Beside the open fire I sat within our tepee. With my red blanket wrapped
tightly about my crossed legs, I was thinking of the coming season, my
sixteenth winter. On either side of the wigwam were my parents. My
father was whistling a tune between his teeth while polishing with his
bare hand a red stone pipe he had recently carved. Almost in front of
me, beyond the center fire, my old grandmother sat near the entranceway.
She turned her face toward her right and addressed most of her words to
my mother. Now and then she spoke to me, but never did she allow her
eyes to rest upon her daughter's husband, my father. It was only upon
rare occasions that my grandmother said anything to him. Thus his ears
were open and ready to catch the smallest wish she might express.
Sometimes when my grandmother had been saying things which pleased him,
my father used to comment upon them. At other times, when he could not
approve of what was spoken, he used to work or smoke silently.
On this night my old grandmother began her talk about me. Filling the
bowl of her red stone pipe with dry willow bark, she looked across at
me.
"My grandchild, you are tall and are no longer a little boy." Narrowing
her old eyes, she asked, "My grandchild, when are you going to bring
here a handsome young woman?" I stared into the fire rather than meet
her gaze. Waiting for my answer, she stooped forward and through the
long stem drew a flame into the red stone pipe.
I smiled while my eyes were still fixed upon the bright fire, but I said
nothing in reply. Turning to my mother, she offered her the pipe. I
glanced at my grandmother. The loose buckskin sleeve fell off at her
elbow and showed a wrist covered with silver bracelets. Holding up the
fingers of her left hand, she named off the desirable young women of our
village.
"Which one, my grandchild, which one?" she questioned.
"Hoh!" I said, pulling at my blanket in confusion. "Not yet!" Here my
mother passed the pipe over the fire to my father. Then she, too, began
speaking of what I should do.
"My son, be always active. Do not dislike a long hunt. Learn to provide
much buffalo meat and many buckskins before you bring home a wife."
Presently my father gave the pipe to my grandmother, and he took his
turn in the exhortations.
"Ho, my son, I have been counting in my heart the bravest warriors of
our people. There is not one of them who won his title in his sixteenth
winter. My son, it is a great thing for some brave of sixteen winters to
do."
Not a word had I to give in answer. I knew well the fame of my warrior
father. He had earned the right of speaking such words, though even he
himself was a brave only at my age. Refusing to smoke my grandmother's
pipe because my heart was too much stirred by their words, and sorely
troubled with a fear lest I should disappoint them, I arose to go.
Drawing my blanket over my shoulders, I said, as I stepped toward the
entranceway: "I go to hobble my pony. It is now late in the night."