Brush
"Frank, you're learning fast!" said Brush one afternoon as I was
laboriously writing my lesson on a slate with his help. "I'm glad; I
want you to catch up with me so we can be in the same classes."
I felt proud of his praise and worked all the harder. We had gone
through the alphabet swimmingly, and once, when I said it without a
break, he slapped me on the shoulder and exclaimed, "That's good!" When
I was able to read short sentences, I felt quite sure that I should
soon take my place among the advanced pupils.
In and out of school Brush helped me along; in our play and when our
work brought us together, he always managed to teach me something of
the English language, and I was a willing student because he taught me
in a way that made the work a pleasure. Gray-beard, not knowing what a
kind and patient assistant he had in Brush, thought he had in me an
exceptionally bright scholar, for I made rapid headway in learning to
speak English, won several promotions, and soon found myself in the
Second Reader class.
Brush was a bright fellow and quite a student. He and I sat at the
same desk in the school-room, side by side at the dining-table, and
we were bed-fellows. From him I learned many things he had gleaned
from the superintendent's library, for he was a great reader, and the
superintendent, who liked the boy, favored him in various ways, loaned
him books to read, and talked with him about them.
Of all the stories he used to tell me, and he knew a great many, I
liked best to hear him recount the old stories out of the Bible. He was
familiar with them all, and told them in a way that delighted me, for
he fitted them to my notions. He made them very real. One day he read
to me a story, but I could not understand it as well as when he told it
in his own simple way, so I asked him not to read them to me any more.
The time for the telling of stories was at night after Gray-beard had
gone downstairs to his own rooms, having warned us against loud talking.
My friend always seemed happy, yet at times, particularly on Saturdays,
I noticed he would appear sober, almost melancholy. He did not go home
as the rest of us did, and I wondered at this very much. He had a way
of disappearing about the time I was ready to start home, so I never
had a chance to invite him to my house, as I had often intended to do.
I tried a number of times to bring him to speak of himself, but he
would throw me off that line of talk, and my curiosity went unsatisfied
for a long time.
"Say, Brush, where do you live?" I asked one afternoon as we were in
the belfry. "You don't go home Saturdays like the rest of us."
"There's a man on the top of the hill near Big Elk's grave," he said
evasively as he looked through the spy-glass.
I could see the man with my naked eyes as he stood on the topmost point
against the clear, blue sky.
"Take the spy-glass and look at him," continued Brush, as though to
put off my question.
"Do you live on the other side of that hill?" I persisted.
"Frank, I live here, I don't live anywhere else. This is the only home
I have," said the boy sadly. "Do your father and mother ask you who you
play with at the Mission?"
"N-o, they never did, maybe they will sometime, I don't know."
"I think they will, that's why I'm going to tell you who I am, then
they will know," said Brush, seriously. After a pause he went on,
"My father and mother died when I was very small, but I remember my
grandfather. He was a very old man. He used to go to your father's
house; maybe you have seen him, but I guess you can't remember. He was
one of the chiefs, Tae-son' was his name. Once we went to Omaha to buy
a lot of things, and coming home we camped just this side of the town;
there he died. He was the last relative I had. Now I have no mother, no
father, no sister, nothing--no home." He uttered the last word slowly
as though thinking. "That's why the Big Seven--that man's gone, you
take the spy-glass and look for him."
"If you have no home, why don't you go home with me?" I asked, looking
through the spy-glass. "I know my father and mother would like you the
same as I do."
"If I go home with you, I know I'll have a good time, but I haven't any
home to ask you to. All the boys in the Big Seven do that way."
"I don't care what the Big Seven do, I want you to go home with me."
Saturday came. At breakfast I was anxious to have prayers over, Brush
was to go home with me, and we anticipated much pleasure for the day.
"Don't eat much," I whispered to him; "we're going to eat again when we
get home. My mother will give us something good, she always does."
After breakfast Brush went to the barn and filled the stalls with hay
for the horses, which was part of the work assigned him. Then he ran up
to the superintendent to report, and as soon as he came down we were
off.
On the hill we were joined by two white boys, children of one of the
Government employees at the mill. "Hello! Going home?" asked one of
them. "We're going to the village. They say they're going to have a
horse race there to-day. We want to see it."
Instead of taking the well-beaten path to the village, we all turned
off into one that led directly to my father's house, and that passed
by the burial-place on the bluffs. The two white boys were ahead, and
when they came to a freshly made mound surrounded by a neat fence they
stopped, and peered between the palings. "Pemmican!" exclaimed one of
them. When Brush and I came up, we too looked in and saw on the grave a
wooden bowl of pemmican. It was tempting these white boys, for they had
learned to like this peculiar food.
"Jack, give me a boost?" said one of them, and soon he was over
the fence filling his pockets out of the bowl. Then he offered the
remainder to the other boy.
Brush and I were amazed and horrified at this action. We went straight
on, taking no notice of the offer made by the boys to give us some of
the stolen food. "I bet one of those boys will die before the year is
gone," said Brush, turning and looking back at the irreverent little
rascals, who were now tipping their heads backward and putting pinches
of the meat into their mouths.
"I bet so too!" I added. "It was awful the way they did. Let's go on
fast; I don't want to be with them." And we sped down the hill on a
brisk run.
At the door of the house my mother met us and led us into her room.
We both began to tell her about the dreadful thing the white boys had
done, and expressed the belief that before the year was out one or both
of them would die.
We sat down on the floor, and mother placed between us a pretty wooden
bowl filled with freshly made pemmican, smiling at our childish notion
that food taken after the spirits had tasted it meant death within
the year. As we were eating with relish the food placed before us,
my mother said, "You do not understand why the bowl of pemmican was
placed on the little grave, and I must tell you. The spirit of the
person buried in that grave, or the spirit of any other person dead and
buried, cannot eat food; but people love their dead relatives; they
remember them and long for their presence at the family gathering: it
is this desire that makes them go and put a share of the food on the
grave of those who have become nothing, and not the belief that the
dead can return and partake of food the same as the living."
We listened with respectful attention as my mother explained to us this
custom which arose from the tender longing that prompted the mourner to
place on the little mound the food that might have been the share of
the loved one who lay under the sod; but I am afraid we failed to grasp
the meaning of her words, and clung to the commonplace idea entertained
by less thoughtful persons.
In the afternoon there was a general movement throughout the village,
men, singly and in groups, walked with stately tread toward the edge of
the bluff back of my father's house. Women, too, no less dignified,
made their way in the same direction, followed by their grown-up
daughters dressed in their gayest attire, their ornaments glinting in
the sun. Little boys and girls chased each other hither and thither as
they drifted that way, and soon there was a great gathering of people,
all bent upon enjoying the excitement of the race. Brush and I mingled
with the boys, and took part in their lively games, as preparations
were going on for the sport of the day.
My father was in his corral trying to lasso a young horse to put on the
track, a spirited little animal with bald face and large white spots on
his sides. When, with some difficulty, he was caught and bridled, he
stood pawing the ground, impatient to go, tossing up his head from time
to time and moving his ears excitedly. My father led him up to where
the people were gathered; other men had already brought their horses
there. Boys about Brush's size, lithe of figure, stood by the racers
ready to mount when it was time to start.
My father looked around, and finally his eyes rested upon Brush. "Boy,
can you ride?" he asked.
"I can," was the prompt answer.
My breath was fairly taken away at this reply. I did not know that
Brush could ride well enough to mount a running horse at a race.
"I want you to ride my horse in this race," said my father.
"All right," replied the lad, taking off his school uniform. In a
moment he was ready, stripped naked, with only a breech cloth.
Taking the reins and grasping the horse by the mane, Brush attempted
to spring on his back, but the animal, all excited, trotted round and
round. Father seized him by the bit, Brush lifted his right foot,
father caught it, and in a twinkling the boy was on the horse. The
mount was superb; the fiery creature sprang forward at a brisk gallop,
but was checked by a skilled hand.
"Give him a canter a short distance; he'll quiet down," said father.
Brush did so and soon returned, the horse prancing about most
gracefully.
The course was on the bottom and as smooth as a floor. The twelve
horses which were to run were taken to the farther end, about a mile
away, and with them went the two men who were to manage the race. When
the horses reached the starting point, they were ranged in line, and
their riders were told to gallop them slowly and evenly to a point
marked on the course. The two men rode along to see that the line
was kept fairly; when the marked place was reached, the men shouted,
"Ah--hu!" then every boy put his horse on the run.
To us on the hill, the horses looked like small specks in the distance;
but, by the sudden rising of a cloud of dust, we knew when the
signal was given to run. For a time they were too far away for us to
distinguish those in the lead; but, as the horses came nearer, we began
to recognize them; two in the front were well ahead, neck and neck.
"It's the roan!" shouted a tall man.
"No, it's the bald face!" cried another.
"Hurrah! Brush is in the lead!" yelled the freckled-faced white boy,
swinging his ragged hat in the air as he ran up to where I was
standing. "Gee whiz! look at him! look at him! My! I wish I could ride
like that!"
Brush leaned forward a little, loosened the reins a bit; the horse
gathered fresh speed and gained a length. The boy on the roan leaned
forward too, and, raising his right arm, brought down his whip on
the flank, the animal bravely sprang forward, but his strength was
exhausted, he could do no more. On came the bald face, and reached the
goal nearly three lengths ahead.
The men shouted themselves hoarse, and the women, with long-drawn
breaths, praised the plucky little rider. Brush trotted up to my
father, and delivered the horse.
"Who are you, little brother?" asked father.
For a moment Brush looked embarrassed, then lifting his eyes to
father's face answered, "I am Tae-son's grandson and Sas-su's friend."
"Your grandfather was my friend," said my father, looking kindly at the
lad; "I am glad you like the company of my boy. You must always come
with him on his visits home from the House of Teaching."
Brush was touched by this recognition, and the tears started to his
eyes. Seeing this, I intercepted the white boys who were running toward
him. When I thought Brush had had time to master his feelings, I took
the two boys to him, and they put their arms around him exclaiming,
"Brush, that was grand!"
As this was his first visit to my home Brush did not feel quite easy,
and long before the usual hour for my returning to the Mission, he
suggested our going back. When we entered the school yard, which was
deserted, for the boys and girls had not yet returned, we noticed a
woman at the front gate holding a horse by a lariat and close beside
her stood a colt mounted by two boys. She called to us and said she
wanted to see the superintendent. Brush went to find him, and soon
returned with that official.
"Tell the White-chest," said the woman to Brush, "that I have brought
my two boys to stay here. They wanted to come, so I have brought them.
Their father is dead; they have been my only comfort; but they want to
learn to write. I hope he will be kind to them."
"They are bright-looking boys," said the superintendent, shaking hands
with the mother. "I will take good care of them."
The boys dismounted, and the woman prepared to go. She kissed each of
the little fellows and wiped a tear from her eyes.
"Don't cry, mother," said the older boy; "we'll be all right. We will
come home often to see you."
We watched the mother as she went down the hill, leading her horse and
the colt, until she disappeared at a turn on the bottom.
"Well, Brush, here's a job for you and Frank," said the superintendent.
"Take these boys to the dormitory and give them a good wash, then bring
them to the store-room, and I will see if I can fit them each with a
suit of clothes."
We did as we were told, and while the superintendent was busy fitting
the boys, Brush and I went into a large room and selected a bedstead
for them. We put it together alongside of our bed, and began to cord it.
"Brush, why do the Omahas call the missionaries 'White-chests'?" I
asked, as I pressed the cord from the foot to the head of the bed to
tighten it.
"It's because the men wear stiff white shirts, and they show on their
chests, that's why," he answered, throwing the mattress on the bed.
Brush and I soon became much attached to Lester and Warren, as the
new-comers were named, and we lost no time in helping them along in
their English. By our assistance and persistent use of the language
with them, the two boys made rapid progress, and it was not long before
they were chattering in broken English, like the rest of us.