THE MISSING TRAIN
For a moment Eagle Feather, the Indian, stood looking at the two
children, and yet not so much at them as at their two toys--the
electrical train, and at the Teddy Bear with the queer electric eyes. It
was hard to say of which the Indian was most fond.
"You ought to see my train run on the track!" exclaimed Bunny, as he
shook some drops of water off the cars and engine. "I guess I'll have to
put oil on it now to keep it from getting rusty, as Uncle Tad does when
I leave his tools out all night."
"And you ought to see my doll at night!" added Sue. "Her eyes shine like
anything, and once, after I got to bed, and wanted a drink of water that
was on a chair near my bed, I just lighted Sallie Malinda's eyes, and I
found the drink without calling mother."
"Huh! Heap big medicine--both of um!" grunted the Indian.
Eagle Feather was one of the oldest of the tribe of Onondagas who lived
on the reservation, and though he usually spoke fairly good English,
sometimes he talked as his grandfather had done when he was a boy and
the early settlers first had to do with the Indians.
And when Eagle Feather called the children's toys "heap big medicine,"
he did not mean exactly the kind of medicine you have to take when you
are sick.
The Indians have two kinds of medicine, as they call it. One is made of
the roots and barks of trees, berries and bushes which they take, and
some of which we still use, like witch hazel and sassafras. But they
also have another kind of medicine, which is like what might be called a
charm; as some pretty stone, a feather, a bone or two, or anything they
might have picked up in the woods as it took their fancy. These things
they wear around their necks or arms and think they keep away sickness
and bad luck.
So when Eagle Feather called the toy train and the Teddy bear of Bunny
Brown and his sister Sue, "heap big medicine," he meant they would be
good not only to cure sickness without medicine, but also keep bad luck
away from whoever had them.
"Now we'll help find your cow, Eagle Feather," said Bunny, for he was no
more afraid of the Indian than you would be of the fireman down in the
engine house at the end of your street, or the policeman on your block.
Bunny and Sue had lived in the Big Woods so long now, and had seen the
Indians so often, even to learning the names of some of them, that they
thought no more of them than of some of the farmers round about.
"All right--we go find cow," said Eagle Feather. "No milk for little
papoose if cow no come home." "Papoose" was the word the Indians used
for "baby," and in the log cabin where Eagle Feather lived were two or
three papooses.
"It must have been your cow that poked her head into our tent," said
Sue, "for she had two crumpled horns, and the farmer's had only one."
"That right," said Eagle Feather with a sort of grunt. "My cow have two
horns twist like so," and he held up two fingers and made a sort of
corkscrew motion in the air with his hands.
"Then that was your cow all right," said Bunny. "Uncle Tad tied her to a
tree, but maybe we can find her."
"Sure we find," grunted Eagle Feather. "Heap big medicine little boy an'
girl have soon find cow."
What the Indian meant was that he believed the toy train and the
electrical Teddy bear would bring such good luck that the lost cow would
soon be found.
Mr. Brown had gone back to the city when Bunny and Sue, each one
carrying a toy, and followed by Eagle Feather, came back to Camp
Rest-a-While. Bunny was in worse condition than his sister, for he had
rolled down the steep hill. Sue's dress was torn a little.
"Why, Bunny! Why, Sue!" cried Mrs. Brown as she saw the two children.
"Where in the world have you been?"
"In the woods, playing with our toys," answered Bunny. "Sue made her
Teddy's eyes flash to scare away the tigers and lions all around us."
"Oh, you were playing make-believe," said Mother Brown, for well she
knew the different games the children made up.
"But Bunny's runaway train was real," said Sue.
"Did your train run away?" asked Mrs. Brown, not paying much attention
to the Indian at first, as it was common to see them around the camp,
whither they came to beg for scraps of food, the remains of a ham bone,
and such things.
"Did your train really run away, Bunny?" asked Mrs. Brown. "Oh, Bunny,
you've been in the dirt!"
"Yes, and it's a good thing he didn't get _wet_," went on Sue, for both
children always told everything that happened to them as soon as they
got back home. Only sometimes it took a little longer than usual to
think up all the happenings. "He almost rolled into the lake, Bunny
did."
"You did!" cried Mrs. Brown. "How did it happen?"
"Oh, I made the track straight, instead of in a circle, and the train
got to going so fast in a straight line that it ran off the end of the
rails downhill. I ran after it, but I slipped and rolled. Then the train
rolled into the water, but only a teenty little way, and Eagle Feather
got it out. Wasn't he good?"
"He was indeed, and we must thank him," said Mrs. Brown. "But did he
stop you from going into the water also, Bunny?"
"No, Momsie. I stopped myself by catching hold of a tree. But I almost
went in. I'd have gone in after my train anyhow, if Eagle Feather hadn't
got it for me."
"Thank you, Eagle Feather," said Mrs. Brown. "I must give you some of
the nice soup I have made. The papooses will like it."
"Squaw like it, and Indian like it heap, too," said Eagle Feather.
"Yes, but the squaw, as you call your wife, and the little children,
must have some first."
"Oh, yes. Give 'em milk too, if so he can find cow."
"Oh, is your cow lost? And was it she who poked her head in our tent
last night?" asked Mrs. Brown.
"I think it was, Mother," said Bunny. "She had two crumpled horns, and
the one the farmer owns has only one. Sue and I are going to help Eagle
Feather find his cow."
"Well, you mustn't go very deep into the big woods," said Mrs. Brown.
"But then I think the cow can't have wandered far, for there is good
feeding near where Uncle Tad tied her."
"You show me where cow broke loose, I find her," said Eagle Feather.
"Indian hab heap good medicine to find cow."
"Medicine? You don't need medicine to find a cow," said Mrs. Brown. "You
might need medicine if your cow were sick, but she didn't look sick when
she poked her nose into the tent."
"Cow no sick, but heap good medicine find her all same," replied Eagle
Feather, smiling.
"He means our toys, Mother," said Bunny. "He called my train of cars and
Sue's doll heap good medicine."
"Oh, I see!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown. "It's a sort of charm. But you
mustn't believe in that sort of nonsense, children, even if some of the
more ignorant Indians do."
"But, Mother," asked Bunny, "mayn't I show Eagle Feather how my toy
train works? He didn't see it, and I know he'd like to. Mayn't I show
him the train and how it runs?"
"Oh, yes, I suppose so. But be quick about it, if you are going to help
him hunt for his cow."
Bunny relaid the track, in a circle this time, so the engine and cars
would not roll off to where they were not intended to go. Meanwhile Sue
flashed the eyes of her Teddy Bear so Eagle Feather could see them. He
looked very closely at the toy, but when Bunny had his train on the
circular track, the batteries connected, and had started the little
locomotive pulling the cars after it, the eyes of Eagle Feather grew big
with wonder.
"Great medicine!" he exclaimed. "Heap big powerful. Indian do anything
with that medicine. Bring him along an' soon find cow."
"Oh, I couldn't bring my whole train, the track and the batteries into
the woods," said Bunny. "But I'll take one car with me."
"Well, maybe one car help some," said the Indian. "Little gal bring baby
bear whose eyes light up same as in dark by campfire."
"Yes, I'll bring Sallie Malinda," promised Sue. "That's my Teddy's
name," she explained.
"Well, don't lose your toys," cautioned their mother, "and don't be gone
too long, for dinner will soon be ready. And, Eagle Feather, don't
forget to come back for the soup," she concluded.
"Me no forget," said the Indian.
Then with the children he went to the place where Uncle Tad had tied the
stray cow, and from where she had broken loose. That was the starting
place for the search.
Mrs. Brown was not at all nervous about letting Bunny and Sue go away
with the Indian, Eagle Feather. All the farmers for miles around spoke
of his honesty and kindness. He owned several farms, as well as horses
and cows. He did business with the white people, and all of them trusted
him. Mr. Brown often bought things from him.
Bunny, carrying one car of his train, and Sue, her Teddy bear to which
she had given such a queer name, led the Indian to the tree to which
Uncle Tad had tied the cow in the night. There was the broken end of the
rope still tied around the tree, but there was no cow on the other end
of it.
"She go this way," said Eagle Feather, pointing off toward the west.
"How can you tell?" asked Bunny.
"See feet marks in soft dirt--see broken branches where cow go
through--no look for path," and the Indian pointed to several branches
broken from the bushes through which the cow had forced her way in the
darkness after having broken loose from the tree.
"Come on, Sue!" called Bunny, as he followed the Indian, carrying the
toy train in his hand.
"I'm coming," answered his sister. "But the thorns catch in the fuzzy
wool of Sallie Malinda and scratch her. I've got to go slower than you."
"All right--we wait for you," said Eagle Feather, who had heard what Sue
said. "No hurry from little gal," he said to Bunny. "Maybe her medicine
better for finding cow as yours, though me think yours very much
stronger medicine. Maybe we see--byemby." That was the way Eagle Feather
said "Bye-and-bye."
Bunny and the Indian went on slowly through the big woods, the red man
stopping every now and then to look down at the ground for marks of the
cow's hoofs, and also looking at the sides for signs of the broken
branches.
"Cow been here," he would say every little while. "Soon we catch 'er.
Medicine heap good. Indian like!"
"You'd better get yourself a toy train," said Bunny.
"No got money," returned Eagle Feather. "Like 'em very much for boy
papoose when he grow big so like you."
"Maybe I'll be tired of mine by that time and give it to him," said
Bunny.
"Too nice. You no get tired long while," said the Indian. "Heap big
medicine. Come, Sue, we wait for you."
As the Indian and Bunny waited they heard, off in the distance, the
lowing of a cow.
"Hark!" cried Bunny.
"That my cow," said Eagle Feather. "I tell you boy and gal medicine heap
good--find cow soon. Over this way! Soon hab cow now!"
He hurried on ahead so fast that Bunny and Sue could hardly keep up with
him, but they managed to do so and, a little later, they saw, in a
little glade among the trees, a cow with a broken rope trailing from her
neck. She had two twisted, or crumpled, horns.
"Oh, that's the cow that was in our tent!" cried Sue. "I'd know her
anywhere."
"She my cow--give good milk for little papoose. What for you run away?"
he asked, going up to the cow, rubbing her neck and pretending to talk
into her ear.
The cow mooed softly and appeared glad to see Eagle Feather.
"Well, now you've got your cow back you can come to our camp, get the
soup and go to your cabin," said Bunny. "I'm glad you found her."
"Boy and girl, with heap good medicine find," said Eagle Feather. "Much
thankful to you. Some day make bow and arrows for boy, and moccasins for
feet of little girl with bear that makes fire eyes at night. Indian
glad!"
"Oh, we were only too glad to help you," said Bunny. "Now we must be
going back to camp."
"Me come--cow come too," said Eagle Feather, and he led the cow by the
broken rope. They were soon back at the tents, telling Mrs. Brown how
they had found the lost cow. Eagle Feather spoke much about the toy
train and the Teddy bear "medicine," but Mrs. Brown laughed.
"This is better medicine than all the toys in the world," she said, as
she gave Eagle Feather a big pail of soup. "Take it home to your wife
and children."
"Me will--all much 'bliged," and Eagle Feather bowed. Then with a
farewell nod to the children the red man went off into the big woods
leading his lost cow, who seemed glad to be on her way home again.
Mr. Brown came home that night to stay two or three days, for Bunker
Blue could take care of the fish and boat business, and when Bunny's
father heard what had happened when Bunny put the toy track too near the
edge of the hill, the little boy was told not to do it again, and
promised not to.
"Eagle Feather was very good to you, and you must be kind to him and to
all the Indians," said Mr. Brown. "So the wetting didn't seem to hurt
your toy engine, Bunny?"
"No, Daddy. I shook off all the water."
"Well, we'd better oil it and let it stand all night to take off the
rust. For if it gets rusty it won't run."
Bunny did not want this to happen, so he left his toy railroad out in
the kitchen tent that night, near the stove in which a little fire was
kindled.
No cows stuck their heads into the bedrooms of the tent houses that
night, and Bunny and Sue slept soundly. So did Mr. and Mrs. Brown and
Uncle Tad, but some one must have been around the camp with very soft
feet in the darkness. For when Bunny awakened early, and went out to
have a look at his toy railroad, he set up a cry:
"It's gone! It's gone! Some one has taken it!"
"Taken what?" asked his father.
"My toy locomotive, my cars, the tracks, batteries and everything! Oh,
dear! My toy train is gone!"