way of life. It is full of contradictions. But, don't wrinkle your
+pretty brows puzzling what you cannot understand. Run and help the
+Dark-Eye pull the long grasses."
+
+It was so wonderful to see Wahneenah's skilful fingers twist and turn
+and thread the slender blades in and out that both children were
+fascinated by her deftness; and though Gaspar could not at all catch
+the trick of this curious weaving, he resolved to practise it in
+private till he could equal, or excel, this example. Again his
+ambition arose to prove that a pale-face was always superior to an
+Indian, and his dark eyes gazed so fixedly upon Wahneenah's flying
+fingers that she laughed, and demanded:
+
+"Are you jealous, my son? But there's no need. Nothing that I know
+will be hidden from you, if you choose to be taught. But, come. Take
+this rope that is finished. Twist it about the gelding's neck--so; now
+pass it downward between his front legs and hobble him by the right
+hind one. No, he'll not resist. Try it. Then you'll see that he'll
+neither nibble at his tether nor run away from us."
+
+Gaspar was too proud to show that he somewhat dreaded interfering with
+the restless legs of the spirited Tempest, and to his astonishment he
+found that the animal submitted very quietly to the tying. This may
+have been because Wahneenah stood by its beautiful head and murmured
+some soft sounds into its dainty ears. Though what the murmuring meant
+nobody save herself and Tempest understood. In like manner, and very
+quickly, all three horses were fastened in the shade of the trees, and
+as soon as they had cooled sufficiently, Gaspar was bidden to water
+them.
+
+Then the Sun Maid was called from her play among the wild flowers that
+fringed the bank, and made to walk behind Wahneenah's skirts.
+
+"Cling close, my Girl-Child! We're going into fairyland. Bow your
+pretty head till it is low--low--low down, like this"; and herself
+bending till her own head was very near the earth, the guide pushed
+forward into what appeared to be a solid tangle of bushes.
+
+"Why, Wahneenah! You can't go through there. It's a regular hedge. But
+if you want to try, I have a little knife in my pocket, that my
+Captain gave me. Let me go first--I am the man--and cut the way;
+though I don't see why. Isn't there a better place?"
+
+"There are many things a lad of ten cannot understand, Dark-Eye, even
+though he be as manly as you. Trust Wahneenah. An Indian never
+forgets, and never makes the haste that destroys. Watch me. Learn a
+lesson in woodcraft that will be useful to you more than once. Cut or
+broken twigs have tongues which betray. But thus--even a bird could
+find no trace."
+
+With infinite patience and accuracy of touch, the woman parted the
+slender, interwoven branches so delicately that scarcely a leaf was
+bruised, and little by little opened a clear passage into a downward
+sloping tunnel. This tunnel ran directly under the river bed, and was
+so steep in places that one might easily have coasted over it.
+
+"Why, how queer! It's like the underground passage from the Fort to
+the river, where we children used to peep, but were never allowed to
+enter. What is it? Why is it?"
+
+"Let your eyes ask and answer their own questions. They are safer than
+a tongue, my son. But fear nothing. Where Wahneenah leads the way for
+the children whom the Great Spirit has sent her they may safely
+follow."
+
+Then, without further speech, she went forward for what seemed a long
+distance, through the half light of the tunnel, until it opened into a
+wide chamber, across which trickled a clear stream and which was
+fanned by a strong current of air.
+
+The children were silent from curiosity, not unmixed with dread; and
+their guide had also become very grave and silent. Memories were
+crowding upon her soul, and banishing the present; but she was roused
+at length by the wild clutch of the Sun Maid's arms, as something
+winged swept by them in the twilight.
+
+"Other Mother! Other Mother! I--I don't like it! Take Kitty, quick!"
+
+"Ah! I was dreaming. My dead walked here beside me, and I forgot. But
+is the Sun Maid ever afraid? I did not think that. Well, it's over
+now. The gloomy passage, the big, dark room--See?"
+
+Suddenly, at a turn westward out of the chamber and beyond it, they
+entered upon what might, indeed, have been fairyland. The exit was
+another passage, rising gently to a rock- and tree-sheltered nook in
+the heart of a tiny island. From any outward point this retreat was
+invisible, and when they had emerged upon it the Indian woman's
+spirits rose again. She caught up the Sun Maid and tossed her lightly
+upon a bending branch, that seemed to have grown expressly for a
+child's swing.
+
+"My warrior trained that bough for our son's pleasure, and from it he
+rocked and danced as a tiny papoose. Now--in you, he lives again.
+Hold, Dark-Eye! What are you seeking?"
+
+"Oh, just nothing! I was poking around to see----"
+
+"If you could find anything to eat? The wild blackberries should grow
+just yonder, and, wait--I'll look."
+
+"For what will you look, Other Mother? Aren't these the prettiest
+posies yet?" and Kitty held upward a cluster of cardinal flowers which
+she had pulled from a mass by the water's edge.
+
+"Ah, they are alive! They have the heart of fire. But, take care. It
+is always wet where they grow and small feet slip easily. If you were
+to soil your pretty clothes, old Katasha might be angry."
+
+"I'll take care. May I have all I can gather?"
+
+"All. Every one."
+
+Then Wahneenah returned into the cave and to a niche in its wall
+where, years before, she had put a store of dried corn, some salt, and
+a bit of tinder. The articles had been stored in earthen jugs, and it
+was just possible they might be found in good condition. If they were,
+she would show the man-child how to catch a fish out of the little
+stream in the cavern, where the delicate trout were apt to hide. Then
+they would make a fire as they had used in the old days, and she would
+cook for these white children such a supper as her own dear ones had
+enjoyed.
+
+"See, Gaspar, Dark-Eye. I will fetch you a line and hook. Sit quiet
+and draw out our supper--when it bites!"
+
+"But I have a far better hook than that in my pocket; and a line the
+Sauganash gave me, one day. I am a good fisher, Wahneenah. How many
+fish do you want for your supper?"
+
+"You are a good boaster, any way, pale-face, like all your race; and I
+want just as many fish as will satisfy our hunger. If you had your bow
+here, you might wing us a bird. Though that would not be wise, maybe.
+Keep an eye to the Sun Maid, lest she slip in the brook."
+
+"This is a funny place. It is an island, isn't it? Like the pictures
+in my geography; and there is a little creek through it, and another
+in a cave, and--I think it is beautiful. But you're funny, too,
+Wahneenah. You say my Kitty is a 'spirit,' and 'nothing can harm
+her,' yet you watch out for her getting hurt closer than the other
+mothers did."
+
+"You see too much, Dark-Eye. But--well, she is a spirit in a girl's
+body. If you let evil happen her it will be the worse for you. Hear
+me?"
+
+"I wouldn't let her get into trouble any sooner than you would,
+Wahneenah. I love her, too. She hasn't any folks, and I haven't any,
+except you, of course. She belongs to me."
+
+"Oh! she does? Well. Enough. We all belong to each other. We have made
+the bond."
+
+When the woman returned from her search in the cavern her face was
+very grave. Yet it should have been delighted, for she had found not
+only the corn and the other things she remembered, but a goodly store
+of articles, quite too fresh and modern to have remained there since
+she last visited the spot. There were dried beans, salted beef, cakes
+of sugar from her old maple trees--she knew her own mark upon them;
+and, besides these, were flour and tea in packages, such as had been
+distributed from Fort Dearborn among as many Indians as were entitled
+to receive them. It was both puzzling and disappointing to find her
+retreat discovered and appropriated by somebody else.
+
+"It must be that Shut-Hand has, in some way, found this cavern out.
+All the other people would have eaten and enjoyed their good things,
+and not stored them up, like this. But he is crafty and secretive, and
+his name is his character."
+
+Had Wahneenah hunted further she would have found, in addition to the
+provisions, a considerable quantity of broadcloth, calico, and paint;
+which articles, also, had been among those recently secured from the
+garrison. But she neither examined very closely nor touched anything
+except that for which she had come to the recess; and she even forced
+herself to put the matter out of mind, for the time being.
+
+"I have brought my children here to make a holiday for them. I will
+not, therefore, darken it by my forebodings. The young live only in
+the present or the future. I, too, will again become young. I will
+forget all that is past."
+
+From that wonderful pocket of his, Gaspar took a decent hook and
+line, and easily proved his skill among fish that were too seldom
+disturbed to have learned any fear; while Wahneenah made a tiny fire
+of dried twigs, in the mouth of the cavern, and boiled her prepared
+corn, that she had broken and ground between two stones, into a sort
+of mush. With Gaspar's fish, broiled upon the live coals, the pudding
+sweetened by a bit of honey from a close sealed crock, and a draught
+of water from the underground stream, the trio made a fine supper;
+and afterward, when she had carefully cleared away the _debris_,
+Wahneenah rekindled the fire, and, sitting beside it, took the Sun
+Maid on her knee and drew the motherless Dark-Eye within the shelter
+of her arm.
+
+Then she told them tales and legends of the wide prairies and distant
+mountains; and her own manner gave them thrilling interest, because
+she believed in them quite as sincerely as did her small, wide-eyed
+listeners.
+
+"Tell it once more, Other Mother. That beau'ful one 'bout the little
+papoose that hadn't any shoes, and the flowers growed her some. Just
+like mine"; holding up her own tiny moccasined feet, and rubbing them
+together in the comfortable heat.
+
+"Once upon a time a little girl papoose was lost. The enemies of her
+people had come to her father's village, and had scattered all her
+tribe. There was not one of them left alive except the little maid."
+
+"I guess that's just like Kitty, isn't it?"
+
+"No. No, it is not," replied the story-teller, quickly. For she had
+felt a shiver run through Gaspar's body, and pressed it close in
+warm protection. "No. It is not like either of you. For to you
+is Wahneenah, the Mother; the sister of a chief who lives and is
+powerful. But this was away in the long past, before even I was born.
+So the girl papoose found herself wandering on the prairie, and it
+was the time of frost. The ground was frozen beneath the grasses,
+which were stiff and rough and cut the tender feet that a mother's
+hand had hitherto carried in her own palm."
+
+"Show me how, Mother Wahneenah."
+
+"Just this way Sweetheart," clasping the tiny moccasins in a loving
+caress.
+
+"Tell some more. I guess the fire is going to make Kitty sleepy, by
+and by."
+
+"Sleep, then, if you will, Girl-Child."
+
+"And then?"
+
+"Then, when the little one was very cold and tired and lonely she
+remembered something: it was that she had seen her own mother lift her
+two hands to the sky and ask the Great Spirit for all she might need."
+
+"He always hears, doesn't He?"
+
+"He hears and answers. But sometimes the answers are what He sees is
+best, not what we want."
+
+"Don't sigh that way, Other Mother! S'posin' your little boy did go
+away. Haven't you got Gaspar and Kitty?"
+
+"Yes, little one."
+
+"Go on, then. About the little maid--just like me."
+
+"So she put her own two tiny hands up toward the sky and asked the
+Great Spirit to put soft shoes on her tired little feet."
+
+"And He did, didn't He?"
+
+"Surely. First the pain eased and that made her look down. And there
+she saw a pair of the softest moccasins that ever were made. They were
+of pale pink and yellow, and all dotted with dark little bead-spots;
+and they fitted as easily as her own dainty skin. Then the girl
+papoose was grateful, and she begged the Great Spirit that He would
+make many and many another pair of just such comfortable shoes for
+every other little barefoot maid in all the world. That not one single
+child should ever suffer what the girl papoose had suffered."
+
+"Did He?" asked Gaspar, as interested as Kitty.
+
+"Yes. Surely. The prayer of the unselfish and innocent is always
+granted. He sent a voice out of the sky and bade the child look all
+about her. So she did, and the whole wide prairie was a-bloom with
+more pink and yellow 'shoes' than all the children in all the earth
+could ever wear. They were growing right out of the hard ground,
+reaching up to be plucked and worn. So she cried out aloud in her
+gratitude: 'Oh, the moccasin flower! the moccasin flower!' and ever
+since then this shoe-like blossom has been beloved of all the children
+in the world. But, because the heat burns as well as the cold pinches,
+it blooms nowadays at all times and seasons of the year. A few flowers
+here, a few there; but quite enough for any child to find--who has
+the right spirit."
+
+"Kitty must have had the spirit, mustn't she, Other Mother? That day
+when her feets were so tired and the good Feather-man found her.
+'Cause she had lots and lots of them; only she went to sleep and they
+all solemned down. And----"
+
+Gaspar started suddenly and held up a warning hand. His quick ear had
+caught the sound of approaching feet, crushing boldly through the
+cavern, like the tread of one who knows his way well and is coming to
+his own.
+
+Wahneenah had also heard, though she had continued her story, making
+no sign that she was inwardly disturbed. But she now paused and
+listened whether this footfall were one she knew, either of friend or
+foe. Then a bush cracked behind them, and Gaspar's heart stood still,
+as the tall form of an Indian warrior pushed past them into the
+firelight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+AT MUCK-OTEY-POKEE.
+
+
+Wahneenah did not lift her eyes. For the moment an unaccustomed fear
+held her spellbound, and it was the Sun Maid's happy cry which roused
+her at length, and restored them all to composure.
+
+"Black Partridge! My own dear Feather-man!"
+
+With a spring, the child threw herself upon the Indian's breast and
+clasped his neck with her trustful arms. It was, perhaps, this
+confidence of hers in the good-will of all her friends that made them
+in return hold her so dear. Certain it was that the chief's face now
+assumed that expression of gentleness which was the attribute small
+Kitty ascribed to him, but which among his older acquaintances was not
+considered a leading trait of his character. Just he always was, but
+rather severe than gentle; and Wahneenah marked, with some surprise,
+the caressing touch he laid upon the Sun Maid's floating hair as he
+quietly set her down and himself dropped upon a ledge to rest.
+
+"You are welcome, my brother. Though, at first, I feared it was some
+alien who had discovered our cave."
+
+"It is not the habit of the Happy to fear. She who forebodes danger
+where no danger is but paves the way to her own destruction."
+
+Wahneenah glanced at her brother sharply.
+
+"It is the Truth-Teller himself who has put foreboding into my soul.
+He--and the new-born love which the Sun Maid has brought."
+
+The face of Black Partridge fell again into that dignified gravity
+which was its habitual expression and he sat for a long time with the
+"dream-look" in his eyes, gazing straightforward into the embers of
+their little fire.
+
+"Is you hungry, Feather-man? We did have such a beau'ful supper. Nice
+Other Mother can cook fishes and cakes and--things. Shall she cook you
+some fish, Black Partridge?"
+
+"Will my chief eat the food I prepare for him?" asked Wahneenah,
+seconding the child's invitation.
+
+"With pleasure. For one hour he will let the cares of his life slip
+from him. He will have this night of peace, and while the meal is
+getting he will sleep."
+
+With a sigh of relief the tall Indian moved a few steps back into the
+cave and stretched himself at length upon the ground. His eyes closed,
+and before Gaspar had made ready his line to catch the fresh trout he
+had sunk into a profound slumber.
+
+Wahneenah put her finger to her lip to signify silence, but she need
+not have done so. Gaspar had long ago learned the red man's noiseless
+ways, and the Sun Maid immediately placed herself beside the prostrate
+chief, and clasping his hand that lay on his breast snuggled her cheek
+against it, and followed his example.
+
+The Black Partridge, like most of his race, could sleep anywhere, at
+any time, and for as long as he chose. He had elected to wake at the
+end of a half-hour, and he did so on the moment. Sitting up, he gently
+placed the still slumbering Sun Maid upon the ground and moved forward
+to the fire. While he ate the food she had provided for him, Wahneenah
+continued standing near, but a little behind him; ready to anticipate
+his needs, and with a humility of demeanor which she showed toward no
+other person.
+
+Gaspar watched the pair, wondering if they could really be of the same
+race which had destroyed his childhood's home, and now again that
+second home of his adoption--the Fort. He liked, and was impelled to
+trust them both, and was already learning to love his foster-mother.
+But when they began to converse in their own dialect, and with
+occasional glances toward himself and the sleeping Kitty, the native
+caution of his mind arose, and made him miserable. He remembered a
+byword of the Fort:
+
+"The only safe Indian is a dead one"; and with a sudden sense of
+danger leaped to his feet and ran to bend above the unconscious maid.
+
+"If you harm her, I'll--I'll--kill you!" he shouted fiercely.
+
+Wahneenah looked amazed, but the Black Partridge instantly
+comprehended the working of the boy's thoughts, and a smile of
+satisfaction faintly illumined his sombre features.
+
+"It is well. Let every brave defend his own. The Dark-Eye is no
+coward. His years are few, but he has the heart of a warrior and a
+chief. He must begin, at once, to learn the speech of his new tribe.
+He that knows has doubled the strength of his arm. Draw near. There is
+good and not evil in the souls of the chief and his sister. We are
+Truth-Tellers. We cannot lie. We have pledged our faith to the
+Dark-Eye and the Sun Maid--though she needs it not."
+
+The sincerity and admiration in the Indian's eyes compelled the lad's
+obedience; and when, as he stepped into the firelight, the chief
+indicated that he should sit beside himself, and also nodded to
+Wahneenah to take her own place opposite, his heart swelled with pride
+and ambition. So had the white Captain trusted and counselled with
+him. He had been faithful through all that dreadful day of massacre,
+and he had felt the man's spirit within his child-body. Now again, a
+commander of others, the wise leader of a different people, was
+honoring him with a share in his council. There must be good in him,
+and some sort of wisdom--even though so young--else they had paid him
+no heed. His cheek flushed, his breast heaved, and his beautiful eyes
+shone with the exultation that thrilled him.
+
+"Let the chief pardon the child--which I was, but a moment ago. I am
+become a man. I will do a man's task, now and forever. If I suspected
+evil where there was none, is it a wonder? I have told Wahneenah, the
+Happy, the story of my life. The Black Partridge knew it already."
+
+Quite unconsciously, Gaspar dropped into the Indian manner of speech,
+and he could not have done a better thing for himself had he pondered
+the matter for long. Black Partridge nodded approvingly, and remarked:
+
+"Another Sauganash is here! Well, while the Sun Maid sleeps, let us
+consider the future. The evil days are near."
+
+"What is the evil that my brother, the chief, beholds with his inner
+vision?" questioned the woman.
+
+"War and bloodshed. Still more of war, still more of death. In the end
+will our wigwams lie flat on the earth as fallen leaves, while the
+remnant of my people moves onward, forever onward toward the setting
+sun."
+
+Wahneenah kept a respectful silence, but in her heart she resented the
+dire forebodings of her chief. At last, when her brooding thought
+forced utterance, she inquired:
+
+"Can not the wisdom of the Black Partridge hinder these days of
+calamity? If the great Gomo, and Winnemeg, and those white braves who
+have lived among us, as the Sauganash, take counsel together, and
+compel their tribes to keep the peace, and to copy of the pale-faces
+the arts which have made them so powerful--will not this avert the
+evil? Why may there not in some time and place, a mighty grave be
+digged in which may be buried all the guns that kill and the knives
+that scalp, with the arrows which fly more swiftly than a bird? Over
+all may there not be emptied the casks and bottles of the fearful
+fire-water, that, passing through the lips of a warrior, changes him
+to a beast? Then the red man and his pale brother may clasp hands
+together and abide, each upon the earth, where the Great Spirit placed
+him."
+
+"It is a dream. Dreams vanish. Even as now the night speeds, and we
+are far from home. It avails us not to think of what might--but never
+will--be. Occasional friendships bridge the feud between our alien
+races, but the feud remains. It is eternal. Endless as the years which
+will witness the gradual extinction of the weaker, because smaller,
+race. Let us dream no more. Has Wahneenah, my sister, observed how the
+store she left in the old cave has grown? How the few sealed jars have
+become many, and how there are heaps of the good gifts which the Great
+Father sent to his white children at the Fort for the red children's
+use?"
+
+"Yes. I thought it was the miser, Shut-Hand, who had placed them here
+in our cave."
+
+"It was I, the Black Partridge."
+
+"For what purpose, my brother?"
+
+"Against the needs of the time I have foretold. It is a sanctuary.
+Here may Wahneenah, and the young son and daughter which have been
+given her, find shelter and sustenance."
+
+Something of her old tribal exultation seized the woman, who was a
+great chief's daughter. Rising to her fullest height, her fine head
+thrown slightly back, she demanded, indignantly:
+
+"Is the heart of my brother become like that of the papoose upon its
+mother's shoulders? Was it not to the red men that the victory came,
+but so brief time past? What were all the pale-faces, in their gaudy
+costumes, with their music and their guns and their childish way of
+battle? The arrows of our people mowed them like the grass upon the
+prairie when a herd of wild horses feeds upon it. But yesterday they
+marched in pride and insolence, scorning us. To-day, they are carrion
+for the crows overhead, or they flee for safety like the cowards they
+were born. The Black Partridge has tarried too long among such as
+these. He has become their blood brother."
+
+The taunt was the fiercest she could give, and she gave it from a full
+heart. In ordinary so gentle and peace-loving she had been roused, for
+a moment, to a pitch of emotion which astonished even herself. Yet
+when, as if she had been a fractious child, the chief motioned her to
+again become seated, she obeyed him at once. She had set her thoughts
+free, indeed; but she would never presume to fight against the
+conditions which surrounded her; and obedience to tribal authority was
+inborn.
+
+"The Snake-Who-Leaps will be at the tepee of my sister each day when
+the sun climbs to the point overhead. The three horses will be always
+ready. The children who do not know, and Wahneenah who has, maybe,
+forgotten how to ride, will practise as he instructs, until there will
+be no horse they cannot master, or no spot to which a horse may be
+guided that they do not know. But here first. That is why the store of
+food and cloths. At the first assault upon our Muck-otey-pokee, mount
+and ride. Ride as no squaw nor papoose ever rode before. Here the
+Black Partridge will seek them, and here, if the Great Spirit wills,
+they may be safe. Enough. Let the Dark-Eye go forward and make the
+horses ready."
+
+The Black Partridge rose as he spoke, and striding toward the sleeping
+Sun Maid, took her in his arms and left the spot. Gaspar, already
+darting onward toward the beloved Tempest, paused, for an instant, and
+regarded his chief anxiously. But when he saw that the little girl had
+not awakened, he sped forward again, and by the time Wahneenah had
+disposed of the remnants of the chief's supper and followed, he had
+loosed the animals and led them to the nearest point for mounting.
+
+Still holding the Sun Maid motionless upon his breast, the Black
+Partridge leaped to the back of his own magnificent stallion, which
+whinnied in affectionate welcome of his approach. Then he ordered
+Gaspar:
+
+"Ride behind me on Tempest, and lead the Snowbird. Wahneenah will
+follow all on Chestnut."
+
+By the time they were out upon the prairie the wind had risen and the
+sky was heavily clouded. It was so dark that the boy could not see
+beyond the head of his own horse, but he could hear the steady,
+grass-softened footfall of the stallion as, with unerring directness,
+the Indian chieftain led the way homeward to the village.
+
+When they rode into it, all Muck-otey-pokee seemed asleep; but the
+perennially young, though still venerable, Snake-Who-Leaps, had been
+prone before Wahneenah's wigwam, and silently rose from the ground as
+they drew rein beside him.
+
+"Ah, the Sleepless! The Wise Man. Did he think his pupils had ridden
+away to their own destruction?" asked the squaw, as she stepped down
+from her saddle.
+
+"No harm can happen the household of my chief save what the Great
+Spirit wills."
+
+"And you think He will not waste time with three wild runaways?"
+
+"Wahneenah, the Happy, is in good spirit herself. I remembered her
+not, save as the message may concern. That is for the ear of my friend
+and the father of his tribe, the Black Partridge."
+
+Handing the Sun Maid into his sister's embrace, he for whom the
+message waited slipped the bridles of two horses over his arm while
+the Snake-Who-Leaps led the others. Whatever they had to say was not
+begun then nor there, and if Wahneenah had any curiosity in the matter
+it was not to be gratified. Yet she stood, for a moment, listening to
+the receding sounds as the darkness enveloped the departing group; and
+in her heart was born a fresh anxiety because of the little one she
+carried, and for the orphan lad who followed so closely at her skirts
+as she lifted her tent curtain and entered their home.
+
+But nothing occurred to suggest that the message of the
+Snake-Who-Leaps had been one of warning. He was at his post of teacher
+exactly on the hour appointed on the following day, and this time all
+his pupils conducted themselves with a grave propriety that greatly
+pleased him; and thereafter, for many days, and even weeks, while the
+dry season lasted, did he instruct and they perform the marvellous
+feats of horsemanship which have made the red man famous the world
+over.
+
+"But," said Osceolo one day, tauntingly: "you were the pale-face who
+would learn nothing from an Indian!"
+
+"Because a person is a fool once, need he remain so always?" answered
+Gaspar, hotly.
+
+"You were a fool then? I thought so. Once a fool always one."
+
+"Only an Indian believes that."
+
+"How? You taunt me? Fight, then!"
+
+Gaspar Keith was a curious mixture of courage and timidity. His
+courage came by nature, and his timidity was the result of the
+terrible scenes through which he had passed now twice, young though he
+was. The impress of this terror would remain with him forever; and if
+ever he became a hero in fact, it would be because of his will and not
+his inclination. At present neither the one nor the other inspired
+him; and though he eyed the larger boy scornfully, and felt that he
+could easily whip the bully, if he chose, he now turned his back upon
+him and walked away haughtily.
+
+But Osceolo's sneer followed him:
+
+"The One-Who-Is-Afraid-Of-His-Shadow! Gaspar--Coward!"
+
+No boy could patiently endure this insult, even though it came from
+one much larger and stronger than himself. Gaspar's jacket was off and
+his arms bared on the instant; but before he could fling himself
+against his enemy a strong hand was laid upon his own shoulder, and he
+was tossed aside as lightly as a leaf.
+
+"Hold! Let there be none of this. It is a time for peace in our
+village. Wait in patience. The hour is coming, is almost here, when
+both the pale-face and the son of my tribe will have need of all their
+prowess. Go. Polish your arrows and point their heads, but let there
+be none of this."
+
+It was the great chief himself, who had separated the combatants, and
+as he stalked majestically onward he left behind him two greatly
+astonished and ashamed young warriors. In common, no grown brave
+bothered himself over the petty squabbles of striplings; unless,
+indeed, it might be to incite them to further conflicts. For the Black
+Partridge to interfere now was significant of something far deeper
+than a boyish fight.
+
+Gaspar put on his coat and walked thoughtfully home to Wahneenah and
+Kitty, while Osceolo slunk away to his own haunts, to lie at length
+upon the grass and plot with a cunning worthy of better ends the
+various devices by which he could torment the young white lad of whom
+he was so jealous.
+
+Wahneenah heard the tale with a gravity that impressed the chief's
+action more strongly than before upon the lad's mind; while Kitty took
+it upon herself to lecture him with all severity about the dreadful
+"naughtiness of striking that poor, dear Ossy boy."
+
+"Hmm, Sunny Maid! you needn't waste pity on him. He doesn't deserve
+it."
+
+"Maybe not, Dark-Eye. Maybe not. But heed you the warning. The
+dwellers in one village should keep that village quiet," interrupted
+Wahneenah.
+
+"Yes, but they don't. There are almost as many sorts of Indians here
+as there are people. Some of them are horrible. I see them often
+watching Kitty and me as if they would like to scalp us. It's been
+worse within a little while. It grows worse all the time."
+
+"All the more reason why you should be wise and careful. But it is
+dark in the tepee, and that's a sign the Dust Chief is almost ready to
+shut up your eyes. Run, Gaspar, son, and Girl-Child. See which will
+sleep the first. And to the one who does, the bigger lump of my best
+sugar in the morning."
+
+They ran, as she suggested, but there was to be no further haste till
+Kitty had made Gaspar kneel beside her and repeat with her the "Now I
+lay me" little prayer, which her Fort mothers had taught her. The
+short, simple prayer, beloved of childhood the world over, that has
+carried many a white soul upward to its Father. Even to Wahneenah,
+though her mission training had been of another creed, the childish
+petition was full of sacredness and beauty; and as she stood near
+them, she bowed her head humbly and echoed it with all her heart.
+
+Each was in bed soon after, and each with a lump of the toothsome
+dainty they loved.
+
+"For Gaspar must have it because he was first; and my Girl-Child
+because she was the last. That equals everything."
+
+They thought it did, delightfully: if they stayed awake long enough to
+think at all. But when they were both asleep, and the sound of their
+soft breathing echoed through the dusky tepee, Wahneenah took her seat
+at its entrance, and began to sing low and softly, with a sweetness of
+voice which rendered even their rudeness musical, the love songs of
+her girlhood.
+
+As she sang and gazed upward through the trees into the starlit sky,
+an infinite peace stole over her. Indeed, the joy that possessed her
+seemed almost startling to herself. All that was sad in her memories
+dropped from them, and left but their happiness; while the present
+closed about her as a delight that nothing could disturb. Her love for
+the Sun Maid had become almost a passion with her, and for her
+Dark-Eye there was ever an increasing and comprehending affection.
+
+She remained so long, dreaming, remembering, and planning, that the
+first grayness of the dawn came before she could go within and take
+her own bit of sleep. But Muck-otey-pokee was always early astir; and
+if for no other reason, because the dogs which thronged the settlement
+would allow no quiet after daybreak. That morning they were unusually
+restless.
+
+Cried Wahneenah, rising suddenly, and now feeling somewhat the effects
+of her late sitting:
+
+"Can it be sun-up already? The beasts are wild this morning. I have
+never heard them so deafening."
+
+Nor had anybody else. There was no cessation in their barking.
+
+"It's a regular 'bedlam,' isn't it? That's what the Fort mothers used
+to say when there was target practice, and the children cheered the
+shooters. What makes them bark so?" answered Gaspar.
+
+Wahneenah shivered, and suggested:
+
+"Run out and play. Eh? What's that? The Snake-Who-Leaps? So early,
+and with the horses, too? But mind him not. Take the Sun Maid
+out-of-doors, but keep close to the green before the lodge. Where
+I can see you now and then, while I get breakfast ready."
+
+Everybody was up; and more than one commented upon the strangeness of
+the three horses being brought to the tepee so early.
+
+The warning message which had come from the south, and had been
+delivered to his chief by the Snake-Who-Leaps, on that dark night some
+weeks before, was now to be verified. "What the red men have done to
+the pale-faces, the pale-faces will now do to them. Retaliation and
+revenge!"
+
+Yet not one was quite prepared for the events which followed. Followed
+even so swiftly that the women left their porridge cooking in their
+kettles and their cows half-milked; while the men of the village
+promptly seized the nearest weapon, and rushed to the hopeless
+defence.
+
+The rude sound that had startled every dweller in that pretty
+settlement was the report of a gun. Then came a galloping troop of
+cavalry--more firing--incessant, indiscriminate!
+
+There was a babel of shrieks as the women and little ones fell where
+they stood, in the midst of their work or play. There were the
+blood-curdling war-whoops of the savages, answering the random shots.
+Above and through all, one cry rang clear to Wahneenah's
+consciousness.
+
+"The horses! The horses! Ride--ride--ride--as I have taught you! For
+your lives--Ride!"
+
+It was but an instant. Wahneenah and her children were amount and
+afield. But as, in an anguish of fear for his friends, and no thought
+of himself, once more the Snake-Who-Leaps shouted his warning, the
+whistle of a death-dealing bullet came to him where he watched, and
+struck him down across the threshold of Wahneenah's happy home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE CAVE OF REFUGE.
+
+
+Three abreast, the chestnut in the middle, the fugitives from the
+doomed village of Muck-otey-pokee rode like the wind in a straight,
+unswerving line across the prairie. After they had left a considerable
+distance behind them, Wahneenah turned her stern face backward, and
+scanned the route over which they had passed; and when her keen vision
+detected something like a group of glistening bayonets--to ordinary
+sight no larger than a point against the horizon--she abruptly doubled
+on her course, then made a sharp detour westward. She had early
+dropped her own bridle, and had since guided her horse by her low
+spoken commands, while in either hand she clutched a bit-ring of the
+Snowbird and Tempest. Her change of direction must have brought her
+all the more plainly into view of the pursuing soldiers, but in a few
+moments she had gained the shelter of a group of trees.
+
+These sprang, apparently, out of the midst of the plain, but she knew
+that they really concealed the entrance to the underground pathway to
+the cave; and once within their shelter, she paused to breathe and
+gaze upon the startled faces of her children.
+
+That of the Sun Maid was pale, indeed, with the excitement of this mad
+ride, but showed no fear; while Gaspar's, alas! wore an expression of
+abject terror. His eyes stared wildly, his teeth were set, his
+nostrils drawn and pinched. He was, his foster-mother saw, already on
+the verge of a collapse.
+
+She leaped from her horse, and caught the fainting boy in her arms
+while she directed the Sun Maid:
+
+"Jump down and tie the horses, as the Snake-Who-Leaps showed you, by
+their long bridles. In any case, there is little fear but they will
+stand. Then follow me."
+
+"But what ails my Gaspar, Other Mother?" asked the child, as she
+sprang from her saddle. "Did somebody hurt him when the guns fired?"
+
+"No. Tie the horses. He will be right soon. It is the fright. Make
+haste, make haste!"
+
+"Yes, yes, I will. My dear old Feather-man taught Kitty everything.
+Every single thing about my Snowbird. I can fasten her all tight so
+she will never, never get away, unless I let her. I will tie Gaspar's,
+too; and shall your Chestnut stay here with them two?"
+
+But for once Wahneenah did not stop to hear her darling out. She had
+seen the deftness with which the little girl's small fingers had
+copied the instructions of her riding-master, and had wondered at it
+many times. She trusted it now, knowing that the lad needed her first
+care, and meaning to carry him through the passage into the cave, then
+return for the other. She knew, also, that if the soldiers she had
+seen following them should come upon the tethered horses, the fact of
+their presence would betray her own. But from this possibility there
+was no escape; and, had she known it, no need for such.
+
+She had scarcely laid the unconscious boy down upon the floor of her
+retreat when Kitty came flying down the tunnel, her task completed.
+
+"So quick, papoose?"
+
+"Yes. Every one is fastened to a pretty tree, and every one is glad.
+Why did we ride so fast, Wahneenah? It 'most took Kitty's breath out
+of her mouth. But I did like it till my Gaspar looked so queer. Is he
+sick, Other Mother? Why doesn't he speak to me?"
+
+"He is ill, in very fact, Girl-Child. Ill of terror. Young as he is,
+he has seen fearful sights, and they have hurt his tender heart. But
+he will soon be better; and when he is you must not talk to him of our
+old home, or of our ride, or of anything except that we are making
+another little festival here in our cave. One more cup of water,
+papoose, but take care you do not slip when you dip it from the
+spring. We will bathe his face and rub his hands, and by and by he
+will awake and talk."
+
+Then, leaving the lad to the ministrations of the child, and under
+pretence of making "all cosy for the picnic," Wahneenah sped
+cautiously back through the passage to the edge of the little grove,
+casting a searching glance in each direction. To her infinite relief,
+the glistening speck had vanished from the landscape, and she
+concluded that the white soldiers had ridden but a short distance
+north of the village, and then returned to it. She noticed with pride
+how the little maid had fastened each of the brave animals that had
+served them so well in a spot where the grass was still green and
+plentiful, and that there was no need of her refastening the straps
+which held them.
+
+"Surely, her wisdom is more than mortal!" she exclaimed in delight;
+such as more cultured mothers feel when they discover that their
+little ones are really gifted with the common intelligence that to
+them seems extraordinary.
+
+Gaspar was awake, and looking about him curiously, when she got back
+into the cavern; and, in response to his silent inquiry, she drew a
+tree-branch before the opening and nodded smilingly:
+
+"That is to keep the sunshine out of the Dark-Eyes."
+
+"But--where are we? Why--oh! I remember! I remember! Must I always,
+always see such awful things? Is there no place in this world where I
+can hide?"
+
+"Why, yes, Dark-Eye. There is just such a place; and we have found it.
+Don't you remember our sanctuary? Where the Black Partridge came to
+eat the fish you caught? Where we have such a store of good things put
+aside. Rest now, after your ride, and the White Papoose shall make a
+pillow for you of the rushes I will pull. Then we'll shut the branch
+in close, like the curtain of our wigwam, and be as safe and happy as
+a bird in its nest."
+
+Wahneenah's assumed cheerfulness did not deceive, though it greatly
+comforted, the terrified boy; and the quietude of the sheltered spot,
+added to its dimness and his own exhaustion, soon overcame him again,
+and his eyelids closed. But the sleep into which he drifted now was a
+natural and restful one, and he roused from it, at Kitty's summons,
+with something of his old courage--the courage which had made him a
+hero that day when he first rode the black gelding, and had used his
+boyish strength to do a man's work.
+
+"When Other Mother did make a fire and cook us such a nice breakfast,
+we must eat it quick. Kitty's ready. Kitty's dreadful hungry, Kitty
+is. Is you hungry, too, Dark-Eye?"
+
+He had not thought that he was. But now that she mentioned it,
+he realized the fact. Fortunately, he was so young and healthy
+that the scenes through which he seemed destined to pass at such
+frequently-recurring intervals could not really affect his physical
+condition for any length of time. To see Wahneenah moving about the
+little cavern as calmly as if it were her daily habit to be there, and
+to catch the sound of the Sun Maid's joyous laughter, was to make the
+present seem the only reality.
+
+"Why, it's another picnic, isn't it? Did the things actually happen
+back there as I thought? Were we here all night? I used to have such
+terrible dreams, when I lived at the Fort, that, when daylight came, I
+could not forget them. I get confused between the dreams and the true
+things."
+
+"An empty stomach makes a foolish head. Many a squaw is afraid of her
+warrior before he breaks his morning fast, and finds him a lamb after
+it is eaten," said Wahneenah, sententiously.
+
+"Gaspar is my warrior, Other Mother; but I am never afraid of him."
+
+"You are afraid of nothing, Kitty!" reproved the boy.
+
+"But I am! I am afraid I shall get nothing to eat at all, if you don't
+come!"
+
+So the children ate, and Wahneenah served them. She was herself too
+anxious to partake of any food, and under her placid exterior she was
+straining every nerve to listen for any outward sounds which might
+prove that their refuge had been discovered.
+
+But no sounds came to disturb them, and as the hours passed hope
+returned to her; and when the Sun Maid had fallen asleep, weary of
+frolic, and Gaspar again questioned her concerning the morning, she
+answered, in good faith:
+
+"Probably, it was not half so bad as it seemed. There were many bad
+Indians in the village, and it is likely for them that the white
+soldiers were searching. They must have gone away long since. By and
+by, if nothing happens, we will return to our own tepee, and forget
+this morning's fright. The Snake-Who-Leaps will be proud of his pupils
+for the way they rode at his bidding."
+
+A shiver ran through the lad's frame, and he crept within the shelter
+of Wahneenah's arm.
+
+"But did you not see what happened to him? He lies beneath the
+curtains of your lodge, and he will teach us no more. A white soldier
+shot him. I saw him fall."
+
+The woman herself had not seen this, and she now sprang to her feet in
+a fury of indignation.
+
+"A white man killed him! That grand old brave, who should have lived
+to be a hundred years! It cannot be."
+
+"But it was."
+
+She was the daughter of a mighty chief. Her blood was royal, and she
+gloried in it. All the race-hatred in her nature roused, and, for the
+moment only, she glowered upon the pale-faced youth before her, as if
+he represented, in his small person, all the sins of his own people.
+
+Then the paroxysm passed, and her nobler self triumphed. Sitting down
+again, she sought to draw the boy back into her embrace, but he held
+himself aloof, and would not. So she began to talk with him there,
+with a simple wisdom and dignity that she had learned from nature
+itself.
+
+"Why should we be angry, one with another, my son? The Great Spirit is
+our Father. No man comes into life nor leaves it by a chance. What the
+Mighty One decrees, that it is befalls. Between His red-skinned
+children and His pale-faced ones He has put an undying enmity. I have
+not always so believed. I have hoped and pleaded for the peace which
+should glorify the world, even as the sun is glorifying the wide land
+outside of this dim cavern. But it is not so to be. Even as the chief,
+the Black Partridge, said: there is a feud which can never be
+overcome, for it is of the Great Spirit's own planting. He that made
+us all permits it. Let us, then, in our small place, cease to fight
+against the inevitable. We have made the compact. We will abide by it.
+In a tiny corner of the beautiful world we three will live in
+harmony. Let the rest go. Put away your anger against my people, as I
+now put aside mine against yours. The Sun Maid is of both races, it
+seems to me. She is our Bond, our Peace-maker, our Delight. Behold!
+She wakes. Before her eyes, let no shadow of our mutual trouble fall.
+I go outside to watch. If all seems well, we may ride home at
+nightfall."
+
+Save for the danger to her young charges, she would have done so even
+then. Far superior though she had always been to them, her heart
+yearned over the helpless women of her tribe whom she had left behind.
+
+"But that cannot be. They were tied fast by their motherhood to the
+homes wherein they may have perished, even as I am tied here by my
+adopted ones. The beasts, too, are tied; but they, at least, may have
+a moment's freedom."
+
+So she loosed them, and guided them to the pool where they could
+drink, and watched them curiously, to see if they would avail
+themselves of the liberty she had thus offered. But they did not. They
+quaffed the clear water, then tossed their velvet nostrils about its
+depths till it was soiled and worthless; yet they turned of their own
+accord away from the wind-swept prairie into the shelter of the trees,
+and grouped themselves beneath one, as if uniting against some common,
+unseen enemy.
+
+"They are wiser than their masters," said Wahneenah, patting her
+Chestnut's beautiful neck; and seeing a deeper glade, where they might
+spend the night even more safely, she led them thither and fastened
+them again. Under ordinary circumstances she would have left them
+untethered; but she knew not then at what moment she might again need
+them, as they had been needed earlier in the day.
+
+When the darkness fell, Wahneenah put aside the brushwood door which
+she had placed before the entrance to the cave, and sat down upon the
+withering branch to watch and wait. The children were both asleep, and
+she knew that if the Black Partridge were still alive and able he
+would seek her there, as he had promised on that day in the past when
+they had discussed the possibility of what had really now occurred.
+
+She was not to be disappointed. While she sat, contrasting the
+happiness that had been hers on just the night before with the
+uncertainty of this, there sounded in the sloping tunnel the tread of
+a moccasined foot. Also, she could hear the crowding of a stalwart
+figure against its sides, and there was something in both sounds which
+told her who was coming.
+
+"My brother is late."
+
+"It is better thus, it may be, than not at all."
+
+"The voice of the Black Partridge is sorrowful."
+
+"The heart of the chief is broken within him."
+
+For a space after that neither spoke. Then Wahneenah rose and set a
+candle in a niche of the wall and lighted it. By its flame she could
+see to move about and she presently had brought some food in a dish
+and placed a gourd of water by the chief's side.
+
+The water he drank eagerly and held the cup for more; but the food he
+pushed aside, relapsing into another silence.
+
+Finally, Wahneenah spoke.
+
+"Has the father of his tribe no message for his sister?"
+
+"Over what the ear does not hear, the heart cannot grieve."
+
+"That is a truth which contradicts itself."
+
+"The warrior of Wahneenah judged well when he chose this cavern for a
+possible home."
+
+"It is needed, then? As the Black Partridge foretold."
+
+"It is needed. There is no other."
+
+The words were quietly spoken; but there was heart-break in each one.
+
+"Our village? The home of all our people? Is it not still safe and a
+refuge for all unfortunates among the nations?"
+
+"Where Muck-otey-pokee laughed by the waterside, there is now a heap
+of ruins. The river that danced in the sunlight is red with the blood
+of the slain and of all the lodges wherein we dwelt, not one remains!"
+
+"My brother! Surely, much brooding has made you distraught. Such
+cannot be. There were warriors, hundreds of them in the settlement and
+before their arrows the pale-faces fall like trees before the
+woodman's axe."
+
+"If the arrows are not in the quiver, can the warrior shoot? Against
+the man who steals up in the rear, can one be prepared? It was a
+short, sharp battle. The innocent fell with the guilty, and the earth
+receives them all. Where Muck-otey-pokee stood is a blackened waste.
+Those who survived have fled, to seek new homes wherever they may find
+them. In her pathways the dead faces stare into the sky as even yet,
+among the sandhills, lie and stare the unburied dead of the Fort
+Dearborn massacre. It is fate. It is nature. It is the game of life.
+To-day one wins, to-morrow another. In the end, for all--is death."
+
+For a while after that, Wahneenah neither moved nor spoke, and the
+Black Partridge lapsed into another profound silence. Finally, the
+woman rose, and going to the fireplace, took handsful of its ashes and
+strewed them upon her head and face. Then she drew her blanket over
+her features, and thus, hiding her sorrow even from the witness of the
+night, she sat down again in her place and became at once as rigid
+and impassive as her brother.
+
+Thus the morning found them. Despite their habit of wandering from
+point to point, the village of Muck-otey-pokee was the rallying-place
+of the Pottawatomies, their home, the ancient burial-ground of their
+dead. Its destruction meant, to the far-seeing Black Partridge, also
+the destruction of his tribe. Therefore, as he had said, his spirit
+was broken within him.
+
+But at the last he rose to depart, and still fasting. With the
+solemnity of one who parted from her forever, he addressed the veiled
+Wahneenah and bade her:
+
+"Put aside the grief that palsies, and find joy in the children whom
+the Great Spirit has sent you. They also are homeless and orphaned.
+There are left now no white soldiers to harry and distress. This
+cavern is warmer than a wigwam, and there is store of food for many
+more than three. Remain here until the springtime and by then I may
+return. I go now to my brother Gomo, at St. Joseph's, to counsel at
+his fireside on what may yet be done to save the remnant of our
+people. You are safer here than in any village that I know. Farewell."
+
+But, absorbed in his own gloomy reflections, the Black Partridge for
+once forgot his native caution; and without waiting to reconnoitre, he
+mounted his horse and rode boldly away from the shelter of the brush
+into the broad light of the prairie and so due north toward the
+distant encampment of his tribesmen.
+
+Yet the glittering eyes of a jealous Indian were watching him as he
+rode. An Indian who had been sheltered by the hospitality of the great
+chief, and for many months, in Muck-otey-pokee; but who had neither
+gratitude nor mercy in his heart, wherein was only room for treachery
+and greed.
+
+As Black Partridge rode away from the cave by the river, the other
+mounted his horse and rode swiftly toward it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+UNDER A WHITE MAN'S ROOF.
+
+
+The log cabin of Abel and Mercy Smith stood within a bit of forest
+that bordered the rich prairie.
+
+As homes went in those early days, when Illinois was only a territory,
+and in that sparsely settled locality, it was a most roomy and
+comfortable abode. The childless couple which dwelt in it were
+comfortable also, although to hear their daily converse with one
+another a stranger would not so have fancied. They had early come into
+the wilderness, and had, therefore, lived much alone. Yet each was of
+a most social nature, and the result, as their few neighbors said, of
+their isolated situation was merely "a case of out-talk."
+
+When Mercy's tongue was not wagging, Abel's was, and often both were
+engaged at the same moment. Her speech was sharp and decisive; his
+indolent, and, to one of her temperament, exceedingly aggravating.
+But, between them, they managed to keep up almost a continuous
+discourse. For, if Abel went afield, Mercy was sure to follow him
+upon various excuses; unless the weather were too stormy, when, of
+course, he was within doors.
+
+However, there were times when even their speech lagged a little, and
+then homesickness seized the mistress of the cabin; and after several
+days of preparation she would set out on foot or on horseback,
+according to the distance to be traversed, for some other settler's
+cabin and a wider exchange of ideas.
+
+On a late November day, when the homesickness had become overpowering,
+Mercy tied on her quilted hood and pinned her heavy shawl about her.
+She had filled a carpet bag with corn to pop and nuts to crack, for
+the children of her expected hostess and had "set up" a fresh pair of
+long stockings to knit for Abel. She now called him from the stable
+into the living room to hear her last remarks.
+
+"If I should be kep' over night, Abel, you'll find a plenty to eat.
+There's a big pot of baked beans in the lean-to, and some apple pies,
+and a pumpkin one. The ham's all sliced ready to fry, and I do hope to
+goodness you won't spill grease 'bout on this rag carpet. I'm the only
+woman anywhere 's round has a rag carpet all over her floor, any way,
+and the idee of your sp'ilin' it just makes me sick. I----"
+
+"But I hain't sp'iled it yet, ma. You hain't give me no chance. If you
+do--"
+
+"If I do! Ain't I leavin' you to get your own breakfast, in case I
+don't come back? It might rain or snow, ary one, an' then where'd I
+be?"
+
+"Right where you happened to be at, I s'pose," returned Abel,
+facetiously.
+
+But it was wasted wit. The idea of being storm-stayed now filled the
+housewife's mind. She was capable, and full of New England gumption;
+but her husband "was a born botch." True, he could split a log, or
+clear a woodland with the best; and as for a ploughman, his richly
+fertile corn bottom and regular eastern-sort-of-garden testified to
+his ability. But she was leaving him with the possibility of woman's
+work to do; and as she reflected upon the condition of her cupboard
+when she should return and the amount of cream he would probably
+spill, should he attempt to skim it for the churning, her mind misgave
+her and she began slowly to untie the great hood.
+
+"I believe I won't go after all."
+
+"Won't go, ma? Why not?"
+
+"I'm afraid you'll get everything upset."
+
+"I won't touch a thing more 'n I have to. I'll set right here in the
+chimney-corner an' doze an' take it easy. The fall work's all done,
+an' I'd ought to rest a mite."
+
+"Rest! Rest? Yes. That's what a man always thinks of. It's a woman who
+has to keep at it, early an' late, winter an' summer, sick or well.
+If I should go an' happen to take cold, I don't know what to the land
+would become of you, Abel Smith."
+
+"I don't either, ma."
+
+There was a long silence, during which Mercy tied and untied her
+bonnet-strings a number of times; and each time with a greater
+hesitancy. Finally, she pulled from her head the uneasy covering and
+laid it on the table. Then she unpinned her shawl, and Abel regarded
+these signs ruefully. But he knew the nature with which he had to
+deal; and the occasional absences that were so necessary to Mercy's
+happiness were also seasons of great refreshment to himself. During
+them he felt almost, and sometimes quite, his own master. He loafed,
+and smoked, and whittled, and even brought out his old fiddle and just
+"played himself crazy"--so his wife declared. Even then he was already
+recalling a tune he had heard a passing teamster whistle and was
+longing to try it for himself. He abruptly changed his tactics.
+
+Looking into Mercy's face with an appearance of great gladness, he
+exclaimed:
+
+"Now ain't that grand! Here was I, thinkin' of myself all alone, and
+you off havin' such a good time, talkin' over old ways out East an'
+hearin' all the news that's going. There. Take right off your things
+an' I'll help put 'em away for you. You've got such a lot cooked up
+you can afford to get out your patchwork, and I'll fiddle a bit
+and----"
+
+"Abel Smith! I didn't think you'd go and begrudge me a little
+pleasure. Me, that has slaved an' dug an' worked myself sick a
+help-meetin' an' savin' for you. I really didn't."
+
+"Well, I'm not begrudging anybody. An' I don't s'pose there is much
+news we hain't heard. Though there was a new family of settlers moved
+out on the mill-road last week, I don't reckon they'd be anybody that
+we'd care about. Folks have to be a mite particular, even out here in
+Illinois."
+
+Mercy paused, with her half-folded shawl in her hands. Then, with
+considerable emphasis, she unfolded it again, and deliberately
+fastened it about her plump person.
+
+"Well, I'm goin'. It's rainin' a little, but none to hurt. I've fixed
+a dose of cough syrup for Mis' Waldron's baby, an' I'd ought to go an'
+give it to her. Them new folks has come right near her farm, I hear.
+If you ain't man enough to look out for yourself for a few hours, you
+cert'nly ain't enough account for me to worry over. But take good care
+of yourself, Abel. I'm goin'. I feel it my duty. There's a roast
+spare-rib an' some potatoes ready to fry; an' the meal for the
+stirabout is all in the measure an'--good-by. I'll likely be back
+to-night. If not, by milkin' time to-morrow morning."
+
+Abel had taken down the almanac from its nail in the wall and had
+pretended to be absorbed in its contents. He did not even lift his
+eyes as his wife went out and shut the door. He still continued to
+search the "prognostics" long after the cabin had become utterly
+silent, not daring to glance through the small window, lest she should
+discover him and be reminded of some imaginary duty toward him that
+would make her return.
+
+But, at the end of fifteen minutes, since nothing happened and the
+stillness remained profound, he hung the almanac back in its place,
+clapped his hands and executed a sort of joy-dance which was quite
+original with himself. Then he drew his splint-bottomed chair before
+the open fire, tucked his fiddle under his chin, and proceeded to
+enjoy himself.
+
+For more than an hour, he played and whistled and felt as royal and
+happy as a king. By the end of that time he had grown a little tired
+of music, and noticed that the drizzle of the early morning had
+settled into a steady, freezing downpour. The trees were already
+becoming coated with ice and their branches to creak dismally in the
+rising wind.
+
+"Never see such a country for wind as this is. Blows all the time,
+the year round. Hope Mercy'll be able to keep ahead of the storm.
+She's a powerful free traveller, Mercy is, an' don't stan' for
+trifles. But--my soul! Ain't she a talker? I realize _that_ when her
+back's turned. It's so still in this cabin I could hear a pin drop, if
+there was anybody round hadn't nothin' better to do than to drop one.
+Hmm, I s'pose I could find some sort of job out there to the barn. But
+I ain't goin' to. I'm just goin' to play hookey by myself this whole
+endurin' day, an' see what comes of it. I believe I'll just tackle one
+of them pumpkin pies. 'Tain't so long since breakfast, but eatin' kind
+of passes the time along. I wish I had a newspaper. I wish somethin'
+would turn up. I--I wouldn't let Mercy know it, not for a farm; but
+_'tis_ lonesome here all by myself. I hain't never noticed it so much
+as I do this mornin'. Whew! Hear that wind! It's a good mile an' a
+half to Waldron's. I hope Mercy's got there 'fore this."
+
+Abel closed the outer door, and crossed to the well-stocked cupboard.
+As he stood contemplating its contents, and undecided as to which
+would really best suit his present mood, there came a sound of
+somebody approaching the house along the slippery footpath. This was
+so unexpected that it startled the pioneer. Then he reflected: "Mercy.
+She's come back!" and remained guiltily standing with his hand upon
+the edge of a pie plate, like a school-boy pilfering his mother's
+larder.
+
+"Rat-a-tat-a-tat!"
+
+"Somebody knockin'! That ain't Mercy! Who the land, I wonder!"
+
+He made haste to see and opened the heavy door to the demand of a
+young boy, who stood shivering before it. At a little distance further
+from the house was, also, a woman wrapped in a blanket that glistened
+with sleet, and which seemed to enfold besides herself the form of a
+little child.
+
+"My land! my land! Why, bubby! where in the world did you drop from?
+Is that your ma? No. I see she's an Indian, an' you're as white as the
+frost itself. Come in. Come right in."
+
+But the lad lingered on the threshold and asked with chattering teeth,
+which showed how chilled he was:
+
+"Can Wahneenah come too?"
+
+"I don't know who in Christendom Wahneeny is, but you folks all come
+straight in out of the storm. 'Twon't do to keep the door open so
+long, for the sleet's beating right in on Mercy's carpet. There'd be
+the dickens to pay if she saw that."
+
+Gaspar, for it was he, ran quickly back toward the motionless
+Wahneenah, and, clutching the corner of her blanket, dragged her
+forward. She seemed reluctant to follow, notwithstanding her
+half-frozen condition and she glanced into Abel's honest face with
+keen inquiry. Yet seeing nothing but good-natured pity in it, she
+entered the cabin, and herself shut the door. Yet she kept her place
+close to the exit, even after Gaspar had pulled the blanket apart and
+revealed the white face of the Sun Maid lying on her breast.
+
+"Why, why, why! poor child! Poor little creatur'. Where in the world
+did you hail from to be out in such weather? Didn't you have ary home
+to stay in? But, there. I needn't ask that, because there's Mercy off
+trapesing just the same, an' her with the best cabin on the frontier.
+I s'pose this Wahneeny was took with a gossipin' fit, too, an' set out
+to find her own cronies. But I don't recollect as I've heard of any
+Indians livin' out this way."
+
+By this time the water that had been frozen upon the wanderers'
+clothing had begun to melt, and was drip-dripping in little puddles
+upon Mercy's beloved carpet. Abel eyed these with dismay, and finally
+hit upon the happy expedient of turning back the loose breadth of the
+heavy fabric which bordered the hearth. Upon the bare boards thus
+revealed he placed three chairs, and invited his guests to take them.
+
+Gaspar dropped into one very promptly, but the squaw did not advance
+until the boy cried:
+
+"Do come, Other Mother. Poor Kitty will wake up then, and feel all
+right."
+
+The atmosphere of any house was always uncomfortable to Wahneenah.
+Even then, she felt as if she had stepped from freedom into prison,
+cold though she was and half-famished with hunger. Personally, she
+would rather have taken her bit of food out under the trees; but the
+thought of her Sun Maid was always powerful to move her. She laid
+aside the wet blanket, and carried the drowsy little one to the
+fireside, where the warmth soon revived the child so that she sat up
+on her foster-mother's lap, and gazed about her with awakening
+curiosity. Then she began to smile on Abel, who stood regarding her
+wonderful loveliness with undisguised amazement, and to prattle to him
+in her accustomed way.
+
+"Why, you nice, nice man! Isn't this a pretty place. Isn't it beau'ful
+warm? I'm so glad we came. It was cold out of doors, wasn't it, Other
+Mother? Did you know all the time what a good warm fire was here? Was
+that why we came?"
+
+"I knew nothing," answered Wahneenah, stolidly.
+
+"But I did!" cried Gaspar. "As soon as I saw the smoke of your chimney
+I said: 'That is a white man's house. We will go and stay in it.' It's
+a nice house, sir, and, like Kitty, I am glad we came. Do you live
+here all alone?"
+
+"No. My wife, Mercy, has gone a visitin'. That's why I happen to be
+here doin' nothin'. I mean--I might have been to the barn an' not
+heard you. You're lookin' into that cupboard pretty sharp. Be you
+hungry? But I needn't ask that. A boy always is."
+
+"I am hungry. We all are. We haven't had anything to eat in--days, I
+guess. Are those pies--regular pies, on the shelves?"
+
+"Yes. Do you like pies?"
+
+"I used to. I haven't had any since I left the Fort."
+
+"Left what?"
+
+"The Fort. Fort Dearborn. Did you know it?"
+
+"Course. That is, about it. But there ain't no Fort now. Don't tell
+stories."
+
+"I'm not. I'm telling the truth."
+
+If this was a refugee from that unhappy garrison, Abel felt that he
+could not do enough for the boy's comfort. He could not refrain his
+suspicious glances from Wahneenah's dark face, but as she kept her own
+gaze fixed upon the ground, he concluded she did not see them. In any
+case, she was only an Indian, and therefore to be treated with scant
+courtesy.
+
+Mercy would have been surprised to see with what handiness her husband
+played the host in her absence and now he whipped off the red woollen
+cover from the table and rolled it toward the fireplace. But she would
+not have approved at all of the lavishness with which he set before
+his guests the best things from her cupboard. There was a cold rabbit
+patty, the pot of beans, light loaves of sweet rye bread, and a pat of
+golden butter. To these he added a generous pitcher of milk, and
+beside Gaspar's own plate he placed both a pumpkin and a dried-apple
+pie.
+
+"I'd begin with these, if I was you, sonny. Baked beans come by
+nature, seems to me, but pies are a gift of grace. Though I must say
+my wife don't stint 'em when she takes it into her head to go
+gallivantin' an' leaves me to housekeep. 'Pears to think then I must
+have somethin' sort of comfortin'. I'd start in on pie, if I was a
+little shaver, an' take the beans last."
+
+This might not have been the best of advice to give a lad whose fast
+had been so long continued as Gaspar's, but it suited that young
+person exactly. Indeed, in all his life he had never seen so well
+spread a table, and he lost no time in obeying his entertainer's
+suggestion. But he noticed with regret that his foster-mother did not
+touch the proffered food, and that she ministered even gingerly to
+Kitty's wants.
+
+Yet there was nobody, however austere or unhappy, who could long
+resist the happy influence of the little girl, and least of all the
+woman who so loved her. As the Sun Maid's color returned to her face,
+and her stiffened limbs began to resume their suppleness, something of
+the anxiety left Wahneenah's eyes, and she condescended to receive a
+bowl of milk and a slice of bread from Abel's hand.
+
+The fact that she would at last break her own fast made all
+comfortable; and as soon as Gaspar's appetite was so far appeased that
+he could begin upon the beans, the settler demanded:
+
+"Now, sonny, talk. Tell me the whole endurin' story from A to Izzard.
+Where'd you come from now? Where was you bound? What's your name? an'
+her's? an' the little tacker's? My! but ain't she a beauty! I never
+see ary such hair on anybody's head, black or white. It's gettin' dry,
+ain't it; an' how it does fly round, just like foam."
+
+"I'm not 'sonny,' nor 'bubby.' I'm Gaspar Keith. I was brought up at
+Fort Dearborn. After the massacre, I was taken to Muck-otey-pokee.
+I--"
+
+But the lad's thoughts already began to grow sombre, and he became so
+abruptly silent that Abel prompted him.
+
+"Hmm, I've heard of that--that--Mucky place. Indian settlement, wasn't
+it? Took prisoner, was you?"
+
+"No. I wasn't a prisoner, exactly. I was just a--just a friend of the
+family, I guess."
+
+"Oh? So. A friend of an Indian family, sonny?"
+
+"If you'd rather not call me Gaspar, you can please say 'Dark-Eye.'
+That's my new Indian name; but I hate those other ones. They make me
+think I am a baby. And I'm not. I am a man, almost."
+
+"So you be. So you be," agreed Abel, admiring the little fellow's
+spirit. "I 'low you've seen sights, now, hain't you?"
+
+"Yes, dreadful ones; so dreadful that I can't talk about them to
+anybody. Not even to you, who have given us this nice food and let us
+warm ourselves. I would if I could, you see; only when I let myself
+think, I just get queer in the head and afraid. So I won't even think.
+It doesn't do for a boy to be afraid. Not when he has his mother and
+sister to take care of."
+
+There was the faintest lightening of the gloom upon the Indian woman's
+face as Dark-Eye said this. But he was, apart from his terror of
+bloodshed and fighting, a courageous lad, and had, during their past
+days of wandering, proved the good stuff of which he was made. Many a
+day he had gone without eating that the remnant of their food might be
+saved for the Sun Maid; and though it was, of course, Wahneenah who
+had taken all the care of the children, if it pleased him to consider
+their cases reversed he should be left to his own opinion.
+
+"You're right, boy. I'll call you Gaspar, easy enough. Only, you see,
+I hain't got no sons of my own an' it kind of makes things seem cosier
+if I call other folkes's youngsters that way. Every little shaver this
+side of Illinois calls me 'Uncle Abe,' I reckon. But go on with your
+yarn. My, my, my! Won't Mercy be beat when she comes home an' hears
+all that's happened whilst she was gone. Go on."
+
+So Gaspar told all that had occurred since the Black Partridge parted
+from his sister in the cavern and rode away toward St. Joseph's. How
+that very day came one of the visiting Indians who had been staying at
+Muck-otey-pokee and whose behavior toward the neighboring white
+settlers had been a prominent cause of bringing the soldiers' raid
+upon the innocent and friendly hosts who had entertained him.
+
+The wicked like not solitude, and in the train of this traitor had
+followed many others. These had turned the cave into a pandemonium and
+had appropriated to their own uses the stores which Black Partridge
+had provided for Wahneenah. When to this robbery they had added
+threats against the lives of the white children, whose presence at the
+Indian village they in their turn declared had brought destruction
+upon it, the chief's sister had taken such small portion of her own
+property as she could secure and had set out to find a new home or
+shelter for her little ones.
+
+Since then they had been always wandering. Wahneenah now had a fixed
+dread of the pale-faces and had avoided their habitations as far as
+might be. They had lived in the woods, upon the roots and dried
+berries they could find and whose power to sustain life the squaw had
+understood. But now had come the cold of approaching winter and the
+Sun Maid had shown the effects of her long exposure. Then, at Gaspar's
+pleading, Wahneenah had put her own distrust of strangers aside and
+had come with him to the first cabin of white people which they could
+find.
+
+"And now we're here, what will you do with us?" concluded the lad,
+fixing his dark eyes earnestly upon his host's face.
+
+Abel fidgetted a little; then, with his happy faculty of putting off
+till to-morrow the evil that belonged to to-day, he replied:
+
+"Well, son--bub--I mean, Gaspar; we hain't come to that bridge yet.
+Time enough to cross it when we do. But, say, that little creatur'
+looks as if she hadn't known what 'twas to lie on a decent bed in a
+month of Sundays. She's 'bout dried off now; an' my! ain't she a
+pretty sight in them little Indian's togs! S'pose your squaw-ma puts
+her to sleep on the bed yonder. Notice that bedstead? There ain't
+another like it this side the East. I'll just spread a sheet over the
+quilt, to keep it clean, an' she can snooze there all day, if she
+likes. I'll play you an' Wahneeny a tune on my fiddle if you want me
+to."
+
+Gaspar was, of course, delighted with this offer but the chief's
+sister was already tired of the hot house and had cast longing glances
+through the small window toward the barn in the rear. That, at least,
+would be cool, and from its doorway she calculated she could keep a
+close watch upon the door of the cabin, and be ready at a second's
+notice to rush to her children's aid should harm be offered them.
+Meanwhile, for this dark day, they would have the comfort to which
+their birthright entitled them. So she went out and left them with
+Abel.
+
+The hours flew by and the storm continued. Abel had never been happier
+nor jollier; and as the twilight came down, and he finally gave up all
+expectation of Mercy's immediate return, he waxed fairly hilarious,
+cutting up absurd antics for the mere delight of seeing the Sun Maid
+laugh and dance in response, and because, under these cheerful
+conditions, Gaspar's face was losing its premature thoughtfulness and
+rounding to a look more suited to his years.
+
+"Now, I'll dance you a sailor's hornpipe, and then I must go out and
+milk. If ma'd been home, it would have been finished long ago. But
+when the cat's away the mice will play, you know; so here goes."
+
+Unfortunately, at that very moment the "cat" to whom he referred,
+Mercy, in fact, approached the cabin from a direction which even
+Wahneenah did not observe, and opened a rear door plump upon this
+unprecedented scene.
+
+Abel stopped short in his jig, one foot still uplifted and his fiddle
+bow half drawn, while the Sun Maid was yet sweeping her most graceful
+curtsey; and even the serious Gaspar had left his seat to prance about
+the room to the notes of Abel's music.
+
+Mercy also remained transfixed, utterly dumfounded, and doubting the
+evidence of her own senses; but after a moment becoming able to
+exclaim:
+
+"So! This is how lonesome you be when I leave you, is it?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+AFTER FOUR YEARS.
+
+
+Despite a really warm and hospitable heart, it was not pleasant for
+Mercy Smith to find that her submissive husband had taken upon himself
+to keep open house in this fashion for all who chose to call; and, as
+she often expressed it, the settler's wife "hated an Indian on sight."
+
+Upon her unexpected entrance, there had ensued a brief silence; then
+the two tongues which were accustomed to wag so nimbly took up their
+familiar task and a battle of words followed. Its climax came rather
+suddenly, and was not anticipated by the housewife who declared with
+great decision:
+
+"I say the children may stay for a spell, till we can find a way to
+dispose of 'em. The boy's big enough to earn his keep, if he ain't too
+lazy. Male creatur's mostly are. An' the girl's no great harm as I
+see, 'nless she's too pretty to be wholesome. But that red-face goes,
+or I do. There ain't no room in this cabin for me an' a squaw to one
+time. You can take your druther. She goes or I do"; and she glanced
+with animosity toward Wahneenah, who, when hearing the fresh voice
+added to the other three, had come promptly upon Mercy's return to
+take her stand just within the entrance. There she had remained ever
+since, silent, watchful, and quite as full of distrust concerning
+Mercy as Mercy could possibly have been toward herself.
+
+"Well," said Abel, slowly, and there was a new note in his voice which
+aroused and riveted his wife's attention. "Well--you hear me. I don't
+often claim to be boss, but when I do I mean it. Them children can
+stay here just as long as they will. For all their lives, an' I'll be
+glad of it. The Lord has denied us any little shavers of our own, an'
+maybe just because in His providence He was plannin' to send them two
+orphans here for us to tend. As for the squaw, she's proved her soul's
+white, if her skin is red, an' she stays or goes, just as she
+elects--ary one. That's all. Now, you'd better see about fixing 'em a
+place to sleep."
+
+Because she was too astonished to do otherwise, Mercy complied. And
+Wahneenah wisely relieved her unwilling hostess of any trouble
+concerning herself. She followed Abel to the barn, to attend him upon
+his belated "chores," and to beg the use of some coarse blankets which
+she had found stored there. Until she could secure properly dressed
+skins or bark, these would serve her purpose well enough for the
+little tepee she meant to pitch close to the house which sheltered her
+children.
+
+"For I must leave them under her roof while the winter lasts. They are
+not of my race, and cannot endure the cold. But I will work just so
+much as will pay for their keep and my own. They shall be beholden to
+the white woman for naught but their shelter. For that, too, I will
+make restitution in the days to come."
+
+"Pshaw, Wahneeny! I wouldn't mind a bit of a sharp tongue, if I was
+you. Ma don't mean no hurt. She's used to bein' boss, that's all; an'
+she will be the first to be glad she's got another female to consort
+with. I wouldn't lay up no grudge. I wouldn't."
+
+But the matter settled itself as the Indian suggested. It was pain and
+torment to her to hear Mercy alternately petting and correcting her
+darlings, yet for their sakes she endured that much and more. She even
+failed to resent the fact that, after a short residence at the farm,
+the Smiths both began to refer to her as "our hired girl, that's
+workin' for her keep an' the childern's."
+
+It did not matter to her now. Nothing mattered so long as she was
+still within sight and sound of her Sun Maid's beauty and laughter;
+and by the time spring came she had procured the needful skins to
+construct the wigwam she desired. Her skill in nursing, that had been
+well known among her own people, she now made a means of sustaining
+her independence. Such aid as she could render was indeed difficult to
+be obtained by the isolated dwellers in that wilderness; and having
+nursed Abel through a siege of inflammatory rheumatism, as he had
+never been cared for before, he sounded her praises far and near, and
+to all of the chance passers-by.
+
+For her service among those who could pay she charged a very moderate
+wage, but it sufficed; and, for the sake of pleasing her children, she
+adopted a dress very like that worn by all the women of the frontier.
+Kitty, also, had soon been clothed "like a Christian" by Mercy's
+decision; but Wahneenah still carefully preserved the dainty Indian
+costume Katasha had given the child; along with the sacred White Bow
+and the priceless Necklace.
+
+As for the three horses on which she and the two children had stolen
+away from their enemies in the cave of refuge, Abel had long ago
+decided that they were but kittle cattle, unfitted for the sober work
+of life which his own oxen and old nag Dobbin performed so well. So
+they were left in idleness, to graze where they pleased, and were
+little used except by their owners for a rare ride afield. The
+Chestnut, however, carried Wahneenah to and fro upon her nursing
+trips; for, unless the case were too urgent to be left, she always
+returned at nightfall to her own lodge and the nearness of her Sun
+Maid.
+
+Thus four uneventful years passed away, and it had come to the time of
+the wheat harvest.
+
+"And it's to be the biggest, grandest frolic ever was in this part of
+the country," declared the settler, proudly.
+
+Whereupon, days before, Mercy began to brew and bake, and even
+Wahneenah condescended to assist in the household labor. But she did
+this that she might if possible lighten that of her Sun Maid, who had
+now grown to a "real good-sized girl an' just as smart as chain
+lightning."
+
+This was Abel's description. Mercy's would have been:
+
+"Kitty's well enough. But she hates to sew her seam like she hates
+poison. She'd ruther be makin' posies an' animals out my nice clean
+fresh-churned butter than learn cookin'. But she's good-tempered.
+Never flies out at all, like Gaspar, 'cept I lose patience with
+Wahneeny. Then, look sharp!"
+
+"Well, I tell you that out in this country a harvestin' is a big
+institution!" cried Abel to Gaspar as, early on the morning of the
+eventful day, they were making all things ready for the accommodation
+of the people who would flock to the Smith farm to assist in the labor
+and participate in the fun. "If there's some things we miss here, we
+have some that can't be matched out East. Every white settler's every
+other settler's neighbor, even though there's miles betwixt their
+clearin's. All hands helpin' so makes light work of raisin' cabins or
+barns, sowin', reapin', or clearin'. I--I declare I feel as excited as
+a boy. But you don't seem to. You're gettin' a great lad now, Gaspar,
+an' one these days I'll be thinkin' of payin' you some wages. If so be
+I can afford it, an'----"
+
+"And Mercy will let you!"
+
+"Hi, diddle diddle! What's struck you crosswise, sonny?"
+
+"I'm tired of working so hard for other people. I want a chance to do
+something for myself. I'm not ungrateful; don't think it. But see. I
+am already taller than you and I can do as much work in a day. Where
+is the justice, then, of my labor going for naught?"
+
+"Why, Gaspar. Why, why, why!" exclaimed the pioneer, too astonished to
+say more.
+
+Gaspar went on with his task of clearing the barn floor and arranging
+tying places for the visitors' teams; but his dark face was clouded
+and anxious, showing little of the anticipation which Abel's did.
+
+"I'm going to ask you, Father Abel, to let me try for a job somewhere
+else; that is, if you can't really pay me anything, as your wife
+declares. Then, by and by, when I can earn enough to get ahead a
+little, I'd pay you back for all you've spent on us three."
+
+Abel's face had fallen, and he now looked as if he might be expecting
+some dire disaster rather than a frolic. But it brightened presently.
+
+"Yes, Gaspar; I know you're big, and well-growed. But you're young
+yet--dreadful young----"
+
+"I'm near fifteen."
+
+"Well, you won't be out your time till you're twenty-one."
+
+"What 'time'?" asked the lad, angrily, though he knew the answer.
+
+"Hmm. Of course, there wasn't no regular papers drawed, but it was
+understood; it was always understood between ma and me that if we took
+you all in, and did for you while you was growin' up, your service
+belonged to us. Same's if you'd been bound by the authorities."
+
+"Get over there, Dobbin!"
+
+"Pshaw! You must be real tried in your mind to hit a four-footed
+creatur' like that. I hain't never noticed that you was short-spoke
+with the stock--not before this morning. I wish you wouldn't get out
+of sorts to-day, boy! I--well, there's things afoot 'at I think you'd
+like to take a share in. There. That'll do. Now, just turn another
+edge on them reapin' knives, an' see that there's plenty o' water in
+the troughs, an' feed them fattin' pigs in the pen, an'--Shucks! He's
+off already. I wonder what's took him so short! I wonder if he's got
+wind of anything out the common!"
+
+The latter part of Abel's words were spoken to himself, for Gaspar had
+taken his knives to the grindstone in the yard and was now calling for
+Kitty to turn the stone for him, while he should hold the blades
+against its surface.
+
+But it was Mercy who answered his summons, appearing in the doorway
+with her sleeves rolled up, her apron floured, and her round face
+aglow with haste and excitement.
+
+"Well? well, Gaspar Keith? What you want of Kit?"
+
+"To help me."
+
+"Help yourself. I can't spare her."
+
+"Then I can't grind the knives. That's all." He tossed them down to
+wait her pleasure, and Mercy groaned.
+
+"If I ain't the worst bestead woman in the world! Here's all creation
+coming to be fed, an' no help but a little girl like Kit an' a grumpy
+old squaw 't don't know enough to 'preciate her privileges. Hey!
+Gaspar! Call Abel in to breakfast. An' after that maybe sissy can turn
+the stun. Here 'tis goin' on six o'clock, if it's a minute, an' some
+the folks'll be pokin' over here by seven, sure!"
+
+Then Mercy retreated within doors and directed the Sun Maid to:
+
+"Fly 'round right smart now an' set the house to one side. Whisk them
+flapjacks over quicker 'an that, then they'll not splish-splash all
+over the griddle. When I was a little girl nine years old I could fry
+cakes as round as an apple. No reason why you shouldn't, too, if you
+put your mind to it."
+
+The Sun Maid laughed. No amount of fret or labor had ever yet had
+power to dim the brightness of her nature. Was it the Sun Maid,
+though? One had to look twice to see. For this tall, slender girl now
+wore her glorious hair in a braid, and her frock was of coarse blue
+homespun.
+
+Her feet were bare, and her plump shoulders bowed a little because of
+the heavy burdens which her "mother Mercy" saw fit to put upon them.
+
+"But I guess I don't want to put my mind to it. I can't see anything
+pretty in 'jacks which are to be eaten right up. Only I like to have
+them taste right for the folks. That's all."
+
+Abel and Gaspar came in, and Kitty placed a plate of steaming cakes
+before them. Mercy hurried to the big churn outside the door and began
+to work the dasher up and down as if she hadn't an ounce of butter in
+her dairy and must needs prepare this lot for the festival. As she
+churned she kept up a running fire of directions to the household
+within, finally suggesting, in a burst of liberality due to the
+occasion:
+
+"You can fry what flapjacks you want for yourself, Wahneeny. An' I
+don't know as I care if you have a little syrup on 'em to-day--just
+for once, so to speak."
+
+However, Wahneenah disdained even the cakes, and the syrup-jug was
+deposited in its place with undiminished contents.
+
+"Be you all through, then? Well, Kit, fly 'round. Clear the table like
+lightning, an' fetch that butter bowl out the spring, an' see if the
+salt's all poun' an' sifted; an' open the draw's an' lay out my
+clothes, an'--Dear me! Does seem 's if I should lose my senses with so
+much to do an' no decent help, only----"
+
+"Hold on, Mercy! What's the use of rushin' through life 's if you was
+tryin' to break your neck?"
+
+"Rushin'! With all that's comin' here to-day!"
+
+"Well, let 'em come. We'll be glad to see 'em. Nobody gladder 'n you
+yourself. But you fair take my breath away with your everlastin'
+hurry-skurry, clitter-clatter. Don't give a man a chance to even kiss
+his little girl good-mornin'. Do you know that, Sunny Maid? Hain't
+said a word to your old Daddy yet!"
+
+The child ran to him and fondly flung her arms as far as they would
+go around the settler's broad shoulders. It was evident that there was
+love and sympathy between these two, though they were to be allowed
+short space "for foolin'" that day, and Mercy's call again interrupted
+them:
+
+"Come and take this butter down to the brook, Kit, an' wash it all
+clean, an' salt it just right--here 'tis measured off--an' make haste.
+I do believe you'd ruther stand there lovin' your old Abel--homely
+creatur'!--than helpin' me. Yet, when I was a little girl your age, I
+could work the butter over fit to beat the queen. Upon my word, I do
+declare I see a wagon movin' 'crost the prairie this very minute! Oh!
+what shall I do if I ain't ready when they get here!"
+
+Catching at last something of the pleasurable excitement about her,
+Kitty lifted the heavy butter-tray and started for the stream. The
+butter was just fine and firm enough to tempt her fingers into a bit
+of modelling, such as she had picked up for herself; and very speedily
+she had arranged a row of miniature fruits and acorns, and was just
+attempting to copy a flower which grew by the bank when Wahneenah's
+voice, close at hand, warned her:
+
+"Come, Girl-Child. The white mistress is in haste this morning. It is
+better to carry back the butter in a lump than to make even such
+pretty things and risk a scolding."
+
+"But father Abel would like them for his company. He is very fond of
+my fancy 'pats'."
+
+"But not to-day. Besides, if there is time for idleness, I want you to
+pass it here with me, in my own wigwam."
+
+The Sun Maid looked up. "Shall you not be at the feasting, dear Other
+Mother? You have many friends among those who are coming."
+
+"Friendship is proved by too sharp a test sometimes. The way of the
+world is to follow the crowd. If a person falls into disfavor with
+one, all the rest begin to pick flaws. More than that: the temptation
+of money ruins even noble natures."
+
+"Why, Wahneenah! You sound as if you were talking riddles. Who is
+tempted by money? and which way does the 'crowd' you mean go? I don't
+understand you at all."
+
+"May the Great Spirit be praised that it is so. May He long preserve
+to you your innocent and loyal heart."
+
+With these words, the Indian woman stooped and laid her hand upon the
+child's head; then slowly entered her lodge and let its curtains fall
+behind her. There was an unusual sternness about her demeanor which
+impressed Kitty greatly; so that it was with a very sober face that
+she herself gathered up her burdens and returned to the cabin.
+
+Yet on the short way thither she met Gaspar, who beckoned to her from
+behind the shelter of a haystack, motioning silence.
+
+"But you mustn't keep me, Gaspar boy. Mother Mercy is terribly hurried
+this morning, and now, for some reason, Other Mother has stopped
+helping and has gone home to the tepee. If I don't work, it will about
+crush her down, Mercy says."
+
+"Hang Mercy! There. I don't mean that. I wish you wouldn't always look
+so scared when I get mad. I am mad to-day, Kit. Mad clear through.
+I've got to be around amongst folks, too, for a while; but the first
+minute you get, you come to that pile of logs near Wahneenah's place,
+and I'll have something to tell you."
+
+"No you won't! No you won't! I know it already. I heard father Abel
+talking. There is to be a horse race, after the harvesting and the
+supper are over. There is a new man, or family, moved into the
+neighborhood and he is a horse trader. I heard all about it, sir!"
+
+"You heard that? Did you hear anything else? About Wahneenah and
+money?"
+
+"Only what she told me herself"; repeating the Indian woman's words.
+
+"Then she knows, poor thing!" cried Gaspar, indignantly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE HARVESTING.
+
+
+Kitty had no time to ask further explanation. Already there was an ox
+team driving up to the cabin and, scanning the prairies, she saw
+others on the way, so merely stopped to cry, eagerly:
+
+"They've come! The folks have come!" before she hastened in with the
+butter and to see if she could in any way help Mercy dress for the
+great occasion.
+
+She was just in time, for the plump housewife was vainly struggling to
+fasten the buttons of a new lilac calico gown which she had made:
+
+"A teeny tiny mite too tight. I didn't know I was gettin' so fat, I
+really didn't."
+
+"Oh! it's all right, dear Mother Mercy. It looked just lovely that day
+you tried it on. I'll help you. You're all trembling and warm. That's
+the reason it bothers."
+
+She was so deft and earnest in her efforts that Mercy submitted
+without protest, and in this manner succeeded in "making herself fit
+to be seen by folks" about the moment that they arrived to observe.
+Then everything else was forgotten, amid the greetings and gayety
+that followed. For out of what purported to be a task the whole
+community was making a frolic.
+
+While the men repaired to the golden fields to reap the grain the
+women hurried to the smooth grassy place where the harvest-dinner was
+to be enjoyed out-of-doors.
+
+Most of the vehicles--which brought whole families, down to the babe
+in long clothes--were drawn by oxen, though some of the pioneers owned
+fine horses and had driven these, groomed with extraordinary care and
+destined, later on, to be entered in the races which should conclude
+the business and fun of the day.
+
+Both horses and oxen were, for the present, led out to graze upon a
+fine pasture and were supposed to be under the care, while there, of
+the young people. These were, however, more deeply engaged in playing
+games than in watching, and for once their stern parents ignored the
+carelessness.
+
+"Oh, such bright faces!" cried the Sun Maid to Mercy. "And yours is
+the happiest of all, even though you did have such a terrible time to
+get ready. See, they are fixing the tables out of the wagon boards,
+and every woman has brought her own dishes. They're making fires, too,
+some of the bigger boys. What for, Mother Mercy?"
+
+"Oh! don't bother me now. It's to boil the coffee on, and to bake the
+jonny-cakes. 'Journey-cakes,' they used to call them. Mis' Waldron,
+she's mixin' some this minute. Step acrost to her table an' watch. A
+girl a'most ten years old ought to learn all kinds of housekeepin'."
+
+Kitty was nothing loath. It was, indeed, a treat to see with what
+skill the comely settler of the wilderness mixed and tossed and patted
+her jonny-cake, famous all through that countryside for lightness and
+delicacy; and as she finished each batch of dough, and slapped it down
+upon the board where it was to cook, she would hand it over to Kitty's
+charge, with the injunction:
+
+"Carry that to one of the fires, an' stand it up slantin', so 's to
+give it a good chance to bake even. Watch 'em all, too; an' as soon as
+they are a nice brown on one side, either call me to turn 'em to the
+other, or else do it yourself. As Mercy Smith says, a girl can't begin
+too early to housekeep."
+
+"But this is out-door keep, isn't it?" laughed the Sun Maid, as, with
+a board upon each arm, she bounded away to place the cakes as she had
+been directed.
+
+In ordinary, Mercy Smith was not a lavish woman; but on such a day as
+this she threw thrift to the wind and, brought out the best she could
+procure for the refreshment of her guests; and everybody knows how
+much better food tastes when eaten out-of-doors than in regular
+fashion beside a table. The dinner was a huge success; and even
+Gaspar, whom Kitty's loving watchful eyes had noticed was more than
+usually serious that day, so far relaxed his indignation as to partake
+of the feast with the other visiting lads.
+
+But, when it was over and the women were gathering up the dishes,
+preparatory to cleansing them for their homeward journey, the child
+came to where Mercy stood among a group of women, and asked:
+
+"Shall I wash the dishes, Mother Mercy?"
+
+"No, sissy, you needn't. We grown folks'll fix that. If you want
+something to do, an' are tired of out-doors, you can set right down
+yonder an' rock Mis' Waldron's baby to sleep. By and by, Abel's got a
+job for you will suit you to a T!"
+
+Kitty was by no means tired of out-doors, but a baby to attend was
+even a greater rarity than a holiday; so she sat down beside the
+cradle, which its mother had brought in her great wagon, and gently
+swayed the little occupant into a quiet slumber. Then she began to
+listen to the voices about her, and presently caught a sentence which
+puzzled her.
+
+"Fifty dollars is a pile of money. It's more 'n ary Indian ever was
+worth. Let alone a sulky squaw."
+
+"Yes it is. An' I need it. I need it dreadful," assented Mercy,
+forgetful of the Sun Maid's presence in the room.
+
+"Well, I, for one, should be afraid of her," observed another visitor,
+clattering the knives she was wiping. "I wouldn't have a squaw livin'
+so near my door, an' that's a fact."
+
+Kitty now understood that these people were speaking of Wahneenah, and
+listened intently.
+
+"Oh! I ain't afraid of her. Not that. But I never did like her, nor
+she me. She's sullen an' top-lofty. Why, you'd think I wasn't no
+better than the dirt under her feet, to see her sometimes. She was
+good to the childern, I'll 'low, afore me an' Abel took 'em in. But
+that's four years ago, an' I've cared for 'em ever since. Sometimes I
+think she's regular bewitched 'em, they dote on her so. If you believe
+me, they'll listen to her leastest word sooner 'n a whole hour of my
+talk!"
+
+"I shouldn't be surprised," quietly commented one young matron, who
+was jogging her own baby to sleep by tipping her chair violently back
+and forth upon its four legs.
+
+Continued Mercy:
+
+"She wouldn't eat a meal of victuals with me if she was starvin'. Yet
+I've treated her Christian. Only this mornin' I give her leave to fry
+cakes for herself, an' even have some syrup, but she wouldn't touch to
+do it. Yes; fifty dollars of good government money would be more to
+me 'n she is, an' she'd be took care of, I hear, along with all the
+rest is caught. It's time the country was rid of the Indians an' white
+folks had a chance. There's all the while some massacrein' an'
+fightin' goin' on somewhere."
+
+"Oh! I guess the government just puts 'em under lock an' key, in a
+guard-house, or some such place, till it gets enough to send away off
+West somewheres. I'd get the fifty dollars, if I was you, and march
+her off. She'll be puttin' notions into the youngsters' heads first
+you see an' makin' trouble."
+
+"I don't know just how to manage it. Abel, he's queer an' sot. He's
+gettin' tired, though, of some things, himself."
+
+"Manage it easy enough. Like fallin' off a log. My man could do you
+that good turn. She could be took along in our wagon as far as the
+Agency. Then, next time he comes by with his grist on his road to
+mill, he could fetch you the money. I'd do it, sure. I only wish I had
+an Indian to catch as handy as she is." Having given this advice,
+Mercy's guest sat down.
+
+There was a rush of small feet and the Sun Maid confronted them. Her
+blue eyes blazed with indignation, her face was white, and her hair,
+which the day's activity had loosed from its braid, streamed backward
+as if every fibre quivered with life. With heaving breast and clenched
+hands, she faced them all.
+
+"Oh, how dare you! How dare you! You are talking of my Wahneenah; of
+selling her, of selling her like a pig or a horse. Even you, Mrs.
+Jordan, though she nursed your little one till it got well, and only
+told you the truth: that if you'd look after it more and visit less it
+wouldn't have the croup so often. You didn't like to hear her say it,
+and you do not love her. But she is good, good, good! There is nobody
+so good as she is. And no harm shall come to her. I tell you. I say
+it. I, the Sun Maid, whom the Great Spirit sent to her out of the sky.
+I will go and tell her at once. She shall run away. She shall not be
+sold--never, never, never!"
+
+The women remained dumfounded where she left them, watching her skim
+the distance between cabin and wigwam, scarcely touching the earth
+with her bare feet in her haste to warn her friend of this new danger
+which threatened her and her race. For it was quite true, this matter
+that had been discussed. The Indians had given so much trouble in the
+sparsely settled country that the authorities had offered a price for
+their capture; and it was this price which money-loving Mercy coveted.
+
+Like a flash of a bird's wing, Kitty had darted into the lodge and
+out again, with an agony of fear upon her features; and then she saw
+Gaspar beckoning.
+
+As she reached him he motioned silence and drew her away into the
+shadow of the forest, that just there fringed the clearing behind the
+tepee.
+
+"But--Wahneenah's gone!" she whispered.
+
+"Don't worry. She's safe enough for the present. Listen to me. Do you
+remember the horse-racing last year?"
+
+"Course. I remember I got so excited over the horses, and so sorry for
+the boys that rode and didn't win. But what of that? Other Mother has
+gone!"
+
+"I tell you she's safe. Safer than you or me. Listen. Abel says _we_,
+too, will have to ride a race to-day! On Tempest and Snowbird. Even if
+we win, the money will belong to him; and if we lose--he's going to
+sell one of our horses to pay his loss. I heard him say it."
+
+"But they are ours!"
+
+"He's kept them all these years, he says. He claims the right to do
+with them as he chooses. Bad as that is, it isn't the worst. Though
+Wahneenah is safe, still she will not be always. You and I will have
+to ride this race--to save her life, or liberty!"
+
+"What do--you--mean?"
+
+"I haven't time to explain. Only--will you do as I say? Exactly?"
+
+"Of course." Kitty looked inquiringly into her foster-brother's face.
+Didn't he know she loved him better than anybody and would mind him
+always?
+
+"When we are on the horses if I say to you: 'Follow me!' will you?"
+
+"Of course. Away to the sky, over yonder, if you want me."
+
+"Even if any grown folks should try to stop you? Even if Abel or
+Mercy?"
+
+"Even"--declared the little girl, sincerely.
+
+"Now go back to the house, or anywhere you please till Abel calls you,
+or I do. Then come and mount. And then--then--do exactly as I tell
+you. Remember."
+
+He went away, back to the group of men about the barn, and Kitty sat
+down in the shady place to wait. But it was not for long. Presently
+she heard Mercy calling her, and saw Abel, with Gaspar, leading the
+black gelding and pretty Snowbird out of the stable toward a ring of
+other horses. She got up and passed toward the cabin very slowly.
+Oddly enough, she began to feel timid about riding before all those
+watching, strange faces; yet did not understand why. Then she thought
+of Wahneenah, and her returning anger made her indifferent to them.
+
+"Abel wants you, Kit!" cried Mrs. Smith, quite ignoring the child's
+recent outbreak, and the girl walked quietly toward him. But it was
+Gaspar who helped to swing her into her saddle, where she settled
+herself with an ease learned long ago of the Snake-Who-Leaps. The lad,
+also, found time to whisper:
+
+"Remember your promise! We are to ride this race for Wahneenah's
+life--though nobody knows that save you and me. So ride your best.
+Ride as you never rode before--and on the road I lead you!"
+
+The sons of the new settler and horse dealer were to ride against
+these two. There were three of these youths, all well mounted, and the
+course was to be a certain number of times around the great wheat
+field so freshly reaped. It was a rough route, indeed, but as just for
+one as another, and in plain sight of all the visitors. The five
+horses ranged in a row with their noses touching a line, held by two
+men, that fell as the word was given:
+
+"One--two--three--GO!"
+
+They went. They made the circuit of the field in fair style, with the
+three strangers a trifle ahead. On the completion of the second heat,
+the easterners passed the starting-point alone.
+
+"Why, Gaspar! Why, Kitty!" shouted Abel reprovingly. "How's this?"
+
+"Maybe they don't understand what's meant," suggested somebody.
+
+Seemingly, they did not. For neither at the third round did they
+appear in leading. On the contrary, they had started off at a right
+angle, straight across the prairie; but now so fast they rode, and so
+unerringly, that long before their deserted friends had ceased to
+stare and wonder they had passed out of sight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+ONCE MORE IN THE OLD HOME.
+
+
+"We can rest a little now, Kit. We are so far away that nobody could
+catch us if they tried. They won't try, any way, I guess. They'll
+think we'll go back."
+
+"Didn't the horses do finely, Gaspar! I never rode like that, I guess.
+Where are we going? What did you mean about saving Wahneenah's life?
+Where is she?"
+
+"Don't ask so many questions. I've got to think. I've got to think
+very hard. I'm the man of our family, you know, Sun Maid. Wahneenah
+and you are my women."
+
+"Oh! indeed!" said the girl, moving a little nearer her foster-brother
+on the grassy hillock where they had slipped from their saddles, to
+rest both themselves and the beasts.
+
+"You see: we've all run away."
+
+"Pooh! That's nothing. I've always been running away. Black Partridge
+said I began life that way."
+
+"You're about ten years old, Kit. You're big enough to be getting
+womanly."
+
+"Father Abel said I was. I can sew quite well. If I'm very, very good,
+I'm to be let stitch a dickey all alone, two threads at a time, for
+him. Mercy said so."
+
+"Do you like stitching shirts for that old man?"
+
+"No. I hate it."
+
+"Poor little Sun Maid. You were made to be happy, and do nothing but
+what you like all day long. Well, I'll be a man some day, and build a
+cabin of my own for you and Wahneenah."
+
+"That will be nice. Though I'll be of some use some way, even if I
+don't like sewing. Where shall we go when we get rested, boy?"
+
+"To the Fort."
+
+"The--Fort! I thought it was all burned up."
+
+"There is a new one on the same old ground. It is our real home, you
+know. We will be refugees. When we meet Wahneenah, we'll go and claim
+protection."
+
+"Oh! Gaspar, where is she? I want her terribly. I am afraid something
+will happen to her."
+
+In his heart the lad was, also, greatly alarmed; but he felt it unwise
+to show this. So he answered, airily:
+
+"Oh! she's on, a piece. I pointed her the road, and told her where to
+meet us. At the top of the sandhills, this side the Fort."
+
+"The sandhills! That dreadful place. You must be getting a real
+'brave,' Gaspar boy, if you don't mind going there again. I've heard
+you talk--"
+
+"I don't want to talk even now, Kit. But I had to have some spot we
+both knew, where we could meet, and we chose that. I expect she'll be
+there waiting, and as soon as the horses get cooled a little, and we
+do, we'll go on."
+
+"I'm hungry. I wish we had brought something to eat."
+
+"I did. It's here in my blouse. I noticed at the dinner that you did
+more serving than eating. There's water yonder, too; in that clump of
+bushes must be a spring," and the prairie-wise lad was right.
+
+The supper he produced was an indiscriminate mixture of meats and
+sweets and, had Kitty not been so really in need of food she would
+have disdained what she promptly pronounced "a mess." But she ate it
+and felt rested by it; so that she began to remember things she had
+scarcely noticed earlier in the day.
+
+"Gaspar, Wahneenah must have known about this--this money being
+offered for her and other Indians. She had taken everything out of her
+wigwam. I thought she was terribly grave this morning, and she kept
+looking at me all the time. Do you think she knew she was going to run
+away as she was?"
+
+"Course. She's known it some days."
+
+"And didn't tell me!"
+
+"She couldn't, because she loves you so. She wouldn't do a thing to
+put you in danger. So I thought the matter over, and I tell you I've
+just taken the business right out their hands. I was tired, any way.
+I'm glad we came. I'm almost a man, Kit; and I won't be scolded by any
+woman as Mercy has scolded me. And when I found Abel was getting
+stingy, too, and claiming our horses for their keep, when they've
+really just kept themselves out on the prairie, or anywhere it
+happened, I--"
+
+"Boy, you talk too fast. I--I don't feel as if I was glad. Except when
+I remember Other Mother. They were horrid, horrid about her. I hate
+them for that, though I love them for other things. I wonder what
+Mother Mercy will say when we don't come home!"
+
+"She'll have a chance to say a lot of things before we do, I guess.
+Well, we'll be going. I wouldn't like to miss Wahneenah, and I don't
+know but they close the Fort gates at night."
+
+"Did she ride Chestnut?"
+
+"Course. What a lot of questions you ask!"
+
+The Sun Maid looked into the boy's face. It was too troubled for her
+comfort, and she exclaimed:
+
+"Gaspar Keith! There's more to be told than you've told me. What is it
+you are keeping back?"
+
+"I--I wonder if you can understand, if I do tell you?"
+
+"I think I can understand a good many things. One is: you are making
+me feel very unhappy."
+
+"Well, then, I'm going to take Wahneenah to the Fort, and give her up
+myself!"
+
+They had remounted their horses, and were pacing leisurely along
+toward the rendezvous, keeping a sharp lookout for the Indian woman;
+but at this startling statement the Sun Maid reined up short, and
+demanded:
+
+"What--do--you--mean?"
+
+"Just exactly what I say. I'm going to give her up and get the money."
+
+Kitty could not speak; and with a perplexity that was not at all
+comfortable to himself, the lad returned her astonished gaze.
+
+"Then--you--are--just--as--mean--as--Mercy--Smith!"
+
+"I am not mean at all! Don't you say it. Don't you understand? I
+do--or I thought I did. It's this way. She can't be given up but once,
+can she? Well, I'll do it, instead of an enemy."
+
+"You--wicked--boy! I can't believe it! I won't! You shall not do it;
+never!"
+
+"Oh, don't be silly! Of course, I'll not keep the money. I'll give it
+right back to her. Then she can do what she likes with it--make a nice
+new wigwam near the Fort, and she can get lots of skins, or even
+canvas, there. Come, let's ride on."
+
+But there was a silence between them for some time, and the scheme
+that had seemed so brilliant, when it had originated in Gaspar's mind,
+began to lose something of its glitter under the clear questioning
+gaze of the Sun Maid.
+
+It was fast falling twilight when they came to the sandhills; and
+though, by all reckoning, Wahneenah should have been long awaiting
+them there was no sign of the familiar Chestnut or its beloved rider.
+
+"Gaspar, will Wahneenah understand it? Will she believe it is right
+for you to do what is wrong for another to do? Will the soldier men
+pay you--just a boy, so--the money, real money, for her, anyway?"
+
+Gaspar lost his patience, with which he was not greatly blessed.
+
+"Kit, I wish you wouldn't keep thinking of things. I didn't tell Other
+Mother, of course. She might--she might not have been pleased. I acted
+for the best. That's the way men always have to do."
+
+The argument was not as convincing to the Sun Maid as she herself
+would have liked; but she trusted Gaspar, and tried to put the money
+question aside, while she strained her eyes to search the darkening
+landscape for the missing one.
+
+But there was no trace of her anywhere; even though Gaspar dismounted
+and scanned the sward for fresh tracks, as his Indian friends had
+taught him; and when, at length, he felt compelled to hasten to the
+Fort and seek its shelter for the Sun Maid, his young heart was heavy
+with foreboding. However, he put the cheerful side of the subject
+before the little girl, observing:
+
+"It's the very easiest thing in the world for people to make mistakes
+in meeting this way. What seems a certain point to one person may look
+very different to another. I've noticed that."
+
+"Oh! you have!" commented Kitty. "I think you've noticed almost too
+much, Gaspar. I--I think it's awful lonely out here, and I don't
+believe Abel would have let anybody hurt Wahneenah, even if Mercy
+would. And--I want her, I want her!"
+
+"Sun Maid! Are you afraid?"
+
+"No, I am not. Not for myself. But if some of those dreadful white
+people whom Wahneenah thought were her friends should overtake her on
+their way home, and--and--take her prisoner! I can't have it,--I must
+go back, and search again and again."
+
+"Sing, Kit! If she's anywhere within hearing, she'll come at the sound
+of your voice. Sing your loudest!"
+
+Obediently, the Sun Maid lifted her clear voice and sang, at the
+beginning with vigor and hope in the notes, but at the end with a
+sorrowful trembling and pathos that made Gaspar's heart ache. So, to
+still his own misgivings, he commanded her, also, to be silent.
+
+"It's no use, girlie. She's out of hearing somewhere. Maybe she has
+gone to the Fort already. Any way, it's getting very dark, and the
+clouds are awful heavy. I believe there's a thunder-shower coming, and
+if it does, it will be a bad one. They always are worse, Mercy says,
+when they come this time of year. We would better hurry on to shelter
+ourselves. If she isn't there, we can look for her in the morning."
+
+"I like a thunder-storm. I believe it would be fine to go under that
+clump of trees yonder and watch it. I have to go to bed so early,
+always, that I think it is just grand to be up late and out-of-doors,
+too."
+
+"You are not afraid of anything, Kitty Briscoe! I never saw a girl
+like you!" cried the lad, reproachfully.
+
+"But you don't know other girls, boy. Maybe they are not afraid,
+either. I can't help it if I'm not, can I?"
+
+Gaspar laughed. "I guess I'm cross, child, that's all. Of course I
+wouldn't want you to be a scared thing. But, let's hurry. The later we
+get there the more trouble we may have to get in."
+
+"Why--will there be trouble? If there is, let's go home."
+
+"We can't go home. We've run away, you know. Besides, there would be
+the same anxiety about Wahneenah. All 's left for us is to go on."
+
+So the Sun Maid settled herself firmly in her saddle and followed
+Tempest's rather reckless pace forward into the darkness. Memory made
+the dim road familiar to Gaspar, and soon the garrison lights came
+into sight.
+
+But martial law is strict and the gates had been closed for the night,
+as the lad had feared. The sentinel on duty did not respond to his
+first summons with the promptness which the boy desired, so, springing
+to his feet upon the gelding's back, he shouted, over the stockade:
+
+"Entrance for two citizens of the United States! In the name of its
+President!"
+
+"Ugh. There is no need for such a noise, pale-face."
+
+These words fell so suddenly upon Gaspar's ears that he nearly tumbled
+backward from his perch. He was further amazed to see the Sun Maid
+leap from her horse, straight through the gloom into the arms of a
+tall Indian who seemed to have risen out of the ground beside them.
+
+In fact, he had merely stepped from a canoe at the foot of the path
+and his moccasined feet had made no sound upon the sward as he
+approached. He received the girl's eager spring with grave dignity,
+and immediately replaced her upon the Snowbird's back.
+
+[Illustration: GASPAR AND KITTY REACH THE FORT. _Page 188._]
+
+"Why, Black Partridge! Don't you know me? Aren't you glad to see me?
+Four years since we said good-by, that day at poor Muck-otey-pokee."
+
+"I remember all things. Why is the Sun Maid here, at this hour?"
+
+Gaspar had recovered himself and now broke into a torrent of
+explanation, which the chief quietly interrupted as soon as he had
+gathered the facts of the case.
+
+"But don't you think, dear Feather-man, that our Wahneenah will soon
+come?" demanded Kitty, anxiously.
+
+"The gates are open. Let us enter," he answered evasively; and the
+novelty of her surroundings so promptly engrossed the girl's mind that
+she forgot to question him further then. Somewhere on the dimly
+lighted campus a bugle was sounding; and it awakened sleeping memories
+of her earliest childhood. So did the regular "step-step" of soldiers
+relieving guard. A new and delightful sense of safety and familiarity
+thrilled her heart, and she exclaimed, joyfully:
+
+"Oh, Gaspar! it is home! it is home! More than the cabin, more than
+Other Mother's tepee, this is home!"
+
+"I hope it will prove so."
+
+"Do you suppose I will find any of the dear white 'mothers' who were
+so good to me? Or Bugler Jim, who used to play me to sleep under the
+trees in the corner? I wish it wasn't so dark. I wish----"
+
+"It's all new, Kit. They are all strangers. The rest, you know--well,
+none of them are here. But these will be kind, no doubt. Yet to me,
+even in this dark, it seems--it seems horrible! It all comes back:
+that morning when I first rode Tempest. The massacre----"
+
+The tone of his voice startled her, and she begged at once:
+
+"Let us go right away again. I am not afraid of the storm, nor the
+darkness, and nothing can harm us if we pray to be taken care of. The
+Great Spirit always hears. Let us go."
+
+"It is too late. It's beginning to rain and that man is ordering us to
+dismount, that he may put the horses in the stables. Jump down."
+
+There were always some refugees at the Fort. Just then there were more
+than ordinary; or, if all were not such, there were many passing
+travellers, journeying in emigrant trains toward the unsettled west,
+to make their new homes there, and these used "Uncle Sam's tavern" as
+an inn of rest and refreshment.
+
+Amid so many, therefore, small attention was paid to the arrival of
+these two young people. They were furnished with a plain supper, in
+the main living room of the building which seemed a big and dreary
+place, and immediately afterward were dismissed to bed. Kitty was
+assigned a cot among the women guests and Gaspar slept in the men's
+quarters.
+
+But neither had very comfortable thoughts, and the talk of her
+dormitory neighbors kept the Sun Maid long awake. Here, as in Mercy's
+cabin, the dominant subject was the reward offered for the capture of
+the Indians, and a fresh fear set her trembling as one indignant
+matron exclaimed:
+
+"There's one of those pesky red-skins in this very Fort this night. He
+came with that girl yonder, but I hope he won't be let to get away as
+easy. The country is overrun with the Indians, and is no place for
+decent white folks. They outnumber us ten to one. That's why I've got
+my husband to sell out. We're on our way back East, to civilization."
+
+"Well, if one's come here to-night, I reckon he'll be taken care of!
+Massacres are more plenty than money, and some man or other'll make
+out to claim the prize. What sort of Indian was he?"
+
+"Oh, like them all. All paint and feather and wickedness. I wish
+somebody'd take and hang him to the sally-port, just for an example."
+
+This was too much for loyal Kitty Briscoe. She could no more help
+springing up in defence of her friends than she could help breathing.
+
+"You women must not talk like that! There are good Indians, and they
+are the best people in the world. They won't hurt anybody who lets
+them alone. That Indian you're talking against is the Black Partridge.
+He is splendid. He is my very oldest friend, except Gaspar. He
+wouldn't hurt a fly, and he'd help everybody needed help. It's this
+horrible offer of money for every Indian caught that has set my
+precious Other Mother wandering over the country this dark night, and
+made Gaspar and me homeless runaways."
+
+There was instant hubbub in the room, and no more desire for sleep on
+anybody's part until Kitty had been made to tell her story, the story
+of her life as she remembered it, over and over again; and when
+finally slumber overtook her, even in the midst of her narrative, her
+dreams were filled with visions of Wahneenah fleeing and forever
+pursued by uniformed soldiers with glistening bayonets, who fired
+after her to the merry sound of a bugle and drum.
+
+In the morning she found Gaspar and related her night's experience.
+He received it gravely, without the sympathy she expected.
+
+"Kit, I don't understand. What you said was true, and right enough for
+me to say. But it's not like you to be so bold. Yesterday, you were
+saucy to the harvest-women and now again to these. Is it because you
+are growing up so fast, I wonder? All women are not like Other Mother.
+They might get angry with you, and punish you. If I should go----"
+
+"If what, Gaspar Keith?"
+
+"Kitty, _I can't stay here_. It would kill me. I must get out into the
+open. I am going away. Right away. Now. This very hour even. You must
+be brave, and understand."
+
+"Go away? I, too? All right. Only don't look so sober. I don't care. I
+promised to go anywhere you wished and I will. I'm ready."
+
+"But--but--It's only I, my Kit. Not you."
+
+"You would go away, and--leave me here? Just because you don't like
+it?"
+
+All the color went out of her fair, round face, and she caught his
+head between her hands, and turned it so that she could look into his
+dark eyes, which could not bear to look into her own startled and
+reproachful ones.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+PARTINGS AND MEETINGS.
+
+
+Gaspar's courage returned, and he led her to a sheltered place under
+the stockade, where he made her sit beside him for the brief time that
+was his.
+
+"Not all because I do not like it; but because I am almost a man and I
+have found the chance of my life. There is one here, a _voyageur_,
+with his boat. The finest vessel I ever saw, though they've not been
+so many. He is going north into the great woods; will sail this
+morning. He is a great trader and hunter and he has asked me to
+apprentice myself to him. He promises he will make my fortune. He has
+taken as great a liking to me, I reckon, as I have to him. We shall
+get on famously together. In that broad, free life I shall grow a full
+man, and soon. I can earn money, and make a home for you and
+Wahneenah, and many another lonely, helpless soul. Yes, I must go. I
+can't let the chance pass. And you must be brave, and the Sun Maid
+still, and forever. I shall want to think of you as always bright and
+full of laughter. Like yourself. But you are not like yourself now,
+Girl-Child. Why don't you speak? Why don't you say something?"
+
+"I guess there isn't any 'say' left in me, Gaspar," answered the girl,
+in a tone so hopelessly sad that it almost made the lad waver in his
+determination. Only that wavering had no portion in the character of
+the ambitious youth, and he looked far forward toward a great good
+beyond the present pain.
+
+When the day was well advanced, the schooner sailed away, from the
+dock at the foot of the path from fort to lake, with Gaspar upon her
+deck, trying to look more brave and manly than he really felt. But a
+forlorn little maid watched with eyes that shed no tears, and a
+pitiful attempt at a smile upon her quivering lips till the vessel
+became a mere speck, then disappeared.
+
+After a long while, she was aroused by something again moving over the
+water.
+
+"He's coming back! My Gaspar's coming back!" she cried, and tossed
+back the hair which the wind blew about her face that she might see
+the clearer. A moment later her disappointment found words: "It's
+nothing but a common Indian canoe!"
+
+However, she remembered her foster-brother had set her a task to do.
+She must begin it right away. She was to be as helpful to everybody
+she ever should meet as it was possible. Here might be one coming who
+hadn't heard about that dreadful fifty-dollar prize money. She must
+call out and warn him. So she did, and never had human voice sounded
+pleasanter to any wayfarer. But her own intentness discovered
+something familiar in the appearance of the young brave, paddling so
+cautiously toward her and keeping so well to the shore. She began to
+question herself where she had seen him, and in a flash she
+remembered. Then, indeed, did she shout, and joyfully:
+
+"Osceolo! Osceolo! Don't you know me? Kitty? The Sun Maid? The
+daughter of your own tribe? Osceolo!"
+
+"By the moccasins of my grandfather! You here? How? When? No matter.
+The brother of the Sun Maid rejoices. Never a friend so convenient.
+Run around to the edge of the wharf. There must be talk between us,
+and at once."
+
+He pushed his little boat close under the shadow of the pier that had
+long since been deserted of those who had come down to watch, as Kitty
+had done, the sailing of the northern-bound schooner. There was none
+to hear them, yet Osceolo chose to muffle his tones and to make
+himself mysterious. In truth, he was fleeing from justice, having been
+mixed up in a raid upon a settler's homestead a few miles back; in
+which, fortunately, there had been no bloodshed, though a deal of
+thieving and other dirty work which would make it uncomfortable for
+the young warrior should he be caught just then. The story he was
+prepared to tell was true as far as it went; and the Sun Maid was too
+innocent to suspect guile in others. She thought he was referring to
+the prize money when he spoke of quite other matters; and after the
+briefest inquiry and answer as to what had befallen either since their
+parting at doomed Muck-otey-pokee, he concluded:
+
+"Now, Sister-Of-My-Heart, Blood-Daughter-Of-My-Chief, you must help
+me. You must give me, or lend me, a horse; and you must bring me food.
+Then I will ride to fetch you back Wahneenah."
+
+"Oh! You know where she is? Can you do it and not be taken?"
+
+"Is not the Brother of the Sun Maid now become a mighty warrior?"
+
+"You--you don't look so very mighty," returned the girl, truthfully.
+
+Osceolo frowned. "That is as one sees. Fetch me the horse and the
+meat, if you would have your Other Mother restored."
+
+"I will. I will!" she cried, and ran back to the Fort. She went first
+to the kitchen, and begged a meal "for a stranger that's just come,"
+and the food was given her without question. Strangers were always
+coming to be fed; herself, also, no longer ago than the last evening.
+
+From the kitchen to the stables, where a bright thought came to her.
+She would lead the Tempest to Osceolo, and herself ride the Snowbird.
+Together they would go to find Wahneenah.
+
+"The black gelding?" asked the soldier of whom she sought assistance.
+"The hostler can maybe tell you. But I think the Black Partridge rode
+away on him before daybreak."
+
+"The Black Partridge! Oh! I had forgotten him in my trouble about
+Gaspar. Did any harm come to him, sir?"
+
+"No. What harm should? If every red-skin in Illinois was like him
+there'd be little need of us fellows out here in this mud-hole. But
+you look disappointed. If you want to take a ride, there's the white
+mare you came on. But you'd better not go far away. It isn't safe for
+a child like you."
+
+"I'm not afraid, but--Well, if Tempest's gone, I can't. That's all."
+
+So the Snowbird was brought out, and she led the pretty creature away
+behind the shelter of the few trees which hid the spot where Osceolo
+had bade her meet him.
+
+"I tried to get Tempest for you, but the Chief has ridden him away. I
+meant to go with you. But you'll have to go alone. Tell my darling
+Other Mother that I am here, and waiting. Tell her about Gaspar, and
+that he said he had found out she would be quite safe here. Why, so, I
+suppose, would you. I didn't think."
+
+"No, I shouldn't," returned the young Indian hastily. Then, noting her
+surprise, explained:
+
+"I'm a warrior, you see. That makes a difference."
+
+"It will be all right, though, I think. And if you cannot come back
+with Wahneenah, do hurry and send her by herself. Will you?"
+
+"Oh, I'll hurry!" answered the youth, evasively, and leaped to the
+Snowbird's back. The food he had stuffed within his shirt till a more
+convenient season, and with a cry that even to Kitty's trusting ears
+sounded in some way derisive, he was off out of sight along the
+lakeside.
+
+As the Snowbird disappeared, Kitty felt that the last link between
+herself and her friends had been severed, and for a moment the tears
+had sway. Then, ashamed of her own weakness and remembering her
+promise to Gaspar that she would be "just the sunniest kind of a girl,
+and true to her name," she brushed them away and entered the busy
+Fort, to proffer her services to the women in charge.
+
+These had already learned her story and had reprimanded her for
+running away from her protectors, the Smiths; but it was nobody's
+business to return her and, meanwhile, she was safe at the Fort until
+they should choose to call for her.
+
+"Well, there is always plenty of work in the world for the hands that
+will do it," said an officer's wife, with a kindly smile. "You seem
+too small to be of much practical use; but, however, if you want a
+task, there are some little fellows yonder who need amusing and
+comforting. Their mother has died of a fever, and their father is more
+of a student and preacher than a nurse. I guess his wife was the
+ruling spirit in the household, and now that she has left him, he is
+sadly unsettled. He doesn't know whether to go on and take up the
+claim he expected or not. He and you, and the oddly-named little sons,
+may all yet have to become wards of the Government."
+
+"I'm very sorry for him."
+
+"You well may be. Yet he's a gentle, blessed old man. No more fit to
+marry and bring that flock of youngsters out here into the wilderness
+than I am to command an army. She was much younger than he, and felt
+the necessity of doing something toward providing for their children
+and educating them. But the more I talk, the more I puzzle you. Run
+along and lend them a hand. The very smallest Littlejohn of the lot
+has filled his mouth with dirt, and is trying to squall it out. See if
+a drink of water won't mend matters."
+
+Kitty hastened to the child, and begged;
+
+"My dear, don't cry like that. You are disturbing the people."
+
+"Don't care. I ain't my dear; I'm Four."
+
+"You're what?"
+
+"Just Four. Four Littlejohns. What pretty hair you've got. May I pull
+it?"
+
+"I'd rather not. Unless it will make you forget the dirt you ate."
+
+But the permission given, the child became indifferent to it. He
+pointed to three other lads crouching against the door-step, and
+explained:
+
+"They're One, Two, and Three. My father, he says it saves trouble.
+Some folks laugh at us. They say it's funny to be named that way. I
+was eating the dirt because I was--I was mad."
+
+"Indeed! At whom?"
+
+"At everybody. I'm just mis'able. I don't care to live no longer."
+
+The round, dimpled face was so exceedingly wholesome and happy,
+despite its transient dolefulness, that Kitty laughed and her
+merriment brought an answering smile to the four dusty countenances
+before her.
+
+"Wull--wull--I is. My father, he's mis'able, too. So, course, we have
+to be. He's a minister man. He can't tell stories. He just tells true
+ones out the Bible. Can you tell Bible stories?"
+
+"No. I--I'm afraid I don't know much about that book. Mercy had one,
+but she kept it in the drawer. She took it out on Sundays, though. She
+didn't let Gaspar nor me touch it. She said we might spoil the cover.
+That was red. It was a reward of merit when she was a girl. It had
+clasps, and was very beautiful. It had pictures in it, too, about
+saints and dead folks; but I never read it. I couldn't read it if I
+tried, you know, because I've never been taught."
+
+This was amazing to the four book-crammed small Littlejohns. One
+exclaimed, with superior disgust:
+
+"Such a great big girl, and can't read your Bible! You must be a
+heathen, and bow down to wood and stone."
+
+"Maybe I am. I don't remember bowing down to anything, except when I
+say my prayers."
+
+"Your prayers! Then you can't be a real heathen. Heathens don't say
+prayers, not our kind. Hmm. What lovely eyes you've got and how pretty
+you are! All the women never saw such wonderful hair as yours, nor the
+men either. I heard them say so. If I had a sister, I'd like her to
+look just like you. But it's wicked to be vain."
+
+"What do you mean, you funny boy?"
+
+"I'm not funny. I'm serious. My mother--my mother said--my mother--Oh!
+I want her! I want her!"
+
+Religion, superiority, priggishness, all flew to the winds as his real
+and fresh grief overcame him; and it was a heart-broken lad that
+hurled himself against the shoulder of this sympathetic-looking girl
+who, though so much taller, was not so very much older than he.
+
+The Sun Maid's own heart echoed the cry with a keen pain, and she
+received the orphan's outburst with exceeding tenderness. Now,
+whatever One, the eldest, did the other young numerals all imitated,
+so that each was soon weeping copiously. Yet, from very excess of
+energy, their grief soon exhausted itself and they regarded each other
+with some curiosity. Then Three began to smile, in a shamefaced sort
+of way, not knowing how far his recovery of composure would be
+approved by sterner One.
+
+After a habit familiar to him the latter opened his lips to reprove
+but, fortunately, refrained, as he discovered a tall, stoop-shouldered
+man crossing the parade-ground.
+
+This gentleman seemed oddly out of place amid that company of
+immigrants and soldiers. Student and bookworm was written all over his
+fine, intellectual countenance, and his eyes had that absent
+expression that had made the commandant's wife call him a "dreamer."
+
+His bearing impressed the Sun Maid with reverent awe; a feeling
+apparently not shared by his sons. For Three ran to him and shook him
+violently, to secure attention, as he eagerly exclaimed:
+
+"Oh, father! We've found one of 'em already! A heathen. Or, any way, a
+heatheny sort of a girl, but not Indian. She doesn't know how to read,
+and she hasn't any Bible. Come and give her one and teach her quick!"
+
+"Eh? What? A heathen? My child, where?"
+
+"Right there with my brothers. That yellow-headed girl. She's nice.
+Are all the heathen as pretty as she is?"
+
+"My son, that young person? Surely, you are mistaken. She must be the
+daughter of some resident at the Fort, or of some traveller like
+ourselves."
+
+"I don't believe she is. She's been taking care of herself all day. I
+haven't heard anybody tell her 'Don't' once. If she belonged to folk
+they'd do it wouldn't they?"
+
+"Very likely. Parents have to discipline their young. Don't drag me
+so. I'm walking fast enough."
+
+"That's what I say, father. 'Don't' shows I belong to you. But I do
+wish you'd come. She might get away before you could catch her."
+
+"Catch her, Three? I don't understand."
+
+"I know it. My mother used to say you never did understand plain
+every-day things. That's why she had to take care of you the same as
+us. Oh! I wish we'd never come to this horrid place."
+
+The reference to his wife and the child's grief roused the clergyman
+more completely than even an appeal for the heathen. Laying his thin
+hand tenderly upon the small rumpled head, he stroked it as he
+answered:
+
+"In my flesh I echo that wish, laddie; but in my spirit I am resigned
+to whatever the Lord sends. If there is a heathen here, there is His
+work to do, and in that I can forget my own distress. I will walk
+faster if you wish."
+
+The other small Littlejohns, with Kitty, now joined their father and
+Three, the girl regarding him with some curiosity, for he was of a
+stamp quite different from any person she had ever seen. But he won
+her instant love as, holding out his hands in welcome, he exclaimed:
+
+"Why, my daughter! Surely the lads were jesting. You look neither
+ignorant nor heathen, and in personal gifts the Lord has been most
+kind to you."
+
+"Has He? But I am rather lonely now."
+
+"And so am I. Therefore, we will be the better friends. Why, sons,
+this is just what we need to make our group complete. Maybe, lassie,
+your parents will spare you to us, now and then."
+
+"I have no parents. I am a ward of Government, though I don't
+understand it. I wish--are you too busy to hear my story, and will you
+advise me? Gaspar told me some things, but he's not old and wise like
+you, dear sir."
+
+"Old I am, indeed, but far from wise. Though, so well as I know I will
+most gladly counsel you. Let us go yonder, to that shady place beside
+the great wall, where there are benches to rest on and quiet to listen
+in."
+
+Now small Four Littlejohns had heard a deal about heathen. They had
+been the dearest theme of all the stories told him, and he caught his
+father's hand with a detaining grasp:
+
+"She might eat you all up, father!"
+
+"Boy, what are you saying?"
+
+"She isn't like the picture in my story-book of the heathen that lived
+in India, and all the people worshipped, that was named a god, One
+told me when I asked him; but I guess heathens can change like
+fairies; and, please don't go, father, don't!"
+
+"Nonsense, Four. What trash are you talking? It is you who are the
+heathen now."
+
+"I, father? _I!_"
+
+In horror of a possible change in his person, the child began to feel
+of his plump face and pinch his fat body. He even imagined he was
+stiffening all over. Suddenly, he drew his wide mouth into a grotesque
+imitation of the engraving as he remembered it, planting his feet
+firmly and setting up a tragic wail.
+
+"I'm not like him. I won't be. I won't, I won't, I won't!"
+
+Kitty understood nothing but the evident distress, which she attempted
+to soothe and merely aggravated.
+
+"Get away! Don't you touch me! You go away home and sit on a table
+with your legs all crooked up--so; and stop playing you're a regular
+girl. Leave go my father's hand, I say!"
+
+Then One came to the rescue. As soon as he could stop laughing, he
+explained the situation to the others, and though the incident seemed
+a trivial one to the younger people to the good Doctor it was weighty
+with reproach for the ignorance he had permitted in his own household.
+It also had its far-reaching results; for it led him to observe the
+Sun Maid critically, and, when he had heard her simple story, to ask
+out of the fulness of his own big heart:
+
+"Will you come and share our home with us, my daughter? Surely, you
+have much good sense and many wonderful gifts. The Lord has thrown us
+into one another's company, and I believe you can, in large measure,
+take their mother's place to these sons of mine. Will you come and
+live in our home, dear Sun Maid?"
+
+"Indeed, I will! And love you for letting me!" cried the grateful
+girl, catching the Doctor's hand and kissing it reverently.
+
+But it did not occur to either of these innocents that there was, at
+that time, no home existing for them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE SHUT AND THE OPEN DOOR.
+
+
+"They are all unfitted to take care of themselves, though the girl has
+the best sense of the lot. The Fort is always overfull. They would be
+happier by themselves, and it will be a blessing to have such a good
+man among us. Let us build them a log cabin and instal them in it."
+
+Such was the Fort commandant's decision and, as he suggested, it was
+quickly done. The old maxim of many hands and light work was verified,
+for in a magically short time the little parsonage was reared and the
+few belongings of the household moved into it.
+
+"That's what it seems to me,"--cried the Sun Maid, as the last stroke
+was given, and a soldier climbed to the roof-peak to thrust a fresh
+green branch into the crevice,--"as if yesterday we dreamed we wanted
+a home, and now it's ours. If only Wahneenah and Gaspar were here, I
+should be almost too happy to live. Yes, and poor Mercy Smith, who
+says she never did have a good time in her life; and Abel, and Black
+Partridge; and----"
+
+"Everybody! I guess you're wanting," reproved the elder son of the
+minister. For, during the time of building, short though it was, the
+orphan girl had become wholly identified with the Littlejohns'
+household and felt as full a right to the cabin as if it had been her
+own especial property.
+
+Now, suddenly, as she stood in the doorway there came into her mind
+the prophecy of old Katasha; and she looked afar, as if she saw
+visions and heard voices denied to the others. So rapt did her gaze
+become that little Four stole his pudgy hand into hers and inquired,
+beneath his breath:
+
+"What is it, Kitty? What do you see?"
+
+"I see crowds and crowds of people. Of all sorts, all forms, all
+colors, all races. Crowding, crowding, and yet not crushing. Only
+coming, more--and more--and more. I see strange buildings. Bigger than
+any pictures in that book you showed me yesterday. They keep rising
+and spreading out on every side. I see ships on the lake; curious
+ones, with tall masts, a hundred times taller than that in which my
+Gaspar sailed away. They are so laden with people and stuff that
+I--I--it seems to choke me!"
+
+She did not notice that the Doctor had drawn near and was listening
+intently; and even when his hand touched her shoulder she found it
+difficult to comprehend what he was saying.
+
+"Wake up, lassie! Why, what is this? My practical new daughter growing
+a star-gazer, like the foolish old man? That won't do for our little
+housekeeper."
+
+"Won't it, sir? I guess I've been dreaming. But I know I shall see all
+that some day, right here in this spot. This is the lake where the big
+ships sail, and this the ground where the houses stand."
+
+One was at hand with his ever-ready reproof.
+
+"That's all nonsense, Kitty Briscoe. A person can't see more than a
+person can. There are neither houses nor ships, such as you talk
+about, and you are sillier than any fairy story I ever read."
+
+Yet long afterward he was to remember that first hour in the new home,
+and the rapt face of the girl gazing skyward.
+
+Then they all went in to supper, which had been provided by the
+thoughtful friends at the Fort across the river; but which, the Sun
+Maid assured the busy women there, must be the only meal supplied that
+was ready prepared.
+
+"For, if I'm to be housekeeper I mean to learn all about that, even
+before I do the books, which the Doctor will teach me and that I am so
+eager to study. But I'll be his home-maker first, and I'll give them
+jonny-cake for breakfast. Mercy said it was cheap and wholesome, and
+we have to be very careful of the Doctor's little money."
+
+How wholesome, rather how most unwholesome, that first jonny-cake
+proved, Kitty never after liked to recall; but she was not the only
+young house mistress who has made mistakes; and, fortunately, the
+master of the house was not critical. And how far the study-craving
+girl would have carried out her own plan of housewifery before reading
+is not known; for, having done the best she could, and having, at
+least, swept and dusted the rooms carefully she took little Four by
+the hand and set out to ask instruction of her Fort friends against
+the dinner-getting.
+
+Now the fascinating dread and interest of this little fellow was an
+Indian; and, trudging along through the dirt, he scanned the horizon
+critically, then suddenly gripped her hand hard and tight.
+
+"Kitty! I do believe--there are--some coming! Run! Run!"
+
+"Why should I run? The Indians are my best and oldest friends. It
+might even be----"
+
+She paused so long, shading her eyes from the sunlight and gazing
+fixedly across the landscape with a gathering surprise and delight
+upon her face, that the child clutched her frock, demanding:
+
+"What is it, Kitty? What do you see? What do you see?"
+
+"The horses! White, black, and--Chestnut! It's Wahneenah! Wahneenah!"
+
+Four watched her disappear behind a clump of bushes that hid the
+sandhills from his lower sight, then hurried back to the new cabin,
+crying out:
+
+"Father, father! She's run away again! We've lost her!"
+
+Before the minister could be made to comprehend his son's excited
+story, voices without drew him to the entrance. Even to him the name
+of Indian had, in those days, a sinister significance. Yet, as he
+reached the threshold, there were the Sun Maid's arms about his neck
+and her ecstatic declaration:
+
+"It's my darling Other Mother! She's come! She'll live with us! And
+the Black Partridge; and Osceolo, and Tempest, and Snowbird, and the
+Chestnut! Oh, all together again; how happy we shall be!"
+
+"Eh? What? Yes, yes, of course," assented the Doctor, though he cast a
+rather perplexed glance about his limited apartments. "Well, if it's
+to be part of my work, I am ready," he added resignedly, and not
+without thought of the quiet study which would be out of the question
+in a tenement so crowded.
+
+The chief and the clergyman had met before, during the former's last
+visit to the Fort, and they greeted each other suavely, as would two
+white gentlemen of culture and unquestioned standing. Then, while the
+Sun Maid drew Wahneenah aside and exhibited the cabin, the two men
+talked together and rapidly became friends.
+
+"The Lord never shuts one door but He opens another. I came here to
+instruct, hoping to pass far onward into the wilderness. Behold! the
+heathen are at my very threshold. He took away my wife and sent me a
+daughter. Now, at her heels, follows a woman of the race I came to
+help, who looks more noble than most of her white sisters. As the Sun
+Maid said, shall we not do? Only--where to house them?"
+
+"That is soon settled. Neither the chief's daughter nor the youth,
+Osceolo, could sleep beneath the tight roof of the pale-face. Their
+wigwams shall be pitched behind this cabin, and there will they abide.
+So will I arrange with the people at the Fort, who are my friends.
+Yet, let the great medicine-man keep a sharp eye to the young brave,
+Osceolo. He is my kinsman. There is good in the youth, and there is,
+also, evil--much evil. He lies upon the ground to dream wild schemes,
+then rises up to practise them. He is like the pale-faces--by birth a
+liar. He is not to be trusted. Only by fear does he become as clay in
+the hands of the potter. If my brother, the great medicine-man, will
+accept this charge I ask of him there shall be always venison in
+plenty, and bear's meat, and the flesh of cattle, at his door. He
+shall have corn from the fields of the scattered Pottawatomies, and
+the fuel for his hearth-fire shall never waste. How says my brother,
+the wise medicine-man?"
+
+"What can I say but that the Black Partridge is as generous as he is
+brave, and that his readiness to support a minister of the gospel
+amazes me? In that more settled East, from which I came, the rich men
+gave grudgingly to their pastor of such things as themselves did not
+need, and I was always in poverty. Therefore, for the sake of my sons,
+I came hither. Truly, in this wilderness, I have received evil at the
+hand of the Lord; but I have, also, received much good. If He wills,
+from this humble tenement shall go forth a blessing that cannot be
+measured. Leave the woman and the undisciplined youth with me. I will
+deal with them as I am given wisdom."
+
+This was the beginning of a new, rich life for the Sun Maid. It opened
+to Wahneenah, also, a period of unbroken happiness. The minister, over
+whose household affairs she promptly assumed a wise control, honored
+her with his confidence and abided by her clear-sighted counsel. She
+was constantly associated with her beloved Girl-Child, and could watch
+the rapid development of her intellect and all-loving heart.
+
+Indeed, Love was the keynote to Kitty Briscoe's character; and out of
+love for everybody about her, and especially in hope to be of use to
+her Indian friends, sprang the greatest incentive to study.
+
+"The more I know, the better I can help them to understand," she said
+to Wahneenah, who agreed and approved.
+
+The years sped quietly and rapidly by, as busy years always do. Some
+changes came to the little settlement of Chicago, but they were only
+few; until, one sunny day in spring, there reached the ears of the Sun
+Maid a sudden cry that seemed to turn all the months backward, as a
+scroll is rolled.
+
+Bending above her table, strewn with the Doctor's notes which she was
+copying, in the pleasant room of a big frame house that was one of the
+few new things of the town, she heard the call; dimly at first, as an
+out-of-door incident which did not concern herself. When it was
+repeated, she started visibly, and cried out:
+
+"I know that voice! That's Mercy Smith! There was never another just
+like it!"
+
+She sprang up and ran to answer, shouting in return:
+
+"Halloo! What is it?"
+
+"Help!"
+
+A few rods' run beyond the clump of trees that bordered the garden
+revealed the difficulty. A heavy wagon, loaded with bags of grain, was
+mired in the mud of the prairie road. A woman stood upright in the
+vehicle, lashing and scolding the oxen, which tried, but failed, to
+extricate the wheels from the clay that held them fast.
+
+"I'm coming! I'm Kitty! And, Mercy--is it really you?"
+
+"Well, if I ain't beat! You're Kitty, sure enough! But what a size!"
+
+"Yes. I'm a woman now, almost. How glad I am to see you! How's Abel?
+Where is he?"
+
+"Must be glad, if you'd let so many years go by without once comin' to
+visit me."
+
+"I didn't know that you'd be pleased to have me. I didn't treat you
+well, to leave you as I did. But where's Abel?"
+
+"Home. Trying to sell out. My land! How pretty you've growed! Only
+that white dress and hair a-streamin'; be you dressed for a party,
+child?"
+
+"Oh, no, indeed! I'll run and get something to help you out with, if
+you'll be patient."
+
+"Have to be, I reckon, since I'm stuck tight. No hurry. The oxen'll
+rest. I've heard about you, out home--how 't you'd found a rich
+minister to take you in an' eddicate you, an' your keepin' half-Indian
+still. Might have taught you to brush your hair, I 'low; an' from
+appearances you'd have done better to have stayed with me. You hain't
+growed up very sensible, have you?"
+
+The Sun Maid laughed, just as merrily and infectiously as when she had
+first crept for shelter into Mercy Smith's cabin.
+
+"Maybe not. I'm not the judge. I'll test my wisdom, though, by trying
+to help you out of that mud. I'll be back in a moment."
+
+She turned to run toward the house, but Mercy remonstrated:
+
+"You can't help in them fine clothes. Ain't there no men around?"
+
+"A few. Most of them are out of the village on a big hunting frolic.
+We'll manage without."
+
+"Humph! They'd better be huntin' Indians."
+
+The girl looked up anxiously. "Is there any trouble?"
+
+"Always trouble where the red-skins are."
+
+Kitty departed, and the settler's wife watched her with feelings of
+mingled admiration, anger, and astonishment.
+
+"She's grown, powerful. Tall an' straight as an Indian, an' fair as a
+snowflake. Such hair! I don't wonder she wears it that way, though I
+wouldn't humor her by lettin' on. I've heard she did it to please her
+'tribe' an' the old minister. Well, there's always plenty of fools.
+They're a crop 'at never fails."
+
+The Sun Maid reappeared. She had not stopped to change her white gown,
+but she brought a pair of snow-shoes, and carried three or four short
+planks across her strong, firm shoulder.
+
+"My sake! Ain't you tough! I couldn't lift one them planks, rugged as
+I call myself, let alone four. But--snow-shoes in the springtime?"
+
+"Yes. I've learned a way for myself of helping the many who get mired
+out here. See how quickly I can set you free."
+
+Putting on the shoes, the girl walked straight over the mud, and
+throwing down the planks before the animals, encouraged them to help
+themselves.
+
+"What are their names? Jim and Pete? Come on, my poor beasts; and,
+once clear, you shall have a fine rest and feed."
+
+"Shucks! There! Go on! Giddap! Gee! Haw!"
+
+There followed a time of suspense, but at last the oxen gained a
+little advance, when Kitty promptly moved the planks forward, and in
+due time the wagon rolled out upon a firmer spot.
+
+"Well, Kitty girl, you may not have sense, but you've got what's
+better--that's gumption. And that's Chicago, is it?"
+
+"Yes. I hope you like it."
+
+"I've got to, whether or no. I'm in awful trouble, Kitty Briscoe, an'
+it's all your fault."
+
+"What can you mean?"
+
+"Abel--Abel----"
+
+"Yes--yes! What is it?"
+
+"Ever sence you run away he's been pinin' to run after you. Said the
+house wasn't home no more. 'Twasn't; though I wouldn't let on to him.
+We've kept gettin' comfortabler off, an' I jawed him from mornin' to
+night to make him contented. But he wouldn't listen. Got so he
+wouldn't work home if he could help it, but lounged round the
+neighbors'. Got hankerin' to go somewheres, an' keep tavern, like his
+father afore him. Now, we've got burnt out----"
+
+"Burned out! Oh, Mercy, that _is_ trouble, indeed! Tell me--No, wait.
+Let us go and get something to eat first; and what were you intending
+to do with that load of stuff?"
+
+"Ship it East, if I can. I've heard there was consid'able that
+business bein' done. Or sell it to the Fort folks."
+
+"I think they'll be glad of it; they are always needing everything.
+I'll go with you there, and your team can be left there, too, till
+Abel comes."
+
+"Abel! You don't think I'd leave him to manage _business_, do you?"
+
+"I thought you said he was now staying behind to sell out--to
+'manage.'"
+
+"He's stayin' to try. There's a big difference 'twixt tryin' an'
+doin'. He can't sell, not easy. And some day, when this whim of his
+is over, we'll go back an' settle again, or move farther on. It's
+gettin' ruther crowded where we be for comfort, these days."
+
+"Crowded? Are there many new neighbors?"
+
+"Lots. Some of 'em ain't more 'n a mile away, an' I call that too
+close for convenience. Don't like to have folks pokin' their noses
+into my very door-yard, so to speak."
+
+"How will you endure it here, where, according to your ideas, the
+houses are so very close?"
+
+"I don't expect to like it. But, pshaw! They be thick, ain't they? I
+declare it makes me think of out East, an' our village; only that
+wasn't built on the bottomless pit, like this."
+
+"This is the Fort. After you've finished your business with the
+officer in charge, we'll go home and get our dinner."
+
+The stranger observed with surprise and some pride the great respect
+with which this girl, who had once been under her own care, was
+treated by all she met. The few soldiers on duty that morning saluted
+her with a smile and military precision, while the women hailed her
+coming with exclamations of:
+
+"Oh, Kitty! You here? I'm so glad; for I wanted to ask you about my
+work"; or: "Say, Kit! There are a lot of new newspapers, only a week
+old, that I've hidden for you to read first before the others get hold
+of them."
+
+One called after her, as they started homeward:
+
+"How are the sick ones to-day?"
+
+"What did she mean?" demanded Mercy.
+
+"Oh, that house on the edge of the village is a sort of hospital and
+school combined. I am there most of the time, though my real home is
+with the Littlejohns, just as it has always been; though the Doctor is
+not rich, as you fancied, in anything save wisdom and goodness."
+
+"You're a great scholar now, Kitty, I s'pose--could even do figurin'
+an' writin' letters."
+
+"I can do that much without being a 'scholar.' I've learned all sorts
+of things that came my way, from civil engineering--enough to survey
+lots for people--to a little Greek. The surveying was taught me by a
+man who was in our sick-room, and in gratitude for the care we gave
+him. It's very useful here."
+
+"Can you sing, or play music?"
+
+"I always sang, you know; and I can play the violin to guide the hymns
+'in meeting.'"
+
+"What's that? A fiddle--to hymns!"
+
+"Yes. Why not, since it's the only instrument we have?"
+
+"My land! You'll be dancin' at worship next!"
+
+"Maybe. There _are_ religious people who dance at their services. But
+here we are. This is the Doctor's house, and you'll meet Wahneenah."
+
+"Wahneeny! You don't tell me that good, pious parson is consortin'
+with that bad-tempered Indian squaw!"
+
+"Wait, Mercy. You must not speak like that of her, nor think so.
+She is as my very own mother. She is nobility itself. Everybody
+acknowledges that. I want there should be peace, even if there can't
+be love, between you two. It's better, isn't it, to understand thing
+in the beginning?"
+
+"Hmm! You can speak your mind out yet, I see. But that's all right. I
+don't care, child. I don't care. It does my old eyes good just to look
+at you; an', for once, I'll 'low Abel was right in wantin' to move out
+here. I'm lookin' for him 'fore night, by the way. But hold on! Who's
+that out in the back yard, with feathers in his hair, an' a blue check
+shirt, grinnin' like a hyena, an' a knife stickin' out his pocket?
+Wait till I get hold of him, my sake!"
+
+Mercy's words poured out without breathing-space or stop, and the Sun
+Maid laughed as she replied:
+
+"Why, that's only Osceolo. Do you know him?"
+
+"Kitty Briscoe! All the wild horses in Illinois can't make me believe
+no different but 'twas him set our barn afire!"
+
+"When? He's not been away--for some days."
+
+"Wait till he catches sight of me!"
+
+But when the young Indian did turn around, and saw the pair watching
+him, he coolly walked toward them, regarding Mercy as if she were an
+utter stranger, and one whom he was rather pleased to meet.
+
+"Friend of yours, Sun Maid? Glad to see her."
+
+"Glad to see me, be you? Wait till Abel Smith comes an' identifies
+you. Then see which side the laugh's on, you--you----"
+
+"Osceolo is my name, ma'am."
+
+Foreseeing difficulties, the girl guided her guest into the kitchen,
+where Wahneenah was preparing dinner, and where the Indian woman
+greeted her old acquaintance with no surprise and, certainly, without
+any of the effusiveness that, for once, rather marked Mercy's manner
+toward her former "hired girl."
+
+"Well, it's a real likely house, now, ain't it? I'd admire to see the
+minister. It's years since I saw one. Is he about?"
+
+Kitty answered:
+
+"Yes. He is studying. I rather hate to disturb him; but at dinner you
+will meet him."
+
+"Studying! Studying what? Why, I thought he was an old man."
+
+"He is. So old, I sometimes fear we will not have him with us long."
+
+"What's the use learnin' anything more, then?"
+
+"One can never know too much, I fancy. Just at present he is writing a
+dictionary of the Indian dialects, so far as he has been able to
+obtain them."
+
+"The--Indian--language! He wouldn't be so silly, now come!"
+
+"He is just so wise. It is a splendid work. I am proud to be his
+helper, even by just merely copying his papers."
+
+"Well! You could knock me down with a feather! One thing--I sha'n't
+never set under his preachin'. I wouldn't demean myself. The idee!"
+
+"Mercy, do you remember the red-covered Bible? Have you it still?"
+
+"Course. I wouldn't let anything happen to that. It was a reward of
+merit. It's wrote in the front: 'To Mercy Balch, for being a Good
+Girl.' That was me afore I was married. It's in my carpet-bag. I mean
+to have it buried with me. I wouldn't never spile it by handlin'."
+
+"I hope you'll use it now, for it's so easy to get another. The Doctor
+will give you one at any time. The Bible Society in the East
+furnishes all he needs."
+
+Dinner was promptly ready, and, after it was over, the Sun Maid
+carried her old friend away with her to the government building, which
+was not only hospital, but schoolhouse and land-office all in one.
+Everything here was so new and interesting to Mercy that surprise kept
+her silent; until, happening to glance through the window, she beheld
+a rough-looking man approaching on horseback.
+
+"Pshaw! there's Abel! Wait an' see him stick where I stuck!" she
+chuckled. "Well, he sold out sudden, didn't he? He'd better come in
+the wagon, but he 'lowed he'd enjoy a ride all by himself. I reckon
+he's had it. See him stare and splash! There he goes! See that old nag
+flounder!"
+
+Kitty sprang up and ran to welcome him, the heartiest of love in her
+clear tones.
+
+"Why, bless my soul! If I thought it could be, I should say it was my
+own lost little Kit!"
+
+As he gazed his rugged face grew beautiful in its wondering joy.
+
+"Oh, Abel! That's the way Chicago receives her new citizens! She
+plants them so deep in the mud that they can't get away! But wait.
+I'll help you out the same way I did Mercy, and then I'll get my arms
+about your neck, you dear old Abel!"
+
+"Help me out? Not much! Not when there's such a pretty girl a few feet
+away waitin' to kiss my homely face!" and, with a spring that was
+marvellous to see, the woodsman leaped from his horse and landed on
+the higher sod beside his "Kit."
+
+"Well, well! To think it! Just to think it once! Well, well, well! How
+big you are, Kit! My, my, my; and as sweet to look at as a locust tree
+in bloom, with your white frock, an' all. I've got here at last! I
+can't scarce believe it. And, lassie, are you as close-mouthed as you
+used to be when you made a promise? Then--don't tell Mercy; but--_I
+done it a-purpose_!"
+
+"Did what? Let us get the poor horse out of the mud before we talk."
+
+"Shucks! He ain't worth pullin' out. If he ain't horse enough to help
+himself, let him stay there a spell, an' think it over. He'll flounder
+round----"
+
+"You don't know our mud, Abel."
+
+"He's all right. He's helpin' himself. He's makin' a genu_ine_ effort.
+A man--or horse--that does that is sure to win. That's how I put it to
+myself. After I'd wrastled with the subject up hill an' down dale,
+till I couldn't see nothin' else in the face of natur', I done it. Out
+in the East, where I come from, they'd 'a' had me up for it; an' I
+don't know but they will here. But I had to, Kit, I had to. I was
+dead sick an' starvin' for a sight of you an' the boy, an' mis'able
+with blamin' myself that I hadn't treated you different when I had
+you, so you wouldn't have run away. You was a master hand at that
+business, wasn't you, girl? I hope you've quit now, though."
+
+"I think so. Here I was born, and here I hope to stay. All my runnings
+have begun and ended here. But what did you do, Father Abel?"
+
+"Oh, Sis! that name does me good. Promise you'll never tell,--not till
+your dyin' day."
+
+"I can't promise that; but I'll not tell if I can help it."
+
+"Well, you always had a tender conscience. Yet I can trust your love
+better 'n ary promise. Well--_I--burnt--it!_"
+
+"Burned it? Your house? Your home? Yours and Mercy's? Why--Abel!"
+
+The pioneer squared his mighty shoulders, and faced her as a defiant
+child might an offended mother.
+
+"Yes, I did. The house, the bed-quilts, the antiquated bedstead, the
+whole endurin' business. It was the only way. Year after year she'd
+keep naggin' for me to move on further into the wilderness. _Me_,
+that was starvin' for folks, an' knew she was! It was just plumb
+lonesomeness made her what she is: a nagger. So, at last--you've heard
+about worms turnin', hain't you? I watched, an' when she'd gone
+trudgin' off on a four-mile tramp, pretendin' somebody's baby was
+sick, but really meanin' she was that druv to hear the sound of
+another woman's voice, I took pity on her--an' myself--an' set
+fire to that hateful old heirloom of a bedstead; an' whilst it was
+burnin' I just whipped out the old fiddle, an' I played--my! how
+I played! Every time a post fell into the middle, I just danced.
+'So much nearer folks!' I thought. And the rag-carpet an' the
+nineteen-hunderd-million-patch-bedspread--Kit, I've set there, day
+after day, an' seen Mercy cuttin' up whole an' decent rags, an' sewin'
+'em together again, till I've near gone stark mad. Fact. I used to
+wonder if it wasn't a sort of craziness possessed her to do that
+foolishness. Now, it's all over. She lays the fire to an Indian feller
+that I've spoke fair to, now an' again, an' that had been round our
+way huntin' not long before. I don't know where he come from, an' I
+never asked him. He never told. Pretended he couldn't talk Yankee.
+Don't know as he could, but he could talk chicken or little pig fast
+enough. Leastways, I missed such after he'd been there. Well, it
+wasn't him. _It was--me!_ I burnt the bedstead, an' now we're
+free folks!"
+
+"But, Abel, why not have brought the bedstead with you, if she loved
+it so? Why destroy----"
+
+"Sissy, you don't know Mercy--not as I do. It was that furniture kept
+her. So long as she had it, so long as she could kind of boast it over
+her neighbors, there she'd set. We couldn't have moved it. She near
+worried herself into her grave gettin' it into the wilderness, first
+off, an' she ain't so young now as she was then. She'd ruther lost a
+leg than had it scratched. I saved that load of feed, an' the ox team,
+an' the old horse. Yes, an' my fiddle. Mercy's got money. She had it
+hid. I'm goin' to settle here an' keep tavern, if I can. If not here,
+then somewheres else. Anywhere where there's folks. Trees are nice;
+prairies are nice; a clearin' of your own is nice; but human natur' is
+nicer. Don't tell Mercy, though, or there'll be trouble! Now, Kit,
+where's Gaspar?"
+
+"_Oh, Abel! Only the dear Lord knows!_"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+A DAY OF HAPPENINGS.
+
+
+"Abel! Abel Smith! Here I am. Right here, in our little Kitty's own
+house. How'd you get along? Did the man buy?"
+
+"Shucks!" groaned the pioneer, as these words reached him where he
+stood beside the Sun Maid, eager to hear what she could tell him of
+the lad Gaspar. "Shucks! I've had a right peaceful sort of day, me and
+old Dobbin, and I'd most forgot it couldn't last. Say, Kit, you look
+like a girl could do a'most ary thing she tried to. Just put your
+shoulder to the wheel, won't you, and shut the power off Mercy's
+tongue. Tell her 'tain't the fashion for women to talk much or loud,
+not in big settlements like this. She's death on the fashion, Mercy
+is. Why, that last gown of hers, cut out a piece of calico a neighbor
+brought from the East--you'd ought to see it. She got hold a
+picture-book, land knows when or where, and copied one the pictures.
+Waist clean up to her neck, it's so short, and sleeves big enough to
+make me a suit of clothes. Fact! Wait till you see it. She's a sight,
+I tell you. But so long 's she thinks it's a touch beyond, why she's
+happy. But don't let her talk so much. 'Tain't proper; not in
+settlements."
+
+The Sun Maid set her head on one side and regarded her old friend
+critically; then frankly, if laughingly, remarked:
+
+"Abel, you dear, you can beat Mercy talking, by a great length. It's
+funny to hear you blaming her for the very thing you do. But I like
+it. You can't guess how I like it, and how it brings back my childish
+days in the forest. Now come in and get something to eat. Then we can
+have another talk."
+
+"I ain't hungry. I had some doughnuts in my saddle-bags, and I munched
+them along the road. Say, Kit. Don't tell Mercy; but I didn't try to
+sell. Just put the question once, so to satisfy her when she asked. We
+hain't no need. She's got a lot of money in a buckskin bag tied round
+her waist. The land's all right. It's a good investment. I'll let it
+stand. This country is bound to grow. Some day it will be worth a
+power, and then I'll sell out, if I'm livin'; and if I ain't, you can.
+One of the reasons I came was to fix things up for you. I always meant
+to make you my legatee. We've no kith nor kin nigh enough to worry
+about, Mercy an' me; an' I 'low she'd be agreeable. So we'll let the
+land lie. Oh, bosh! There she is, calling again. May as well go in for
+she won't stop till we do."
+
+After all, there was real pleasure in the faces of both husband and
+wife at their reunion, short though their separation had been, and
+bitter though their words sounded to a stranger; and, already, there
+was a personal pride in Mercy's tones as she exhibited the house over
+which the Sun Maid presided, and explained the details--supplied by
+her own imagination--of its purposes.
+
+"But about Gaspar, Mercy. Has she told you anything about him yet? I'm
+'lowing to have him help me keep tavern if he's grown up as capable as
+he promised when he was a little shaver."
+
+"No. She hain't said a word. Fact is, I hain't asked. We've been too
+busy with other things. Likely he's round somewheres. Maybe off
+hunting with them lazy soldiers. Shame, I think. The Government
+keepin' 'em just to loaf away their time."
+
+"Hmm! What on earth else could they do with it? I met a man, coming
+along, said there'd been a right sharp lot of wolves prowlin' this
+winter an' spring. They're gettin' most too neighborly for comfort for
+the settlers across the prairies, so the military are trying to clear
+them out. That's not a bad idee. But don't it beat all! That little
+sissy, that used to have to stand on a three-legged stool to turn the
+stirabout, grown like she has? I never saw a finer woman, never; and
+her hair's the same dazzlin' kind it always was. I 'low I'm proud of
+her, and no mistake. Hello! What's yonder? An Indian, on horseback,
+a-stoppin' to this place! What's he after? His face is painted black,
+too. There's Sunny Maid going out to talk with him, and Wahneeny, too.
+Must be somethin' up."
+
+"There's always somethin' up, where there's an Indian. I hate 'em, an'
+they know it."
+
+"I guess they do, ma. Wahneeny, for instance, and--Shucks! That long,
+lanky, copper-face out back there, settin' flat on the ground, trying
+to pitch jack-knives with a lot of other boys, white ones; he's the
+chap that hung around our place so much--the chicken-stealer. I'm
+going to speak to him."
+
+"And I'm going to get him took up, just as soon as the Captain gets
+back, for setting our house afire. It wouldn't have happened if I'd
+been home; but you never could be trusted to look after things."
+
+Abel thought it time to change the subject, and retreated, while
+Mercy's attention became riveted upon the group before the house. The
+faces of all three were very grave, and Wahneenah, who had come across
+to nurse a sick child, paid no heed to its fretful calls for her. The
+Indian horseman tarried but a brief time, then wheeled about and rode
+westward over the prairie, avoiding the regular road and the mud
+where the Smiths had suffered such annoyance.
+
+Wahneenah returned to her charge, and the Sun Maid disappeared in the
+direction of the Fort. Before Mercy could decide whether to follow or
+not, the girl reappeared, and her old friend viewed her with
+amazement. She had mounted the Snowbird, which looked no older than
+when Mercy had watched her gallop away across the prairie, and had
+slung the famous White Bow upon her saddle horn. About her floating
+hair she had wound a fillet of white beads and feathers, and fastened
+the White Necklace of Lahnowenah, the Giver, around her fair throat.
+She sat her horse as only one trained to the saddle from infancy could
+have done, and her commanding figure seemed perfect in every outline.
+
+"To the land's sake! Ain't she splendid! I never saw such a sight.
+Never. Never. Abel! Abel! A-b-e-l!!"
+
+"Yes, yes; what? Mercy, Mercy Smith, hold your tongue! Don't you know
+folks can't bawl in a settlement as they do in the backwoods? What
+ails you? I'm coming as fast as a man in reason can. Hey? Kitty? Well,
+why didn't you say so? Where? Out front? My--land! Well, well, well!
+It ain't--it can't be--it is! Well, Kitty girl, you beat the Dutch!"
+
+The young horsewoman rode up to the front door of her house, and
+paused to let her old friends admire her to their satisfaction. But
+their admiration aroused neither surprise nor vanity in her simple,
+straightforward mind. Years before, the old clergyman had said to her,
+upon their first meeting, that the Lord had been very good to her in
+giving her a beauty so remarkable and impressive; and under his wise
+instruction she had accepted the fact as she did all the others of her
+life. Only she had striven to keep her soul always worthy of the
+glorious form in which it was housed and to use all her gifts and
+graces for good. So she stood a while, letting the honest couple
+inspect and comment, and finally answering Abel's curiosity, in honest
+modesty.
+
+"Why am I so dressed up? Because I have a mission to perform, and I
+need to make myself as beautiful as possible."
+
+"Kit--ty Bris--coe! I've read in my red Bible that 'favor is deceitful
+and beauty is vain.' I'm amazed at you. Livin' with a minister, too.
+Well, _he_ can't preach to _me_. I'd despise to set under him."
+
+Abel's eyes twinkled, but the gravity of the Sun Maid's face did not
+lessen. She explained gently, yet with unshaken decision, that her
+self-adornment was right, and gave her reasons.
+
+"You will remember, dears, that I am a 'Daughter of the
+Pottawatomies.' They believe that I have supernatural gifts, and that
+I am a spirit living in a human form."
+
+"And you let 'em, Kit, you let 'em?"
+
+"I couldn't prevent it if I tried. And I do not try. That idea of
+theirs is far too powerful a factor for good. Even Wahneenah, who
+knows better and is to me as a real mother, even she treats me a
+little more deferentially when I attire myself like this."
+
+"Put on your war paint, eh?"
+
+"No, indeed: my peace paint," laughed the girl. "The messenger you saw
+talking with Wahneenah and me is from an encampment a dozen miles or
+so to the westward. There are about five hundred Indians in the camp,
+and they are getting restless. They are always restless, it seems to
+me," and she sighed profoundly. "It is such a problem, isn't it? They
+think they have right on their side, and the whites think _they_ have;
+and there is so much that is good, so much that is evil, on both.
+Well, the red people are planning treachery. The brave you saw is a
+real friend to the pale-faces, and one of my closest confidants. He
+came to warn me. His tribe, or the mixed tribes in the camp, are
+getting ready for an attack upon us, or some other near-by settlement.
+I must go out and stop it,--find out their grievance and right it if I
+can. If not--Well, I must make peace. I may be gone for several days,
+and I may be back before morning. You must make yourselves comfortable
+somewhere. Ask Doctor Littlejohn. If he is too absorbed in his
+studies, then talk with One, his eldest son. He is a fine fellow, and
+knows everything about this village. Good-by."
+
+"But, child alive! You ain't going alone, single-handed, to face five
+hundred bloody Indians! You must be crazy!"
+
+"Oh, no, I'm not. It is all right. I am not afraid. There isn't an
+Indian living who would harm a hair of my head, if he knew me; and
+almost all in Illinois do know me, either by sight or reputation. I am
+very happy with them and shall have a pleasant visit; that is, after I
+have dissuaded them from this proposed attack."
+
+"Kit, you couldn't do it. 'Tain't in nature. A young girl, alone,
+pretty as you are--You _sha'n't_ do it,--not with my consent; not
+while I'm alive and can set a horse or handle a gun. No, sirree. If
+you go, I go, and that's the long and short of it."
+
+"No, dear Father Abel; you must not go; indeed you must not. It would
+ruin everything. It makes me very sad to have these constant broils
+and ill-feelings coming up between my white-faced and red-faced
+friends; yet the Lord permits it, and I try to be patient. But I tell
+you again, and you must believe it, that I am as safe out yonder in
+that camp of savages as I am here, this minute, with you. I am the Sun
+Maid, the Unafraid, the Daughter of Peace, the Snowflake. They have as
+many names for me as I am years old, I fancy. Each name means some
+noble thing they think they see in my character, and so I try to
+live up to it. It's hard work, though, because I'm--well, I'm so
+quick-tempered and full of faults. But I suppose if God didn't mean me
+to do this work, be a sort of peacemaker, He wouldn't have made me
+just as I am or put me in just this place. That's what the Doctor
+says, and so I do the best I can. After all, it's a great honor, I
+think, to be let to serve people in this way, and so--Good-by,
+good-by!"
+
+The Snowbird sprang forward at a word and, by experience trained to
+shun the sloughs and mud-holes, skimmed lightly across the prairie and
+out of sight. The Smiths stood and watched its disappearance, and the
+erect white figure upon its back, till both became a speck in the
+distance. Then, completely dumfounded by the incident, Abel sat down
+near the door-step to reflect upon it, while the more energetic Mercy
+departed for the Fort, declaring:
+
+"I'll see what that all means, or I'll never say another word's long
+as I live! The idee! _Men_--folks calling themselves _men_--and
+wearing government breeches, as I suppose they do, letting a girl
+like that go to destruction without a soul to stop her! But, my land!
+she was a sight to see, and no mistake!"
+
+Meanwhile that was happening down at the little wharf which set all
+tongues a-chatter and fascinated all eyes.
+
+"A fleet is coming in! A regular fleet of schooners, from the north
+and the upper lakes!"
+
+Those who had not gone hunting crowded to the shore, and even the
+women caught their babies up and followed the men, Abel among the
+others, roused from his anxious brooding over the Sun Maid's daring
+and catching the excitement.
+
+"Shucks! Something must be up down that direction. Beats all. Here
+I've been only part of a day, and more things have gone on than would
+at our clearing in a month of Sundays. I--I'm all of a fluster to kind
+of keep my head level an' my judgment cool. 'Twouldn't never do to let
+on to ma how stirred up I be. Dear me! Seems as if I wouldn't never
+get there. I do hope they'll wait till I do."
+
+After all, it was the quietest and drowsiest of little hamlets,
+dropped down in the mud beside a great waterway; and the "fleet,"
+which had roused so much interest, was but a modest one of a
+half-dozen small schooners, laden with furs and peltries and manned by
+the smallest of crews.
+
+However, to Abel, and to many another, it was a memorable event; and
+he made a pause at the Fort, which in itself was an object of great
+interest to him, to inform Mercy of the spectacle she was losing.
+
+"Come on, ma! It's a regular show down there. Real sailors and
+ships--we hain't seen the like since we left the East and the coast of
+old Massachusetts."
+
+"Ships? My heart! I never expected to look upon another. Just to think
+it!"
+
+The foremost vessel came to shore and was made fast; and there upon
+its deck stood a tall, dark-bearded man, who appeared what he
+was--the commander of the fleet; and he gave his orders in a clear,
+ringing voice that was instantly obeyed. His manner was grave, even
+melancholy; and his interest in the safe landing seemed greater than
+in any person among the expectant groups. He had tossed his hat aside
+and waited bareheaded in the sunshine till all was ready, when he
+stepped quietly ashore.
+
+Then, indeed, he cast an inquiring glance around, in the possibility,
+though not probability, of meeting a familiar face. All at once, his
+dark eyes brightened and his bearing lost its indifference. Pushing
+his way rapidly through the crowd, he approached Abel and Mercy and
+extended his hands in greeting.
+
+"Hail, old friends! Well met!"
+
+"Hey? What? Ruther think you've got the better of me, stranger," said
+the pioneer, awkwardly extending his own hardened palm.
+
+"Probably the years since we met have made a greater change in me than
+in you. You both look exactly as you did that last day I saw you at
+the harvesting."
+
+"Hey? Which? When? I can't place you, no how. I ain't acquainted with
+ary sailor, so far forth as I remember."
+
+"But Gaspar, Father Abel? Surely, you and Mercy remember Gaspar Keith,
+whom you sheltered for so many years, and who treated you so badly at
+the end?"
+
+"Glory! It ain't! My soul, my soul! Why, Gaspar--_Gaspar!_ If it's
+you, I'm an old man. Why, you was only a stripling, and now----"
+
+"Now, I'm a man, too. That's all. We all have to grow up and mature. I
+feel older than you look. And Mercy, the years have certainly used you
+well. It is good, indeed, to see your faces here, where I looked for
+strangers only."
+
+"Them's us, lad. Them's us. _We're_ the strangers in these parts. Just
+struck Chicago this very day. Got stuck in the mud, and had to be
+fished out like a couple of clams. And who do you think done the
+fishing? Though, if you hadn't spoke that odd way just now, I'd have
+thought you would have known first off. Who do you suppose?"
+
+"Oh, he'll never guess. A man is always so slow," interrupted Mercy,
+eagerly. "Well, 'twas nobody but our own little Kit! The Sun Maid, and
+looking more like a child of the sunshine even than when you run off
+with her so long ago."
+
+"The--Sun--Maid! _Kit-ty, my Kitty?_"
+
+Gaspar's face had paled at the mention of the Sun Maid to such a
+grayness beneath its brown that Mercy reached her hand to stay him
+from falling; but at his second question her womanly intuition told
+her something of the truth.
+
+"Yes, Gaspar, boy. Your Kitty, and ours. We hadn't seen her till
+to-day, neither; not since that harvestin'. But the longing got too
+strong and, when we was burnt out, we came straight for her. Didn't
+you know she was here yet? Or didn't you know she was still alive?"
+
+"No. No, I didn't. That very next winter after I went away--and that
+was the next day after we came here together--an Indian passed where I
+was hunting with my master and told me she had died. He was one we had
+known at Muck-otey-pokee--the White Pelican. He said a scourge of
+smallpox had swept the Fort and this settlement and that my little
+maid had passed out of the world forever. But you tell me--_she is
+alive_? After all these years of sorrow for her, she is still alive?
+I--it is hard to believe it."
+
+Mercy laid her hand upon the strong shoulder that now trembled in
+excitement.
+
+"There, there, son; take it quiet. Yes, she's alive, and the most
+beautiful woman the good Lord ever made. Never, even in the East,
+where girls had time to grow good-looking, was there ever anybody like
+her. I ain't used to it myself, yet. I can't realize it. She's that
+well growed, and eddicated, and masterful. Why, child, the whole
+community looks up to her as if she were a sort of queen. I've found
+that out in just the few hours I've been here, and from just the few
+I've met. Even Wahneeny--she's here, too; has been most all the time.
+The Black Partridge, Indian chief, he that was her brother, that took
+care of you two children when the massacre was, he didn't expect she'd
+ever come again; but still, it appears, just on the chance of it, he
+rode off up country somewhere, and he happened to strike her trail,
+and that Osceolo's--the scamp--that had run off with Kitty's white
+horse, and fetched 'em all back. The women in the Fort was tellin' me
+the whole story just now. I hain't got a word out of Wahneeny, yet.
+She's as close-mouthed as she ever was; but there's more to hear than
+you could hark to in a day's ride, and--Where you going, Gaspar?"
+
+"To find my Kitty."
+
+"Well, you needn't. And I don't know as she's any more yours than she
+is ours, seein' we really had the credit of raisin' her. For she's
+took her life in her hand, and has gone alone, without ary man to
+protect her, out across the prairie to face five hunderd Indians on
+the war-path, and--Hold on! What you up to?"
+
+The sailor, or hunter, whichever he might be, had started along the
+footpath to the Fort, and halted, half angrily, at this interruption.
+
+"Well? What? I'll see you by and by. I must find Kitty!"
+
+"Right you are, lad. Find her, and fetch her back. And, say! Mercy
+says your own old Tempest horse is in the stable at the Fort; that it
+now belongs to the Sun Maid, and she's the only one who ever rides it.
+The Captain gave it to her because she grieved so about you. I
+wouldn't wonder if he'd travel nigh as fast as he used--when he run
+away before. I never saw the beat of you two young ones! As fast as a
+body catches up to you, off you run!"
+
+Even amid the anxiety now renewed in Abel's mind regarding Kitty, the
+humorous side of the situation appealed to him; but there was no
+answering smile on Gaspar's face; only an anxiety and yearning beyond
+the comprehension of either of these honest, simple souls.
+
+"Well, go on, then. Run your beatingest, in a bee line, due west.
+That's the way she took, and that's the trail you'll find her on, if
+so be you find her at all."
+
+Those at the Fort looked, wondered, but did not object, as this dark
+_voyageur_ strode straight into the stables and to a box stall where
+Tempest enjoyed a life of pampered indolence. They realized that this
+was no stranger, but one to whom all things were familiar--even the
+animal which answered so promptly to the cry:
+
+"Tempest, old fellow!"
+
+It was a voice he had never forgotten. The black gelding's handsome
+head tossed in a thrill of delight, and the answering neigh to that
+love call was good to hear. In a moment Gaspar had found a saddle,
+slipped it into place, and, scarcely waiting to tighten its girth, had
+leaped upon the animal's back.
+
+"Forward, Tempest! Be true to your name!"
+
+Those who saw the rush of the gallant creature through the open gates
+of the stockade acknowledged that he would be.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+WESTWARD AND EASTWARD OVER THE PRAIRIE.
+
+
+"Fast, Tempest, fast!"
+
+The sunshine was in his eyes, and a warmer sunshine in his heart, as
+Gaspar urged the gelding forward.
+
+Fast it was. The faithful creature recognized the burden he carried,
+and his clean, small feet reeled off the distance like magic, till the
+village by the lake was left far behind, and only the limitless
+prairie stretched beyond. Yet still there was no sign of the Snowbird
+along the horizon, nor any point discernible where an Indian
+encampment might be.
+
+At length the rider paused to consider the matter.
+
+"It's strange I don't see her. If she were crossing the level,
+anywhere, I should, for my eyes are trained to long distances. It must
+be that Abel gave me the wrong direction. I'll turn north, and try."
+
+But, keen-sighted though he was, for once the woodsman blundered.
+Between him and the lowering sun the prairie dipped and rose again,
+the two borders of the hidden valley seeming to meet in one unbroken
+plain. It was in this little depression that the wigwams were pitched,
+and among them the Sun Maid was already moving and pleading with her
+friends for patience and peace.
+
+Meanwhile, Gaspar continued on his chosen route, at a direct right
+angle from that he should have followed, till the twilight came down
+and the whole landscape was swathed in mist. For there had been heavy
+rains of late, and the vapor rose from the soaked and sun-warmed earth
+like a great white pall, filling the hunter's nostrils and blinding
+his sight.
+
+"Well, this is hopeless. I might ride over her and not find her in
+this fog. But I can't stay here. It's choking. Heaven grant my Kitty's
+safe under shelter somewhere. My own safety is to keep moving. Good
+boy, Tempest! Take it easy, but don't stop."
+
+After that, there was nothing to do but trust the horse's instinct to
+find a path through the mist and to be grateful that the ground was so
+level.
+
+"It's a long lane that has no turning. It must be that we'll strike
+something different after a while; if not a settler's house, at least
+a clump of trees. Any shelter would be better than none, in this
+creeping moisture. It would be easy to get lost; and what a situation!
+Oh! if I knew that she was out of it. A messenger to the Indians, eh?
+My little Kit, my dainty foster-sister!"
+
+The gelding's nose was to the ground and, as a dog would have done, he
+picked his way, cautiously, yet surely, straight north where lay,
+though Gaspar did not know it, a settler's clearing and comfortable
+cabin. The rider's thoughts passed from his present surroundings back
+to the past and forward to the future; and when there sounded, almost
+at his feet, a cry of distress he did not hear it in his absorption.
+
+But Tempest did. At the second wail he stopped short, and it was this
+that roused Gaspar from his reverie.
+
+"Tired, old Tempest, boy? It won't do to rest here. Take a breath, if
+you like, and get on again. Keeping at it is salvation."
+
+"Mamma! I want--my--mamma!"
+
+"Whew! What's that? Hello!"
+
+The sound was not repeated, and yet Tempest would not advance.
+
+"Hello!" shouted Gaspar; and after a moment of strained listening,
+again he caught the echo of a child's sob.
+
+"My God! A baby--here! Lost in this fog!"
+
+He was off his horse and down upon his knees, reaching, feeling,
+creeping--calling gently, and finally touching the cold, drenched
+garment of the child he could not see.
+
+In its terror at this fresh danger the little one shrieked and rolled
+away; but the man lifted it tenderly, and soothed it with kind words
+till its shrieks ceased and it clung close to its rescuer.
+
+"There, there, poor baby! How came you here? Don't be afraid. I'll
+take you home. Tempest will find the way. Feel--the good horse knows.
+It was he that found you; we'll get on his back and ride straight to
+mamma, for whom you called."
+
+Climbing slowly back into his saddle, because of the little one he
+held so carefully, Gaspar laid its cold hand upon the gelding's neck,
+but it slid listlessly aside and he realized that he had come not a
+moment too soon.
+
+All night they wandered, the child lying on Gaspar's breast wrapped in
+his coat, while the mist penetrated his own clothing and seemed to
+creep into his very thoughts, numbing them to a sort of despair that
+no effort could cast off. The wail of the child lost in that
+dreariness had brought back, like a lightning's flash, the earliest
+memories of his life and revived his never-dying hatred of his
+parent's slayers.
+
+"An Indian's hand was in this work!" he mused. "Doubtless, the mother
+for whom it grieved has met the fate which befell my own. And Abel
+said that it was among such as these my Sun Maid had gone!"
+
+Then justice called to mind his knowledge of Wahneenah, of the Black
+Partridge, old Winnemeg, and others, and his mood softened somewhat;
+but still memory tormented him and the white fog seemed a background
+for ghastly scenes too awful for words. Above all and through all, one
+consciousness was keener and fiercer than the others:
+
+"My Kitty is among them at this moment! O, God, keep her!"
+
+It was the strongest cry of his yearning heart; yet underneath lay an
+impotent rage at his own powerlessness to help in this preservation.
+
+"For what is my manhood or my courage worth to her now? And even the
+Deity seems veiled by this deadening, suffocating mist!"
+
+But Tempest moved steadily on once more, and the little child warmed
+to life on his breast; and by degrees the man's self-torment ceased.
+Then he lifted his eyes afresh and struggled to pierce the gloom.
+
+What was that? A light! A little yellow spot in the gray whiteness,
+which the horse was first to see and toward which he now hastened with
+a firmer speed.
+
+"It's a fire. No, a lamp in a house window. There, it's gone. A
+will-o'-the-wisp by some hidden pool. It shines again. Well, Tempest
+sees it and believes in it."
+
+The man lacked the animal's faith, and even when they had come to
+within a short distance of the glow, the clouds of vapor swept
+between it and them and Gaspar checked Tempest's advance. But at last
+a slight wind rose, and the mist which rolled toward them was tinged
+with the odor of smoke, so the rider knew that his first surmise had
+been correct.
+
+"It is a fire. A settler's cabin, probably once this lost child's
+home. The red man's work!"
+
+When he reached the very spot there were, indeed, the remnants of a
+great burning, yet in the circle of the light Gaspar saw a house still
+standing. He was at its threshold promptly, and entered through its
+open door upon a scene of desolation. A woman crouched by the hearth
+that was strewn with ashes, and her moans echoed through the gloom
+with so much of agony in them that the stranger's worst fears were
+confirmed. Then he caught her murmured words, and they were all of one
+tenor:
+
+"My baby! my baby! my baby! My one lost little child! The wolves--my
+little one--my all!"
+
+Gaspar strode into the room, lighted only by the fitful glare from the
+ruins without, and gently spoke:
+
+"Don't grieve like that! The child is safe. It is here in my arms."
+
+"What? Safe! safe!"
+
+The mother was up, and had caught the little one from him before the
+words had left her lips, and the passion of her rejoicing brought the
+tears to the man's eyes as her sorrow had not done.
+
+After a moment, she was able to speak clearly and to demand his story.
+Then she gave hers.
+
+"I was here alone. My husband had gone hunting, and I went into the
+barn to seek for eggs. The loft was dark----"
+
+"Spare yourself. I can guess. The Indians."
+
+"The Indians? No, indeed. Myself. My own carelessness. I carried a
+candle, and dropped it. The hay caught. I barely escaped from having
+my clothing burned on me; but I did. Then I forgot everything except
+my terrible loss and my husband's anger when he returns. I began to
+fight the fire. I remember my little one crying with fright, but I
+paid no attention, and when at length I realized that it was too late
+for me to save our stock I stopped to look for him. Fortunately, the
+cabin was too far from the barn to catch easily, and there was a wind
+blowing the other way. That's all that saved the home; yet, when I
+missed my baby, I wished that it would burn, too, and me with it. Life
+without him would be a living death. And he would have died, any way.
+The wolves are awful troublesome this spring. We've lost more than
+twenty of our hogs and the only pair of sheep we had. So husband
+joined a party and went out to hunt them. What will he say, what will
+he say, when he comes back!"
+
+In Gaspar's heart there sprang up a great happiness. The ill which
+had happened here was so much less than he had anticipated that he
+took courage for himself. After all, the Sun Maid might be safe, as
+Abel had declared she said she should be. He remembered, at last, that
+not all men are evil, even red ones; and in the reaction of his own
+feelings, he exclaimed:
+
+"What can he say, but give thanks that no worse befell him!"
+
+However, now that her child was safe within her arms, the woman began
+to suffer in advance the torment she would have to undergo when she
+faced her indignant husband; and she retorted sharply:
+
+"Worse! Well, I suppose so. But I don't see why in the name of common
+sense I was let to be such a fool in the first place. He won't,
+neither. It's all very well when you've lost half your property to
+give thanks for not losing your life, too; but I don't see any cause
+for losing ary one."
+
+This sounded so like Mercy and her philosophy that Gaspar threw back
+his head and laughed; which angered his new friend first, and then
+affected her, also, with something of his mirth.
+
+"I can't see a thing to laugh at, I, for one," she remarked, trying to
+be stern.
+
+"Oh! but I can. And I'm not a laughing man, in ordinary. But there's
+one thing I know--I'm powerful hungry. Can't we make another fire, one
+that we can control, and get a bit of supper? If there's anything in
+the house to cook, I can cook it while you tend baby. Then we'll talk
+over your affairs."
+
+"There's plenty to cook, but you'll not cook it, sir. I owe you my
+child's life, and now things are getting straighter in my muddled
+mind. I lost the barn for Jacob, and I must help replace it. I've been
+a hard worker always, but I can stretch another point, I guess. Pshaw!
+I believe it's getting daylight. It'll be breakfast instead of supper,
+this time."
+
+It was daylight, indeed; and in a half-hour the simple meal was
+smoking on the table, and Gaspar sitting to eat it with the hearty
+appetite of a man who has lived always out-of-doors. But he could talk
+as fast as eat, when he was anxious as on that morning; and before he
+had drained his last cup of the "rye coffee" he had learned from his
+hostess that the Indian encampment he sought lay well to the
+southwestward of her cabin, and that by a way she could direct him he
+could reach it easily in a two-hours' ride. This to Tempest, who had
+rested and fed, would be nothing, if he was anything the horse he used
+to be, and Gaspar believed, from the past night's experience, that
+sometimes even a horse can improve with age.
+
+"Well, I'll be off, then. I'm anxious to get there. If all goes well
+I'll get around this way again before long. Thank you for my
+entertainment, and here's a trifle for the baby."
+
+He tossed a gold piece on the table and was leaving the cabin. But she
+restrained him.
+
+"No, sir, I can't take that, nor let the little one. And as for
+thanking me, I shall never cease to thank you, and the Lord for you,
+that you lost your way last night. But let me beg you, sir, to take a
+second thought. Jacob says the Indians are getting ready for an
+outbreak. It is like running your neck into a halter to go among them
+just now. I--I wish you wouldn't. I couldn't bear to have harm come to
+you after what you've done for me."
+
+"Thank you, but I must go. I am not much afraid for myself at any
+time, for I've known the red-skins always and--trusted them never! But
+a girl--did you ever hear of the Sun Maid?"
+
+"Hear of her? Her? Well, I guess so! Who hasn't, in these parts? Why?"
+
+"It was to find her and protect her that I started last night from the
+Fort."
+
+"To _protect_ her? Well, you could have saved your trouble. I wish
+that I was as safe in this wild country as she is. There is an old
+saying that her life is charmed; that nothing evil can ever happen to
+her; and so far it has proved true. As for the Indians, even the
+wickedest in the whole race would die to save her life. I hope you'll
+find her, sir, all right; but if there's any protecting to be done,
+she'll protect you, not you her. Well, good-by, and good luck!"
+
+Gaspar bared his head and rode away, on a straight trail this time,
+and with the exhilaration of the morning tingling through his
+healthful veins. On every side the great clouds of white mist rose and
+rolled apart. Blue violets and white windflowers began to peep upward
+at him from his path, and he remembered Kitty's love for them. Then
+the sun broke through, and only those who have thus ridden across a
+dew-drenched prairie, at such an hour in such a season, can picture
+what that ride was like.
+
+The spirit of life and love and that glorious morning thrilled both
+horse and master as they leaped forward and still forward till, on the
+top of a grassy rise, a sudden halt was made.
+
+For what was this coming out of the west?--this fair white creature on
+her snowy mount, with the golden sunlight on her yellow hair, her
+glowing face, her modest maiden breast. Flowers wreathed her all about
+and a White Bow gleamed at her saddle horn. Behind her, and one on
+either side, rode dusky warriors, brave in their finest trappings and
+turning a reverent, attentive ear to the Maid's words. Their horses'
+footfalls deadened by the sodden grass, slowly they came into fuller
+view, as a picture grows under the painter's brush.
+
+Still the man on the black horse facing them sat still, spellbound.
+Could this be Kitty, his Kitty; to whom his thoughts had turned as to
+a half-grown, playful child, and over whom he had domineered with the
+masterful pride of boyhood? He was a man now, boyhood was past; but he
+had quite forgotten that girlhood also passes and the child becomes a
+woman.
+
+He had grown rich and strong. After her supposed death he had devoted
+himself wholly to money-getting with the singleness of purpose that
+never fails of its object. He had come back to his old home to spend
+the fortune he had gained, feeling himself a master among men and his
+strength that of wisdom as well as wealth.
+
+Now all his pride and arrogance passed from him before the nobility of
+this woman approaching. For on her youthful face sat the dignity which
+is higher than pride and from her beautiful eyes gleamed the
+beneficent love more far-reaching than wealth.
+
+After a moment Gaspar rode slowly forward again, and soon espying, but
+not recognizing, him, the Sun Maid advanced. Then all at once the
+black horse and the white galloped to a meet.
+
+"Kitty! My Kitty!"
+
+[Illustration: "KITTY! MY KITTY!" _Page 258_.]
+
+"Gaspar!"
+
+Their hands closed in a clasp that banished years of separation, and
+the black eyes searched the blue, questioning for the one sweet answer
+that rules all the world. There was a swift self-revelation in both
+hearts; a consciousness that this was what the God who made them had
+meant from the beginning. With a grave exaltation too deep and too
+high for words, the pure man and the pure woman came to their destiny
+and accepted it. Then their hands fell apart, the black Tempest
+wheeled into place beside the white Snowbird, and, as on a day long in
+the past, the pair passed swiftly and lightly eastward toward the
+lakeside village and their home.
+
+"Ugh! The Sun Maid has found her mate!" muttered the foremost warrior
+grimly, and followed with his company at a soberer pace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE CROOKED LOG.
+
+
+"I tell you what, Chicago's a-growing. First _we_ come; then Gaspar;
+then Kitty and him get married; and I go to keeping tavern in the
+parson's house; and his son, One, goes up north to take a place in
+Gaspar's business; and Gaspar sends Two and Three east to study law
+and medicine; and Four and his pa come to board in our tavern; and
+Osceolo----"
+
+"For the land's sake, Abel Smith, do hold your tongue. Here you've got
+to be as big a talker as old Deacon Slim, that I used to hear about,
+who begun the minute he woke up and never stopped till his wife tied
+his mouth shut at night. Even then----"
+
+"Mercy, Mercy! Take care. Set me a good example, if you can; but don't
+go to denying that this is a growin' village."
+
+"I've no call to deny it. Why should I? But, say, Abel, just step
+round to the store, won't you, an' buy me some of that turkey red
+calico was brought in on the last team from the East. I'd admire to
+make Kitty a rising sun quilt for her bedroom. 'Twould be so
+'propriate, too."
+
+"Fiddlesticks! Not a yard of stuff will I ever buy for you to set an'
+snip, snip, like you used to in the woods. We've got something else to
+do now. As for Kit, between the Fort folks and the Indians, she's had
+so many things give her a'ready, she won't have room to put 'em. The
+idee! Them two children gettin' married. Seems just like play make
+believe."
+
+"Well, there ain't no make believe. It's the best thing 't ever
+happened to Chicago. Wonderful how they both 'pear to love the old
+hole in the mud," answered Mercy.
+
+"Yes, ain't it? To hear Gaspar talk, you'd think he'd been to
+Congress, let alone bein' President. All about the 'possibilities of
+the location,' the 'fertility of the soil,' the 'big canawl,' and the
+whole endurin' business; why, I tell you, it badgers my wits to foller
+him."
+
+"Wouldn't try, then, if I was you. Poor old wits 'most wore out, any
+how, and better save what's left for this tavern business. Between you
+and your fiddle, thinkin' you've got to amuse your guests, I'm about
+beat out. All the drudgery comes on _me_, same's it always did."
+
+"Drudgery, Mercy? Now, come. Take it easy. Hain't Kitty fetched you a
+couple of squaws to do your steps and dish washin'? All you have to
+do is to cook and----"
+
+"Oh! go along, Abel, and get me that calico. Don't set there till you
+take root. I ain't a-complainin', an' I 'low I'm as much looked up to
+here in Chicago without my bedstead as I was in the woods with it."
+
+"Looked up to? I should say so. There ain't a woman in the settlement
+holds her head as top-lofty as you do. And with good reason, I 'low. I
+don't praise you often, ma, but when I do, I mean it. If you hadn't
+been smarter 'n the average, and had more gumption to boot, you'd
+never been asked in to help them army women cook Kitty's weddin'
+supper. By the way, where are the youngsters now? I hain't seen 'em
+to-day."
+
+"Off over the prairie on their horses, just as they used to be when
+they were little tackers. I never saw bridal folks like them; from the
+very first not hangin' round by themselves, but mixing with everybody,
+same's usual, and beginning right away to do all the good they can
+with Gaspar's money. Off now to see some folks burned their own barn
+up----"
+
+"W-H-A-T?" demanded Abel, with paling face.
+
+"What ails you? A fool of a woman took a lighted candle into her hay
+loft and ruined herself. That happened the night Gaspar found Kitty;
+and they call it part of their weddin' tower to go there and lend the
+farmer the money to replace it. Gaspar was for giving it outright,
+though he's a shrewd feller too, but Kit wouldn't. 'They aren't
+paupers, and it would hurt their pride,' she said. 'Lend it to them on
+very easy terms, and they'll respect themselves and you.'"
+
+"Well, of course he done it."
+
+"Sure. When a man gets a wife as wise as Kitty he'd ought to hark to
+her."
+
+"I'll go and get the calico now, Mercy," said Abel, and left rather
+suddenly.
+
+At nightfall the young couple rode homeward once more, facing the
+moonlight that whitened the great lake and touched the homely hamlet
+beside it with an idealizing beauty; and looking upon it, the Sun Maid
+recalled her vision concerning it and repeated it to her husband.
+
+"Ever since then, my Gaspar, the dream comes back to me in some form
+or shape. But it is always here, right here, that the crowds gather
+and the great roar of life sounds in my ears. In some strange way we
+are to be part of it; part of it all. In the dream I see the tall
+spires of churches, thick and shouldering one another like the trees
+in the forest behind us."
+
+"But, my darling, you have never seen a church of any sort. How,
+then, can you dream of them?"
+
+"That I don't know, unless it is from the pictures in the good
+Doctor's books. I have learned so much from the pictures always. But,
+oh! I wish I could make you know some of the delight I felt when first
+I could read!"
+
+"I do know it, sweetheart. I, too, craved knowledge and dug it out for
+myself, up there in the northern forests, from the few books that came
+my way and the rare visit of a man who could teach. The first dollar I
+had that was all my own I put aside for you. That was the beginning of
+our fortune. The second I invested in a spelling-book. The study,
+dear, was all that helped me bear the pain of your death. But you are
+not dead! Rather the most alive of any human being whom I ever saw."
+
+"That is true, Gaspar. I _am_ alive. I just quiver with the force that
+drives me on from one task to another, from one point reached to one
+beyond. And now, with you beside me, there is no limit, it seems, to
+the help we can be to every single person who will come within our
+reach. Wasn't the woman glad and grateful; and don't you see, laddie,
+that it is better as I planned? You say you have been penurious,
+saving every cent not expended for your books and necessaries: and
+yet, now that you are happy again, you are ready to rush to the other
+extreme and throw your money away in thoughtless charity."
+
+She looked so young, so childlike, in the glimmering moonlight that
+the tall woodsman laughed.
+
+"To hear my little Kit teaching her elders!"
+
+"The elders must listen. It is for our home. You must spend every
+dollar you have, but you must do it in such a way that somebody will
+be helped. We don't want money, just money, for itself. To hold it
+that way would make us ignoble. It's the wealth we spend that will
+make us rich."
+
+"Kit, there's some dark scheme afloat in that fair head of yours. Out
+with it!"
+
+"Just for a beginning of things--this: There was a family came to the
+Fort to-day. The father is a skilled wood-carver. He is not over
+strong and his wife is frailer than he. They have a lot of little
+children and he must earn money. It has cost them more than they
+expected to get as far as this, even, and they should not go farther.
+Yet he is a man, a master workman. It would be an insult to offer him
+money. But give him work and you feed his soul as well as his body."
+
+"How, my love? Who that dwells in a log cabin needs fine carvings or
+would appreciate them if they had them?"
+
+"Educate them to want and appreciate them. Open a school for just that
+branch. I myself will be his pupil. I remember with what delight I
+used to mould Mercy's butter. Well, I've been moulding something ever
+since."
+
+"Your husband, for instance."
+
+"He's a little difficult material; but time will improve him! Then
+there are the Doctor's botanical treatises and specimens. Open a
+school. If you have to begin with a few only, still _begin_. Lay the
+seed. From our little workroom and classroom may grow one of those
+mighty colleges that have made Englishmen great and are making
+Americans their equals."
+
+"Hello there, child! Hold on a bit. Their equals? And you a soldier's
+daughter!"
+
+"Since I am a soldier's daughter, I can afford to be just, and even
+generous. It is all nonsense, because we have gained our independence,
+to say we are better than our fathers were. For they were our fathers,
+surely; and they had had time in their rich country, with their ages
+of instruction, to grow learned and great. But we Americans are their
+children, and, just as is already proving, each generation is wiser
+than the one which went before. So presently we shall be able to do
+even better than they----"
+
+"Give them another dose of Yankee Doodle?"
+
+"If they require it, yes. But come back to just right here in this
+little town. Besides the schools for white children, can't we have
+those for the Indians?"
+
+"No, dear; not here. Not anywhere, I fear, that will ever result in
+permanent good. At least, the time is not yet ripe for that part of
+your dreaming to come true."
+
+"But think of Wahneenah. She is teachable and there is none more
+noble. Yet she is an Indian."
+
+"She is one, herself. In all her race I have seen none other like her.
+There is Black Partridge, too, and Gomo, and old Winnemeg. They are
+exceptions. But, my love, there are, also, the Black Hawk and the
+Prophet."
+
+He did not add his opinion, which agreed with that of the wisest men
+he knew, that Illinois would know no real prosperity till the savages,
+which disturbed its peace, were removed from its borders. For she
+loved them, hoped for them, believed in them; even though her own
+common sense forced her to agree with him that the time was not ripe
+then, if it ever would be, for their civilization. So he held his
+peace and soon they were at home.
+
+"Heigho! There are lights in our cabin. Hear me prophesy: Mother Mercy
+has come over with a roast for our supper and Mother Wahneenah has
+quietly set it aside to wait until her own is eaten. Ho there within!"
+he called merrily. "Who breaches our castle when its lord is absent?"
+
+Mercy promptly appeared in the doorway. She was greatly excited and
+hastily led them to the rear of the house, pointing with both hands to
+an animal fastened behind it.
+
+"There's your fine Indian for you! See that?"
+
+"Indeed I do!" laughed Kitty. "An ox, Jim, isn't it? with the Doctor's
+saddle on his back and his botanizing box, and--What does it mean? I
+knew he was absent-minded, but not like this."
+
+"Absent-minded. Absent shucks! That's Osceolo--_that_ is!" in a tone
+of fiercest indignation. "He's such a crooked log he can't lie still."
+
+"Is that his work? He dared not play his tricks on the dear Doctor!"
+
+"Yes, it's his'n. The idee! There was Abel went and gave old Dobbin to
+the parson, to save his long legs some of their trampin' after weeds
+and stuff and 'cause he was afraid to ride ary other horse in the
+settlement. And there was Osceolo, that for a feller's hired out to a
+regular tavern-keeper like us, to be a hostler and such, he don't earn
+his salt. All the time prankin' round on some tomfoolery. And Abel's
+just as bad. A man with only two or three little weeny tufts o' hair
+left on his head and mighty little sense on the inside, at his time of
+life, a-fiddlin' and cuttin' up jokes, I declare--I declare, I'm beat,
+and I wish----"
+
+"But what is it?" demanded Kitty, bringing her old friend back to
+facts.
+
+"Why, nothing. Only when the dominie came home and stopped here, as he
+always does after he's been a-prairieing, to show you his truck and
+dicker, Osceolo happens along and is took smart! The simpleton! Just
+set old Dobbin scamperin' off back into the grass again and clapped
+the saddle and tin box and what not on to the ox's back. Spected he'd
+see the parson come out and mount and never notice. 'Stead of that,
+along comes Abel--strange how constant he has to visit to your
+house!--and sees the whole business. Well, he'd caught some sort of a
+wild animal, and--say, Kitty Briscoe, I mean Keith!--_that Indian'd
+drink whiskey, if he got a chance_, just as quick as one raised in the
+woods, instead of one privileged to set under such a saint as the
+Doctor all his days. I tell you--Well, what you laughing at, Gaspar
+Keith? Ain't I tellin' the truth?"
+
+"Yes, Mother Mercy, doubtless you are. But it isn't so long back, as
+Abel says, that you objected to 'setting under' the Doctor yourself."
+
+"Suppose it wasn't? I didn't know him then, not as I do now. He's
+orthodox, I found out, and that's all I wanted. But I know what I'm
+talkin' about. Osceolo, he's always beggin' for Abel to keep liquor:
+an' we teetotallers! An' he's teased so much that the other day Abel
+thought he'd satisfy him. So he got an old bottle, looked as if some
+tipsy Indian had thrown it away, and filled it with a dose of boneset
+tea. He made a terrible mystery of the whole matter, pretendin' to be
+sly of me, and took it out from under his coat and gave it to Ossy out
+behind in the stable, like it was a wonderful secret. Do you know,
+that Indian hain't never let on a single word about that business yet?
+Oh! he's a master hand for bein' close-mouthed. They all be. They just
+_do_--but don't talk."
+
+"Mercy, if _you_ were only a little more talkative, you'd be better
+company!" teased Gaspar, who was eager for the finish of the story and
+his supper.
+
+"Now--you! Well, laugh away. I don't mind. All is, when Abel saw the
+trick Ossy had played on the Doctor, he plays one on Ossy. He'd caught
+a queer sort of animal, as I said, and he was fetchin' it to Kit.
+Everybody brings her everything, from rattlesnakes up. But when he saw
+that ox, he just opens the tin box and claps the creature inside and
+then hunts up Ossy. He says: 'There's something in that box pretty
+suspicious, boy. You might look an' see what 'tis but don't let on.'
+He's that curiosity, Osceolo has, that he forgot everything else and
+stuck his hand in sly. I expect he thought it was something to eat, or
+likely to drink, and he got bit. Hand's all tore and sore, and now
+Abel's scared and gone off with him to the surgeon at the Fort, and
+there'll be trouble. Ossy was muttering something about the 'Black
+Hawk coming and that he'd had enough of the white folks. He was born
+an Indian, and an Indian he'd die'; and to the land! I hope he will!
+He makes more mischief in this settlement than you can shake a stick
+at!"
+
+"'It's hard for a bird to get away from its tail,'" quoted Gaspar,
+lightly. "Osceolo began life wrong and his reputation clings to him.
+I'll take the saddle off Jim, and let's go in to supper. None of my
+Sun Maid's tribe is to be feared, I think, no matter how direly they
+may threaten."
+
+Yet the young husband glanced toward his wife with an anxiety that he
+would not have liked her to see. During the weeks since his return to
+the village he had learned much more than he had told her of a
+movement far beyond the Indian encampments she was accustomed to
+visit, which would bring serious trouble, if not complete disaster,
+upon their beloved home. Osceolo was the Sun Maid's devoted follower;
+yet the prank he had played upon the old Doctor, whom she so
+reverenced, showed that he was already throwing aside the restraints
+of his enforced civilization; and the sign was ominous.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+ENEMIES, SEEN AND UNSEEN.
+
+
+But the time passed on and the rumors died away, or ended in nothing
+more serious than had always disturbed the dwellers in that lonely
+land. Now and again a friendly, peace-loving chief would ride up to
+the door of the Sun Maid's home, and, after a brief consultation she
+would put on her Indian attire and ride back with him across the
+prairies. As of old, she went with a heart full of love for her Indian
+friends, but it was not the undivided love that she had once been able
+to give them.
+
+Over her beautiful features had settled the brooding look which
+wifehood and motherhood gives; and though she listened as attentively
+as of old and counselled as wisely, she could not for one moment
+forget the little children waiting for her by her own hearthside or
+the brave husband who was so often away on his long journeys to the
+north; and the keen intelligence of the red men perceived this.
+
+"She is ours no longer," said a venerable warrior, after one such
+visit. "She has taken to herself a pale-face, he who met her on the
+prairie in the morning light, and her heart has gone from her. It is
+the way of life. The old passes, the new comes to reign. We are her
+past. Her Dark-Eye is her present. Her papooses are her future. The
+parting draws near. She is still the Sun Maid, the White Spirit, the
+Unafraid. As far as the Great Spirit wills, she will be faithful to
+us; but now when she rides homeward from a visit to our lodge it is no
+longer at the easy pace of one whose life is all her own, but wildly,
+swiftly, following her heart which has leaped before."
+
+Each morning, nearly, as the Sun Maid ministered to her little ones or
+busied herself among the domestic duties of her simple home she would
+joyfully exclaim to Wahneenah:
+
+"I don't believe there was ever a woman in the world so happy as I
+am!" And the Indian foster-mother would gravely reply:
+
+"Ask the Great Spirit that the peace may long continue."
+
+Till, on one especial day, the younger woman demanded:
+
+"Well, why should it not, my Mother? It is now many weeks since I have
+been called to settle any little quarrel among our people. Surely they
+are learning wisdom fast. Do you know something? I intend that some of
+the squaws who are idle shall make my baby, Gaspar the Second, a
+little costume of our own tribe. It shall be all complete; as if he
+were a tiny chief himself, with his leggings and head-dress, and--yes,
+even a little bow and quiver. I'll have it finished, maybe, before his
+father comes down from this last trip into the far-away woods. Oh! I
+shall be glad when my 'brave' can trust all his business of mining and
+fur-buying and lumbering to somebody else. I miss him so. But won't he
+be pleased with our little lad in feathers and buckskin?"
+
+Wahneenah's dark eyes looked keenly at her daughter's face.
+
+"No, beloved; he will not be pleased. In his heart of hearts, the
+white chief was ever the red man's enemy. Me he loves and a few more.
+But let the White Papoose" (Wahneenah still called her foster-child by
+the old love names of her childhood) "let the White Papoose hear and
+remember: the day is near when the Dark-Eye will choose between his
+friends and the friends of his wife. It is time to prepare. There is a
+distress coming which shall make of this Chicago a burying-ground. Our
+Dark-Eye has bought much land. He is always, always buying. Some day
+he will sell and the gold in his purse will be too heavy for one man's
+carrying. But first the darkness, the blood, the death. Let him choose
+now a house of refuge for you and the little children; choose it
+where there are trees to shelter and water to refresh. Let him build
+there a tepee large enough for all your needs,--a wigwam, remember,
+not a house. Let him stock it well with food and clothing and the guns
+which protect."
+
+"Why, Other Mother! What has come over you? Such a dismal prophecy as
+that is worse than any which old Katasha ever breathed. Are you ill,
+Wahneenah, dearest?"
+
+"There is no sickness in my flesh; yet in my heart is a misery that
+bows it to the earth. But I warn you. If you would find favor in the
+eyes of your brave, clothe not his son in the costume of the red man."
+
+Kitty was unaccountably depressed. Hitherto she had been able to laugh
+aside the sometimes sombre auguries of the chief's sister; but now
+something in the woman's manner made her believe that she knew more
+than she disclosed of some impending disaster. However, it was not in
+her nature, nor did she believe it right, that she should worry over
+vague suggestions. So she answered once more before quite dismissing
+the subject:
+
+"Well, we were already discussing the comfort of having another home
+out in the forest, and Abel has suggested that we build it on the land
+which was his farm and which Gaspar has bought. We both liked that; to
+have our own children play where we played as children. I want my
+little ones to learn about the wild things of the woods, and the dear
+old Doctor is still alive to teach them. You will like it, too, Other
+Mother. When the days grow hot and long we will ride to the 'Refuge';
+and I think the wigwam idea is better, after all, than the house;
+though I do not know what my husband will decide."
+
+"Before the days grow long, the 'Refuge' must be finished, and the
+earlier the better. It is rightly named, my daughter, and the time is
+ripe."
+
+Ere many hours had passed, and most unexpectedly to his wife, Gaspar
+returned. In the first happiness of welcoming him she did not observe
+that his face was stern and troubled; but she did notice, when bedtime
+came, that he did what had never before been done in their home: he
+locked or bolted the doors and stoutly barred the heavy wooden
+shutters. He had also brought Osceolo with him, from Abel's tavern,
+and had peremptorily bidden the Indian to "Lie there!" pointing to a
+heap of skins on the floor beside the fire.
+
+Toward morning Kitty woke. To her utter amazement, she saw in her
+living room her Gaspar and Osceolo engaged in what seemed a battle to
+the death. Then she sprang up and ran toward them, but her husband
+motioned her back.
+
+[Illustration: OSCEOLO AND GASPAR. _Page 276_.]
+
+"Leave him to me. I'll fix him so that he'll do no more mischief for
+the present."
+
+"But, Gaspar! What is it?"
+
+"Treachery, as usual. Get into your clothes, my girl, and call
+Wahneenah. Let the children be dressed,--warmly, for the air is cool
+and we may have to leave suddenly."
+
+"_What_ is it?"
+
+"An outbreak! The settlers are flocking into the Fort in droves. Black
+Hawk and his followers have come too close for comfort. This miserable
+fellow has been tampering with the stores. He couldn't get at the
+ammunition, but he's done all the evil he could. I caught him
+hobnobbing with a low Sac; a spy, I think. There. He's bound, and now
+I'll fasten him in the wood-shed. He knows too much about this town to
+be left in freedom."
+
+Yet, after all, they did not have to flee from home, as Gaspar had
+feared, though the Sun Maid put on her peace dress and unbound her
+glorious hair, ready at any moment to ride forth and meet the Indians
+and to try her powers of promoting good-feeling. The Snowbird stood
+saddled for many days: yet it was only upon errands of hospitality and
+charity that he was needed.
+
+Gaspar, however, was always in the saddle. When he was not riding far
+afield, scouting the movements of the Black Hawk forces, he was
+searching the countryside for provisions and himself guiding the
+wagons that brought in the scant supplies. One evening he returned
+more cheerful than he had seemed for many days and exclaimed as he
+tossed aside his cap:
+
+"This has been a good trip, for two reasons."
+
+"What are they, dear?"
+
+"Starvation is staved off for a while and the Indians are evidently in
+grave doubts of their own success in this horrid war."
+
+"Starvation, Gaspar? Has it been as bad as that?"
+
+"Pretty close to it. But I've found a couple of men who had about a
+hundred and fifty head of cattle, and they've driven them here into
+the stockade. As long as they last, we shall manage. The other good
+thing is--that the Black Hawks are sacrificing to the Evil Spirit."
+
+"They are! That shows they are hopeless of their own success."
+
+"Certainly very doubtful of it. It is the dog immolation. I saw one
+instance myself and met a man who had come from the southwest. He has
+passed them at intervals of a day's journey; always the same sort. The
+wretched little dog, fastened just above the ground, the nose pointing
+straight this way and the fire beneath."
+
+"Oh, Gaspar, it's dreadful!"
+
+"That they are discouraged? Kit, you don't mean that?"
+
+"No. No, no! You know better. But that they are such--such heathen!"
+
+Another voice broke in upon them:
+
+"Heathen! Heathen, you say? Well, if ever you was right in your life,
+you're right now. I never saw such folks. Here I've been cookin' and
+cooking till I'm done clean through myself; and in there's come
+another lot, just as hungry as t'others. Dear me, dear me! Why in the
+name of common sense couldn't I have stayed back there in the woods,
+and not come trapesing to Chicago to turn head slave for a lot of
+folks that act as if I'd ought to be grateful for the chance to kill
+myself a-waitin' on them. And say, Gaspar Keith, have you heard the
+news? When did you get home?"
+
+It was Mercy, of course, who had rushed excitedly into the house, yet
+had been able to rattle off a string of sentences that fairly took her
+hearers' breath away, if not her own.
+
+But Kitty was at her side at once, tenderly removing the great
+sun-bonnet from the hot gray head and offering a fan of turkey wings,
+gayly decorated with Indian embroideries of beads and weavings.
+
+"No, Kit. No, you needn't. Not while I know myself; there ain't never
+no more red man's tomfoolery going to be around me! Take that there
+Indian contraption away. I'd rather have a decent, honest cabbage-leaf
+any day. I'm beat out. My, ain't it hot!"
+
+"Yes, dear, it is awfully hot. Sit here in the doorway, in this big
+chair, and get what little breeze there is. Here's another fan, which
+I made myself; plain, good Yankee manufacture. Try that. Then, when
+you get cooled off, tell us your 'news.'"
+
+"Cooled off? That I sha'n't never be no more; not while I've got to
+cook for all creation."
+
+"Mother Mercy, Mother Mercy! You are a puzzler. You won't let the
+people go anywhere else than to your house as long as there's room to
+squeeze another body in; and----"
+
+"Ain't it the tavern?"
+
+"Of course. But people who keep taverns usually take pay for
+entertaining their guests."
+
+"Gaspar Keith! You say that to me, after the raisin' I gave you? The
+idee! When not a blessed soul of the lot has got a cent to bless
+himself with."
+
+"But I have cents, plenty of them; and I want you to let me bear this
+expense for you. I insist upon it."
+
+"Well, lad, I always did think you was a little too sharp after the
+money. But I didn't 'low you'd begrudge folks their _blessings_, too."
+
+"Blessings? Aren't you complaining about so much hard work, and
+haven't you the right? I know that no private family has cared for so
+many as you have, and----"
+
+"Oh, do drop that! I tell you _I_ ain't a private family; I'm a
+tavern. Oh! I don't know what I am nor what I'm sayin'. I--I reckon
+I'm clean beat and tuckered out."
+
+"So you are, dear. But rest and I'll make you a cup of tea. If you
+leave those people to themselves and they get hungry again they'll
+cook _for_ themselves. They'll have to. But to a good many of these
+refugees this is a sort of picnic business. They have left their
+homes, it's true; but they haven't seen so many human faces in years
+and----"
+
+"They haven't had such a good time! I noticed that. They seemed as
+bright as children at a frolic. Well, we ought to help them get what
+fun they can out of so serious a matter," commented Gaspar.
+
+"Serious! I should say so. That's what sent me here. Abel, he was on
+the wharf, and he says the ships are coming down the lake full of
+soldiers; and what with them and the folks already here and only a
+hundred and fifty head to feed 'em with, and some of these refugees
+eat as much as ary parson I ever saw, and the old Doctor trying to
+preach to 'em, sayin' it's the best opportunity--my land! The way
+some folks can get sweet out of bitter is a disgrace, I declare. And
+as for that Ossy, the dirty scamp, he's broke more dishes, washing
+them, than I've got left. And I run over to see if you'd let me have
+ary dish you've got, or shall I give 'em their stuff right in their
+hands? And how long have I got to go on watchin' that wild Osceolo? I
+wish you'd take him back and shut him up in your wood-shed again."
+
+"But, Mother Mercy, it was you who begged his release. And I'm sure
+it's better for him in your kitchen, working, than lying idle in an
+empty building, plotting mischief. Hello, here's Abel. And he seems as
+excited as--as you were," said Gaspar.
+
+"Glory to government, youngsters! The military is coming! The
+General's in sight! Now hooray! We'll show them pesky red-skins a
+thing or two. If they ain't wiped clean out of existence this time my
+name's Jack Robinson. Say, Kit, don't look so solemn. Likely they'll
+know enough to give up licked without getting shot; and they're
+nothin' but Indians, any how."
+
+The Sun Maid came softly across and held up her little son to be
+admired. Her face was grave and her lips silent. All this talk of war
+and bloodshed was awful to her gentle heart, that was torn and
+distracted with grief for both her white and her red-faced friends.
+
+But there was only grim satisfaction on the countenance of her young
+husband; and he turned to Abel, demanding:
+
+"Are you sure that this good news is true? Are the soldiers coming?
+Who saw them?"
+
+"I myself, through the commandant's spy-glass. They're aboard the
+ships, and I could almost hear the tune of _Yankee Doodle_. They're
+bound to rout the enemy like chain lightning. Hooray!"
+
+The soldiers were coming indeed; but alas! an enemy was coming with
+them far more deadly than the Indians they meant to conquer.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH.
+
+
+"Oh, Kit; I can't bear to leave you behind! It breaks my old heart all
+to flinders!" lamented Abel, laboriously climbing into the great wagon
+which Jim and Pete were now to draw back to their old home and wherein
+were already seated Mercy, with Kitty's children. "If it wasn't for
+these babies of yourn, I'd never stir stick nor stump out this
+afflicted town."
+
+"Well, dear Abel, the babies _are_, and must be cared for. I know that
+you and Mother Mercy will spoil them with kindness; but I hope we'll
+soon be all together again. Good-by, good-by."
+
+The Sun Maid's voice did not tremble nor the light in her brave face
+grow dim, though her heart was nearer breaking than Abel's; in that
+she realized far more keenly than he the peril in which she was
+voluntarily placing herself.
+
+"Well, Kitty, lamb, do take care. Take the herb tea constant and keep
+your feet dry."
+
+"That will be easy to do, if this heat remains," answered the other
+quietly, looking about her as she spoke upon the sun-parched ground
+and the hot, brazen sky. "And you must not worry, any of you. Gaspar
+says the tepees are as comfortable as the best log cabins, though so
+hastily put up. You will have plenty of air and the delicious shade of
+the trees; the blessed spring water, too; and if you don't keep well
+and be as happy as kittens, I--I'll be ashamed of you. I declare,
+Mercy dear, your face is all a-beam with the thought of the old
+clearing, and the bleaching ground, and all. So you needn't try to
+look grave, for, as soon as we can, Wahneenah and I will follow."
+
+Then she turned to speak to Gaspar, who sat on Tempest close at hand,
+his handsome face pale with anxiety and divided interests, but stern
+and resolute to do his duty as his young wife had shown it to him. And
+what these two had to say to one another is not for others to hear;
+for it was a parting unto death, it might be, and the hearts of the
+twain were as one flesh.
+
+Also, if Mercy's face was alight with the glow of her home returning,
+it was moved by the sight of the two women--Wahneenah and her
+daughter--who were taking their lives in their hands for the service
+of their fellow-men.
+
+Never had the Indian woman's comeliness shown to such advantage; and
+her bearing was of one who neither belittled nor overrated the dignity
+of the self-sacrifice she was making. She wore a white cotton gown,
+which draped rather than fitted her tall figure, and about her dark
+head was bound a white kerchief that seemed a crown. With an impulse
+foreign to her, Mercy held out her hand; because in ordinary she
+"hated an Indian on sight."
+
+"Well, Wahneeny, I'd like to shake hands for good-by. There hain't
+never been no love lost 'twixt you an' me, but I 'low I might have
+been more juster than I was. I think you're--you're as good as ary
+white women I ever see, savin' our Kit, of course; an'--an'--I--I wish
+you well."
+
+There was a moment's hesitation on Wahneenah's part; then her slim
+brown hand was extended and closed upon Mercy's fat palm with a
+friendly pressure.
+
+"In the light of the Unknown Beyond, the little hates and loves of
+earth must disappear. You have judged according to the wisdom that was
+in you, and if I bore you a grudge, it is forgotten. Farewell."
+
+Then the foster-mother slipped her arm about the waist of her beloved
+Sun Maid and supported her firmly as the oxen moved slowly forward,
+the heavy wheels creaking and the three children shouting and clapping
+their hands in innocent glee, quite unconscious of the tragedy of the
+parting they had witnessed.
+
+Abel gee-ed and haw-ed indiscriminately and confusingly, then
+belabored his patient beasts because they did not understand
+conflicting orders. Mercy sat twisted around upon the buffalo-covered
+seat, her arms holding each a child as in a vise and her neck in
+danger of dislocation, as long as her swimming eyes could catch one
+glimpse of the two white-robed women left on the dusty road.
+
+"They look as pure as some them Sisters of Charity I've seen in Boston
+city. And they won't spare themselves no more, neither. Poor Gaspar
+boy! How'll he ever stand it without his Kit, and if--ah, if--she
+should catch--Oh, my soul! oh--my--soul! I wonder if he's takin' it
+terrible hard!"
+
+But though she brought her body back to a normal poise, her morbid
+curiosity was doomed to disappointment, for Tempest had already borne
+his master out of sight at a mad pace across the prairie.
+
+The enemy which had come with the infantry over the great water was
+the most terrible known,--a disease so dread and devastating that men
+turned pale at the mere mention of its name--the Asiatic cholera.
+
+When it appeared, the garrison was crowded with the settlers who had
+fled before the anticipated attacks of the Indians and, as has been
+said, every roof in the community sheltered all it could cover. But
+when the soldiers began to die by dozens and scores the refugees were
+terrified. Death by the hand of the red man was possible, even
+probable; but death of the pestilence was certain.
+
+The town was now emptied far more rapidly than it had filled; and
+early in this new disaster Gaspar had hastened to the old clearing of
+the Smiths and had made Osceolo, aided by a few more frightened,
+willing men, toil with himself to erect wigwams enough to accommodate
+many persons. He had then returned for his household and had been met
+by his wife's first resistance to his will.
+
+"No, Gaspar, I cannot go. I have no fear. I am perfectly 'sound.'
+Probably no healthier woman ever lived than I am. I have learned much
+of nursing from Wahneenah, and my place, my duty, is here. I cannot
+go."
+
+"Kit! my Kitty! Are you beside yourself? Where is your duty, if not to
+me and to our children?"
+
+"Here, my husband, right here; in our beloved town, among the lonely
+strangers who have come to save it from destruction and have laid
+their lives at our feet."
+
+"That is sheer nonsense. Your life is at stake."
+
+"Is my life more precious than theirs?"
+
+"Yes. Infinitely so. It is mine."
+
+"It is God's--and humanity's--first, Gaspar."
+
+"Your children, then; if you scorn my wishes."
+
+"Don't make it hard for me, beloved; harder than God Himself has made
+it. Do you take Mother Mercy and Abel and go to the place you have
+prepared. The children will be as safe with her as with me; safer, for
+she will watch them constantly, while I believe in leaving them to
+grow by themselves. Between them and us you may come and go--up to a
+certain point; but not to the peril of your taking the disease. The
+Indians are no less on the war-path because the cholera has come.
+_Your_ duty is afield, guarding, watching, preventing all the evil
+that a wise man can. Mine is here, using the skill I have learned from
+Wahneenah and faithfully at her side."
+
+"Wahneenah? Does she wish to stay too; to nurse the pale-faces, the
+men who have come here to fight her own race?"
+
+"Yes, Gaspar, she is just so noble. Can I do less? I, with my
+education, which the dear Doctor has given me, and my youth, my
+perfect health, my entire fearlessness. You forget, sweetheart; I am
+the Unafraid. Never more unafraid than now, never more sure that we
+will come out of this trouble as we have come out of every other. Why,
+dear, don't you remember old Katasha and her prophecy? I am to be
+great and rich and beneficent. I am to be the helper of many people.
+Well, then, since I am not great, and rich only through you, let me
+begin at the last end of the prophecy, and be beneficent. Wait; even
+now there is somebody coming toward us asking me for help."
+
+"Kit, I can't have it. I won't. You are my wife. You shall obey me.
+You shall stop talking nonsense. You may as well understand. Pick
+together what duds you need and let's get off as soon as possible.
+Every hour here is fresh danger. Come. Please hurry."
+
+But she did not hurry, not in the least. Indeed, had she followed her
+heart wholly, she would never have hastened one degree toward the end
+she had elected. But she followed it only in part; so she stole
+quietly up to where the man fumed and flustered and clasped her arms
+about his neck and laid her beautiful face against his own.
+
+"Love: this is not our first separation, nor our longest. Many a month
+have you been away from me, up there in the north, getting money and
+more money, till I hated its very name,--only that I knew we could use
+it for others. In that, and in most things, I will obey you as I have.
+In this I must obey the voice of God. Life is better than money, and
+to save life or to comfort death is the price of this, our last
+separation."
+
+After that he said no more; but recognizing the nobility of her
+effort, even though he still felt it mistaken, and with a credulous
+remembrance of Katasha's saying, he made her preparations and his own
+without delay and parted from her as has been told.
+
+"Well, my dear Other Mother, there is one thing to comfort! Hard as it
+was to see them all go, we shall have no time to brood. And we shall
+be together. Let us get on now to our work. There were five new cases
+this morning; and time flies! Oh, if I were wiser and knew better what
+to do for such a sickness! The best we can--that's all."
+
+"What the Great Spirit puts into our hands, that we can always lift,"
+replied Wahneenah, and, with her arm still about her darling's waist,
+they walked together Fortward. It may be that in the Indian's jealous,
+if devoted, heart there was just a tinge of thankfulness for even an
+evil so dire, since it gave her back her "White Papoose" quite to
+herself again.
+
+"Well, I can watch her all I choose, and no burden shall fall to her
+share that I can spare her. The easy part--the watching and the
+soothing and the Bible reading--that shall be hers. Mine will be the
+coarsest tasks," she thought, and--as Gaspar had done--reckoned
+without her host.
+
+"It is turn and turn about, Other Mother, or I will drive you out of
+the place," Kitty declared; and after a few useless struggles, which
+merely wasted the time that should have been given their patients, it
+was so settled; and so continued during the dreadful weeks that
+followed.
+
+Until just before midsummer the nurses were almost wholly at the
+Fort, where it seemed to Kitty that a "fresh case" and a "burial"
+alternated with the regularity of a pendulum; and then a little relief
+was gained by taking their sick across to Agency House and its ampler
+accommodations. But even these were meagre compared to the needs; and
+more and more as the days went by did the Sun Maid long for greater
+wisdom.
+
+"That is one of the things Gaspar and I must do. We must have a
+regular hospital, such as are in Eastern cities; and there must be men
+and women taught to understand all sorts of diseases and how to care
+for them. I know so little--so little."
+
+But experience taught more than schools could have done; and many a
+poor fellow who had come from a far-away home sank to his last rest
+with greater confidence because of the ministrations of these two
+devoted women. And at last, very suddenly, there appeared one among
+them whom both Wahneenah and her daughter recognized with a sinking
+heart.
+
+"Doctor! Oh, Doctor Littlejohn! I thought you were safe at the
+'Refuge' with Mercy and Abel. How came you here? and why? You must go
+away at once. You must, indeed. Where is the horse you rode?"
+
+"I rode no horse, my dear. If I had asked for one, I should have been
+prevented,--even forcibly, I fear. So I walked."
+
+"Walked? In this heat, all that distance? Will you tell me why?"
+
+But already, before it was spoken, the Sun Maid guessed the answer.
+
+"Because, at length, through all the shifting talk about me, it
+penetrated to my study-dulled brain that there was a need more urgent
+than that the Indian dialects should be preserved; that I, a minister
+of the gospel, was letting a woman take the duty, the privilege, that
+was mine. I have come, daughter of my old age, to encourage the
+sufferers you relieve and bury the dead you cannot save."
+
+"But--for _you_, in your feebleness----"
+
+He held up his thin white hand that trembled as an aspen leaf.
+
+"It is enough, my dear. Consider all is said. I heard a fresh groan
+just then. Somebody needs you--or me."
+
+Wahneenah now had two to watch, and she did it jealously, at the cost
+of the slight rest she had heretofore allowed herself. The result of
+overstrain, in the midst of such infection, was inevitable. One
+evening she crept languidly toward the empty house which had been her
+darling's home and behind which still stood her own deserted lodge.
+She was a little wearier than usual, she thought, but that was all. To
+lie down on her bed of boughs and draw her own old blanket over her
+would make her sleep. She longed to sleep--just for a minute; to shut
+out from her eyes and her thoughts the scenes through which she had
+gone. How long ago was it since the wagon and the fair-haired babies
+went away?
+
+She was a little confused. She was falling asleep, though, despite the
+agony that tortured her. _Her?_ She had always hated pain and despised
+it. It couldn't be Wahneenah, the Happy, crouching thus, in a cramped
+and becrippled attitude. It was some other woman,--some woman she had
+used to know.
+
+Why, there was her warrior: her own! And the son she had lost! And
+now--what was this in the parting of the tent curtains? The moonlight
+made mortal?
+
+No. Not a moon-born but a sun-born maiden she, who stooped till her
+white garments swept the earth and her beautiful, loving face was
+close, close. Even the glazing eyes could see how wondrously fair it
+was in the sight of men and spirits. Even the dulled ears could catch
+that agonized cry:
+
+"Wahneenah! Wahneenah! My Mother! Bravest and noblest! and yet--a
+savage!"
+
+"Who called her so knew not of what he spake. From one God we all came
+and unto Him we must return. Blessed be His Name!" answered the
+clergyman who had followed.
+
+Then the frail man, who had so little strength for himself, was given
+power to lift the broken-hearted Maid and carry her away into a place
+of safety.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+GROWING UP.
+
+
+"Well, I'm beat! I don't know what to do with myself. Out there to the
+clearing I was just crazy wild to get back to town; and now I'm here
+I'm nigh dead with plumb lonesomeness. My, my, my! Indians licked out
+of their skins, about, and cleared out the whole endurin' State. Old
+Black Hawk marched off to the East to be shown what kind of a nation
+he'd bucked up against, the simpleton! And Osceolo takin' himself and
+his pranks, with his tribe, clear beyond the Mississippi; an' me an'
+ma lived through watchin' them little tackers of Kit's--oh, hum! I'd
+ought to take some rest; but somehow I 'low I can't seem to."
+
+Mercy looked up from the unbleached sheet she was hemming and smiled
+grimly.
+
+"Give it up, pa. Give it up. I've been a-studyin' this question, top
+and bottom crust and through the inside stuffin', and I sum it this
+way: _It's in the soil!_"
+
+"What's in the soil? The shakes? or the homesickness when a feller's
+right to home? or what in the land do you mean?"
+
+"The restlessness. The something that gets inside your mind and keeps
+you movin'. I've noticed it in everybody ever come here. Must be
+doin'; can't keep still; up an' at it, till a body's clean wore an'
+beat out. Me, for one. Here I've no more need to hem sheets than I
+have to make myself a pink satin gown, which I never had nor hope to
+have even----"
+
+"The idee! I should hope not, indeed. You in a pink satin gown, ma;
+'twould be scandalous!"
+
+"Didn't I say I wasn't thinkin' of gettin' one, even so be I could, in
+this hole in the mud? I was talkin' about Chicago. It ain't a town to
+brag of, seein' there ain't two hundred left in it after the ravagin'
+of the cholera; an' yet I don't know ary creature, man, woman, or
+child, ain't goin' to plannin' right away for something to be done.
+I've heard more talk of improvements and hospitals and schools an'
+colleges and land knows what more truck an' dicker--Pshaw! It takes my
+breath away."
+
+"It does mine, ma."
+
+"Well,--_that's_ Chicago! You can always tell by a child when it's a
+baby what it's goin' to be when it's a man. Chicago's a baby now, an'
+a mighty puny one, too; but it's kickin' like a good feller, an' it's
+gettin' strong; an', first you know, folks will be pourin' in here
+faster 'n the Indians or cholera carried 'em off, ary one."
+
+"Them ain't your own idees; they're Gaspar's and Kit's. He's gone
+right to work, an' so has she; layin' out buildin' sites an' sendin'
+East for any poor man that's had hard luck and wants to begin all over
+again. Say--do you know--I--believe--that our Gaspar writes for the
+newspapers. _Our Gaspar, ma! Newspapers! Out East!_"
+
+"Well, I don't know why he shouldn't. Didn't I raise him?"
+
+"Where do I come in, Mercy?"
+
+"Wherever you can catch on, Abel. The best place I can see for you to
+take hold is to start in an' build a new tavern,--a tavern big enough
+to swing a cat in. Then I'll have a place to keep my sheets an' it'll
+pay me to go and make 'em."
+
+"How'd you know what was in my mind, Mercy?"
+
+"Easy enough. Ain't I been makin' stirabout for you these forty years?
+Don't I know the size of your appetite? Can't I cal'late the size of
+your mind the same way? Why, Abel, I can tell by the way you brush
+your wisps----"
+
+"Ma, I'll send East an' buy me a wig. I 'low when a man's few hairs
+can tattle his inside thoughts to the neighbors, it's time I took a
+stand."
+
+"Well, I think you might 's well. I think you'd look real becomin' in
+a wig. I'd get it red and curly if I was you; and you'd ought to wear
+a bosomed shirt every day. You really had."
+
+"Mercy Smith! Are you out your head?"
+
+"No. But when a man's the first tavern-keeper in this risin' town he
+ought to dress to fit his station. I always did like you best in your
+dickeys."
+
+"Shucks! I'll wear one every day."
+
+"I'm goin' to give up homespun. Calico's a sight prettier an' we can
+afford it. We're real forehanded now, Abel."
+
+"Hello! Here comes Kit. Let's ask her about the tavern. She's got more
+sense in her little finger than most folks have in their whole bodies.
+She's a different woman than she was before Wahneeny died. I shall
+always be glad you an' her was reconciled when you parted. Hum, hum.
+Poor Wahneeny! Poor old Doctor! Well, it can't be very hard to die
+when folks are as good as they was. Right in the line of duty, too."
+
+"Yes, Abel; but all the same I'm satisfied to think _our_ duty laid
+out in the woods, takin' care Kit's children, 'stead of here amongst
+the sickness. Wonderful, ain't it, how our girl came through?"
+
+"She'll come through anything, Sunny Maid will; right straight through
+this open door into her old Father Abel's arms, eh? Well, my dear,
+what's the good word? How's Gaspar and the youngsters?"
+
+"Well, of course. We are never ill; but, Mother Mercy, I heard you
+were feeling as if you hadn't enough to do. I came in to see about
+that. It's a state of things will never answer for our Chicago, where
+there is more to be done than people to do it. Didn't you say you had
+a brother out East who was a miller?"
+
+"Yes, of course. Made money hand over fist. He's smarter 'n chain
+lightning, Ebenezer is, if I do say it as hadn't ought to, bein' I'm
+his sister."
+
+"Well, I'd like his address. Gaspar wants him here. We must have
+mills. The idea of our using hand-mills and such expedients to get our
+flour and meal is absurd for these days."
+
+"Pshaw, Kit! 'Tain't long since I had to ride as far as fifty miles to
+get my grist ground, and when I got there there'd be so many before
+me, I'd have to wait all night sometimes. 'First come first served' is
+a miller's saying, and they did feel proud of the row of wagons would
+be hitched alongside their places. I----"
+
+"Come, Abel, don't reminisce. If there's one thing more tryin' to a
+body's patience than another, it's hearin' about these everlastin'
+has-beens."
+
+Abel threw back his head and laughed till the room rang.
+
+"Hear her, my girl! Just hear her! That's ma! That's Mercy! She's
+caught the fever, or whatever 'tis, that ails this town. She's got no
+more time to hark back. It's always get up and go ahead. What you
+think? She's advising me to build a new tavern. _Me! Mercy_ advising
+it! What do you think of that?"
+
+"That it's a capital idea. We shall need it. We shall need more than
+one tavern if all goes well. And it will. Now that the Indians are
+gone forever,"--here Kitty breathed a gentle sigh,--"the white people
+are no longer afraid. They have heard of our wonderful country and our
+wonderful location,--right in the heart of the continent, with room on
+every side to spread and grow eternally, indefinitely."
+
+"Kitty, I sometimes think you an' Gaspar are a little _off_ on the
+subject of your native town; for 'twasn't his'n; seein' what a
+collection of disreputable old houses an' mud holes an' sloughs
+of despond there's right in plain sight. But you seem to think
+something's bound to happen and you two'll be in the midst of it."
+
+The Sun Maid laughed, as merrily as in the old days, and answered
+promptly:
+
+"_I've_ never found any sloughs of despond and something _is_ bound
+to happen. Katasha's dreams, or prophecies, whichever they were, are
+to come true. There is something in the very air of our lake-bordered,
+wind-swept prairie that attracts and exhilarates, and binds. That's
+it,--_binds_. Once a dweller here by this great water, a man is bound
+to return to it if he lives. Those soldiers who have gone away from
+us, a mere handful, so to speak, will spread the story of our
+beautiful land and will come again--a legion. It is our dream that
+this little pestilence-visited hamlet will one day be one of the
+marvels of the world; that to it will assemble people from all the
+nations, to whom it will be an asylum, a home, and a treasure-house
+for every sort of wealth and wisdom. In my fancies I can see them
+coming, crowding, hastening; as in reality I shall some day see them,
+and not far off. And in the name of all that is young and strong and
+glorious--I bid them welcome!"
+
+She stood in the open doorway and the sunlight streamed through it,
+irradiating her wonderful beauty. The two old people, types of the
+past, regarded her transfigured countenance with feelings not unmixed
+with awe, and after a moment Abel spoke:
+
+"Well, well, well! Kitty, my girl. Hum, hum! You yourself seem all
+them things you say. Trouble you've had, an' sorrow; the sickness an'
+Wahneeny; an' growin' up, an' love affairs; an' motherhood, an' all;
+yet there you be, the youngest, the prettiest, the hopefullest, the
+courageousest creature the Lord ever made. What is it, child; what is
+it makes you so different from other folks?"
+
+"Am I different, dear? Well, Mother Mercy, yonder, is looking
+mystified and troubled. She doesn't half like my prophetic moods, I
+know. I merely came, for Gaspar, to inquire about the miller. But I
+like your own idea of the new tavern, and you should begin it right
+away. Gaspar will lend you the money if you need it; and if you have
+time for more sheets than these, Mercy dear, I'll send you over some
+pieces of finer muslin and you might begin on a lot for our hospital."
+
+"Your hospital? 'Tain't even begun nor planned."
+
+"Oh, yes, it is planned. From my own experience and from books I can
+guess what we will need. But there are doctors and nurses coming after
+a time--There, there, dear. I will stop. I won't look ahead another
+step while I'm here. But--it's coming--all of it!" she finished gayly,
+as she turned from the doorway and passed down the forlorn little
+street.
+
+Was it "in the air," as the Sun Maid protested, that indomitable
+courage and faith to do and dare, to plan, to begin, and to achieve?
+Certain it is that in five years from that morning when Kitty Keith
+had lingered in Mercy's doorway foretelling the future some, at least,
+of her prophecies had materialized. Where then had been but two
+hundred citizens were now more than twenty times that number. The
+"crowding" had begun; and there followed years upon years of wonderful
+growth; wherein Gaspar's cool head and shrewd business tact and
+ever-deepening purse were always to the fore, at the demand of all who
+needed either. In an unswerving singleness of purpose, he devoted his
+energy and his ambition toward making his beloved home, as far as in
+him lay, the leading home and mart of all the civilized world.
+
+And the Sun Maid walked steadfastly by his side, adding to his efforts
+and ambitions the sympathy of her great heart and cultured,
+ever-broadening womanhood.
+
+Thus passed almost a quarter-century of years so full and peaceful
+that nothing can be written of them save the one word--happy. Yet at
+the end of this long time, wherein Abel and Mercy had quietly fallen
+on sleep and "Kit's little tackers" had grown up to be themselves
+fathers and mothers, the Sun Maid's joy was rudely broken.
+
+Not only hers, but many another's; for a drumbeat echoed through the
+land, and the sound was as a death-knell.
+
+Kitty looked into her husband's face and shivered. For the first time
+in all his memory of her the Unafraid grew timid.
+
+"Oh, Gaspar! War? Civil War! A family quarrel, of all quarrels the
+most bitter and deadly. God help us!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+HEROES.
+
+
+The Sun Maid's gaze into her husband's face was a prolonged and
+questioning one. Before it was withdrawn she had found her answer.
+
+There was still a silence between them, which she broke at last, and
+it touched him to see how pale she had become and yet how calm.
+
+"You are going, Gaspar?"
+
+"Yes, my love; I am going. Already I have pledged my word, as my arm
+and my purse."
+
+"But, my dear, do you consider? We are growing old, even we, who have
+never yet had time to realize it--till now. There are younger men,
+plenty of them. Your counsels at home----"
+
+"Would be empty words as compared to my example in the field. The
+young of heart are never old. Besides, do you remember that once,
+against my stubborn will, you resisted for duty's sake? We have never
+regretted it, not for a day. More than that, when our first-born came
+to us, do you remember how we clasped his tiny hand and resolved
+always to lead it onward to the right? _Lead_ it, sweetheart. We
+vowed never to say to him: 'Go!' to this or that high duty; but
+rather, still holding fast to him, say: 'Come.' There is such a wide,
+wide difference between the two."
+
+Then, indeed, again she trembled. The mother love shook her visibly
+and a secret rejoicing died a sudden death.
+
+"'Come,' you say. But they are not here, in our own unhappy land.
+Gaspar in Europe, Winthrop in South America, and Hugh in Japan. They
+are better so."
+
+"Are they better there? You will be the first to say 'no' when this
+shock passes. A telegram will summon each as easily as we could call
+them from that other room--supposing that they, your sons, wait for
+the call. But they'll not. I know them and trust them. They are
+already on the railways and steamships that will bring them fastest;
+and it will truly be the 'Come with me!' that we elected, for we shall
+all march together."
+
+So they did; and it was the Sun Maid herself, standing proudly among
+her daughters and daughters-in-law, yet more beautiful than any, who
+fastened the last glittering button over each manly breast and flicked
+away an imaginary mote from the spotless uniforms. Then she stood
+aside and let them go; two by two, "step," "step"--as if in echo to
+the first sound which had greeted her own baby ear.
+
+But as they passed out of sight, transgressing military discipline
+Gaspar turned; and once more the black eyes and the blue read in each
+other's depths the unfathomable love that filled them. Then he was
+gone and the younger Gaspar's wife lifted to her own aching bosom the
+form that had sunk unconscious at her feet. For the too prescient
+heart of the Sun Maid had pierced the future and she knew what would
+befall her.
+
+Yet before the gray shadow had quite left her face she rallied and
+again smiled into the anxious countenances bending over her.
+
+"Now, my dears, how foolish I was and how wasteful of precious time!
+There is so much to be done for them and for ourselves. Gaspar's
+business must not suffer, nor Son's (as she always called her eldest),
+nor his brothers'. There are new hospitals to equip and nurses to
+secure. Alas! there should be a Home made ready, even so soon, for the
+widows and orphans of our soldiers. Let us organize into a regular
+band of workers; just ourselves, as systematically as your father has
+trained us to believe is best. There are six of us, a little army of
+supplies and reinforcements. Though, Honoria, my daughter, shall I
+count upon you?"
+
+"Surely, Mother darling, though not here. Thanks to the hospital
+course you let me enjoy, I can follow my father and brothers to the
+front. I am a trained nurse, you know, and some will need me there."
+
+The Sun Maid caught her breath with a little gasp. Then again she
+smiled.
+
+"Of course, Honoria; if you wish it. It is only one more to give; yet
+you will be in little danger and your father in so much the less
+because of your presence. Now let us apportion the other duties and
+set about them."
+
+This was quickly done; and to the mother herself remained the
+assumption of all monetary affairs in her husband's private office in
+their last new home; where, when they had removed to it, she had
+inquired:
+
+"Why such a palace, Gaspar, for two plain, simple folk like you and
+me? It is big enough for a barrack, and those great empty 'blocks' on
+every side remind me of our old days in Mercy's log cabin among the
+woods."
+
+"I like it, dear. There will be room in this big house to entertain
+guests of every rank and station as they should be entertained in
+our dear city. These empty squares about us shall keep their old
+trees intact, but the grounds shall be beautified by the highest
+landscape art, to which the full view of our grand lake will give
+crowning charm. When we have done with it all we will give it to the
+little children for a perpetual playground. Even the proposed new
+enlargement of the city limits will hardly encroach upon us here."
+
+"But it will, Gaspar, it surely will! When I hark back, as Abel used
+to say, I find Katasha's prophecies and my old dreams more than
+fulfilled. But the end is not yet, nor soon."
+
+Now that her daughters were scattered to their various points of
+usefulness and the Sun Maid was left alone with Hugh's one motherless
+child--another Kitty--the great house seemed more empty than ever; and
+its brave mistress resolved to people it with something more
+substantial and needy than memories. So she gathered about her a host
+to whom the cruel war had brought distress of one form or another;
+while out among the trees of the park she erected a great barrack,
+fitted with every aid to comfort and convalescence. This, like the
+mansion, was speedily filled, and the "Keith Rest" became a household
+word throughout the land.
+
+The war which wise folk augured at its beginning, would be over in a
+few days dragged its weary length into the months, and though for a
+time there were many and cheerful letters, these ceased suddenly at
+the last, giving place to one brief telegram from Honoria: "Mother, my
+work here is ended. I am bringing home your heroes--four."
+
+Upon the hearth-rug, Kitty the younger, lay stretched at her ease,
+toying with the sharp nose of her favorite collie. She had the Sun
+Maid's own fairness of tint and the same wonderful hair; but her eyes
+were dark as her grandsire Gaspar's and saw many things which they
+appeared not to see; for instance, that one of the numerous telegrams
+her busy grandmother was always receiving had been read and dropped
+upon the floor. Yet this was a common circumstance, and though she
+felt it her duty to rise and return the yellow paper to the hand which
+had held it, she delayed a moment, enjoying the warmth and ease. Then
+Bruce, the collie, sat up and whined,--dolefully, and so humanly, it
+seemed, that the girl also sprang up, demanding:
+
+"Why, Bruce, old doggie, what do you hear? What makes you look so
+queer?"
+
+Then her own gaze followed the collie's to her grandmother's face and
+her scream echoed through all the house.
+
+"Grandmother! My darling Grandmother! Are you--are you
+dead--dying--what----"
+
+She picked up the telegram and read it, and her own happy young heart
+faltered in its rhythm.
+
+"Oh! awful! 'Bringing'--those precious ones who cannot come of
+themselves. This will kill her. I believe it will kill even me."
+
+But it did neither. After a space the rigidity left the Sun Maid's
+figure and her staring eyes that had been gazing upon vacancy resumed
+intelligence. Rising stiffly from her seat, she put the younger Kit
+aside, yet very gently and tenderly, because of all her race this was
+the dearest. Had not the child Gaspar's eyes?
+
+"My girl, you will know what to do. I am going to my chamber, and must
+be undisturbed."
+
+Then she passed out of the cheerful library into that "mother's room,"
+where her husband and her sons had gathered about her so often and so
+fondly and in which she had bestowed upon each her farewell and
+especial blessing. As the portiere fell behind her it seemed to her
+that already they came hurrying to greet her, and softly closing the
+door she shut herself in from all the world with them and her own
+grief.
+
+For the first time in all her life the Sun Maid considered her own
+self before another; and for hours she remained deaf to young Kitty's
+pleading:
+
+"Let me come in, Grandmother. Let me come in. I am as alone as you--it
+was my father, too, as well as your son!"
+
+It was the dawn of another day before the door did open and the
+mourner came out. Mourner? One could hardly call her that; for, though
+the beautiful face was colorless and the eyes heavy with unshed
+tears, there was a rapt, exalted look upon it which awed the
+grandchild into silence. Yet for the first time she was startled by
+the thought:
+
+"We have lived together as if we were only elder and younger sister,
+for she has had the heart of a child. But now I see--she is, indeed,
+my grandmother--and she is growing old."
+
+"Let all things be done decently and in order when Gaspar and the boys
+come home," was all the direction the Sun Maid gave, and it was well
+fulfilled. Yet, because she could not bear to be far apart from them,
+she sat out the hours of watching in the little ante-room adjoining
+the great parlor where her heroes lay in state, while all Chicago
+gathered to do them reverence.
+
+There was none could touch her grief, not one. It was too deep. It
+benumbed even herself. Perhaps in all the land, during all that
+dreadful time, there was no person so afflicted as she, who had lost
+four at a blow. But she rose from her sorrow with that buoyant faith
+and hopefulness which nothing could for long depress.
+
+"There is unfinished work to do. Gaspar left it when he went away,
+knowing I would take it up for him if he could never do it for
+himself. There is no time in life for unavailing sorrow. Come, Kitty,
+child. Others have their dead to bury, let us go forth and comfort
+them."
+
+Obedient Kitty went, her thoughts full of wonder and admiration:
+
+"By massacre, famine, pestilence, and the sword! How has my dear 'Sun
+Maid' been chastened, and how beautifully she has come through it all!
+She could not have been half so lovely as a girl, when Grandfather met
+and wooed her that morning on the prairie. I wonder have her trials
+ended? or are there more in store before she is made perfect? I cannot
+think of anything still which could befall her, unless I die or her
+beloved city come to ruin. Well, I'll walk with her, hand in hand, and
+if I live, I'll be as like her as I can."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+
+"What shall we do to celebrate your birthday, my child?" asked
+Grandmother Kitty, early in that first week of October on whose
+Saturday the young girl would reach to the dignity of sixteen years.
+"All the conditions of your life are so different from mine at your
+age: seeming to make you both older and younger--if you understand
+what I mean--that I would like to hear your own wishes."
+
+"They shall be yours, Grandma dearest. You always have such happy
+ideas. I'd like yours best."
+
+"No, indeed! Not this time. I want everything to be exactly as you
+like this year; especially since you are now to assume the main charge
+of some of our charities."
+
+"I feel so unfitted for the responsibility you are giving me, Sun
+Maid. I'm afraid I shall make many blunders."
+
+"Doesn't everybody? And isn't it by seeing wherein we blunder and
+avoiding the pitfall a second time that we learn to walk surely and
+swiftly? You have been well trained to know the value of the money
+which God has given you so plentifully and of that loving sympathy
+which is better and richer than the wealth. I am not afraid for you,
+though it is an excellent sign that you are afraid for yourself. Now a
+truce to sermons. Let's hear the birthday wish. I am getting an old
+lady and don't like to be kept waiting."
+
+"Sunny Maid! you are not old, nor ever will be!"
+
+"Not in my heart, darling. How can I feel so when there is so much
+in life to do and enjoy? I have to bring myself up short quite
+often and remind myself how many birthdays of my own have gone by;
+though it seems but yesterday that Gaspar and I were standing by the
+Snake-Who-Leaps and learning how to hold our bows that we might shoot
+skilfully, even though riding bareback and at full speed, yet----"
+
+"I believe that you could do the very same still; and that there isn't
+another old lady----"
+
+"Let me interrupt this time. Aren't you contradicting yourself? Were
+you speaking of 'old' ladies?"
+
+"You funny Grandma! Well, then, I don't believe there's another
+young-old person in this great city can sit a horse as you do. If you
+would only ride somewhere besides in our own park and just for once
+let people see you! How many Snowbirds have you owned in your
+lifetime, Grandmother?"
+
+"One real Snowbird, with several imitations. Still, they have been
+pretty fair, for Gaspar selected them and he was a fine judge of
+horseflesh. You must remember that as long as he was with me we rode
+together anywhere and everywhere he wished. He was a splendid
+horseman."
+
+"He was 'splendid' in all things, wasn't he, Sun Maid?" asked the
+girl, with a lingering tenderness upon the other's Indian name and
+knowing that it still was very pleasant in the ears of her who owned
+it.
+
+"He was a man. He had grown to the full stature of a man. That covers
+all. But let's get back to birthday wishes. What are they?"
+
+"They're pretty big; all about the new 'Girls' Home' where I am to
+work for you. I think if the girls knew me, not as just somebody who
+is richer than they and wants to do them good, but as an equal,
+another giddy-head like themselves, it would make things ever so much
+easier for all of us. I would like to go through all the big stores
+and factories and places and find out every single girl who is sixteen
+and have them out to Keith House for a real delightful holiday. And
+because I like boys, and presume other girls do, too--Don't stiffen
+your neck, please, Grandmother; remember there were you and
+Gaspar----"
+
+"But we were different."
+
+"Maybe; yet these girls have brothers, and I wish I had. Never mind,
+though. I'd like to invite them all out here for Saturday and Sunday.
+On Saturday evening we'd have an old-fashioned young folks' party,
+with games and frolics such as were common years and years ago. Then,
+for Sunday, there'd be the ministers who are to stop here during that
+convention that's coming, and they'd be glad, I know, to speak to us
+young folks. It's perfect weather, and all day these young things who
+are shut up all the week could roam about the park, or read, or rest
+in the picture-gallery or library, and--eat."
+
+The Sun Maid laughed.
+
+"Do you really stop to think about the eating? How many do you imagine
+would have to be fed? And I assure you, my young dreamer, that, though
+it doesn't sound especially well, the feeding of her guests is one of
+the most important duties of every hostess. But I'll take that part
+off your hands. You attend to the spiritual and moral entertainment
+and I'll order the table part. Yet your plan calls for many sleeping
+accommodations. How about that?"
+
+"I thought, Grandmother, maybe you'd let me open the 'Barrack' again.
+That would do for the boys, and there's surely room enough in this
+great house for all the girls who'd care to stay."
+
+A shadow passed over the Sun Maid's face, but it--_passed_. In a
+moment she looked up brightly and answered as, a few hours later, she
+was to be most thankful she had done:
+
+"Very well. After the war was over and I closed it I felt as if I
+could never reopen the place. Though Gaspar and my boys never saw it,
+somehow it seemed always theirs. I suppose because it had been built
+for the benefit of those who had fought and suffered with them. Now I
+see that this was morbid; and I am glad I have never torn the building
+down, as I have sometimes thought I would. You may have it for your
+friends and should set about airing and preparing it at once. Also, if
+you are to give so many invitations, you would better start upon
+them."
+
+"Couldn't I just put an advertisement in the papers? That's so easy
+and short."
+
+"And--rude!"
+
+"Rude?"
+
+"Yes. There would be no compliment in a newspaper invitation. Would
+you fancy one for yourself?"
+
+"No, indeed, I should not. That rule of yours, to 'put yourself in his
+place,' is a pretty good one, after all, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes. Now order the carriage and I'll go with you on your rounds and
+make a list as we do so of how many will need to be provided for. We
+shall have a busy week before us."
+
+"But a happy one, Grandmother. Your face is shining already, even more
+than usual. I believe in your heart of hearts you love girls better
+than anything else in this world."
+
+"Maybe. Except--boys."
+
+"And flowers, and animals. How they will enjoy the conservatories! And
+it wouldn't be wrong, would it, to have out the horses between times
+on Sunday and let these young things, who'd never had a chance, see
+how glorious a feeling it is to ride a fine horse? Just around the
+park, you know."
+
+"Which would be quite as far as most of them would care to ride, I
+fancy, for there are very few people who call their first experience
+on horseback a 'glorious' one."
+
+It was a busy week indeed, but a joyful one, full of anticipation
+concerning the coming festivities. Never had the Sun Maid appeared
+younger or gayer or entered more heartily into the preparations for
+entertainment. A dozen times, maybe, during those mornings of shopping
+and ordering and superintending, did she exclaim with fervor:
+
+"Thank God for Gaspar's money, that makes us able to give others
+pleasure!"
+
+"Grandmother, even for a foreign nobleman you wouldn't do half so
+much!"
+
+"Foreign? No, indeed. To all their due; and to our own young
+Americans, these toilers who are the glory of our nation, let every
+deference be paid. Did you write about the orchestra? That was to play
+during Saturday's supper?"
+
+"Yes, indeed. I believe nothing is forgotten."
+
+To the guests, who came at the appointed time, it certainly did not
+seem so; and almost every one was there who had been asked.
+
+"I did not believe that there could be found so many working girls in
+Chicago who are just sixteen," cried the gay young hostess, standing
+upon the great stair and looking down across the wide parlor, crowded
+with bright, graceful figures.
+
+"I did. My Chicago is a wonderful city, child. But I do not believe
+that in any other city in the world could be gathered another such
+assemblage. Typical American girls, every one. May God bless them!
+Their beauty, their bearing, even their attire, would compare most
+favorably with any company of young women who are far more richly
+dowered by dollars. And the boys; even with their greater shyness, how
+did they ever learn to be so courteous, so----"
+
+"Oh, my Sun Maid! Answer yourself, in your own words. 'It's in the
+air. It's just--Chicago!'"
+
+When the fun was at the highest, there came a belated guest who
+brought news that greatly disquieted the elder hostess, though none of
+the merrymakers about her seemed to think it a matter half as
+important as the next game on the list.
+
+"A fire, broken out in the city? That is serious. The season is so dry
+and there are many buildings in Chicago that would burn like
+kindlings. However, let us hope it will soon be subdued; and there is
+somebody calling you, I think."
+
+Although anything which menaced the prosperity of the town she loved
+so well always disturbed the Sun Maid, she put this present matter
+from her almost as easily as she dismissed the youth who had brought
+the bad tidings. The housing and entertaining of Kitty's guests was an
+engrossing affair; and all Sunday was occupied in these duties; but on
+Sunday night came a time of leisure.
+
+It was then, while resting among her girls and discussing their early
+departure in the morning--which their lives of labor rendered
+necessary--that a second messenger arrived with a second message of
+disaster.
+
+"There's another fire downtown, and it's burning like a whirlwind!"
+
+"We have an excellent fire department," answered the hostess, with
+confident pride.
+
+"It can't make much show against this blaze. I think those of us who
+can should get home at once."
+
+The Sun Maid's heart sank. The coming event had cast its shadow upon
+her and, foreseeing evil, she replied instantly:
+
+"Those who must go shall be conveyed at once; but I urge all who will
+to remain. Keith House is as safe as any place can be if this fire
+continues to spread. It is not probable, even at the best, that any of
+you will be wanted at your employers' in the morning. The excitement
+will not be over, even if the conflagration is."
+
+The company divided. There were many who were anxious about home
+friends and hastened away in the vehicles so hastily summoned; but
+there were also many whose only home was a boarding-house and who were
+thankful for the shelter and hospitality offered. Among these last
+were some of the young men, and the Sun Maid summoned them to her own
+office and discussed with them some plans of usefulness to others.
+
+"We shall none of us be able to sleep to-night. I have a feeling that
+we ought not. I wish, therefore, you would go out and engage all the
+teams you possibly can from this neighborhood; and go with them and
+their drivers to the threatened districts, as well as those already
+destroyed. Our great house and grounds are open to all. Bring any who
+wish, and assure them that they will be cared for."
+
+"But there may be thieves among them," objected one lad, who had a
+keener judgment of what might occur.
+
+"There is always evil amid the good; but not for that reason should
+any poor creature suffer. Remember I am able to help liberally in
+money, and never so thankful as now that this is so. Go and do your
+best."
+
+They scattered, proud to serve her, and thrilled with the excitement
+of that awful hour; but many were amazed to find that after a brief
+time she had followed them herself.
+
+The younger Kitty pleaded, though vainly, to prevent her grandmother's
+departure, for the Sun Maid answered firmly:
+
+"You are to take my place as mistress here. I will have the old
+coachman drive me in the phaeton to the nearest point advisable. I
+must be on the spot, but I will not recklessly risk myself. Only, my
+dear, it is _our city_, Gaspar's and mine; almost a personal
+belonging, since we two watched its growth from a tiny village to the
+great town it has become. Gaspar would be there with his aid and
+counsel. I must take his place."
+
+There were many who saw her, and will forever remember the noble
+woman, standing upright in the low vehicle at a point where two ways
+met; with the light of the burning city falling over her wonderful
+hair, that had long since turned snowy white, and bringing out the
+beauty of a face whose loveliness neither age nor sorrow could dim.
+
+The sadness in her tender eyes deepened as she could see the cruel
+blaze sweeping on and on, wiping out home after home and hurling to
+destruction the mighty structures of which she had been so personally
+proud.
+
+"Oh, I have loved it, I have loved it! Its very paving-stones have
+been dear to me, and it is as if all these fleeing, homeless ones were
+my own children. Well, it is--Chicago,--a city with a mission. It
+cannot die. Let the fire do its worst; not all shall perish. There are
+things which cannot burn. Again and again and again I have thanked God
+for the wealth he led my Gaspar, the penniless and homeless, to
+gain--for His own glory. Let the flames destroy unto the limit He has
+set. Out of their ruins shall rise another city, fairer and lovelier
+than this has been; richer because of this purification and far more
+tender in its broad welcome to humanity."
+
+Hour after hour she waited there, directing, comforting, assisting;
+giving shelter and sustenance, and, best of all, the influence of her
+high faith and indomitable courage. As it had done before, her clear
+sight gazed into the future and beheld the glory that should be; and,
+like every prophecy her tongue had ever uttered, this, spoken there in
+the very light of her desolation, as it were, has already been more
+than verified.
+
+This all who knew the Beautiful City as it was and now know it as it
+is will cheerfully attest; and some there are among these who deem it
+their highest privilege to go sometimes to a stately mansion, set
+among old trees, where in a sunshiny chamber sits an old, old lady,
+who yet seems perennially young. Her noble head still keeps its heavy
+crown of silver, her eye is yet bright, her intellect keen, and her
+interest in her fellow-men but deepens with the years.
+
+Very like her is the younger Kitty, who is never far away; who has
+grown to be a person of influence in all her city's beneficence; and
+who believes that there was never another woman in all the world like
+her grandmother.
+
+"Yes," she assures you earnestly, "she is the Sun Maid indeed,--a
+fountain of delight to all who know her. She has still the heart of a
+child and a child's perfect health. I confidently expect to see her
+round her century."
+
+
+
+
+
+      *      *      *      *      *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+Minor changes have been made to correct typesetters' errors; otherwise
+every effort has been made to remain true to the author's words and
+intent.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SUN MAID***
+
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